PDA

View Full Version : Nieuw Crocop interview(ook met Dana)



Judas
20-04-2007, 21:37
UFC 70 conference call

UFC president Dana White and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic talk about UFC 70

By CARLOS ARIAS
The Orange County Register
PRIDE's 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix champion Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic enters the Octagon for a second time to take on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event of UFC 70 on Saturday night at 9 on Spike TV from the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England.
Filipovic and UFC president Dana White held an international conference call on Tuesday morning to discuss the event.
UFC HEAVYWEIGHT CONTENDER MIRKO "CRO COP" FILIPOVIC
QUESTION:Tell me about your experience as an anti-terrorist commando in Croatia? What did they have you do?
FILIPOVIC:Actually, I was a member of Special Police. It was a great time of my life I really enjoyed. But when I became member of Parliament I had to quit. I couldn't do both things at the same time. I'm seriously thinking to return to my unit once again after my Parliament duties will be finished. It will be about November of this year.
QUESTION:What sort of things did it (working in law enforcement) teach you in your fighting career?
FILIPOVIC:I can't say that it helped in my fighting career. This is just something that I wanted to be since I was a kid. I just fulfilled my dream. That's it.
QUESTION:What made you decide to jump into politics?
FILIPOVIC:I hope I can give something from myself to the politics. It was a big challenge for me. Finally, it was an honor to be a member of Parliament.
QUESTION:Do you feel it was worthwhile to be a part of politics?
FILIPOVIC: It is worth it. It's a big experience in my life and it is the fourth year of my term. I have six months (left) to be a member of Parliament. After that I will not be in politics anymore. I'm thinking to be back in my Special Police Force Unit.
QUESTION:Do you have any thoughts of what you would do differently if you were to get another fight with Fedor (Emelianenko)? Is it a major goal of yours to get a win over him or is it not a special thing to have a rematch with Fedor anytime soon?
FILIPOVIC:I definitely would like to have a rematch with Fedor and I hope it will happen as soon as possible. But right now I'm thinking about my next fight, and after that I want to think about taking the UFC belt. And then will see about a possible fight with Fedor, which I want the fight of course.
QUESTION:If You get past Gabriel and go against Randy Couture, will Randy's age be a factor in the fight?
FILIPOVIC:I don't think so. I don't think so because Randy Couture shows in his greatest fight that age has nothing to do with it. He is excellent prepared, which is amazing for a man 43 years old. It's going to be a very good fight.
QUESTION:How are you able to be a top fighter and a member of Parliament at the same time? How difficult is that?
FILIPOVIC:It is hard, but you can see it is possible. It is possible.
QUESTION:How would going back into the Special Police affect your fighting schedule?
FILIPOVIC:I just like the job. I like the people that I used to work with. It makes me happy and that is the most important thing. It won't affect me in a bad way with my fighting career.
QUESTION: Is it a very physical job at this point whatever position you take back with the Special Police? Is it something that you are exerting your body a lot and putting yourself in situations?
FILIPOVIC:Kind of, but mostly I will be there as a martial arts instructor. Of course, there are physical things you need to do, and things with weapons and some other things. I don't have to do all that exercise concerning conditioning because I train myself every night. So I can handle that.
QUESTION:It sounds like you are going to be more of an instructor working possibly within a school and not working out in the field?
FILIPOVIC:In the classroom, out in the field, wherever.
QUESTION:So you might be out in the field?
FILIPOVIC:Yeah.
QUESTION:Where did you learn to kick like that?
FILIPOVIC:Where did I learn? I like kicks ever since I was a little kid. I was training since I was 11-12 (years old). I was kicking every day on a sand bag that I made myself. So I just like it and I train a lot on my kicks. I have a good feeling, a good timing for kicks, plus my legs are huge. I have very powerful kicks and that is one of the most potent weapons of mine.
QUESTION:You are very calm in the ring. Nothing seems to bother you. Have you always been like that and where does that attitude come from?
FILIPOVIC:Good question. I don't know. I just feel that way. I am calm and very concentrated.
QUESTION:So no nerves right before the bell rings?
FILIPOVIC:No. Nothing special. Every fighter has feelings before the fight, you know. But it's nothing special. It's just my job. It's something I like to do. I'm training all my life. I'm a professional. No special feelings.
QUESTION:Everyone is talking about a title shot for the winner of this fight. How do you keep your focus on Saturday night with all the talk going on around you?
FILIPOVIC:Well, honestly, talking about my fight with Randy Couture, I think it is jinx for me, and I don't like to talk about it. I have an opponent in front of me that I have to fight on Saturday night, and right now I'm concentrating on Gabriel Gonzaga. After that we can discuss all the details about my fight with Randy Couture, but anything before that I think is a jinx.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/other/boxingmma/article_1662530.php

