Ik heb er zin in !! let's get it on !!
Be a Warrior, not a Worrier
Be a Warrior, not a Worrier
Be a Warrior, not a Worrier
To Prepare for UFC 135 Bout, 'Rampage' Jackson Literally Lived in the Gym
DENVER -- The fight game is full of almost mythical hard luck stories of young fighters who, being long on passion and short on cash, end up sleeping on dirty mats or bedding down on a cot in some back room of the gym where they train. This is not one of those stories.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson isn't young (not by fighter standards, anyway) and he certainly isn't poor. He didn't make his home inside the MusclePharm gym just off I-70 in Denver because he had to; he did it because he wanted to. And, sure, there were other contributing factors.
"I'm kind of lazy," Jackson said. "I didn't want to have to wake up in the morning...and I'd be late here every day. So I just said forget it. Move me in."
According to MusclePharm co-founder and senior president Cory Gregory, it wasn't the kind of request they'd envisioned when they first built the more than 30,000-square-foot facility that resembles an airplane hanger more than a 24-Hour Fitness, but they found a way to make it work.
"Rampage lives right in there," Gregory said, gesturing through a door off the main weight room. "It was originally a physical therapy room. He spent one night in a hotel then came in and said, 'Hey, make me a room.' So we made him a room and that's where he sleeps."
Jackson has been living in the facility for about the past two months, by his own reckoning. He came to Denver to live and train in the altitude and the atmosphere where he'd be fighting light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 135, but the hotels which had kitchens that could accommodate him were all too far from the gym, he said.
"But then, I saw the gym has everything," he said. "I might as well live here."
Not only does the gym have a kitchen, it also has a hyperbaric chamber, hot and cold recovery tubs, hydraulic weight training machines, aquatic treadmills, a full lab for measuring hormone levels -- even its own movie theater where all the seats are individually embroidered with the MusclePharm logo.
"We use [the theater] for presentations and stuff," Gregory said. "But also Rampage uses it to play video games and watch movies."
But all that isn't cheap. According to the UFC, between Jackson, his Wolfslair squad, and MusclePharm, more than one million dollars went into this one fight camp. How they arrived at that figure is vague at best, but a good portion of it seems to come from the luxury of the MusclePharm gym, which isn't open to the public and, according to Gregory, never will be.
"We've been building it for a year, a year and change, and not really telling anybody about it," he said, explaining that it was just for the athletes the company sponsors, such as Jackson and NFL players like Shawne Merriman, who Gregory says has been here several times.
But with all this expensive equipment laying around exclusively for the use of pro athletes, it's hard not to wonder how the company isn't losing money just by keeping the lights on.
"We're a brand that sells supplements worldwide," Gregory said. "...This was all in our marketing budget, because we knew that just like the thing they played on Spike [TV], the Countdown show, there's like five minutes all about the facility. Basically, if you build it, they will come."
Except that, as I was forced to point out, they don't actually want people to come. People can't come. Not past the parking lot, anyway.
"We didn't need to make money off the gym," Gregory said. "We're making money because you're standing here talking to me."
Besides, he added, if he's pursuing a sponsorship deal with a pro athlete like Jackson, who has other suitors in the industry, "why wouldn't they pick MusclePharm when they have the access to this? No one else has this. I think we rival even some Olympic facilities. It's pretty ridiculous."
Ridiculous is an appropriate word for it, in some respects. For a guy who's preparing to fight another man in a cage on Saturday night, it almost seems like overkill. There's far more mat space here than any one fighter could possibly need -- far more space in general. There's a cage, a ring, an astroturf runway. The walls are adorned with inspirational (if not completely grammatically sound) phrases such as "Weak Ends Here."
It is, in other words, a very different training model than the one that most MMA fighters follow. Rather than working with an existing team that makes its home in an existing fight gym, Jackson is his own moveable team. He has his own dedicated coaches and sparring partners, and his own private gym to work out of.
It's ironic then that he should still be so worried about a "spy" in his midst, but both Jackson and boxing coach Mark Kinney both insisted that the spying incident was very real and a very serious concern.
"We actually found out who the spy was and he got in big trouble," said Jackson, who declined to name names but said it "wasn't a fighter."
According to Kinney, it was "someone who knew what we were doing" and was passing the information to outside sources.
But, both men said, the team took care of it, and now Jackson thinks he may have found a permanent training camp for future fights.
"It'd be hard not to train here," he said. "Especially now [that] the spy's gone."
The real test, of course, comes on Saturday night. That's when we'll all find out how much it benefited Jackson to live and train inside this cavernous facility, with every advantage science could concoct ready at his disposal.
Gregory, whose company has its name riding on his performance in more ways than one, isn't too concerned.
