UFC 137: BJ Penn vs Nick Diaz / Crocop vs Nelson

[Pahlavan]

Video: BJ Penn Iron Forges Ironâ„¢

[ChingChong]

CC op KO plz!

[Kemal]

Mirko Filipovic: I Want to Prove to Everybody That I'm Still 'Cro Cop'

Mirko Filipovic is convinced that his career nearly came to an end on Thursday morning. Forget the fights. Forget the bloody battles he's been in, the knockouts he's suffered, the countless training sessions he's suffered through. This was serious.

The Croatian heavyweight, the Pride legend and veteran of nearly 40 MMA bouts, the great "Cro Cop" was nearly done in by a couple of stairs.

In his defense, the stairs were wet. It was raining out and he was headed off to training, but as he bounded down the stairs his foot hit a wet spot and he almost went down hard.

"I can't believe I didn't fall. I cannot remember when I was so scared," he said. "I could have broken my spine just like that. My foot slipped on the stairs because it was wet, and I was shaking for five minutes because I was so close, and I was so happy."

For Filipovic, the lesson in all this was clear right away. He's known his whole career that, in this sport, it could all be over in an instant. But it's one thing to know it intellectually or theoretically, and another to feel that fluttering fear that comes when your feet slide out from under you -- that irrational, trembling panic. He got the message: you're on borrowed time, pal.

For the 37-year-old Cro Cop, it won't necessarily take a freak injury to push him the rest of the way out of the sport. It could be as simple as getting beat by Roy Nelson at UFC 137 next Saturday night, and he knows it.

On this subject, Filipovic does not mince words. "I must win this fight," he said over and over again. "...I will have to beat him, and I will do it. I trained six months for this fight. I will do it."

But it's not because, if he loses a third straight fight in the Octagon, he almost certainly will not get a new contract with the UFC. Even if he wins, that contract isn't guaranteed since, as he put it, "First I have to beat Roy Nelson. And second, we have to make a deal."

It's not just his UFC future that's at stake, however. And it's not all about money, though, sure, he likes the money and, like any fighter, would prefer to make as much as possible before the ride ends for good. But for the man who has accomplished just about everything a person can in this sport, the stakes are different now.

"Some people, many people, buried me alive because I lost twice in a row," he said. "I just want to prove to everybody that I'm still Cro Cop. ...I want to raise from the grave. That's what I want to prove to everybody. That's my motivation."

But say he beats Nelson. Then what?

For starters, Filipovic said, there are all the wonderful little moments that come with a victory, moments he's learned to savor like the last few bites of a great meal.

"I want to feel that feeling when the referee raises my hand. I want to take that shower -- it's a special moment for me, taking that shower after my victory, and I'm so happy. I go back to the hotel and the next day I'm so happy. I don't even think about [money] until the UFC bookkeeper calls me a few days later to transfer the money."

But it's not just the temporary joy or the glory he's chasing, he said. He's also in search of a fitting end to a great career, whatever that would look like at this point.

"I want to retire as the old Cro Cop. I don't know if I will be able to do it, but I will die trying. Nothing is hard for me. I will die trying."

It's a long way from the reasons he started this in the first place. Back in 1996, two years after his father died and "and left me and my mother all alone without a dollar in our pocket," the 21-year-old Filipovic got his start in K-1 kickboxing tournaments.

"It was the only way to drag me and my mother out of misery. That's how I started. I wanted to beat people because I wanted to get more and more money to ensure financial independence for me and for my family. That's all."

The fame? The attention? He never wanted any of that. In his perfect world, he could fight and get paid without anyone knowing him once he left the cage.

"If somebody recognize me on the street or they don't recognize me, I don't care. I would prefer that they don't recognize me. Unfortunately, in my country, everybody recognize me. I cannot hide, but it's hard to live without privacy."

