The Weekly Wrap: Dec. 19 - Dec. 25

Quoteworthy

“Last week I was in California with Robbie, Pena and Foster, hoping they would find a replacement so Robbie could fight. It didn’t happen and I guess I’m just spoiled being with the UFC. From what I understand, Showtime really likes to stick their nose in Strikeforce’s business and because of that I don’t think that Strikeforce will be around for much longer.” -- Matt Hughes on his personal blog about Strikeforce dropping training partner Robbie Lawler from its Dec. 19 card when Lawler’s opponent fell through due to injury.

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“If the hardcore fans want to see a jiu-jitsu match, I'm sure they can match Jacare up with Jake Shields. They can have a jiu-jitsu match. And then people who haven't seen MMA will watch that fight, and they won't understand it. They'll think MMA is ground fighting. You need compelling matchups. The Scott Smith fight is an interesting fight. I don't think that's an easy fight for me, not at all. That's not a handpicked opponent! For me to come back after being away for two years and fight someone like Scott Smith? I don't think that's a handpicked opponent at all.” -- Cung Le to Heavy.com prior to his loss to Smith at Strikeforce “Evolution.”

"I'll be quite candid and frank: I don't know if I have a job come Monday when I get back. I said, 'I've got to go,' and they said, 'Well, we don't know what's going to happen when you come back.' I said, 'Well, that's fine,' and I left on Wednesday morning." -- Courtney Buck to MMAJunkie.com on taking a fight on late notice against Brandon Visher at WEC 45. He lost via knockout.

“Someone, one time, made fun of me for having a perm. It kind of hurt my feelings. I always had curly hair. I’ve always been really self-conscious about it. I tried to put a lot of stuff to straighten it out. Obviously, you can’t put anything in my hair [for a fight], so it’s ‘froey,’ and I’m very sensitive about that fact.” -- Frank Mir at a Q&A session prior to WEC 45 on one of the more stinging things he’s read about himself on the Internet.

"I don’t want to fight Jake Shields because he has no personality, he’s a boring fighter, and when he got on to CBS, and it was his chance to be a star, he leg humped [Jason "Mayhem" Miller] all night long, and killed our ratings. That’s why I don’t want to fight Jake Shields" -- Frank Shamrock to Fightmagazine.com.

"If I played basketball and someone said, ‘Hey, Mo, you have the honor of guarding Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James,’ what should I say? ‘Uh uh, they're too good?’" -- Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal to ESPN Radio 1100 on whether he’d take a fight with Fedor Emelianenko.

"This might be the first UFC I buy and actually watch in about 10 years, you know? These two guys, it's going to be one hell of a barnburner. They’re going to show these new guys how to fight." -- Don Frye to The Sporting News on the UFC 109 main event between Randy Couture and Mark Coleman.



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The Week Ahead

The biggest event in Japanese MMA, “Dynamite” on New Year’s Eve, goes down in Saitama, Japan, and airs for the first time in America on HDNet.