UFC 107 Notebook: Quotes from the winners and losers
Published by Zach Arnold on December 13th, 2009 in Current Events

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UFC 107 (December 12, 2009)

FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee

Middleweights: Alan Belcher defeated Wilson Gouveia (R1 3’03 TKO)

ALAN BELCHER

“The difference for me here tonight is just experience, I mean, that’s 10 fights in the UFC and in my very first one… you know, I mean I’ve been training martial arts all my life but you know I’m still kind of getting at the end of my amateur career if you look at most fighting sports, guys have 100 fights or something you know. I had only a handful of boxing, kickboxing, amateur MMA, and then a few pro fights and I’m straight in the UFC at age 21, 22, and then you know I had to grow up in the UFC and every time I get a little bit more comfortable. Tonight, I think I could have performed a little bit better, not in got in such a slugging match with him, but I just wanted to knock him out so bad in front of my home crowd you know, I just wanted to knock him out in the first round.”

“I don’t let myself get stagnant, you know, and I don’t ever fall back, I always take a step forward, I learn from my mistakes and you know I go home and brush off the loss or controversial split decision or whatever, I learn from it, and then I come back better, you know.”

“I’m bringing in a very big variety of people in, I’ve been fighting all over this area since I was a teenager, you know, I played basketball and baseball all around the tri-state area, the Missouri boot hill, I was born in Jonesboro, AK, it’s in Northeast Arkansas, I lived in Memphis and I live in Mississippi now, you know, so the Mid-South, the Deep South, even I’m close to Louisiana and Alabama and down there, that’s why they were booing him out there you know, which first time you know I’m usually on the other end of the booing you know so you know it felt good to come in and perform in front of these people, I haven’t fought here in six years and it was just a blast, man.”

Heavyweights: Stefan Struve defeated Paul Buentello by majority decision

PAUL BUENTELLO

“You know, I felt like I did enough, I think I should have did a little bit more, you know, but the fans watched the fight. I was in the fight, so it’s hard to judge it until I watch it on TV. You know, me being in it, I look back at it a while ago and I was like, ooh I just needed that one more little aggression, you know I felt like I needed one more aggression but I got to watch it myself, you know the fans watched it, they saw something you know it’s hard to see something when you’re in the fight so I got to sit back and watch it but you know I know I did some good things, I want to watch the fight myself you know. It’s pretty cool that the crowd, the fans knew what the real winner was, it was pretty cool about that.”

“You know, it just one of the things we worked on, he’s so long and we catch him and he falls and I should put more pressure on him. If anything, I didn’t think I was going to catch him, but one of the guys I train with back home at the Community Center, Ryan Wong, he always does the flying knees so I got so used to seeing that that I caught him off in mid-air is pretty cool. You know I should put more pressure on him, I should have jumped on him.”

“I was going good, it just I just needed that one more you know I felt good, I wasn’t tired, that’s one thing I just think I just gave him a little bit too much respect on his knee but then again I had to reach down deeper. You have to really grab you know I hate it you have to grab your nuts and go and that’s one thing I didn’t do.”

STEFAN STRUVE

“I’m happy with my win but I don’t know, I’m not happy with the things I showed, you know. I don’t win by decision, that’s not me. I’m not happy with it. I finish fights.

“You win some and you lose some and win some bad fights and you lose some good fights, you know, so I’m happy with a win but I’m not happy with my performance.”

Welterweights: Jon Fitch defeated Mike Pierce by unanimous decision

JON FITCH

“You know I could have done the leg kicks a lot better, too, I just missed some opportunities and it’s just getting used to sitting in the pocket on my feet. My wrestling instinct is to be in the clinch, to be body-on-body contact and I’m still getting used to the stand-up.”

“I don’t know how they scored that his round, I mean I dominated the round for 4 minutes and 45 seconds, but yeah he caught me with one decent punch and you know I just you know made sure I was safe and was looking for a shot to land back, try to finish late in the fight but it just didn’t happen.”

“He’s a tough guy, when I got to his back I mean most guys like him break down and get advantage on the position but with him he was just he was like you getting on back of a bear. It was hard breaking him down and then I didn’t want to put myself at risk going for too much of a submission because then he’s got top position and we all know he’s really good at holding top position.”

Lightweights: Kenny Florian defeated Clay Guida (R2 2’19 choke sleeper hold)

KENNY FLORIAN

“You know, tonight was my night. That was it, you know, Clay Guida’s a very tough opponent. I didn’t go out there saying I’m going to finish at this point or whatever point, I erased my mind and just tried to wait for an opportunity and you know I said before the fight that most likely his own aggression would probably lead to his downfall and I think that’s what happened. He left himself a little bit open and I happened to catch him at the right time and those are things that I’ve been really sharpening up and I think we’re just scratching the surface. I’m looking forward to getting right back to training and improving on those things.”

“The key is really mixing it up, man, you know mixing it up, going at him with different attacks, different techniques and I noticed him rushing in and I knew it had to be a short attack you could hear my coaches kept saying, “Short punches! Short attacks! Keep it tight!” and that was kind of a theme and I knew from him rushing in I was going to catch him with something short and it was an elbow that time and the finisher was just a short right hook in tight, I happened to catch him right on the button.”

“I’m learning a whole new striking system pretty much as far as… a different system for sure and I’m working a lot on my boxing with Peter Welch and really went back to the basics with my brother Keith as well on improving my jiu-jitsu and getting my defense and my escapes and my attacks going and just kind of I feel reinvigorated man, I’m very excited and learning new things all the time and to me that’s what I’m in this sport for, I love it so much, I’m so blessed to have these trainers in my life.”