The fame came as a consequence of his success shortly after he moved from kickboxing into MMA and went on to become one of the sport's most iconic heavyweights. From Japan to the U.S., Cro Cop was a known man. But as time passed and his contemporaries got picked off one by one, Filipovic saw for himself how this sport can use up and discard a person -- even the great ones.

"Look at Fedor [Emelianenko]," he said. "Fedor was untouchable until one year ago, and today nobody's talking about him. He lost three times in a row. He was a great champion, great fighter, but he lost three times in a row and nobody talks about him. Only the fans who followed him his whole career respect what he did with his career, but that's the name of the game. I don't want it to happen to me."

In Filipovic's mind, at least, beating Nelson on October 29 is the only way to avoid the same fate as his old rival Fedor. That's why he put everything he had into preparing for this fight, he said, even bringing out another former opponent -- fellow UFC heavyweight Pat Barry -- to give him some quality sparring sessions.

"And believe me," he said, "it was wild sparring."

But no matter what he's done in the weeks leading up to this fight, he can't guarantee the outcome. He can't simply will his way to a victory that will keep his career and his name in the sport alive.

Losing remains a distinct possibility, and if it happens, he said, all he can do is "say to people, 'I apologize, and I'm sorry I waste[d] your time.' That's all I can say and that's exactly what I will say. I will disappear from the UFC and I will apologize, first to the headquarters of the UFC, because I was treated like a king, I was paid well, and unfortunately I didn't justify the treatment. I didn't justify the treatment. I don't want live on an old glory. That's why, believe me, I trained really hard for this fight."

Will it be enough to win? Better yet, if he does win, if "the old Cro Cop" comes back even for just one night in October, will that be enough?

Once you're reminded how great victory feels, and once you've proven that you're still capable of achieving it, how do you stop chasing it? How do you simultaneously become the person you used to be, yet not continue doing what he would have done? And who was that person, anyway? And where did he go?

[basblue]

UFC 137 Video: Donald Cerrone Takes You Inside His Ranch | MMA News

[Soulbringer320]

[kentaro]

Mooie mini docu!!
Vind dit zowiezo vet net zoals die docu's van The Reem, UFC primetime & HBO 24/7.

[ChingChong]

Geniale topcomment:

"Diaz does not have the wrestling to beat BJ. This fight will end either with BJ winning by TKO, or decision. Diaz is not going to Knock Out BJ, or dominate him on the ground.. just isn't going to happen. I have a tribal arm tattoo, i know these things."

[sen]

Geniale topcomment:

"Diaz does not have the wrestling to beat BJ. This fight will end either with BJ winning by TKO, or decision. Diaz is not going to Knock Out BJ, or dominate him on the ground.. just isn't going to happen. I have a tribal arm tattoo, i know these things."

Ik zag hem ook, hahaha. Mooie filmpjes inderdaad, dat eerste deel ook.

[Kemal]

Jeff Curran Says It's 'Put Up or Shut Up' Time in His Return at UFC 137

It's been an interesting road, but after nearly eight years, Jeff Curran is back in the UFC.

Curran will return to the promotion at UFC 137 next week against former bantamweight title challenger Scott Jorgensen in Las Vegas in a bout that was moved to the main pay-per-view card on Friday. It's another shot with Zuffa and the UFC that Curran said he begged for, and a fight against a top contender that he jumped at the chance to get.

On Monday's edition of "The MMA Hour," Curran told host Ariel Helwani that he's always been physically ready – but now he believes he's more mentally ready than he ever was before and it's time to "put up or shut up."

"Everything's going great," Curran said. "It's kind of like I knew where I need to be to be able to focus on my fighting, and (the past personal problems) seem like such a long way away sometimes. Everything is revamped and going smoothly in my personal life, everything's going smoothly in my gym, and I couldn't ask for a better situation."

