Thomas Gerbasi: Ricky Lundell - Breaking Down the Mysteries of the Mat

"It (wrestling) is something that’s so tough because anytime you make a mistake, you pay for it. And you really find out how good you are really fast." - Ricky Lundell

 

 

The plan was simple, but it was the simplicity of it that made it brilliant. There wasn’t going to be some intricate series of maneuvers for Joe Lauzon to pull off if he defused Melvin Guillard’s striking in their UFC 136 bout earlier this month and got close enough to implement his grappling attack; just a few key moves that were drilled over and over again by Lauzon with a newcomer to his camp, Ricky Lundell.

If the name sounds unfamiliar, that’s okay for now, because the 25-year old Utah native is used to being the secret weapon in fight camps around the mixed martial arts world. Suffice to say for now that Lundell is a two-time grappling world champion, the youngest North American to earn a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt (he was 19 when Pedro Sauer awarded him the honor), as well as a two-year letterman in wrestling for Iowa State, which is even more impressive considering that he never wrestled in high school.

As for his MMA credentials, to say that this secret weapon has worked with various big names over the years would be an understatement, considering that he has shared the mat with Frank Mir, Vitor Belfort, Forrest Griffin, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Miguel Angel Torres, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Rogerio Nogueira and Lauzon over the years.

With that out of the way, it’s back to Houston and UFC 136, and a confident Guillard came out firing his punches and kicks, looking for a highlight reel finish. But it was Lauzon who caught “The Young Assassin” with a counterpunch and rocked him. It was time for his new coach’s plan to kick into gear.

“I had Joe stick to the front headlock,” said Lundell. “Front headlock, guillotine, front headlock, run around, choke. And that’s because Melvin Guillard is so athletic and explosive that had we not gone front headlock, he might have gotten away.”

Lauzon worked for the front headlock, but with his arm tied up, he ran around, sunk his hooks in, and finished Guillard off with a rear naked choke. Perfect plan, perfect execution, game over. Lauzon, already sold on his new coach, couldn’t have been happier.

“For pretty much all my camps, I’ve always been the main coach,” said the lightweight contender. “I have a boxing coach, I work with jiu-jitsu guys, and I work on other things, but the gameplan is usually my gameplan. I figure out what I want to do and we talk about it and figure it out. This is really the first camp where I kind of took a back seat and listened to Ricky. And we talked all about the front headlock, though we didn’t think the front headlock was gonna come off me dropping him with a punch. We worked a whole bunch of takedowns, a whole lot of keeping him on the ground and really doing our best to keep Melvin on the ground and negating all the stuff he likes to do to get up. But as a Plan B, when Melvin posts up, we’re gonna grab his head and put him in a front headlock, and then we’re gonna work. And that’s where all the stuff from Ricky came in.”

Lauzon’s meeting with Lundell was a happy accident, as the most recent UFC fighter summit in May coincided with the New Englander’s training camp for his June bout with Curt Warburton. Wanting to take in the summit while still staying busy in Vegas, Lauzon arranged to hit pads with respected striking coach Jimmy Gifford, and it was Gifford – one of Frank Mir’s coaches – who recommended “J-Lau” work a bit with Lundell, who was in camp with the former heavyweight champ.

“I don’t want to work out with some guy that’s here to train Mir,” said Lauzon. “He’s got to be enormous.”

“He’s like 155 pounds,” responded Gifford.

That response got Lauzon’s gears turning.

“Mir can bring out anyone in the world, and he’s bringing out this kid Ricky Lundell,” he said. “So we just grappled and the kid was phenomenal. He made a huge impression on me, but I think I made a little bit of an impression on him too, and I’m thinking, ‘this kid’s perfect.’ He’s a jiu-jitsu guy, he has great wrestling, he’s my size and he’s a great communicator. The communication was a big thing.”

That’s not surprising, considering that unlike most wrestlers who add jiu-jitsu on later, Lundell did things in reverse, studying jiu-jitsu from the age of six, getting his black belt, and then getting involved in wrestling at the behest of one of the sport’s greats, Cael Sanderson. So for jiu-jitsu based fighters like Lauzon, Mir, and Penn, Lundell not only had the wrestling tactics to add on, but he came from a jiu-jitsu background, so he spoke their language.

“The communication aspect is huge, and we definitely speak the same language,” said Lauzon. “You have very, very few guys that are good at jiu-jitsu and wrestling that started as jiu-jitsu guys. BJ’s really the only guy that started with that too. Most guys are more like Jake Shields, who wrestled first and then did jiu-jitsu. So it definitely helps to have that jiu-jitsu first mindset.”

“I think that’s a huge area that’s helped me, and it’s helped me in reverse the other way too,” explains Lundell. “I’ve worked with Sean Sherk and he felt like I could speak his wrestling language and teach him the right jiu-jitsu that he needed. And in reverse, Lauzon and those guys know that if I show them a shot, we both know that he won’t end up in a triangle or an armlock or a guillotine from this shot. Whereas if he went to just a wrestler or a wrestler who had trained up to purple belt or something in jiu-jitsu who wasn’t really well-versed, he may be showing you shots that are really going to get you submitted at a higher level; he just doesn’t know it yet. So it helped me a lot because I already knew the submissions, and then going to wrestling, I was already able to build a base from the ground up, rather than being a wrestler who’s standing above and has to learn the ground.”

