Matt Serra File Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
“I was really upset, and I’m not even concerned about my health. I know I’m fine. I’m just sad I can’t fight.” -- Thiago Alves to Yahoo! Sports on the medical issue that forced him from his rematch with Jon Fitch at UFC 111
“A lot of fighters, they don’t talk about it. They’re like, ‘Oh, I’m excited.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not excited; I’m fear.’ I’m excited, too, but I’m fear. I’m a proud person. I don’t want to lose on national TV. I don’t want this. I don’t want to be submitted in front of everybody, I don’t want to be knocked out in front of everybody. I don’t want this.” -- Georges St. Pierre on the final episode of UFC Primetime
“Believe it or not, my last advice would say, ‘Listen man, you’re looking so good down there, go out, jump guard.’ We’re so confident, I’m giving GSP and Firas [Zahabi] our gameplan, alright? He’s jumping guard the second you guys go in there, so prepare for it.” -- Matt Serra, sarcastically, on his trainee, Dan Hardy, on UFC Primetime heading into the UFC 111 main event
“[Buentello] said he was thinking about quitting. I told him to not make any rash decisions. He was like, ‘Oh, the UFC’s going to cut me.’ Honestly, from my perspective -- and I try to keep it as real as I can because I love Paul, and I think he’s a great fighter -- I think he’s got to have more dimensions at this high level of the game.” -- Trevor Wittman to MMAJunkie.com on Paul Buentello’s thought process as he dropped a bout to Chieck Kongo at UFC on Versus 1
“To me, the sport is getting so ugly, honestly. It hurts me to say this. It’s getting so watered down. Nothing against Herschel Walker -- he is a great athlete -- but mixed martial arts is not a freak show. Pretty soon they’re going to take an actor and be like, ‘Oh, he’s a great actor; let’s see him fight. Oh it’s David Beckham; let’s see if he can fight.’ It’s just very unmotivating.” -- Jorge Gurgel to the Boston Herald
“He can knee me in the balls right now. I mean, I don’t care.” -- Josh Barnett, apologetically, to the corner of Siala “Mighty Mo” Siliga after he struck him with a vicious groin kick at Dream 13
“But opening with a ‘Minowaman’ fight is like our tradition. I think people are so used to it by now. For me, there’s no one else I can depend on to open an event. An opening VTR of Minowaman, followed by Minowaman’s entrance and then Minowaman’s fight -- I think it’s Dream’s perfected opening formula. I can’t think of any other way. Although, if there is an appropriate opponent for him, I will think about it. You may be right. I do want to see Minowaman as a main event fighter. That sounds really fresh.” -- Dream event producer Keiichi Sasahara on fan favorite Ikuhisa Minowa in a press conference following Dream 13
“I beat [Jason] Brilz, and he gets a little easier of a fight, and I get a little bit harder fight. And now, I’m the one that’s not there anymore, even though I fought a top 15 guy. I guess I should have lost the Brilz fight and fought Eric Schafer. They want to get rid of you, they get rid of you. If they don’t, they don’t. That’s how it goes.” -- Eliot Marshall to MMAJunkie.com on his release from the UFC following his loss to Vladimir Matyushenko
“I feel that the English-language population is more familiar with the sport than the Arabic speakers, so it’s important for me to develop the sport of MMA in the Arabic region by speaking the language. A lot of people are calling me the Joe Rogan of the UAE, or even the ‘Mohammed Rogan,’ but hopefully I’ll be myself with my own style and bring something different. As soon as the fighters go to the ground, if you show that to any casual viewer, they either make fun of them because of the position or they’re completely clueless because they think they’re just stalling. People understand kickboxing and boxing, but I’ll need to explain the ground game. Hopefully, I’ll represent my people well, the region well and get people exposed to this sport.” -- Mohammed al-Housani, the UFC’s first Arabic-speaking announcer discussing his UFC 112 debut in Abu Dhabi with The National, a United Arab Emirates newspaper