Cris Cyborg post-fight interview – Watch more Funny Videos

Our buddy Brian D’Souza was on the scene at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum, and got us this exclusive video interview with 145-pound women’s champ Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos, who put on another vicious striking performance en route to a 2nd-round KO against Jan Finney. Cyborg explains that she thought the fight should have been stopped earlier, and wasn’t troubled by Finney’s strikes because she used to training with men. She plans to get back into training and prepare for her next opponent — possibly Erin Toughill according to Scott Coker, even though Erin shot down that idea in March. But will anybody be prepared for Cyborg?

(Photo courtesy of Tim’s official Facebook fan page.)

by CagePotato contributor Matt Kaplan

Tim Kennedy is a family man, a rising MMA star, and a war hero. He is guided by a strong moral compass and upholds what he thinks is right. As a result, he will no doubt rub some of you the wrong way.

He is unapologetically pro-military. He thinks that too many high-profile fighters are irresponsible, and that your favorite scary MMA t-shirt is lame. His shorts will never promote alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or pornography, and he snickers at nicknames that have “Killer” or “Assassin” in them. He takes seriously his role as a professional athlete and would like to see more of the MMA community follow his lead.

For some of you, Tim’s patriotism and wholesome principles are breaths of fresh air. Others, however, might be wondering if his high horse actually has a name. Either way, there’s no denying that Tim is one of MMA’s most quintessential warriors (for real).

A U.S. Army Staff Sergeant with the 19th Special Forces Group, Tim is a trained sniper and combatives instructor whose combat heroism has earned him the Bronze Star. Now, with an already impressive military record to his credit, Tim is preparing for just his second fight as a full-time fighter and has already lined up in his crosshairs the Strikeforce middleweight championship belt.

On June 16 at Strikeforce: Los Angeles, Tim Kennedy (11-2) will climb into the cage with rugged South African veteran Trevor Prangley (22-5-1), his biggest test to date. Tim has yet to fight someone with the combination of size, strength, toughness, and experience that is Prangley, so he’s keeping to a basic plan of attack: dominate the fight in every possible way. Why get fancy, right?

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Your last fight was against Zak Cummings back in September. Why the long lay-off?

(Evan Dunham sets up the armbar that would earn him a Submission of the Night bonus at UFC Fight Night 20. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

For most fans outside of the Northwest, lightweight up-and-comer Evan Dunham (10-0) has seemingly come out of nowhere to win three in a row in the UFC, including his arm bar submission win over TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero in January. Next, Dunham will take on one of the division’s top contenders Tyson Griffin at UFC 115 on June 12th. It’s an interesting matchup made much more so by the fact that the two had trained together at Xtreme Couture for the past year. Now living in Las Vegas and training full time, Dunham talks with CagePotato about dealing with fighting a training partner, what kept him in the sport when he thought he would leave forever, and what the biggest factor in his fight against Griffin will be.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: You just came back from the UFC Fan Expo last weekend. How was that for you?

EVAN DUNHAM: It was a good time all around. I went there and did some signing for Ecko Unlimited, a couple hours each day. I was more than happy to do that.

Did you happen to run into Tyson Griffin at all there? Is that something that you thought about beforehand, “I might run into him here”?

No, I didn’t see Tyson. I think he was at the fights or something. I have no idea, I haven’t seen him.

Heading into your last fight against Efrain Escudero, almost all of the attention was placed on him because he was so well known after winning The Ultimate Fighter. Did you feel like an underdog in that fight?

I’m always considered the underdog, even in this next fight coming up. But I never see myself as the underdog. I think it is kind of good luck for me for people to put me in that position because it just makes me work harder. It is supposedly an up-hill battle for me but I know what I’m capable of so it’s not really a problem. If they want to pay more attention to him, that’s great. Because that just means all that attention is going to go back to me when I win.

Has anything changed for you since that win?

By CagePotato contributor Dallas Winston

"Worlds Collide" was shaping up to be Shine Fights’ most high-profile and successful event to date — but it turned into every promoter’s worst nightmare. First, a legal injunction courtesy of Don King put the kibosh on the historic main event between Ricardo Mayorga and Din Thomas. Then, the event was canceled altogether by the North Carolina Athletic Commission when certain fighter safeguards were deemed insufficient. In the end, both fans and fighters were left demanding answers.