Yet given his skill and technique on the mat, it begs the question – why isn’t he fighting as well?

“I thought about fighting before, but it wasn’t my first interest,” he said. “I enjoy coaching and the sport of wrestling and jiu-jitsu together. So I’ve spent my time trying to perfect those areas of the game, and I think that in order to be the best coach I can possibly be, going out and working on my boxing and striking is good, but it’s not where I should spend the majority of my time if I want to be able to coach the best guys.”

And he’s obviously made the right call, as he’s become “the” guy for many of the world’s top mixed martial artists. It’s an amazing feat, considering his age and his journey to this point – come on, he graduated college, yes college, at 18 – and he’s done well for himself with his University of Grappling school in Lindon, Utah. But it’s his ability to break down the ground game in an understandable fashion that has put him where he is today.

“It’s not about how many moves you know,” he said. “I think a lot of people have a hard time understanding this, but let’s say you have three five minute rounds. Well, because we have three five minute rounds, that means we only have 300 seconds to scrap per round. Let’s say it takes us 10 seconds per shot that we’re gonna do in this fight, and that’s way overexagerrating, but let’s just pretend that it only took us 10 seconds to set up every shot. That means you only have the opportunity for 30 shots in an entire five minute round. So if you know 500 shots, how is that going to help you? There’s 470 that you didn’t even get to cover yet.”

As an example, he points to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who has become one of the premier wrestlers in MMA despite not having a traditional background in the sport. But what he does have is a killer and nearly unstoppable shot that has been built not only from technique but from repetition.

“He (St-Pierre) almost shoots the exact same shot every time,” said Lundell. “I know what GSP’s going to do, but the thing is, he’s practiced that shot 25,000 times. And then I’m like ‘hey, we know what he’s gonna do; here, do this defense.’ And you practice it 300 times. So you have the defense practiced 300 times, and GSP’s coming in with a total count of offensive shots at 25,000? You don’t have a prayer to stop that shot yet because you haven’t put in the time to be actually able to stop GSP’s go to. Just like Cael Sanderson, everybody knows he’s going to ankle pick you. He’s going to ankle pick and double leg. There’s no question, everybody knows, but you can’t stop him because he’s done it so many times and he’s so good at it that your defensive level doesn’t match up to his offensive level.”

It’s that type of unglamorous, often tedious, work that most don’t want to go through on a daily basis, but that wrestlers have perfected because it’s been ingrained in them since they were competing as kids. So if you wonder why wrestling is the dominant discipline in MMA today, one that five of the seven UFC champions (Cain Velasquez, Jon Jones, GSP, Frankie Edgar, and Dominick Cruz) would probably count as the core of their style, it comes down to the years of work in wrestling rooms around the country. It’s also why you see many wrestlers picking up solid striking and jiu-jitsu games, but few strikers and jiu-jitsu players doing as well on the wrestling side.

“This may offend people, but I believe that wrestling requires a lot more work ethic,” said Lundell. “It’s very difficult, it’s grueling, it’s not rewarding, it’s painful, and because of that, I think not as many people like to really work in those areas. The thing is though, a wrestler comes in, they’re already naturally strong, they’ve trained hard, they’ve built explosive power, they’re able to endure constant pressure, and they’re extremely fit, so it’s pretty easy for them to come in and already understand position for jiu-jitsu and stay in good spots and move and learn those areas. They also have super heavy hands, so they have that knockout power and learn how to strike really, really easy. But when you take (boxing champion) Floyd Mayweather, he can get punched, but he’s not structurally built to shoot under another person, lift them up and slam them down on the ground. And that’s something that’s only built through years of time and actually doing it and having it done to you. So it’s gonna take somebody years and years to do that because most guys start wrestling when they’re 15 or younger. And how are you gonna catch up to (middleweight contender) Chael Sonnen, who’s been wrestling since he was a kid? It’s gonna be almost impossible.”

So how did he do it as a fresh-faced teenage jiu-jitsu black belt?

“I think the transition’s difficult, no matter what you do,” said Lundell. “Wrestling’s a very difficult thing

to pick up, but I think it gave me different views than everybody else has because I got to understand jiu-jitsu fully. I got my black belt and then I started wrestling, and I think it gave me different views than other people, especially because I wasn’t just wrestling with the local best junior high and high school coaches. My training partners have been Cael Sanderson and Justin Ruiz. They helped make wrestling easier for me when it came to proper technique and those types of things. I think a lot of people have a hard time learning how to wrestle because they don’t go to the right guys for answers, and they’re not necessarily learning technical wrestling; they’re learning brute force strength, just blow through somebody wrestling.”

It’s almost a jiu-jitsu-esque approach to wrestling, where it’s not just about size in a fight, but who has the better technique and who the smarter combatant is. Unfortunately, dealing with high-profile MMA fighters before high-profile UFC fights doesn’t allow him to reinvent the wheel. If you’ve got a bout with a world-class wrestler like Sonnen coming up, you won’t have the time to catch up to his wrestling, so Lundell instead focuses on those few moves that will allow you to nullify his game and implement your own.