Judas
20-04-2007, 21:38
UFC PRESIDENT DANA WHITE
QUESTION:The acquisition of PRIDE, does that mean the PRIDE organization is going to have to adhere to the unified rules of MMA like in the U.S.?
WHITE:Yeah, they will. The unified rules and the weight classes.
QUESTION:What about the round structure? Is it going to be 10, 5 and 5 or is it going to be like it is in the UFC?
WHITE:Yeah, it will all be the same. What we want, is we want, soccer for instance, the same game of soccer we play in the U.S. is the same game they play in Japan, Brazil, the U.K. That's what we want for MMA.
QUESTION:They announced in Japan that you would be doing a PRIDE show in Japan on July 16 in Nagoya with the lightweight tournament. How solid is that date and have you decided if that tournament is going to be at 155 or 170?
WHITE:We haven't decided either. How solid that date is depends on how fast we can get that infrastructure in place there. Once we get the infrastructure in place and we feel comfortable that we can pull off a PRIDE level show, then we'll do it.
QUESTION: With no formal commission in the U.K., how will drug testing (for UFC 70) be handled? Will it be random? Will an independent lab be involved?
WHITE:It will be a random drug test, and actually what we are doing for this even is (former Nevada State Athletic Commission chief executive officer) Marc Ratner will be overseeing and has flown over a lot of inspectors, judges and referees. As far as safety goes, we always go overboard. Ratner is overseeing the whole thing.
QUESTION:I'd like you to respond to a comment from Wanderlei (Silva). He said in response to your comments about a fight between Wanderlei and Chuck Liddell has lost its luster, Wanderlei said Dana will change his mind. The fans want a match between me and Chuck and the pay-per-view revenue would be overwhelming.
WHITE:I think that fight was probably the biggest fight in MMA until he (Silva) got knocked out by Mirko and then he got knocked out by Dan Henderson. I think that Wanderlei Silva is a very tough guy. He needs to win a couple more fights before he fights Chuck Liddell.
QUESTION:What is the status of Fedor?
WHITE:That's a good question. We are still working on that right now.
QUESTION:Is there a disagreement? Do you think you have his rights, while he (Fedor) thinks you don't?
WHITE:His contract wasn't an exclusive contract with PRIDE and we don't do non-exclusive contracts.
QUESTION:So does he (Fedor) have an existing contract with anybody?
WHITE:Yeah. He has a contract with PRIDE.
QUESTION:But the stumbling block is you don't want to accept it if it allows him to do Bodog and other stuff?
WHITE:Exactly.
QUESTION: New Jersey is currently considering allowing knee strikes to grounded fighters, which is happening in Nevada as well. If New Jersey does allow knee strikes, how likely is it that Nevada will follow suit?
WHITE:That's interesting because New Jersey is the one that originally didn't want them. So I don't know? Yeah. If they did allow them that would be great. I think it's the one more rule that needs to be added.
QUESTION:What do you feel is the most important factor in ensuring that the UFC becomes a respected and accepted sport as opposed to what may ultimately turn out to be a short-lived fad?
WHITE:I don't think it's going to be anywhere near a fad. We're growing incredibly, not only here in the United States but all over the world. Now, with the acquisition of PRIDE, the plans we have for Japan, Asia and China, believe me, we are aggressive guys. We have big plans for this thing. A lot of the things I say about boxing, a lot of the boxing promoters throughout the years have reached in and pulled all the life out of the sport of boxing and stuck it in their pocket. Nobody has ever done anything to secure the future of the sport. We're doing the exact opposite. Obviously, the UFC is doing well and making money and we're dumping all that money back into the sport and helping grow the industry. It's only getting bigger and it's not getting smaller. It is far from a fad.
QUESTION:You mentioned the HBO deal could happen this summer. Is that a signed, sealed and delivered deal?