Though it was initially reported that Shine’s matchmaker Ron Foster would be resigning from the organization after the fiasco, that may no longer be the case. We caught up with Foster to get his take on exactly what went wrong with Worlds Collide, his current standing with the company, and how he’s been responding to the criticism.

Note: Keep in mind that Foster is only speaking from his position as matchmaker for Shine Fights, and his statements shouldn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of Shine Fights as a whole.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Let’s start with Don King. Many feel that the contractual issues that were upheld by the judge should have been foreseen and fully addressed by Shine before the main event was even advertised. What can you tell me about Shine’s response to the injunction before it was upheld? Did you feel you were fully protected by your legal team, or did you know that there was a risk his legal endeavors could jeopardize the main event?

RON FOSTER: Before we moved forward with the Mayorga thing, Shine did have lawyer look over everything to see if, legally, the fight was able to take place. A lot of money and time was put into Mayorga to get this fight to happen. I’m not so sure that [Shine Fights CEO] Devin [Price] would have taken the risk if he thought it would bite us in the butt at the end.

As far as the legal team, of course they thought it was a slam dunk on Shine’s part. But unfortunately, this time it didn’t work out in our favor. Court is like blackjack — you just never know what you are going to get.

CP: Since Mayorga was announced as a Shine acquisition way back in the 3rd quarter of 2009, there has also been a lot of speculation about the timing of the incident, and theories that Mr. King may have strategically put the legal process in motion with a timetable that would leave Shine with no time to react or find a replacement. Do you have any opinions or insight on that?

RF: I think that this was 100 percent personal. Don King is a piece of shit and has screwed people over for a living. As far as the replacement, there is no way we could have replaced Mayorga in this fight. Even if we had more time, it would have been better to just drop the fight.

Following his controversial split-decision loss to Aaron Simpson at UFC Fight Night 20, Tom "The Filthy Mauler" Lawlor was ready to bounce back to the W column against fellow TUF vet Tim Credeur at UFC 113 (May 8th, Montreal). But an injury has forced "Crazy" Tim off the card, and now Filthy Tom will be facing Dirty Joe — Joe Doerksen, who has a 1-5 lifetime record in the UFC, but is getting another shot after racking up five straight wins in promotions like Sengoku and King of the Cage. We sent our friend "Skanky" Remington Reed to track down Lawlor at his gym in Orlando, The Jungle MMA & Fitness, and discuss how he copes with tough losses, the method behind his memorable cage entrances, the runaway success of his "Lawlormania" t-shirt, his weather-based prediction for Machida vs. Rua II, and the question everyone else has been afraid to ask: Between him and Seth Petruzelli, who’s gayer? Enjoy… 

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

If you assumed that Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal could only function on cocky trash-talker mode, you need to watch this video taken Saturday night, in which Mo is so emotionally vulnerable after defeating Gegard Mousasi in Nashville that he can’t even give Ariel Helwani an interview while standing up. Lawal credits his victory to his trainers, and to the fact that most MMA fighters don’t have good takedown defense. But overall, he wasn’t too impressed with his performance: "I got lazy a few times. I took [Mousasi] for granted because I didn’t respect his skills all too much because I knew I could beat him. I should have taken him more serious, I couldn’t even finish him…I didn’t want it to go five rounds, I wanted to leave him sleeping, but he’s tough, man, he’s seasoned."

And now, let’s all take a moment to reflect on that fact that King Mo is the light-heavyweight champion of a major MMA organization after just seven bouts — only three of which were actually contested at light-heavyweight. While some may interpret that as a triumph of style over substance, or as a symbol of how thin Strikeforce’s 205-pound division is, I just see a guy who did everything right — a fighter whose brief career should be studied by every young scrapper trying to get into the game.

(Our last hope? Photo courtesy of Fight! Magazine.)