“The first thing you want to do is look at that person and how they think and how they like to play the game,” he said. “Then you don’t focus on 20 moves from each spot and 30 moves from 30 setups; you focus on the right setups for the right guy. And each guy’s different. When I worked with BJ Penn, his stuff is way different from Sean Sherk’s. With Sean, it was power, explosive shots, and those types of things. When I worked with BJ, it was making sure your elbows were deep so that you could actually lift the guy up. Way different thought process. I know Sherk’s 5-foot-6 and his neck is like three feet in diameter (Laughs), so when he shoots in on somebody, I’m not super worried about things happening to him. BJ, on the other hand, he’s got a skinnier neck and a bigger head, so if he gets his head stuck in a guillotine, he might have a hard time getting out of there. So we tailor your game to you.”

“Joe Lauzon, different game than what Frank Mir’s gonna have, especially with the weight and how they like to strike and how they like to move their feet,” Lundell continues. “We focus on certain aspects of their training and bring it down to the core fundamentals of what they need to do, and we give them their ‘go to’ shot and their ‘go to’ areas. This is what you’re good at. You’re not good at the scramble, so we’re gonna stay out of the scramble. You’re not good at 50-50 tying, which would be like Randy Couture’s over-under, so we’re gonna work at staying out of the 50-50 tie completely, and just work outside shots. You’re about to fight Dan Henderson, there’s no way we’re getting to the 50-50 there; it’s circle and push out, circle and push out. That’s all we’re doing. So we focus on the real core of what they need to do for that fight, while working on what they need to do to become a better fighter in the long run, which is develop their ‘go to’ areas.”

Hearing Lundell break down the finer points of the ground game, you almost get the impression that he could teach anybody how to grapple. But then you look at how world-class fighters get baffled by a dominant wrestler, and you realize it’s not that easy. It’s the top disciple in the sport for a reason, yet for those who work with Lundell, he lets them in on just what that reason is.

“In boxing, if you miss a punch, the guy steps away and you step away, and you both get to restart,” he said. “If you miss a shot in wrestling, you are now stuck underneath me for the next five minutes unless you can get out. So it (wrestling) is something that’s so tough because anytime you make a mistake, you pay for it. And you really find out how good you are really fast. There’s no fake stuff. It’s really self-revealing as to your actual ability. People find out real quick who’s the dominant player and who’s not. The guy on top is dominant, despite what the jiu-jitsu world wants you to believe.”

Griffin after Signature Dish at Featherweight

“I’m after a dominating win over him (Bart Palaszewski) and hoping to make a case for fighting for the title.” - Tyson Griffin

 

 

Tyson Griffin isn’t a fully-trained chef, but judging by his culinary portfolio, do not be surprised if one day he’s the first active fighter to compete on MasterChef. Griffin takes to Twitter to present his delicacies. Two weeks before his showdown with Bart Palaszewski at UFC 137 he picked up a steak at Whole Foods. “I earned it tonight,” he wrote. “The question is, how do I cook it and what should the sides be?”

Griffin’s post-MMA goal is to become a restaurateur. He’s been cooking for some time and among his other delights are tomato and basil soup with fried eggs, and a fruit and oat shake.

“Food is definitely one of the bigger passions in my life,” Griffin said. “I’ve been trying to create healthy stuff that tastes good in camp and keeping the good, fattening stuff out of camp.”

Griffin has literally trimmed fat, hoping to take what’s been the elusive next step in his MMA career. His recent run at lightweight was rougher than an amateur chef’s dinner service supervised by Gordon Ramsay. Three consecutive losses to Evan Dunham, Takanori Gomi and Nik Lentz left his UFC status on the brink before Dana White blasted the judges of the Lentz fight and handed Griffin a mulligan.

In just his third MMA fight, Griffin debuted as a featherweight for Gladiator Challenge in 2004 and earned a TKO victory over an upstart named Urijah Faber. Two fights into his second UFC featherweight run the stakes are much higher. It’s Griffin (15-5, 8-5 UFC) against Palaszewski (34-14, UFC debut), a 28-year old Polish competitor off a successful WEC stint at lightweight who recently had a four-fight winning streak snapped by a split-decision loss to Kamal Shalorus at WEC 53, on the Spike-televised portion of UFC 137.

Griffin’s recipe is straightforward: Be aggressive and push the pace. The prize is a significant bump up the ladder at the Grade-A prime age of 27.

“I’m after a dominating win over him and hoping to make a case for fighting for the title,” Griffin said.

Not surprisingly, Palaszewski has gone on record predicting a knockout if Griffin dares to live up to his billing as one of the lighter weights’ more exciting fighters. It’s a reputation that took a hit during his return bout at 145 against Manny Gamburyan at UFC on Versus 4. Going in, Griffin owed to himself, his fans and the UFC to push the pace. His previous contest was a controversial split decision loss to Lentz on the untelevised preliminary card of UFC 123 that extended his losing streak to three. A trio of defeats in the nefariously stacked 155-pound weight class normally translates into walking papers. White, however, announced that Griffin wouldn’t be cut and was a victim of yet another raw deal from the ringside decision makers.

“Tyson Griffin got [expletive] big time tonight,” White said.

Handed a reprieve, Griffin made a lifestyle change and tried his luck at 145. His first test was Gamburyan, a former No. 1 contender eventually smashed by champion Jose Aldo. In the third round, Griffin avoided Gamburyan’s advances, answering with counter punches and takedowns to sneak away with a majority decision victory.

The fight was a polar opposite to Griffin’s breathtaking pace. To earn brownie points with the UFC championship committee is to not only win, but to do it with a little sizzle. A win over Palaszewski won’t assure Griffin a shot at Aldo, but it will represent a second coming.