"Listen, Quinton looks like he did back in the day," he said. "He's fast, he's recovered, he's nasty. And, of course, Quinton's my boy, so we believe he's going to win. We believe he's going to knock him out."
Be a Warrior, not a Worrier
Ni politicien ni militaire, je ne suis qu'un troubadour...
lol @ Matt Hughes video rond 2:40: Is he top five?
Ni politicien ni militaire, je ne suis qu'un troubadour...
UFC 135 Weigh-In Results:
The UFC's version of "Spygate" may still be lingering, but it doesn't matter much now. One of the most anticipated title fights in recent UFC memory goes down Saturday, spy or no spy.
Main event light heavyweights Jon Jones and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson were both on the mark Friday for their title fight, which headlines UFC 135 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The official weigh-in event took place at the Wells Fargo Theater at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.
Jones defends the light heavyweight title for the first time since winning it against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128 in March. He took that fight on short notice, filling in for then-teammate Rashad Evans when Evans was hurt. Evans now waits in the wings to fight the winner of Jones-Jackson.
Jones, who typically looks away from his opponents during staredowns at the weigh-ins, this time looked right at Jackson and the two talked back and forth to each other in animated fashion before being split apart by UFC president Dana White.
"I had to tell him I'm going to end his hype tomorrow, that's what I told him," Jackson told emcee Joe Rogan. "It's about time he grew up and started acting like a real MMA fighter. We stare each other down – that's what we do in the UFC."
Jones had very little to say: "I feel real good. I've done enough talking, and it's time for me to show what I've got now. So let's do it."
The training camp period for the title fight was interrupted by controversy after Jackson's camp accused the Jones camp of planting a spy to monitor the challenger's training – which Jones' side vehemently denied.
In the co-main event, former title challenger Josh Koscheck returns for the first time since losing to welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in December. He takes a short notice fight against UFC Hall of Famer and former world champion Matt Hughes. Koscheck was 170.5 pounds; Hughes was 170.
The main card opens with an intriguing lightweight fight between up-and-down fighters Nate Diaz and Takanori Gomi. Diaz has lost two straight fights, but is always a candidate for an exciting bout. And Gomi has lost two of three since joining the UFC after a lengthy career in Japan. Both losses have been by submission.
And in a pair of heavyweight fights, Travis Browne looks to remain unbeaten when he meets Rob Broughton. And former IFL star Ben Rothwell returns after a long injury layoff to meet Mark Hunt.
The preliminary card features five fights. The first three will stream live on the UFC's Facebook fan page, including a bantamweight bout between former title challenger Takeya Mizugaki and Cole Escovedo.
Those three fights will be followed by a pair of bouts on Spike TV starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. Tony Ferguson, winner of Season 13 of "The Ultimate Fighter" this past June, fights for the first time since winning that title. He'll drop down to lightweight to take on veteran Aaron Riley. And at middleweight, Tim Boetsch meets TUF veteran Nick Ring.
UFC 135 takes place Saturday with the main card airing on pay-per-view at 9 p.m. Eastern.
The complete weigh-in results are below:
Main Card
Jon Jones (204.5) vs. Quinton Jackson (204)
Matt Hughes (170) vs. Josh Koscheck (170.5)
Ben Rothwell (263) vs. Mark Hunt (261)
Travis Browne (255) vs. Rob Broughton (261)
Nate Diaz (156) vs. Takanori Gomi (155)
Preliminary Card
Tony Ferguson (155) vs. Aaron Riley (155)
Nick Ring (185) vs. Tim Boetsch (186)
Junior Assunção (145) vs. Eddie Yagin (145)
Takeya Mizugaki (135) vs. Cole Escovedo (135)
James Te Huna (205) vs. Ricardo Romero (205)
Be a Warrior, not a Worrier
begint op 1:40
Jon Jones gaat verliezen!!!
Rampage wordt zwaar onderschat...
Mooie staredown. Heb er toch wel zin in.
GOGOGOOG RAMPAGE!
Rampage gaat het niet winnen. Word wel een top partij denk ik
Zie echt geen kans voor Rampage.. Denk dat Jones op elk vlak een stapje hoger zit.. En de KO power van Rampage heb ik ook al een tijdje niet gezien dus denk dat Jones gewoon gaat winnen.
Denk het ook, Rampage heeft weinig te bieden.
Ni politicien ni militaire, je ne suis qu'un troubadour...
Yes!! Ed Lover met Dana White hahaha.
Rampage gaat hem slopen!
UFC 135 Live Streaming Free in HD Jones vs Rampage
Zo. Ik ga naar de kroeg.
Yo dawgs. Ik ben er, terug van stappen.
Were live!!!
en toen lag MF er uit.
Echt irritant dat mixfight iedere keer bij dit soort events niet meer bereikbaar is
Ali: I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark
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