UFC 76/UFC Fight Night 11 Conference Call Recap - Fight Forum - MMA - UFC - Boxing - K1

BlingDogg · 09-13-2007, 03:33 PM

Quote:

The UFC held a combined conference call for the media today in regard to both UFC Fight Night 11 next Wednesday on Spike TV and UFC 76 next Saturday on pay-per-view.

Involved with the call were Chuck Liddell, Keith Jardine and Kenny Florian. Dana White and Din Thomas had been advertised for the call but did not attend. UFC PR rep Jennifer Wenk indicated that White was on another call. At one point they thought he might be able to join in later in the call, but that wasn’t the case. There was no word on why Thomas was not available.

There was nothing all too earth-shattering, but he’s a general rundown of several things the fighters said:

- A reporter asked Liddell about claims from Rampage’s camp that he was partying too much the week leading up to his title loss at UFC 71. Chuck said he didn’t do anything different in preparation for the fight than for his other fights. He said he doesn’t drink alcohol a month out from his fight and that he might only drink 2-3 times a few months before a fight. He claimed that if he’s at a club a week before the fight that he only drinks water. Liddell said that he’s always up until 2:30 or 3 a.m. the night of the fight regardless of whether he’s in a hotel room or a club.

- Liddell insisted he was in great shape and prepared for Rampage.

- Chuck was asked about Wanderlei Silva and said he was happy he’s in the UFC. A few reporters tried to ask him about whom he’d like to fight after Jardine, and Chuck really didn’t say much other than he’s simply focusing on Jardine right now and not thinking about the future.

- Chuck was asked about if he is making adjustments in his training as he ages. He said he hasn’t changed anything drastic and that gradual changes have been made. He said he trains five days a week and that his workouts have become shorter. Liddell indicated that as he gets older, he has increased the duration of his training camps leading up to a fight.

- Along those lines he says he plans to continue fighting as long as his body will allow him to.

- Jardine confirmed previous comments that he wasn’t excited leading up to his fight against Houston Alexander. He didn’t use it as an excuse; he simply said he couldn’t get excited fighting a guy he had never heard of. Later on he said he never watched tape of the fight. At another point he was asked if he saw Alexander fight last Saturday at UFC 75. Jardine said he hadn’t and that he was at a football game.

- Jardine said he only took two days off from training following the Alexander fight. He indicated that he went right back into the gym in large part to help other teammates get ready for fights.

- Florian was outspoken again about performance enhancers and denounced them whenever he was asked a question. I asked him if steroids were something that was out in the open in the gym and if he thought there was widespread usage in MMA. He said nobody talks about it and that he doesn’t consider there to be a major problem in MMA right now.

- Florian indicated he feels Joe Stevenson is ahead of both Din Thomas and him in the unofficial UFC lightweight rankings and that he just wants to keep winning so he can move closer to another title shot.

- Florian said he felt that Matt Hamill won last week’s fight against Michael Bisping but said bad judging happens and that it’s a big reason why you should try to finish a fight so that a judge doesn’t decide your fate.

- Steve Cofield from Fox Sports Radio in Las Vegas and Sporting News Radio asked the fighters about comments Terry Martin made in an interview with MMAjunkie.com (UFC news, MMA news, UFC rumors, UFC gossip, fighter interviews and event previews and recaps - MMAjunkie.com (formerly UFCjunkie.com)) last week in which he basically accused James Irvin of being on steroids. Steve wanted to know if there was an unwritten code about speaking out like that and how a fighter who does speak out is received. Florian said there isn’t any kind of code. Liddell wanted to know if Martin made the accusations because he knew something or if he was speculating. Cofield said it sounded like speculation and Chuck basically said that it wasn’t cool of him to do that. He said you shouldn’t judge a guy by the way he looks because he’s got friends who are genetic freaks who looks like they could be on steroids. He said that there’s testing to determine who is on and who isn’t. Jardine also addressed testing and said the hefty suspensions are why he doesn’t do them. Chuck added to that and said a year is a long time for a guy not to be able to make a living and that a lot of people are going to start learning from the mistakes of others.

- Jardine seemed excited about the chance to fight Liddell and said that he thought it was a joke when the fight was proposed to him.

source - UFC 76/UFC Fight Night 11 Conference Call Recap -- UFC news at MMAjunkie.com

Dr.Chicago · 09-13-2007, 03:36 PM

Sorry man!

http://www.fightforum.com/ufc/13570-...ighlights.html

BlingDogg · 09-13-2007, 03:39 PM

I dunno how I missed that. lol.
mods please delete or close this thread.