WHITE:Yeah. The UFC will be on HBO this summer.
QUESTION:So we can report that as being official?
WHITE: Yeah, we'll be on there this summer.
QUESTION: You mentioned there is no date for the (PRIDE) Lightweight Grand Prix, but if that does take place there have been some rumors that maybe some UFC fighters will be involved. Is that true?
WHITE:No. That's not true. The UFC and PRIDE are completely separate companies. You won't see a UFC fighter vs. a PRIDE fighter until we do the big event.
QUESTION:You guys got some press on ESPN this past week with the GSP-Serra fight. Have there been any more talks about expanding your relationship with ESPN and them possibly covering live events?
WHITE:Yes. ESPN will cover us on a regular basis, now.
QUESTION:And live events possibly?
WHITE:Yes. Weigh-ins and live events and the results of the events.
QUESTION:With this being your first big jump to the European market, can you discuss what the difficulties were?
WHITE:It was very rough. When we first went into the U.K., I think we were there in 2003, I had this big plan, but it didn't go like I planned it to go because the pay-per-view distributor over there … let's just say things didn't work out. I invested a lot of money into the U.K. market. And I wasn't going to let it go. I've been working on this deal since 2003 to get back over there. Thank God for Bravo. The Bravo network over there, when we reached the deal with them to start showing The Ultimate Fighter over there, then we brought the two guys from the U.K. to fight in Season 3, that's what really helped kick start this whole thing and made it happen for us over there. I never gave up on the U.K. market. We spent a lot of money over there and I wasn't going to let it go.
QUESTION: You mentioned ensuring the future of the sport. We're in a situation in Minnesota with no commission. We just had another town completely ban MMA. The second here in a month. I know they are going through some difficulties down in Iowa too. Our you guys, the UFC, kind of being the leader in the U.S., doing something to help out that situation?
WHITE: Absolutely. This is incredibly insane for these places to be banning MMA. I mean, it's on television every day of the week. Nobody has been seriously injured or killed in the 15-year history of this thing, now. It's just insane. But there is an education process. It's going to take us time, but we will get it all straightened out. Our goal over the next five years is to have this thing sanctioned in every state. The UFC might not go to Idaho or someplace like that, but somebody is putting on a show there this weekend and we want to make sure it is sanctioned and overseen by a commission and safe for the fighters.
QUESTION:So is it a matter of putting money into lobbyists or what is it going to be?
WHITE:It takes time. There are only so many things I can do, you know. Right now, we own PRIDE, the UFC and the WEC. We're all going in a million different directions. I started with three employees six years ago. I have 90 employees, now. That's just UFC. That doesn't include the WEC or PRIDE. We've got a lot of (stuff) to do. I will get to that. That's in our plan over the next five years to get all these states on board.
QUESTION:So right now these guys putting on these shows here are basically under their own regulation. Do you have any advice for these guys. I know they want to do things right, but what can they do to ensure the future here?
WHITE:It's bad. If you are putting on shows that are not regulated, it's bad. We've talked about this in the situation of us going to the U.K., regulating yourself is pretty weird, you know. One of things about us is we don't cut corners. Obviously, we've made a big investment in this sport and the last thing we want to see is any of these guys get hurt. A lot of these guys, we care about. We have very good relationships with these guys. The last thing we want to see is some fighter get hurt out in some state where there is no governing body and no regulation.
QUESTION:So would you prefer there were no fights in these states with no regulation?
WHITE:Absolutely. Absolutely.

