As the dust settled on tonight’s ‘UFC On FOX 4’ event in L.A. some of the stars of the show joined Dana White to talk to the media about the night’s big talking points at the post-fight press conference.
Below you can find our keynotes from the presser.
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– Lyoto Machida gets the next title shot says White. He believes that Machida is hungrier for the opportunity than Shogun and showed it with his performance.
– White praises Brandon Vera for showing heart and determination and thought he looked “awesome.”
– Dana says that Machida and his management have been “terrorizing” him to get the fights he needs to get back to the title ASAP. He likes that desire from him.
– Mike Swick was in the zone when he was finishing DaMarques Johnson so didn’t realize that he was out before he landed a couple of unneccessary strikes. In hindsight he wishes he didn’t, but it just happend in the moment.
– Lyoto Machida said he changed some things in his training after his loss to Jon Jones, moving to the U.S to be able to work with new training partners.
– Machida believes Jon Jones does have his weak spots, but he admits he is hard to keep track of because he’s always improving his skills and adding new wrinkles to his game.
He thinks he needs to improve his wrestling for their rematch if that’s what’s coming next.
– Joe Lauzon is thrilled that he got $100,000 in bonuses from this fight. He’s even more pleased with the fact that he suspects that the eight UFC bonuses he’s received during his career is now a record, overtaking Chris Lytle.
– Nam Phan felt he won all three rounds so he was a little worried when one judge scored the fight in his opponents favor.
– Machida weighted in light at 201lbs for his fight, but he just puts it down to a hard training camp. It doesn’t seem to be something he planned to do.
– Swick is essentially speechless at being able to make a comeback like this and says it’s what he’d been dreaming for.
– Dana reveals that he always worry’s about how good the fights are going to be and that it’s taken years off his life. He’s obviously happy and relieved with how things went tonight.
– Phil Davis and Wagner Prado will probably have a rematch in October at the ‘UFC On FX’ card headline by Travis Browne Vs ‘Bigfoot’.
– White is thrilled for Mike Swick and says he really deserves it as he’s a great person and a great fighter who always comes to finish his opponents.
– Dana again heaps praise on Vera and says he got his respect back tonight.
– Speaking of why he earned the title shot over ‘Shogun’, Machida feels perhaps it was because his finish was more impressive.
– ‘Shogun’ says he respects Dana White’s decision and he just wants to move on. He’s happy to continue fighting and is ready to do so whenever the UFC has an opponent for him.
– ‘Shogun’ is asked about the fact that he appeared to tire early in the fight. before he has a chance to answer a surprisingly angry Vera butts in and reprimands people for focusing on Shogun’s conditioning rather than crediting him for pushing the pace and making the former champion tire.
– White isn’t willing to speculate on who ‘Shogun’ will fight next.
– ‘Shogun’ did notice that Vera was adjusting his mouthpiece just before the TKO finish, and said he was just waiting for the right time to seize his opportunity.
– Vera reveals that he “wholeheartedly enjoyed that fight”. He jokes that “five rounds suck though!”
He feels that early in his career he expected his reputation to proceed him and his opponents to back off from him, but he’s learned a tough lesson that it’s not like that here and that you have to bring it and he believes he did that tonight.
– Vera was delighted to hear the crowd chanting his name half-way through the fight and says he’s never experienced anything like that before.
He agrees with a reporter that this was a moral victory for him tonight, proving his critics wrong and showing that he does still have what it takes. He vows that he’ll continue fighting and will earn a title shot in the future.
– White exclaims, “are you out of your mind?” when somebody asks if there’s a chance Vera could be cut from the UFC.
– ‘Shogun’ was preparing for a stand-up fight, but he trains all aspects of MMA and when the opportunity presented itself for him to take Vera down early in the fight he just took it.
– Machida believes in himself that he can defeat Jones if they do have a rematch.
– ‘Shogun’ thinks that Machida has earned his chance to fight again for the title and he’ll wait for his own turn.
– Dana won’t commit to an estimate in terms of the potential ratings for tonight’s show, admitting that the popularity of the Olympic coverage may throw a potential spanner in the works.
He reveals that he told all the fighters yesterday that if there were people who were channel-surfing tonight and landed on FOX then he wanted to make sure that they put on a good performance so that they would keep watching, and he feels they definitely did that tonight.