“Beating Manny I thought I acquitted myself pretty well,” Griffin said. “I guess it didn’t turn out that way because it wasn’t a very exciting fight, but Manny fought for the title and he was world-ranked. I feel like I’ve already beaten one of the top guys and I have to keep winning to keep myself out there.”

As a lightweight, Griffin was on the fast track, posting a 7-2 record in his first nine UFC fights while earning five “Fight of the Night” bonuses and a “Submission of the Night” award. A dynamic second round knockout of Hermes Franca at UFC 103 had Griffin in position to make his move. Then came a split decision loss to Dunham followed by a stunning first round knockout loss to Gomi. On the surface, the Gomi pasting at 1:04 of the first round was rock bottom, the ultimate scenario where a fighter’s mind, heart and desire are put to the greatest of tests. Film is reviewed and the healing process towards becoming a better fighter begins.

Not for Griffin, who dismissed it faster than a fed-up Chef Ramsay tosses a poor soul out of his kitchen.

“I just got caught with a punch and the fight got stopped quickly,” Griffin said. “I don’t think there was anything to learn from that, to be honest. I just got caught. I’ve had other losses I could learn from; Nik Lentz is a loss I can learn from. Even though I won, I thought it could be a little more convincing. I was getting my game plan going against Gomi. He’s a dangerous striker on the feet and I just ended up getting caught.”

The bounce-back win over Gamburyan wasn’t Griffin’s signature recipe, but it was a first step up a new mountain. Aldo has been tested in his last two title defenses, the second against Kenny Florian, who was competing in only his second fight as a featherweight. While the Brazilian Cobra remains indomitable at 145, there have been signs of fissures during a time when Griffin, George Roop and Hatsu Hioki are determined to add more depth to the division and delay any ideas of an Aldo-Frankie Edgar showdown.

Roop and Hioki will compete on the main card of UFC 137. The winner could conceivably be matched against the victor from Griffin- Palaszewski. It’s wholly appropriate that Griffin’s road to redemption is ongoing. Growing up with both his parents incarcerated, Griffin went through foster care before living with his grandmother. The ordeal is the impetus behind a charity raffle Griffin is promoting for Boys Town Nevada, a foundation that reaches out to families in need physically, spiritually and emotionally. The goal is to encourage better and closer families working together to put them on the path to brighter futures.

“I can imagine how tough it can be for someone that’s, I guess, not as mentally strong in those areas,” said Griffin, who, unlike many kids, used sports as an outlet growing up. “I like these kids and want to do a little more to explain the situation I’ve been blessed to be in. I want to help give back.”

Also blessed with a rare second chance, Griffin is determined to cook a masterpiece at UFC 137 and earn himself a thick steak, along with a thicker cut of the featherweight pie.

Mike Chiappetta: After Plenty of False Starts, UFC Ready for Primetime Network Debut

The UFC's head man, as always, has plenty on his plate. He recently completed an exhausting series of four events in four weeks, the first such stretch in UFC history. It won't take long to duplicate. Another four-week, four-event stretch begins on October 29. In between, he's flying around the world for press conferences, meeting with fighters, managers and agents, and putting out the everyday fires that come along with trying to accomplish so much in so little time.

When you ask Dana White about any of this stuff, it seems almost mundane for him. He shows the same passion for his product, but after a decade in the trenches, there is a sense of routine to it all.

After years as a micro-manager -- White is the first to admit he hates giving up control -- he has built a staff that he trusts, leaving him more time to focus on big picture issues. And that's a good thing, because the scope of what's in front of him is a dizzying expanse, the one world White has yet to conquer. If you were to say he is obsessed by his new primetime network platform, he might not disagree.

"The only thing I care about right now is this first FOX fight on November 12," White told MMA Fighting in an exclusive interview. "We've been on cable television with Spike since 2005, and that was huge for us, but this is a whole other game. A whole other level. This is the time when everything changes."

While 2005 is widely regarded as the first mainstream television breakthrough for the UFC, there was actually an opportunity before that.

In 2002, White thought he was ready. Two years into Zuffa's ownership of the UFC, the promotion had just booked two events when Fox Sports Net agreed to air one fight in June during a series of summer specials. There was only one problem. The first event White booked was in early May, and the results would be known far in advance of the airing. And the second event was in July, too late. So White booked a third event in June, solely for the opportunity to air on Fox Sports. The event became known as UFC 37.5, and it marked the first time in company history promoting three events in three months.

The show took place on a Saturday afternoon at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and the plan was for Fox to air one full fight on Tuesday, three days later. While the main event pitted Chuck Liddell against Vitor Belfort, the UFC still planned to air the show on pay-per-view at a later date and could not give that fight away for free. So instead, UFC and Fox Sports Net decided on featuring Robbie Lawler vs. Steve Berger.

The ensuing broadcast would be a huge success for the UFC, which saw its biggest audience ever. Mainstream legitimacy seemed around the corner. And then? Nothing.

At the time, it was a monumental letdown for White and the Fertitta ownership group, who thought they were about to begin a fruitful relationship.

"It was like, f---, we should've got that deal then," he said. "It should've happened. But it wasn't time. It didn't happen because it wasn't time. We weren't ready for that. We're ready now. Now we're ready, all our ducks are in a row. We're the best and what we do, and now we're going to go out there and f------ nail this in the next two years. But this next year is real important."