“Firas (Zahabi) is friends with Greg (Jackson) of course and I obviously train with a lot of the same guys as Clay and you know it was one of those tings where it was business and you knew I knew regardless of what happened the coaches are you know at the end of the day the coaches aren’t going to make the biggest difference, it’s us in there who is going to determine the fight and you know it happened to be my night.”

“Clay’s tough, not many people have finished him, he’s a tough guy to put away and that’s something I wanted to do you know going into this. I don’t go in necessarily and train because you know I’m going to try to finish this guy this way or that way, I just try to give myself as many weapons as possible and then that gives you more opportunities to finish people and it’s just hard work, I put in hard work every single day I’m looking to get better you know and thank God it went my way.”

“You can’t fight Clay Guida at his fight, you know at his game, he’s very good at grinding opponents down and getting them tired, the key was to stay really calm and keep him out of his element which is the wrestling game and I had a little slip up, a little slow start in the first round but put it together and found my range and kept him outside and caught him when he was going forward you know I said he would probably use his aggression against him, he comes in and leaps in forward, he’s an aggressive guy and I caught him with a nice short punch and even the elbow was short as he came in and I timed it pretty well. You know it worked out well, you know, I have an amazing group of coaches, very very very smart guys.”

CLAY GUIDA

“0 for 2, man, my last two fights, it’s tough to come off of 3 or 4 wins or whatever it was in a row and lose to two of you know the toughest guys in the UFC. Kenny, he’s very patient, we came out strong without really, we won part of the first round you know a lot of movement in and out, rocked him, even took him down, got some good ground and pound and stuff and… He cut me, he sliced me real good and you know it was fine and whatever but immediately saw blood and stuff like that and I played right into his game plan into the second round, he took me down in the first too, it was good, but I got right back up I thought and the second round he stunned me, rung my bell, and just finished up me, man, and it was fast.”

“You know I knew it was right here (pointing to head) and I didn’t even know this was, I got cut twice until afterward, but yeah it was dumping but I figured it was out away from my eyes you know what I mean, obviously with the hair it was all over the canvas, all over the cage and stuff like that but I wasn’t too concerned about that, I just wanted to get cleaned up and get back in there and start getting back. I feel like I did try some new things, worked some more kicks and stuff like that, landed a few good strikes but I’m known for getting guys to their back and punishing them, getting you know my ground and pound going and I didn’t do that in this fight.”

Heavyweights: Frank Mir defeated Cheick Kongo (R1 1’12 by choke)

FRANK MIR

“It was a statement for myself and my training camp to say that I could bounce back from such a watched and you know a decisive loss from Brock. How did I deal with it mentally, would I be to able to choke knowing that I was going into this with a loss and another loss could have been very detrimental to my career. Also going out there against Cheick Kongo, which a lot of people you know a loss to Cheick would have been you know a pretty bad statement on my career. He was an opponent that I really felt that I had to come out there and decisively smash to make a statement. if I had went out there and won a three round decision against Cheick Kongo, I don’t think that really would have elevated my status. I think going out there and you know winning, it was a lot of pressure so that pretty much was, how do you deal with a lot of pressure, and I think you could see my demeanor, my facial expression walking in there, I deal with it pretty well.”

“That’s just to be competitive for me in the heavyweight division. You’re seeing so many giants out there, I mean look at the guy (Stefan) Struve tonight, 6’11″, when that guy gets another few years under his belt he’s going to easily be pushing the 265 limit. Brock and Shane Carwin are both up there at the higher echelons of the weight, the only guy who’s not who’s one of the top feeders is Cain Velasquez but that’s Cain, he also wrestled heavyweight in college and was very, very effective you know at that weight so some people don’t have to be that size, I think for me liking strikes and submission, power is a very important attribute and so it does well for my style to be that way and so regardless of who I fight next, I think being 265 and you know as soon as I get back to the gym with (Mark) Phillippe I plan on being stronger and stronger to the point where I really start, you know, even this fight I had to cut a few pounds to make the 265 mark and I hope to be someone who’s cutting 15-20 pounds eventually to make 265 you know. Obviously it takes a little bit of time to put the size on but that’s my goal.”

UFC Lightweight Title match: BJ Penn defeated Diego Sanchez (R5 2’37 by TKO due to doctor stoppage)

BJ PENN

“It’s kind of hard to say, one thing I do give Diego a lot of credit for, he recovers very well, I hit him with some big shots and he recovered quick and he kept going but I think as far as going forward, he kind of got bummed out and that’s where he was kind of backing up and moving around the ring but yeah, I think after the first round he started to back up a little but he never totally gave up the fight. He always felt he was in it.”

“I always had a feeling he wanted to fight me, so… I just kind of just kept my mouth shut and then he would always would ask me to train with him but it was like I know he wants to train with me so he can see what I have and then just like clockwork a year later he starts challenging me and I pretty much knew it was going to happen one day.”

“To me it was just another fight, but Frank Fertitta and Mike Goldberg were telling me that you know that this might have been one of the best fights of my career, so you know I haven’t watched the tape yet so to me it was just another fight and yeah, I just like watching Pacquiao how he throws punches in bunches and he’s fast, you might get away from the first two or three but the two or three coming behind that are going to hit you so I kind of figured that out.”

“Yeah, when I started throwing my first couple the one at the end ended up landing but this is MMA and it is different, the guy can always try to take you down so with that said I can’t just as free with my punches.”