Jay Glazer on Brock Lesnar, UFC’s growth, and training Matt Leinart
Published by Staff on July 16th, 2009 in Current Events

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Admittedly, it’s the slowest sports news month of the year. Therefore, sports like MMA will garner more attention especially given the increased PPV buyrates over the last couple of years. Jay Glazer, who is Fox’s top NFL reporter and an MMA enthusiast (he hosted the first Affliction PPV show with Frank Trigg), made an appearance on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption show on Wednesday to talk all-things MMA for five good minutes.

Here is the transcript of Glazer’s interview with Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post:

Mike Wilbon: Bob Ryan and I are not hugely knowledgable about the MMA orthe UFC but we both know that it’s becoming a sport of consquence, so we bring on a man who knows it much better than we do. To help us understand how we can get it, we welcome in Fox NFL analyst and MMA fighter and trainer Jay Glazer. And we ain’t bringing him on to talk about the NFL. We’re going to start away, Jay, with Brock Lesnar and I want to ask you, are you happy that this guy is now the face of your sport?

Jay Glazer: “I don’t know if he’s the face of the sport. You know, here’s the problem I have with the other night. I understand that there were a lot of first-time watchers and the sport already has enough villains just because of the way people villainze the sport, we don’t need one of the fighters to be the villain. I understand why Brock did it, you’re going to be very emotional, you see guys do it in the NFL, you see them do it in basketball, I understand why he did it. I wish he didn’t do it because you know if you look at the guys that really built up the sport, the Chuck Liddells, the Randy Coutures, these guys are as classy as they come. You know, the other night you had Chuck Liddell had his retirement party and his arch nemesis, Tito Ortiz, who people hated he showed up to show respect so usually the fighters are very, very respectful. This one, I hope people just give Brock another chance.”

Mike: “Well it seems like this is controversy about linking up to pro-wrestling if you will, some people even say that UFC head Dana White reminds them of a young Vince McMahon. I don’t know… what do you think, Jay, is that a good thing or a bad thing for the sport?”

Jay: “I think it’s a very bad thing, this sport is as real as it gets, you guys know that. You know, again, I think Brock kind of lost his mind a little bit there, but Dana got right into him, that’s the difference between Dana and Vince McMahon where Vince McMahon wants you to do that, wants you to go over the top, wants it to be a circus. Dana White doesn’t. Dana White wants his guys to be classy, wants them to be respectful, I mean guys have to sign autographs, they have to sit there, be respectful to fans, and the fighters like I said the forefathers of this sport they are, they are as classy as you get and I think that Brock when he’s around some of the other guys he’ll start to get that.”

Bob Ryan: “All right, no offense, Jay, but I’ve already told the producer you’re making me talk MMA is the worst thing they’ve ever done to me here. Now look, does MMA even care about people like me liking it or is the fact that people like me don’t like it and find it too violent part of the core attraction for its audience?”

Jay: “Bob, you’re way out of the demographic, you kidding me? *laughs* You know, you’re looking for it, look, MMA and the UFC they’re still growing, obviously things have taken a big hit in this country, but the UFC is not. It’s growing and growing and I think the more mainstream it gets, the more the people turn in and they see what a great sport it is and the great champions you have like Lyoto Machida and BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, the Anderson Silvas, they more and more people will like it, that’s why the whole Brock Lesnar thing you know upset me a little bit the other night. I wasn’t as outraged as everybody else because it still was pretty darn funny, I have to be honest with you, but I would like to see our champions just follow the Randy Coutures and the Chuck Liddells and just be as classy as they were.”

Bob Ryan: “OK, now we did see a guy get punched in the face with what appeared to be almost out cold already the other night. I’m going to ask you the big one, what if somebody were God forbid were killed in the ring? Boxing has had it, it’s survived it, could UFC survive it at this stage of its existence?”

Jay: “Here’s what happens with our sport. Doesn’t really happen. You’ve had one in a sanctioned fight, that’s it. It doesn’t happen because, look let me tell you something guys, boxing… these gloves, they don’t protect your head, they protect my hands so I can pound you and pound you and pound away at your skull even more. Your concussed, you get 8 seconds to get up, and I can pound you more. That doesn’t happen in Mixed Martial Arts. It looks more brutal and it’s more brutal to the body, but it’s nowhere near as brutal to the head or the brain as boxing. It may not be even as brutal as football to the brain because once you get put down, they’re jumping in, they’re stopping it. These flash knockouts, that’s not really what gives you all that brain damage, it’s the pounding over and over and over like I said, those boxing gloves they do not protect your head. Not at all. They’re protect my fists so I can pound your head a little bit more.”

Mike: “Why the MMA training for Matt Leinart? How’s it going to help on the football field if at all?”

Jay: “We actually trained earlier today. He’s doing two things a day. He’s training right now with Tom Brady and Matt Cassel. Earlier football is thrown, working out with them, then he’s coming to me and working out in Mixed Martial Arts. It does a couple of things. First of all, he said to me, that left arm of his has absolutely no fatigue in it, not like it’s had in the past. The other thing it does is it strengthens his core. It will help out a lineman or a linebacker a little bit more, but we’re strengthing his core, we’re doing so much to strengthen his core, but the biggest thing is we’re getting for him a wall and we’re getting him to blow past that wall, he may think his wall is here and in fact we’re pushing him way past it all the way up to here and he said to me, “Man, football’s going to be easy after this.” It’s just yes sir, no sir, that’s not the Matt Leinart I really expected.”