Curran (33-13-1) took a short-notice fight against future UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra at UFC 46 in January 2004. He lost a unanimous decision, but went on to a nine-fight winning streak outside the promotion. After a loss in his lone fight for Pride, the Illinois-based fighter went on another winning streak, one that got him a shot at the WEC not long after it had been purchased by Zuffa.

After a win in his first fight for the promotion since WEC 4, Curran got a shot at featherweight champion Urijah Faber and was submitted in the second round. He said that loss started a domino effect for him, mentally, and after four straight losses – all to WEC champions or title challengers – he was cut by the WEC in August 2009.

"Physically, I was prepared as ever for all my fights in the WEC," Curran said. "For Urijah, I just got caught. After that, it was a spiral in my mental focus. I don't know what made them turn the table and give me (another) opportunity. But at this point, it doesn't really matter. I've got to get out there and prove myself."

Curran has won four of five fights since his last loss in the WEC, a split decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki. His one loss in that stretch came in a Bellator event in Chicago, not far from the gym he runs in the city's northern suburbs that is the training home to the likes of former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver and UFC featherweight Bart Palaszewski, who also will fight at UFC 137.

But Curran said even at the Bellator fight, in April 2010, he wasn't where he needed to be mentally for Bryan Goldsby, who beat him in a unanimous decision. He said there had been a temptation to sit back and wait for the WEC to call (before it merged with the UFC), since matchmaker Sean Shelby had said they might have a fight for Curran later in the year.

WIth his cousin Pat making his Bellator debut on the same show – the start of what would be his improbable run through the lightweight tournament to a $100,000 pay day and an eventual shot at Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez – Curran said he felt pressure to take the fight, even though he wanted to pull out.

"We decided I needed to make some money – I was having some financial problems," Curran said. "And part of getting Pat into the lightweight tournament was having both cousins on the same show in Chicago. I kinda stepped in and took one for the team, even though I tried to pull out of the fight. I just didn't want to make up a lie. I was asking to be released and they wouldn't' do it because I was the main event in Chicago. I was going to pull an injury card, but I didn't. So I just went forward with it. That's one fight I regret taking – not that Goldsby didn't earn the win."

Even two wins in his own XFO promotion after the loss to Goldsby had him unsure what his next step might be. He beat Billy Vaughan in May, but said that a loss to him likely would have meant his retirement from the sport.

"I was training hard, I was in great shape," Curran said. "I thought if I can't beat these guys, nothing against them, I don't deserve to be in the UFC. I thought I needed to finish Billy Vaughan to get back in the UFC, but I think that was enough for them to say, 'Jeff looked good, he was back meaning business.'"

And now that he's back, fighting at bantamweight where he believes he has his best shot instead of featherweight or lightweight, Curran said he has to take advantage of what might be his last opportunity in the world's biggest promotion.

"I think about it every second of the day," Curran said. "I was just at a Keith Urban concert and there were 20,000 people there, and I just sat there with chills and thought, 'The pressure.' I'm not intimidated by it. I've been in all the big shows. But what it all encompasses is that I finally fought my way back, and it's either put up or shut up – embarrass myself or get out there and do my thing."

[basblue]

Nelson: I've been working out in cemetery

Ask Roy Nelson how he's been preparing for his fight against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at UFC 137, and you'll find that "Big Country's" sense of humor is still very much intact after two straight losses. "I've just been working out in the cemetery a lot," he told MMA Fighting recently. "I've got to get ready for the left kick. I want to see what it's like."

It's a typical Roy Nelson answer, which is to say slightly absurd and said with a straight face, as if to daring you to say, 'No, seriously.' But these aren't joking times for Nelson. After coming up short against Junior dos Santos and then Frank Mir, Nelson is facing a potentially dire situation. Don't tell him that, of course. "All fights are dire," Nelson said. "I've seen guys get cut after one. I've seen guys lose three or four and still have a job. In this business, there's no rhyme or reason. It's MMA. It's like when you go into the Octagon: anything can happen."

