Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
“On the third or fourth punch, Lyoto will realize that he is hitting Shogun’s defense and Shogun is always picking up (points). Shogun has a very strong game of legs. He can explore that part too, and this time it will come with much more desire to win. He will not wait to get started. He will apply this tactic and will come with everything to win the UFC belt.” -- Andre Amado, muay Thai coach of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, to Sherdog.com on Saturday’s rematch.
“I’ve never tried it. My partner’s tried it and he’s tried to make me try drinking it and I, you know, there was a time where they were talking about it and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to try it, I’m going to try it’ and I even went and urinated in the cup and it was hot and my partner said, ‘Hey, it’s better to drink it when it’s cold’ and I let it get cold and I looked at it and I just couldn’t bear to do it, I couldn’t bear to do it, but I am interested in it, it’s amazing to me, I just, I just haven’t had the guts to do it, yet. If Machida wins, I’ll try my urine. I’ll drink it.” -- Machida’s manager Ed Soares on the Machida family cleansing ritual to MMAFighting.com.
"So if you’re a betting man, you better go to Vegas right now, and put money on Josh Koscheck because now that the guy has pissed me off, I can guarantee you that I’m gonna go in there and wrestle his ass down and rear-naked choke him in round one. There you have it. I’ll probably beat him up a little bit before I choke him out, but in round one, he’s getting choked out." -- Josh Koscheck to UFC.com on Saturday’s fight with Paul Daley.
“(Wanderlei Silva) came to the station one time and he said to me, ‘Joe, I’ve figured out why MMA is so popular here.’ I said, ‘What did you figure out?’ And he says, ‘You Canadians, you play that sport with the stick on the ice. It’s quiet in the crowd until they start fighting. And when they start to fight, everyone in the crowd jumps up and goes nuts.’ I thought that was a good analogy.” -- Canadian MMA reporter and radio host Joe Ferraro to Yahoo Sports explaining MMA’s pull in Canada.
"I bet probably 85 percent of the viewing public thinks I'm just a straight douche bag. I have my douche bag moments, but I'm probably a little bit cooler than most people give me credit for. I mean, s--t, I got a mustache man. I got to be cool, right?" -- Matt Mitrione on "Countdown to UFC 113."
“To fight abroad is up to the fighter. If they want to go abroad then I will be happy to send them off. Their record is just a number. It is just a sheet of paper. I am promoter and essentially this is a marketing company. At the moment the UFC is successful with marketing but I am not looking at them with envy. I am working on ways to compete with them right now. I am working to make things better. One day, in maybe two or so years, I will be happy if you, or the people reading your article can say ‘Oh, Sasahara meant this two years ago.’” -- Dream producer Keiichi Sasahara to MMAFighting.com on Shinya Aoki’s unsuccessful U.S. debut.
“The minute I start running around and trying to make fights happen with other people, that puts the ball in their court. I'm not here to try and put someone on a pedestal and give them the ability to get the most out of this. I speak for myself, my record speaks for itself, and my ability speaks for itself. At some point, these guys are going to have to fight me. According to K-1, when they were booking me for the last Dream fight, a whole list of people, top 10 and otherwise, refused to fight me. So what am I supposed to do in that situation? I'm not going to not fight. I'm here to beat the crap out of people. That's why I exist. So it may be tomorrow or it may be next year, but I'll get my hands on these guys some time.” -- Josh Barnett to MMAFighting.com
The Week Ahead
All the fallout from UFC 113, which is likely to shake out ambiguity at the top of 205 and will determine George St. Pierre’s next opponent. Also, Strikeforce pushes Overeem vs. Rogers, and results from KSW in Poland and Maximum Fighting Championships.