Judas
20-04-2007, 21:39
QUESTION:How devastating do you think it would be for the sport right now if something happened at one of these shows?
WHITE:Who knows? It wouldn't be good. It's never fun when somebody gets seriously injured or dies God forbid. It's never good.
QUESTION:What kind of subject matter will you have on HBO? Will it be reality shows? Fight cards that are like pay-per-view cards?
WHITE:It will be fights.
QUESTION:It will be something different from pay-per-view cards and UFC Fight Night or something in between?
WHITE:We're going to have this process where guys come off the reality show, fight on Spike TV. You'll have, I'll give you an example, the Koschecks and all of the stars that come out of there with the exception of the guys that won. The guys that won will move on to HBO. I'll give you an example, maybe, (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira ends up on HBO.
QUESTION:How big do you thinka Mirko and Randy fight could be? Is Mirko well known enough in the state right now to make this kind of another fight similar to Chuck and Tito?
WHITE:I've got billboards in Los Angeles on a whole building on the Sunset Strip. I've got billboards in Times Square, Las Vegas and a few other key cities here in the United States. He is all over the U.K. We're beaming this fight back live on Spike TV. So we're really doing everything we can to get Gonzaga and Cro Cop known. And, yeah, I think the fight between Cro Cop, I don't ever like to jump past anybody. First of all he has to beat Gonzaga. He wins that fight, then, yes, believe me, I have already been working to make sure everybody in this country knows who Mirko "Cro Cop" is. I think it's going to be a big fight.
QUESTION:Don't you have to get beyond just the hardcore people in order to make a fight to the level of what Chuck and Tito was or bigger than that? Don't you have to get beyond the hardcore audience and get new fans?
WHITE:Yeah. Ii think we continue to do that every day with the programming we put out. We'll put together a Countdown show like we do for all our other fights that will air on Spike. I'm sure we'll come up with a lot of other creative ways to hype that fight up. But at the end of the day, there is already a buzz here in the U.S. and the U.K and many other countries around the world about Mirko "Cro Cop." Randy Couture is one of the most beloved fighters in the UFC ever. So I think the fight will be very big.
QUESTION:One of the big contentions with the UFC on HBO was over the production and the announcers and everything. What have you decided on that?
WHITE:It's been a long hard process this deal with HBO. I'm very comfortable where we are right now. Believe me, I would have never signed a deal that I wasn't comfortable with. I probably could have had a deal with HBO a year ago, but I was never going to sign a deal that I wasn't comfortable with and I think that HBO and the UFC are both comfortable with where we are at right now.
QUESTION:And where is that?
WHITE:We'll be doing a show this summer.
QUESTION:Who are going to be the announcers and who is going to do the production?
WHITE:HBO will do the production.
QUESTION:Really? That's the first time you have given that up.
WHITE:Yep. That wasn't easy.
QUESTION:What's the situation of PRIDE on television in the U.S. and in Japan? Is there anything you are working on there and what is the status of the FSN contract?
WHITE:I'm working on those deals, right now. I'm going to go out on a limb and guarantee that we are going to have a huge television deal here in the U.S. for PRIDE and in Japan, too.
QUESTION:Is the live gate of your show being affected by Cage Rage's event the same night in England?
WHITE:We're sold out.
QUESTION:I guess that answers that question.
WHITE:There has been this whole battle built up between us and Cage Rage. At the end of the day, the companies like the Cage Rages of the world and companies like that, the UFC and PRIDE needs those kinds of organizations. They build the up-and-coming talent that is going to end up in the UFC. In no way shape or form do I think Cage Rage or any of these other companies are going head-to-head with us, but they are all necessary. We need them. We are not trying to stomp them out or put them out of business or trying to take they same date or all of this conspiracy (stuff). We need the Cage Rages of the world to exist to bring up the up-and-coming talent.