[Kemal]

Roy Nelson Keeping His Cool Ahead of Crucial UFC 137 Bout

Ask Roy Nelson how he's been preparing for his fight against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at UFC 137, and you'll find that "Big Country's" sense of humor is still very much intact after two straight losses.

"I've just been working out in the cemetery a lot," he told MMA Fighting recently. "I've got to get ready for the left kick. I want to see what it's like."

It's a typical Roy Nelson answer, which is to say slightly absurd and said with a straight face, as if to daring you to say, 'No, seriously.' But these aren't joking times for Nelson. After coming up short against Junior dos Santos and then Frank Mir, Nelson is facing a potentially dire situation.

Don't tell him that, of course.

"All fights are dire," Nelson said. "I've seen guys get cut after one. I've seen guys lose three or four and still have a job. In this business, there's no rhyme or reason. It's MMA. It's like when you go into the Octagon: anything can happen."

If Nelson didn't already know that, he got a quick education in his fight against Mir. He knew he was getting sick before the bout, he said. He'd been shaking hands at a recent UFC Fan Expo and "I must have touched some dirty people and didn't wash my hands enough."

Even when he realized he was coming down with something, he refused to take antibiotics because he worried about the effect they might have on his cardio, Nelson said. Then again, not taking them didn't do much to help him either.

"In that fight, I just hit a wall. And I hit a wall fast. I hit the wall, like, the first minute. I think it kind of showed on my face in the fight. But I pushed through it, gave a hundred percent of what I had, and just came out on the losing end."

The Tuesday after the fight, Nelson would stagger into the emergency room and find out that he had walking pneumonia. Even with a course of antibiotics, he'd spend the next month or so trying to kick the illness. He'd also end up questioning whether taking a fight against a former UFC heavyweight champion in this state was really the best career move.

"The one thing that I definitely learned from this one is, I'm always a fighter first and a businessman second, and that one taught me to be a businessman before a fighter. When you're injured or sick, the thing is, you've still got to provide for your family. I hadn't fought for ten months before that, and I'm just trying to put food on the table and take care of my bills. It was one of those things, plus it was an awesome opportunity. You beat Frank and you're right back in the mix."

Since Nelson couldn't beat 'em, however, he decided to join 'em. He's been working out with his old foe Mir in preparation for the bout with Filipovic. He and Mir don't talk about their fight, Nelson said, because "it's in the past."

Nelson's future lies in the cage with Cro Cop. If he doesn't come out on the winning end of that one, it will bring his losing streak to three, which is often the magic number that brings the ax down on a fighter's UFC contract. Since Cro Cop has also lost two straight -- and since he's in the last fight of his current deal -- the loser in this fight could very well end up out of a job.

"It's so cliche, you know. You have to beat a legend to be a legend. But I think just to fight Cro Cop, period, is something that, as a fighter, you just want to do," Nelson said. "You want to be able to say, hey, I competed with some of the best of the world."

You want to be able to say it eventually, when you're looking back at a long successful career. But if Nelson doesn't find a way to beat Filipovic, he's in danger of reaching that point sooner than he wants to.

Maybe "anything can happen" in the Octagon, but one thing that can't happen is coming out on the losing end and remaining employed indefinitely. You can bet that a businessman-fighter like Nelson knows that as well as anyone. Now he just has to fight accordingly.

[The Company]

"I've just been working out in the cemetery a lot," he told MMA Fighting recently. "I've got to get ready for the left kick. I want to see what it's like."

Hij blijft een grappenmaker die Nelson. Hopelijk cut de UFC hem niet zou op de begraafplaats belanden.

[Marchant]

UFC gaat hem niet cutten want Nelson wint deze......
Nelson verloor er wel is waar 2 maar dat deed crocop ook.... en ik vondt nelson nog wel sterk tegen Dos santos terwijl Mirco me echt tegen viel de laatste 2 partijen !!
Die tegen mir was zelfs een aanfluiting!

