press conference

Fedor vs. Rogers post-event press conference - Watch more Funny Videos

Here's some footage I took at the Strikeforce post-event presser on Saturday night, which all the main event fighters showed up for. You've already heard what Fedor had to say, but check out the reactions from everybody else...

— Fabricio Werdum says he's earned a shot at Fedor, who Werdum believes is the best fighter in the world. After a week of rest, he'll be back to training hard.

— Gegard Mousasi says people underestimated Sokoudjou, and called the fight a learning experience.

— Jason Miller blames himself for not capitalizing on the chances he had in his fight against Jake Shields, and for not training his wrestling enough; he was not expecting a "grapplefest."

— Shields still thinks that his best weight is welterweight. Scott Coker would like to put him against Marius Zaromskis or Hayato Sakurai at 170.

— Shields thinks Cung Le is avoiding him. "That's why he vacated the belt, obviously, and fights a month later."

(Post-fight presser footage, via Versus.com)

Anderson Silva seems to be getting too used to disappointing fans.  Check the look on his face when a reporter takes him to task for not doing more to try and finish Thales Leites.  He seems more bored than anything else.  His manager and Chuck Liddell both get angry for him, but it’s as if Silva himself can’t be bothered with it.

Dana White will continue to defend Silva’s status as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, and he has a lot of good points, particularly about Fedor being “at a buffet in Russia,” and not at all interested in proving himself against the best in the world.  But at the same time, if the world’s best fighter can’t entertain anybody but himself, what’s the point?  

This is the second straight time Silva has left us bored and confused with his performance.  He’s so concerned with fighting a “perfect” fight, he doesn’t care whether anyone actually wants to see it.  That’s a problem.  The UFC set a North American attendance record with 21,451 people packed into the Bell Centre last night, and yet the organization’s best fighter may have spent five rounds proving to the audience in the venue and at home that he isn’t concerned in the least with giving them their money’s worth.

('You...just ruined my vacation, Frank Mir.')

Despite the heat generated by the post-fight face-off between "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans, the proposed title bout for UFC 98 in May isn't guaranteed just yet.  Dana White was upfront about the possibility that injury or simple fatigue could keep Jackson out of the fight, in which case Lyoto Machida would get the title shot.

Injuries or not, Rampage didn't exactly sound thrilled about fighting again in just a little over two months.

"I want my belt back, but I got to talk to manager and talk some things though.  Then I’ll tell Dana what’s up," he said.

(Oscar, his life partner Tito, and their mentally-challenged adopted son Fedor. Mad props: MMA Mania.)

Earlier today in New York, Affliction held a press conference featuring Fedor Emelianenko, Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Ortiz, Donald Trump, Tom Atencio, and Vadim Finkelchtein. (I totally would have been there if not for the fact that something completely historic was happening at the same time; awesome scheduling as always, guys.) All the star power in the room was unfortunately upstaged by Fedor's horizontally-striped pastel-hued Ultimate Sweater, which probably made De La Hoya and Ortiz very self-conscious about their boring tailored suits. When asked about his sweater, Emelianenko replied, "you dress for job you want, not for job you have."

Just kidding. But according to this Sherdog recap of the presser, here's what actually went down:

— De La Hoya called MMA’s progress “incredible” and said he expected his company’s success in boxing to follow in MMA through working with Affliction. 

— Affliction VP Tom Atencio said he plans to promote four MMA events per year with Golden Boy. On the UFC's counter-programming tactics, he said: "They’re going to do what they have to do to make sure that they’re the only game in town. With the organization that we have and the partners we have, I just don’t see that happening."

— "Day of Reckoning" color-man Tito Ortiz said he looked forward to “possibly” fighting for Affliction. 

— Fedor Emelianenko explained that prior to his World Sambo Championships loss in November, he wasn't as prepared as he should have been, but he's "fully motivated" for Arlovski. Regarding Arlovski's much-publicized training with Freddie Roach and Roach's criticism of Emelianenko's boxing technique, Emelianenko said, "I never claimed that I had the best boxing technique in the world...[Roach] has trained a lot of great fighters and maybe he’s right, but we’ll see what happens in the ring. We’ll see what Andrei has to offer. We’ll see what I have to offer him.”

After the jump: M-1 Vice President Jerry "Gary" Millen completely bites Dana White's style with his own video blog, which covers yesterday's press engagements. What Fedor is wearing at the 4:42 mark may shock you.

If big, beaming smiles were an indicator of mental health, then Dana White's latest video blog stands as proof that Quinton Jackson is fully recovered and ready to rock. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. In this clip, DW checks in with UFC 92's marquee fighters before a press conference on Monday, including Rashad Evans, who is apparently dressing for the job he wants rather than the job he has. We also learn that Dana can never sleep in Japan ("oh, fuck no"), 'Page and Wandy find endless amusement in bodybuilder underwear, and Brock Lesnar still can't deal with modern technology. Later, Dana shows off some of his totally sweet Christmas gifts, introduces us to Arianny Celeste's sister (!), and has his bald head markered up by a mischievous Lorenzo Fertitta. But don't worry: He gets his revenge by electrocuting an underling. Merry Christmas!

After the jump: Highlights from the aforementioned press conference, courtesy of ESPN.