By CagePotato contributor Matt Kaplan

Chael Sonnen is many things: top UFC middleweight contender, hopeful Oregon state rep, realtor, quote generator. An Anderson Silva fan, though, he is not. After thrashing Nate Marquardt at UFC 109, Sonnen is next in line to take on what he sees as an “insignificant” champion in Silva, who, despite his best efforts, “couldn’t” finish Demian Maia at UFC 112. Ladies and gentlemen, Chael Sonnen…

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Were you at all rubbed the wrong way by Anderson Silva’s fight against Demian Maia at UFC 112?
CHAEL SONNEN: No, I did my level best to watch the fight, but just couldn’t get through it.

Dana White was effusively apologetic after the fight. Do you think Silva owes anyone an apology? Would it even make a difference?
He is insignificant, really. Nobody cares about him. They never have. If BJ wasn’t on that card, that arena would have been a ghost town.

Did you see anything in that fight that made you even more confident in your chances at beating Silva?
No, he was dominant over a tough guy, impressive in ways.

What impressed you about Silva’s performance?
He is accurate and moves well.

Why do you think he didn’t put away Maia, whom he clearly outclassed in the stand-up game?
He couldn’t, Maia was too tough.

Did you perceive the goading, motioning, shouting by Silva to be showmanship or disrespect? Or perhaps a little bit of both?
Look, I’m not a gang banger. I don’t talk about “respect.” That term is for street thugs, not me.

(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

By CagePotato contributor Elias Cepeda

Kenny Florian‘s domination of PRIDE legend Takanori Gomi at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 21 made a couple things perfectly clear: First, that Gomi can no longer hang with the division’s elite fighters. Also, that the constantly improving Florian is undoubtedly one of the very best 155-pounders in the world. In this exclusive interview, Ken-Flo takes us through his fight with the Fireball Kid, and discusses life in the UFC’s lightweight division, where the championship belt continues to lie maddeningly out of reach…

*****

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Very early on in your fight against Gomi, you began to get the better of him standing up. Soon you began dancing around, leaning over, dropping your hands. Was that just one of those things where you got so comfortable that you got a bit cocky, or were you trying to goad him into doing something in particular?
FLORIAN: No, it’s part of a rhythm. It’s a calculated part of a boxing rhythm you try to get yourself into to make sure that I keep my head moving and I stay loose. It’s a swagger you need to have. It’s my way of making sure that there is no catching me when I’m moving, when I’m punching, and it has really helped me, not only in my training, but I think in the fight to have that looseness and relaxation. I’ve just been working on my boxing technique a lot and I’m glad I was able to show that.

In the third round, Gomi landed what appeared to be his cleanest punch of the fight. A few seconds later you took him down, and about a minute later you finished him by choke. Was your plan to basically stand with Gomi until he showed you something, then put him on his back to make things easier for yourself?
Well I knew that he would start to get fatigued. He was losing the first two rounds and I knew he’d start to get desperate and he’d start to get upright. That was going to allow me the space and ability to get to his legs. And that’s what happened. I had planned to take him down in the third round, I knew that was going to happen, I knew he was going to get tired and he’d be easier to finish. By that time I think he was worn out, mentally, physically, and just didn’t have an answer, was frustrated. And I saw a perfect opportunity to go for his legs. I took him down and tried to capitalize.

So it didn’t have to do with him finally landing a good shot?
Not at all. He was landing shots before that, you know. He was able to sting me in the second round. In the third round there was nothing that hurt me. Watching the video tape it looked like that was the cleanest shot but that wasn’t the one that hurt. In the second round, that hurt.

(Photo courtesy of vegasnews.com.)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

CAGEPOTATO: Jens, you’re fighting March 6th in Columbus, Ohio. You’ve lost four straight to some very good opponents. Any word yet on who you are fighting?
JENS PULVER: Nope. I don’t know yet. I told them I don’t even want to know.