[Pahlavan]

Ik ben een grote crocop fan en hij zal altijd een van mijn favorieten blijven maar hij had al een tijd geleden moeten stoppen. Ben dus ook bang dat hij het tegen nelson niet gaat redden

[basblue]

BJ Penn over de boxingskills van Diaz...

[Kemal]

Wordt zeker een mooie pot!

[Kemal]

Eliot Marshall: I Don't Think Brandon Vera Wants It That Bad

If things go very, very well for Eliot Marshall at UFC 137 -- which is to say, if he not only beats Brandon Vera, but also earns one of the UFC's bonus awards for the best submission, knockout, or fight of the night -- it will be a profitable night in the Octagon for the Colorado-based light heavyweight.

But if he merely wins without collecting a big bonus, he told MMA Fighting, he'll probably just break even in the end.

"That's how much I've put into this [training] camp, financially," said Marshall. "Spending money to travel, go here and do this, do that, it's not cheap. I'm a hundred percent committed."

At this point, he pretty much has to be. That's because Marshal knows he's likely just one loss away from being cut by the UFC for a second time in two years. And if that happens, Marshall said, he plans to hang up the gloves and call it a career.

His thinking on the matter is simple, he explained. He's already been cut from the organization once, and had to volunteer for a short-notice fight with Luiz Cane at UFC 128 just to get back in. He lost that one via first-round TKO, but his willingness to step up when the UFC needed someone was apparently enough to earn him this second chance.

If he gets beat by Vera this Saturday night, he'll drop to 0-2 in his current UFC run and will almost certainly get his walking papers as a result. If that happens, he's not sure what the point would be of continuing on with his fighting career.

"How many guys do you know who get brought back for a third time?" he pointed out.

That's why, at least to hear Marshall tell it now, this could very well be it for him. He knows he'll be the underdog heading into the bout with Vera, and if things go the way oddsmakers expect them to the 31-year-old Marshall might be on his way to retirement this time next week.

Maybe that helps to explain why he's invested so much time and money into this training camp. With so much at stake, he wanted to make sure he was as well prepared as possible, he said, which meant multiple trips down to Greg Jackson's gym in Albuquerque, N.M., as well as driving all around Colorado to get in the gym with as many different sparring partners as he could find.

"That way you don't get used to anybody's style," he explained. "Sometimes you get used to what guy A does or guy B does, and then when you get in the cage to really fight, the guy you're fighting doesn't do what guy A or B does and you have to adapt. I've had to adapt every sparring session. My mind and my body is used to it, so it's not so much about what they're going to do, it's what I'm going to do."

But against an opponent like Vera, figuring out a path to victory isn't so easy, as Marshall has learned from hours of watching film.

"He's very, very tough," Marshall said. "Even when he's losing, he takes it. Thiago Silva whooped his ass, and he wasn't close to being stopped. He switches stances well. Obviously, he kicks hard. I guess on paper he should be the champ of the world, right?"

So why isn't he? Instead of being champ of the world, why is Vera winless in his last three fights, and just barely holding on to a spot in the UFC himself?

"I just don't think he wants it that bad," said Marshall, who added that, in the end, that's what he believes will make all the difference.

"What's going to decide the fight is who wants it more. I don't think any one skill-set is going to decide this fight. It's going to be, who's willing to get beat up? Who's willing to suffer to win this fight?"

The way Marshall sees it, that person is him. That's because he has to win this fight. If he doesn't, his stay in the UFC -- and, so he says, his career in MMA -- will both come to an end.

That explains why he's invested so much in his own training and preparation, he said. There's no reason not to go all-in now and see what happens. At this point in his career, there might not be a next time.