For White and UFC senior VP of production and operations Craig Borsari, that has meant constant contact with FOX executives. It's meant regular, daily phone calls, and frequent flier miles to Los Angeles. White said either he or Borsari -- sometimes both -- has traveled to L.A. at least once a week every week since signing the new deal in August.

"Thank God it's not New York," White said.

If that seems like a lot of work for one, one-hour show (the Nov. 12 FOX TV offering will feature only one fight: a heavyweight championship match pitting Cain Velasquez against Junior dos Santos), White said it's extremely significant because the first show will be lay the groundwork for the entire seven-year relationship to follow. The Nov. 12 show is not officially part of the announced deal, which goes into effect on January 1. It's actually a bonus event worked out between the companies, and White feels it necessary to make that first network impression an indelible one.

"They're not like any other network to deal with," White said. "They don't operate like any other networks do. They're so badass, it's really crazy. They do everything top-notch, first-class. They're innovative, they take risks. Being with these guys -- and I'm not complaining -- I just don't know how the f--- we didn't do this sooner. It's crazy.

"FOX revolutionized football, NASCAR and all these other sports," he continued. "[FOX Sports chairman and CEO] David Hill has literally revolutionized how sports is filmed and broadcast. They have a lot of ideas for us, too, and I'm open to them."

White is so focused on UFC on FOX 1 that many questions relating to surrounding issues can not yet be answered. Where will the rest of the card be broadcast? White doesn't know. Will subsequent network shows also be just one hour? That's still to be determined. What kind of viewership numbers are expected? Though FOX sold out its advertising allotment, no one offers a guess for that, either.

Recently, White seemed to tip his hand on the last question. While discussing Spike counter-programming UFC on FOX 1 with a special "UFC Unleashed" featuring Velasquez and dos Santos, he told MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani, "I hope I pull 10 million on FOX and 2 million on Spike. Believe me, I'll be a happy camper that next day.

But in a subsequent interview with MMA Fighting, White said that number was just off the top of his head.

"I have no idea what the possibilities are on a Saturday night for free TV," he said. "FOX hasn't given us any expectations or any number that they expect. I'm going to be happy no matter what. The way I look at this first FOX fight, we're introducing the sport to everybody. I don't know what that number's going to be, but whatever it is, we're going to build off that. When we did our last Fight Night in New Orleans, 1.8 million people tuned in on Spike. How many people are going to tune in on FOX? I don't know the answer, and neither do they. This thing is an experiment."

For both sides, it's an expensive experiment. FOX will be paying a reported $700 million over seven years, with rights fees starting lower than the average $100 million at the beginning and escalating each year. Meanwhile, the UFC is expected to lose money on the first show, with broadcast fees not likely to make up for the revenue that would have come from a pay-per-view offering.

In the long run, though, the UFC has the cash coffers to withstand a loss-leader on such a high-profile platform. The upside is without question. FOX's multi-channel deal with the UFC will eventually put the promotion not only on FOX, but also on FX, which finished in the top five for cable ratings in the most recent week. In addition, UFC will become staple programming on FUEL, with the possibility of event pre- and post-shows, live undercards and foreign versions of The Ultimate Fighter.

For the last few years, even as pay-per-view business exploded and the sport surpassed boxing and professional wrestling in revenue, White has always contended that the UFC and mixed martial arts had yet to hit mainstream. To get there, he's always said he needed network TV. The time is fast arriving.

It's going to be a challenge for all of Zuffa, and it will certainly take its personal toll on White. The next year, he says, is going to "beat the living s--- out of me." The travel, the expanded schedule, the stress, it's all just going to continue to increase. But after waiting 10 years for this opportunity, there's no hesitation about what's to come. In the words of octagon announcer Bruce Buffer, it's time.

"Next year, 2012, is going to be the biggest year for mixed martial arts," he said. "It's the one that's going to change everything. I know what I need to do. We're going to reach people who would have never watched us in a million years. We're going to kick it off and get a lot of buzz and a lot of hype, and we're going to grow off of it. We have a great partner. We're ready. Now we're going to take it to a whole other level."

Thomas Gerbasi: BJ Penn - In His Own Words

"The Prodigy" is back on October 29th to face Nick Diaz in the co-main event of UFC 137 in Las Vegas...

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For over a decade, few have captured the imagination of fight fans quite like the pride of Hilo, Hawaii, BJ Penn. One of only two fighters in UFC history to win titles in two weight classes, he has built a loyal fanbase due not only to his fighting skill and willingness to take on anyone in a fight, but also his no holds barred approach to life, where he will always say what’s on his mind and then worry about the consequences later. Subsequently, he’s the most quotable MMA fighter this side of Chael Sonnen, and here’s just a taste of some of the things Penn has revealed over the years as we get ready for another round of “The Prodigy” in the lead up to his UFC 137 bout against Nick Diaz on October 29th.

On fighting in different weight classes
“It’s been talked to death, me fighting at different weights and doing other things, but right now, I guess I’m just going to be the best I can be right now. Who knows how many fights I’ve got left in me, so right now I’m just gonna do my thing and be happy with who I am.”

On living up to expectations
“At first it was real tough, but now I just want to prove all those people right. If they’re gonna go out on a limb and say I can do all these things, then I’m happy they say that stuff and I want to go out and do it for them. If they went out and told their friends I’m the best, then I want to make sure they can go back and say ‘I told you so.’”

