“You put your body and your mind through so much discipline, and, no, I can honestly say I wouldn’t fight for peanuts. That’s just who I am. I’ve been there. I’ve wrestled, blood, sweat and tears for 18 years. I’ve got a lot of time in the gym and got paid zilch. So now, here’s my opportunity. This is prizefighting for me. You look at it any other way, you might as well just go fight in the underground, bare knuckle, or fight in the streets, as far as I’m concerned.” -- Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar speaking during a conference call to promote UFC 100
“Obviously, I have to beat him down so I can prove to my children I know what I’m talking about. So when I say that it’s all about being smart and it’s about being savvy, I can say that I’m right. If I allow him to win, then it puts doubt into the things I preach every day.” -- Interim heavyweight champion Frank Mir discussing with the Las Vegas Sun his rematch with Brock Lesnar at UFC 100
“Lyoto is the champ, and I don’t have any intention of fighting him or fighting for the title. I’m Lyoto’s friend, and I think it’s going to be hard for anyone to beat him. This is Karate’s era, Machida Karate.” -- UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva talking to Sherdog.com about the possibility of fighting Lyoto Machida
“At least I know my fans are my real fans. The guys who get the benefit of the machine getting behind them -- their fans can turn on them. They get built up and people get false expectations. When they want to push you, they’ll push you, and the fans can see through it. When they build someone up like they’re Jesus, the fans will turn on them when they can’t walk on water.” -- Jon Fitch breaking down the UFC marketing machine with Yahoo! Sports
“I believe jiu-jitsu is going to be much bigger around the world than MMA. Actually, it already is because MMA fighters are restricted, between 18 and 35 years old. In jiu-jitsu, you start training when you are 3 years old, and you can train until you’re 80 years old, so it’s a much bigger range. I’m sure there are many more people practicing jiu-jitsu than MMA around the world.” -- Royler Gracie in an interview with Sherdog.com
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The Week Ahead
Zuffa LLC launches a multi-pronged campaign to drum up maximum interest in the historic UFC 100 event on July 11. The run-up begins with a countdown of the 100 greatest fights in company history on Spike TV and the premiere of a “Countdown” hype special and includes several press and media events.