QUESTION:I have a question about Fedor. You talked about having a contract with him that is non-exclusive. If he were to go and sign with another promotion, would you seek an injunction to keep him from fighting with another promotion or is he technically a free agent at this point?
WHITE:He is not a free agent and, absolutely, I would slap an injunction on it.
QUESTION: You've had some instances recently of some high-profile fighters and some high-profile fights testing positive for drugs. Sanchez and Guillard. I know a lot of other fighters come back negative, but are you concerned that some of these social drugs such as cocaine and marijuana have shown up and would you think about introducing random drug testing into your fighters as an organization?
WHITE:I'm never excited when guys test positive for anything whether its casual drugs, social drugs or steroids. It's one of those things as the sport gets bigger and more and more people get into the sport, things happen. I can't be with these guys 24 hours a day. As far as testing guys, all of the guys that come in through The Ultimate Fighter are drug tested and steroid tested. I don't know what else to do to be honest with you. It's a problem. And it's a problem that's likely to be around a long time.
QUESTION:Do you have an update as to when (UFC lightweight champion) Sean Sherk will be available to fight?
WHITE:I think we have a plan for Sean Sherk to fight on July 7 (at UFC 72).
QUESTION:To fight with Hermes Franca?
WHITE:Yeah. That would be with the Tito Ortiz-Rashad Evans fight.
QUESTION:Is (UFC middleweight champion) Anderson Silva vs. Nate Marquardt also on that show.
WHITE:Yes, they are. It's a good card, a really good card.
QUESTION: Is that in Sacramento?
WHITE: It's pretty much official in Sacramento. We were trying to do Atlanta and it didn't work out.
QUESTION:Are the announcers going to be HBO announcers or are they going to be Mike (Goldberg) and Joe Rogan?
WHITE:HBO.
QUESTION:So does that mean Jim Lampley?
WHITE:Hell no.
QUESTION:You don't know who the announcers are going to be?
WHITE:It won't be Lampley or (Larry) Merchant. I guarantee you.
QUESTION:Could you respond to a press release from Tito Ortiz that said you were a disgrace to fighters and he wants to get this fight with you done in any way, shape or form. Is he aware that the Nevada State Athletic Commission doesn't want to hear about the fight happening in another place. Iis he awarethat it just can't happen now?
WHITE:He's not aware of anything. He's living in a (expletive) bubble, right now. You know what happened. I showed up. He signed a contract to do this thing. I showed up. He didn't. Is he afraid of me? No. He is not afraid of me, but he has people around him right now that thought it wasn't a good idea unless he got paid and (expletive) load of money for it. Why would I pay Tito Ortiz an (expletive) load of money to fight me. He asked for it in his contract. He's out there making himself look like an (expletive). He ought to shut his face and worry about Rashad Evans, right now

De man van 14K
20-04-2007, 21:45
Cool UFC op HBO.. dat wordt makkelijk kijken en downloaden!

nick
20-04-2007, 21:53
Leuk intervieuw.

WHITE:Yeah. The UFC will be on HBO this summer. :thup: dat zijn de berichten

stiffler
20-04-2007, 22:01
QUESTION:Do you have an update as to when (UFC lightweight champion) Sean Sherk will be available to fight?
WHITE:I think we have a plan for Sean Sherk to fight on July 7 (at UFC 72).
QUESTION:To fight with Hermes Franca?
WHITE:Yeah. That would be with the Tito Ortiz-Rashad Evans fight.
QUESTION:Is (UFC middleweight champion) Anderson Silva vs. Nate Marquardt also on that show.
WHITE:Yes, they are. It's a good card, a really good card.



Damm dat is nu al een goede fight card :thup:

thnx voor de interview Judas

nicolas the red
20-04-2007, 22:13
Cool UFC op HBO.. dat wordt makkelijk kijken en downloaden!
hebben jullie HBO op de tv in nederland dan?