You actually asked not to know?
Not until they really have to tell me. Who cares who I’m fighting? Opponents don’t beat me, I’m beating me. You’ve got all these guys saying I’m getting punchy. I got hit on the head against Leonard but the other two of my last three losses were chokes. With Faber I ate everything, Lauzon clipped me on the chin. I’ve never been knocked out to the point of four minutes later they are waking me up and I’m trying to figure out what happened, saying ‘shit, what happened?’ I’ve been clipped. I might get punchy at some point but come on, it’s not happening now. Let me get mine. What fucking part of guillotine chokes don’t people understand? I appreciate their concern all the same but people don’t pay attention. Where does most of the damage fighters take come from? Not from fights but from when we are sparring with pillows on our hands and we take hours of brain rattling. Fights are five to twenty five minutes long; the brain damage comes from sparring. You don’t ever hear people saying we should quit sparring. So I’m not really worried about who I’m fighting. I’m fighting me right now. I’m fighting against myself, trying to be the old me. I’m trying to beat myself.

You’re talking about the old vs. new you.
I’m not talking about the young bullet-proof me. I’m talking about the middle me that has gotten his ass handed to him. I don’t complain to people, I don’t bitch about income. Of how there are all these other guys who have made a lot of money. Maybe I’m not that savvy with business. I’ve had a rebirth with meeting my wife, having my son and my daughter getting older. The biggest thing for me was how we moved training camps, finally. This one in Boise, I’ve designed. You can see it at DrivenTC.com. Just little things with this gym are going to make a lot of difference for me, I can’t even tell you. Our supposed great leader back in Iowa who didn’t even have a boxing ring or a cage — what kind of people fight in MMA and have never even sparred or trained in a cage? I’ve brought in Tony Fryklund and all positives happen with him around. That right there is leaps and bounds better.

Strikeforce Press Conference Lighting Round – Watch more Funny Videos

Following the Strikeforce post-show press conference on Saturday night (which I’ll post highlights from later today, as well as some other goodies), I ran around the room interrogating as many fighters as I could before we were all kicked out of the Scottrade Center. The results are above: The Grim talks wall-punching, Gilbert Melendez talks redemption, Jake Shields rants about his hatred of Joe Riggs, and Nick Diaz says he wants an important opponent — like Georges St. Pierre. More to come…

(Those are the Chinese characters for "best" and "eva." Photo courtesy of Strikeforce.)

The idea of a spiritually grounded Phil Baroni kind of freaks us out, to be honest. But the NYBA you knew as a young, brash, self-destructive middleweight is gone, and in his place is an older, wiser, fired-up welterweight who won’t quit until he’s a world champion. With his fight against Joe Riggs scheduled for the main card of Saturday’s Strikeforce show, we called Phil yesterday to chat about sex, steroids, destiny, being reborn at 170, and what he really wants to be remembered for…

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: So I’ve been watching some of your recent interviews — do you really believe that not having sex helps your athletic performance? I thought that was just some bullshit myth.
PHIL BARONI: Yeah, I believe it. I know it to be a fact, man, especially when it comes to taking punches. You take punches better when you abstain from, ah…punching your own loads out.

How do you explain the science behind that?
Aw man, I’m not a scientist. It makes you fuckin’ mean, I’ll tell you that much. I’m lean and mean right now. It fuckin’ works. You don’t think so, then don’t do it — you’re not a fighter anyway, so who cares?

Don’t you think your wife’s needs should come before your job?

(He’s got comedic timing, too.)

Mike Thomas Brown destroyed the myth of the unbeatable Urijah Faber with his upset knockout victory at WEC 36 last year, but respect (and until recently, money) have still been hard to come by for the American Top Team featherweight.  With the rematch now just a couple of days away, Brownie talks paydays, fame, and beating the oddsmakers in our one-on-one chat with the WEC 145-pound champ.

CagePotato.com: A lot of people seem like they’re still not buying you as the real WEC featherweight champ.  Do you feel like you still need to prove that your win over Faber wasn’t just a fluke?

MB: No, I think I’ve proved it now.  I mean, I read a lot on the internet, people saying it was a fluke and all that.  But I think when I beat Garcia pretty quickly too, and almost in the same way since I hurt him with the right hand and then finished him off, then it was basically like a replay.  That showed it wasn’t a one-time deal, that I could do this to good guys.  Leonard had never been finished before so I was proud of being able to put him away.