Fighter vs Athlete
“I gotta not like the person that’s standing on the other side of the ring and that’s why I consider myself in different aspects as not just an athlete, but a fighter. When people fight in the normal, everyday world, it’s not because of being an athlete, it’s because something pissed them off. When man raises his fists, he has run out of ideas, and that’s what ends up happening. Those are the natural instincts I have, and if I want someone to fight with me, I better piss them off. So he gets pissed off, and then he pisses me off, and then we can fight. I kinda look for that sometimes.”

On his fighting style
Maybe because I’m not on the mainland and not cross training with everybody all the time, my style is kinda different. It’s not like I’m going to a gym with 50 other mixed martial arts fighters who are all trading techniques and sharing stuff. I have a few people come down here and there and I work with people, but in a gym you kinda all become the same in certain ways because you’re training with each other every day. I’m out in Hawaii, and even better than that, I’m not even on the main island, where there are a bunch of other fighters, so I’m not mixing with anybody. So maybe when I do something it comes out looking a bit different.

On training
“I’m training a lot harder. Back in the day I used to pride myself on how little I could do and get away with it; now I try to pride myself on how much I do. I try to work real hard, train as much as I can, eat healthy food, and I want to see how far I can take it.”

The wakeup call
“I guess the wakeup call was December 13, 2006, when I turned 28. I said ‘what am I doing, why am I messing around? This is the biggest sport in the world, it’s gonna overtake everything, I’m at the forefront. Why am I playing games?’”

In a league of his own
“You want to be categorized in a league of your own, like Randy (Couture) is,” he said. “You don’t want to be in the mix with everybody else. When they talk about you, you want them to say something special, like a Joe Frazier or (Muhammad) Ali, those kinds of people. You want to be extraordinary. You want to shoot for greatness and I think every fighter should.”

On pressure
“When it comes to the pressure, I used to hate it and that’s what used to burn me out. I used to hate fighting for everybody else, answering to everybody else. I just wanted to do it for myself. Now, I think that’s another thing that changed in me. Now I love doing it for everybody. I love when the people come up to me around town and say something to me. I love it – come, come support me, come believe I can do all these things, and I will do all these things. I think that was the biggest thing that changed. I never used to be happy with the idea of all these people putting all this pressure on me, but now I know why they do it, and I love it.”

A new start
“Something just awoke inside of me where I said ‘what are you doing? You can beat every one of these people. You’ve been doing it half-assed all this time and it’s time to finally step up and let’s see it.’ If you can’t, you can’t, but at least you know you tried. Words can’t explain how pumped I am about fighting right now. It’s what I am, it’s who I am, and it’s what I want to be.”

Early days
“The Din Thomas fight and the Caol Uno fight, those were probably two of the best things for my career, to blow me up and to get me a bigger fanbase, but they were also the worst things for my career as far as getting me experience to get ready for that title fight. And I was scared going out there and being the main event. I think I was more afraid of everything else – I was afraid to have that lightweight title, I was afraid to be the main event – but don’t do something great if you can’t take the congratulations, and I wasn’t ready to get congratulated. I was just a kid.”

Money Player
“I never took it serious. But I started taking it serious right before the finals of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world championships. I was in the finals, and I remember me and Charuto (Verissimo) were going to eat lunch, and I just sat there and thought to myself ‘I’ll never be in this position ever again. Go out there and do whatever it takes. Whether your arm gets broken, you get choked unconscious, anything that happens, win this match, do it now, no matter what.’ And that’s why I think I’m good when the pressure’s on. I’m a clutch player when the pressure’s on and that’s when I perform at my best. That’s who I am.”

On his cardio
“I think people will always bring up my cardio. Everybody wants an idea of ‘how can we beat him?’ And they’re not thinking, ‘oh, I‘m gonna submit him’ or ‘I’m gonna knock him out.’ They’re looking for anything they can, so they bring up the cardio issue. These guys got to remember that I fought Sean Sherk and he’s supposed to be a cardio machine. I fought Kenny Florian and he doesn’t get tired. I fought Caol Uno and he doesn’t get tired. I fought so many people over the years, but they just pick that one thing. Nobody wants anybody to be perfect and they want to look for something to talk about. I’m in great shape, but even after this fight, I’m sure the next guy who fights me, that will be his way to beat me too.”

On the mental game
“You see these great guys come out and then they try something for one or two minutes, they find out their technique’s not working and then they give up. The mental side is everything. The techniques have to be flawless, but the mind has to be tough. It has to be more flawless and you can never give up. I would even sit here and say that I’m in the entertainment business and the fight game business, but I’m also in the making you quit business. That’s what it’s all about.”

Lightweight champion of the world
“Just talking to you right now, thinking about how it was a 21-year old kid’s dream to be the lightweight champion of the world, that just got me pumped up. I just remembered how I used to sit and think about how I wanted to be the lightweight champ. But then sometimes you get there and you take it for granted.”

All about the fight
“When I first got into the game of fighting, it was all about the fight. Then came promoting the fight and trying to get the fight bigger, but I’m back to the mindset that it’s just about fighting again.”

