UFC 104 Press Conference Notes
Yesterday, the UFC held a press conference in LA for the upcoming UFC 104 card that is going to be held in the Staples Center. It wasn’t newsworthy at all, except that Dana White wasn’t there. But there were some good quotes from the fighters, who included Lyoto Machida, Shogun Rua, Ben Rothwell, and Cain Velasquez.
Rothwell definitely seemed excited to be in the UFC. Machida did a great job trying to answer all of his questions in English, which endeared him to the people there.
Jennifer Wenk hosted and said that Dana had travel issues.
Here are the highlights:
– Rothwell says his entire career was simply training for this day.
– Cain Velasquez thanked Rothwell for taking the fight and said he wanted to fight in front of a lot of Latinos.
– Wenk just called Ortiz/Machida one of the most highly anticipated fights in UFC history. Really?
– Machida says he’ll keep on doing his homey-work in reference to what he’s doing for this fight to improve. Give him a break, he was trying to speak English.
– Shogun and Machida were sitting next to each other side by side on the flight over from Brazil.
– People keep trying to ask questions about whether there is any rivalry between the two Brazilians and Machida and Shogun have both said they are friends.
– When asked whether or not they stacked the LA card with Latino fighters, Wenk says that they have lots of nationalities and they don’t target certain fighters to certain places like Mexicans in LA. Um, I’d disagree. How about having all of your Canadians fight when you go to Canada?
– Machida wants to open a gym in the US to showcase his discipline of Machida karate.
– Cain indirectly dismissed Rothwell as an opponent and mentioned he’ll be able to fight “those guys” meaning Carwin and Lesnar at a later date. It seems like he definitely thought Rothwell was a step down from that competition.
– Machida says he’ll try to force Shogun to fight his fight.
– Machida says Big Nog and Silva are his favorite fighters.
– Machida wants to win by strikes, Rothwell doesn’t care as long as he gets a bonus, Shogun doesn’t care – he just wants to win, and Velasquez says that he wants to improve on his stand-up but just wants to win as well.
Or an almost all British card for 105. They don’t stack nationalities is pretty funny.
I have some high hopes for this card actually. I think it is another card, like 102 was and 103 should be as well, where there is lots of future talent and stars on the card.
I am really hoping Ben Rothwell puts up a good fight. I don’t expect him to win, but if he holds his own, he has a future in the UFC.
Yep. I should really be going to this card in LA. But alas, I’m not.