|
The UFC 115 Conference Call took place earlier today and on the line was former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, Former Pride Openweight Grand Prix Champion Mirko Cro Cop, and Pat Barry.
Here are the highlights from today’s call.
Pat Barry: He’s still the monster he’s always been, because of him everyone has had to get better in order to survive against him. Everyone who says Cro Cop is out of his prime can fight him next Saturday. He’s been the man that he’s always been, it’s just everyone has gotten better.
Rich Franklin: I don’t think I would’ve ever sought after a fight with Chuck Liddell. As soon as you get an offer to fight someone like Chuck, you just can’t turn it down
Chuck Lidell: My soul focus is on getting ready to fight Rich. Rich is good at a lot things, I got to stay on my toes it’ll be a tough fight.I did everything I could to prepare myself and put my body in the best possible shape, and I’ll do my best and we’ll see.
Rich Franklin: I think if there was a 195lbs weight class, it’d be great for me. At 205 I realize I’m a smaller fighter in that weight class, but I haven’t had an issue with it so far. I’m interested to see how this plays out at 205.
Rich Franklin: I’ve had the pleasure of fighting in several different countries, it was almost as if I had gone back in time 15 years ago. I say to these people that have this criticism of the sport, they’re just not that educated in what we do. They don’t understand how complicated the rule system is.
Chuck Liddell: It’s people that are undedicated. If you don’t like combat sports there’s nothing I got to say to you, it’s safer than kickboxing and boxing. We’re normal people we train hard, we like to go out there and do it and show we’re the best at what we do.
Mirko Cro Cop: This is the last fight in the present contract, I have to fight this fight. I’ll have to talk to Lorenzo and Dana. I enter the world of mma, and I always wanted to keep it on the feet, and no offense to anyone but stand up fighting will always be more exciting than ground fighting. People always prefer to see fights finished by a punch or a kick, or a submission, or ground and pound.
Mirko Cro Cop:I don’t think my stand up has changed, I had 3 surgeries for the knees, and my leg was broken. It was 6 months after the surgery, and I took a fight with Dos Santos after which wasn’t a smart idea. Now it’s one and a half years since I had the operation. A few months ago I started with the full kicking. I didn’t kick much with Dos Santos because my foot didn’t feel stable in kicking.
Rich Franklin: (On the Ultimate Fighter) I wasn’t eager to do it. I’m only out there for a week anyway. It was easy to accept this from that point of view, because how much time I was spending in Vegas away from home and that kind of stuff.
Mirko Cro Cop: I don’t think I’ll return in politics or police. I’ll keep fighting as long as I can, and as long as people want to keep see me fighting. I’m a happy man anyway.
Pat Barry:I wasn’t joking about getting that autograph I really mean it.
|