On success
“Over time you realize that you can’t judge success by championships. One day you’re at the top of the world and the next day you’re at the bottom, and you’ve got to keep pushing through and keep moving forward no matter happens. And I’m kinda in that mindset. I’ve got a lot of wins and I’ve got a few losses, and I realize that anything can happen when you step in the ring and give it your all against someone else who’s giving their all. So I’m in the mindset that I’m just trying to go out and do my best and let the cards fall where they may, and we’ll see what happens at the end of the night. It definitely took a long time to get that point though. Before I was always about ‘I gotta win, I gotta win, I gotta win,’ and a lot of times when you have that attitude, you end up doing less than your best. Now all I gotta do is go out there and do my best and everything will happen the way it should.”

On legacy
“Before I used to sit there and think about all these things all the time, but now I’m just trying to stay around. It’s amazing and it’s the kinda thing where I don’t want to talk too soon. I’d rather talk about all this when I’m fat, I’m hanging out, and not fighting anymore, and then I’ll tell everybody how great I was.”

Legacy vs. Burnout
“I’m constantly stuck between the two. I’ve seen a lot of Rampage’s interviews lately, and that’s exactly where he is. I guess people do get burned out over time. When you first start this whole journey of being a mixed martial artist, you’re here to beat everybody up, and I guess after a while it does turn into a job. Some people get burned out, some people don’t, and it’s a strange thing. I come out here and destroy Matt Hughes on the 20th and maybe you’ll hear the same things coming out of my mouth again – that I’m going back for my legacy and all that stuff.”

Life after retirement?
“I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times, and I look at everything else there is in the world to do, besides retirement, and I looked at all my other options, and I like this one a lot more.”

On leaving the Octagon immediately after the third Hughes bout
“I’ve been trying to do a fight like the (first) Uno fight for the last nine years and it just never came out that way. So when this fight (with Hughes) ended up ending very quick with a knockout, I was pumped up, I started screaming in the ring for a little bit and I was like ‘here it is, here’s my chance. I’m gonna get out there and I’m gonna do it – Elvis is gonna leave the building.’”

On the loyalty of his fans
“I think they buy the Pay-Per-View when I fight and I think they’re constantly looking for that same kid that got them excited about the sport, who came out and said all these things, and maybe it didn’t go his way every time, but he tried as hard as he could to back up what he said. They see they guy who knocked out Din Thomas and knocked out Caol Uno and that’s their guy, that’s their favorite fighter, and maybe they see some of him in their lives or maybe he’s someone that inspires them. I’ve just been so blessed with these fans that always have my back. When I’ve lost and I’ve come back, I think they know my story so well and they relate to it in their lives. Nobody’s on top always. We’re up one day, we’re down one day, and that’s just the nature of life. And when they see me, they can really relate. People like to follow that storyline and sometimes they like to see people fall but climb back up again.”

On his relationships with past opponents
“I could see it surprising a lot of people, but honestly, I consider myself a people person. (Laughs) One minute I could be pissing you off, the next minute you could be hugging me, and that’s me and part of why people love me or hate me. I’m just blessed to get to run into these people later on and really get to apologize for some of the things that I’ve done. And I’m lucky that these people have welcomed me with open arms.”

On being “The Target”
“If I’m not in that position, I’ll be bummed out. If someone says ‘you know what, I don’t care about fighting BJ Penn,’ that would hurt my feelings.”

On BJ Penn
“There’s just something about BJ Penn that gets people amped up. You don’t know what’s gonna happen, but something’s gonna happen though. He might disappoint you, he might make you happy, he might make you cry, he might make you jump out of your chair, but he’ll do something to you.”

Ben Fowlkes: What Does It Really Cost to Be a UFC Fan?

If you've been feeling like the UFC is occupying a lot of your free time lately, it isn't your imagination. The world's foremost MMA organization is coming off a stretch of four straight events -- two of them pay-per-views, and all of them on Saturday nights -- before going into the briefest little two-week hibernation leading up to UFC 137 at the end of the month.

After that, it's UFC 138 from England on November 5, then the UFC's FOX debut the weekend after that, and then UFC 139 in San Jose the weekend after that. Once we hit 2012, the UFC calendar only gets busier.

It makes you wonder, between the UFC's pay-per-view offerings, cable TV events, and regular reality show installments, what's the true cost in both money and time for hardcore fans who simply have to see it all?

For starters, take a glance at the pay-per-views. If everything proceeds according to schedule, the UFC will have put on 16 of them in 2011. They run you about $55 a pop in HD ($45 in what I like to call "regular D"), so let's split the difference and call it $50 per event.

If you had stayed home all by your lonesome and paid for every single event without any friends or even sympathetic, MMA-loving acquaintances to pitch in, you'd have spent $800 just on UFC events in 2011. Of course, that doesn't count the cost of monthly cable (which you need in order to watch those Spike TV or Versus events, not to mention the prelims before each pay-per-view) or monthly internet access (which you need in order to watch the Facebook prelims and, you know, read this article).

But let's be realistic. Very few people are laying down the dough for each and every pay-per-view all by themselves. For the sake of argument, let's say you had three friends who were just as fanatical about seeing every single pay-per-view. Let's say the four of you split each one equally. Then you're looking at $12.50 a pay-per-view, and $200 on the year (not counting snacks, drinks, and carpet cleaner for when your friends inevitably get drunk and spill some snacks on your floor).

That's no small chunk of change, but most of us probably spend at least that much per year on coffee or junk food, so it's not unreasonable, either. To put it in perspective, compare the cost to other entertainment expenditures.