[breahule]

Ik hoop diaz, maar ik vond bj erg sterk z'n laatste potten op welterweight
hier nog een leuke van hem op ww @ ufc 47 (ja, tijdje geleden maar nog wel leuk om ff te zien)
http://www.ufc.com/media/ufc-46-penn-hughes

[Slome]

[Kemal]

Cesar Gracie: If Nick Diaz Finishes BJ Penn, We'll Ask for Georges St-Pierre First

Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre can't seem to get everything lined up to face each other. The two were going to fight later this month at UFC 137 until Diaz missed two press conferences in two days and was removed from the fight. As it turns out, the bout wouldn't have happened anyway after St-Pierre injured his knee and withdrew from the event altogether.

On Saturday, Diaz has a chance to make his case as the true No. 1 welterweight contender when he faces BJ Penn. And according to his trainer and manager Cesar Gracie, if Diaz decisively wins the bout that night, they'll ask to bypass Carlos Condit and get bumped back into his original position as GSP's next challenger.

"This is the UFC so there's always that chance," Gracie said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "There's no question about it that I will ask for that if Nick has a tremendous performance and he can finish BJ, I would ask for that. But the biggest thing is if the fans want it. If the fans all ask for that, Dana [White] is a smart guy. He knows the sport is about the fans. So who knows?"
Of course, much is dependent on Diaz winning.

It was a fight that neither side wanted, stemming from Penn's longstanding relationship with the camp. In fact, years ago, he fought for the first time ever while under the Team Cesar Gracie banner.

Because of that, it took some convincing to pull the two particulars together as both were initially resistant to the bout. Gracie eventually spoke to BJ Penn's brother JD and the two sides came to the realization that the fight was inevitable.

"We said, 'Hey, you know what? These guys are going to have to fight in the future, at some point in their lives. So let's just get it over with,'" Gracie said.

Gracie described the entire UFC 137 ordeal as an "emotional rollercoaster" and added that he's confident that there will be no problems during fight week. As he noted, Gracie been involved in several main events while in Strikeforce, and was also in the main card of a CBS-televised EliteXC show, so he does have experience going through periods of heavy media attention.

Gracie, who has been in Diaz's corner since the beginning of his fight career, said there was never any point where things got too strained between them, saying that like any family-type relationship, they might get mad at each other but their deep ties will always pull them back together.

"Nick doesn't have to fight at all, in my eyes, ever again, and it's not going to put our relationship to an end, because he's one of the black belts of this school," he said. "He's helped us out tremendously. He's put a lot attention on our academy. He's fought the good fight, and he's done everything I could imagine a guy can do. I don't have any expectations of what he owes me or owes my school or anything like that. If he quit fighting tomorrow, his accomplishments are still impressive. He's got nothing to prove to me. I was obviously disappointed and pissed off about certain things as I'm sure he gets disappointed and pissed off at me and other people at my school, but you just get over that. It's part of that family thing."

The silver lining to the issue that cost Diaz his title shot was increased attention, and now Diaz may have more eyeballs on him, so if he wins convincingly, there may be an uproar to face St-Pierre sooner rather than later.

Gracie said he believes the key to beating Penn is to win exchanges on the feet and scrambles on the ground. He acknowledged that Penn has the advantage in wrestling, but thinks that Diaz's skill set has some wrinkles that could give Penn problems. One advantage is likely conditioning, and Gracie noted that is why he asked for a five-round fight, a request that was turned down.

Either way, at least he'll be fighting on Saturday, which wouldn't have happened if his original match had never been switched. Now he gets the chance to increase his credibility in the eyes of some skeptics, make a statement, and maybe even demand the match that was originally his to begin with.

"In some strange way, it worked out," Gracie said.

[Soulbringer320]

[thijss]

Thnx! Mooie beelden.

[XanaduNL]

Hehe, de cheques worden gewoon voor de post-fight pressconf. uitgedeeld.
Die reactie van Chael ook, alsof het hem wat uitmaakt.

[universele]

yep word een mooie, 2 toppers met een mooie style om naar te kijken

[XanaduNL]

Had dit niet beter in de bestaande thread gekund?