UFC president Dana White likes to tout his pay-per-views as being a relatively cheap form of entertainment, assuming you can get a significant number of people to chip in. The average price of a movie ticket in the U.S. now hovers around eight dollars, which means you could see about 25 movies per year for the same price as splitting 16 UFC pay-per-views among you and your three friends.

Or, at $18 per month, you could pay for almost an entire year's worth of Netflix (assuming you want DVDs in the mail and instant streaming -- and be honest, you do), which would allow you to stay home and watch a theoretically unlimited number of movies (even if you have to wait an extra few months to see Real Steel).

If you're the type who feels like Hollywood never measures up to real-life sporting events, however, you could buy tickets to about eight major league baseball games or about four NFL games, depending on the team, the seat, and how you go about acquiring them. Of course, that doesn't factor in parking, refreshments, or stadium pickpockets, though it does get you out of the house in a way that UFC pay-per-views don't.

But it's not just money that fight fans invest in order to keep up with the UFC -- it's also a great deal of time. Those 16 pay-per-views in 2011? Those clock in at around three hours each, which adds up to 48 hours -- two whole days -- spent watching grown men beat each other up.

Add up this year's Fight Nights, UFC Live events, TUF Finales, and UFC 138 on tape delay from England, and there's another 10 events at two hours each, including commercials. Then there's the one-hour UFC on FOX, for a total of 21 hours spent watching the UFC's free events. Add in another 22 hours spent watching two full seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, plus the one hour prelims before each pay-per-view event, and what you're looking at is 107 hours spent watching the UFC alone in 2011, and that doesn't even include little extras like Facebook prelims or Countdown shows.

If you're curious, that's almost four and a half full days in front of the TV. But as general sports fandom goes, that's not even necessarily so extreme.

For instance, over the course of the NFL's 17-week regular season, you could easily watch three full football games every Sunday, plus another one every Monday night. At around three hours per game, that's 204 hours a year. Factor in three weeks of playoffs, plus the Super Bowl, and you're up to about 237 hours, or nearly 10 full days.

One major difference is that the 10 days of NFL viewing is packed into about five months, whereas the UFC's 4 1/2 days is spread out across the entire year. But then, NFL games take place mostly on Sundays, when people are more likely to be home anyway, whereas UFC events are almost exclusively on Saturday nights, when people are more likely to go out in search of some form of social life. The NFL is also almost entirely free to watch, if you don't count the toll that sitting through all those commercials takes on your mind and spirit.

So what does it all mean? That depends on your perspective. If you're a lonely but dedicated fight fan doing it all by yourself, it means you could be taking a date to the movies almost once a week for what you're spending to watch the UFC alone at home on Saturday nights, and in the end you'd still have about seven extra hours to spend perusing online dating sites or improving your personal hygiene (perhaps some combination of the two would be best).

If your UFC fandom goes hand-in-hand with your social group, you might only spend as much on pay-per-views as you do on pizza every year, and at least it's in the company of friends who will tell you if you have sauce on your face.

Whatever you're spending, and however long it's taking you, get ready to put in more time and money next year. The UFC isn't slowing down. Not as long as its fans are still willing to do what it takes to keep up.

Ariel Helwani: Dana White Talks UFC 135, Boxing Controversy and Spike Airing Bellator

DENVER -- MMA Fighting spoke to Dana White following Wednesday's UFC 135 press conference about a whole host of topics: Jon Jones popularity, whether Jones has changed since winning the belt, Jackson's spying accusations, Matt Hughes' future, working with Nate Diaz, the Nick Diaz-BJ Penn fight, the bizarre conclusion of the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz boxing match, Larry Merchant's post-fight interview with Mayweather, Spike.com airing Bellator prelims and why he gave Wanderlei Silva another shot.

Cyrille Diabate To Meet Anthony Perosh At UFC 138

‘The Hippo’ will take on ‘The Snake’ this November when two UFC light heavyweight fighters meet in the Octagon as part of UFC 138: Leben vs. Munoz.
Australian fighter Anthony ‘The Hippo’ Perosh (11-6) will take on French striker Cyrille ‘The Snake’ Diabaté (17-7-1), all according to Diabaté who posted the news via Twitter site (@CyrilleDiabate) on Thursday.
- training for my upcoming UFC fight @ UFC 138. Anthony Perosh vs Cyrille Diabate. Grappler vs Striker. Classic !!!
UFC 138: Leben vs. Munoz is scheduled to take place on November 5 at the LG Arena in Birmingham, England. The event will feature the first five-round main event non-title bout in the organizations history, pitting middleweights Chris Leben against Mark Munoz.
This bout marks Perosh’s second match at light heavyweight after three losses in two stints with the UFC, fighting at heavyweight. ‘The Hippo’ won his 205 lb debut last February at the UFC 127 Sydney event, stopping Tom Blackledge by first round submission. The Australian’s previous fight, stepping in as a late replacement for Ben Rothwell, was a second round TKO loss to Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at UFC 110.
Diabaté was last in action in March, winning a unanimous decision against Steve Cantwell at the UFC on Versus 4 event. The victory erased a submission loss to Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 120, a defeat which ended a six fight win streak for ‘The Snake’. The French fighter debuted with the UFC at UFC 114, earning a first round TKO win over Luiz Cane.