Today's UFC Twitter mailbag features reactions to my recent interviews with Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, questions about why we haven't seen any interviews with Forrest Griffin, a look at the serious issue of concussions in sports, and more.Your questions and my answers for our UFC Twitter mailbag are below.
robindurden: Randy's going to box Big Nog's chin up. He's been suspect these recent years w/ the Fedor curse.
Nogueira's chin certainly looked suspect in his last fight, against Frank Mir. But when I talked to Couture, I didn't get the sense that he thought the Mir fight really meant much.
"There have been all kinds of rumors since that fight, that Nogueira was hurt, he had a back injury, or he had staph," Couture said. "I have to prepare for the best Nogueira and assume he's coming into this fight at his best. I think he will, and that will make for a very good fight. He'll be a formidable opponent. Looking technically at what Mir did, he's a southpaw and I'm a right-handed fighter, so there are differences there."
As for the Fedor Curse, I don't think Nogueira is suffering from it. After losing to Fedor at Pride Shockwave 2004, Nogueira won seven of his next eight fights.
Tito1984: Submit Nogueira?! He really said that?
Couture did, in fact, talk about how cool it would be to submit Nogueira. Is it realistic? No. But I admire Couture for having the kind of confidence in himself to even think along those lines.
PJHarrison: Great interview with The Natural. That guy is unbelieveable!
He is. And even though he's 46 years old, I didn't get the sense that he's planning to stop fighting any time soon.
johnpublicmusic: David Wright of the Mets got hit in the head with a 94 mph fastball with a helmet on and got a concussion. Can you compare to MMA KOs?
I can't compare the severity of Wright's concussion to concussions suffered by MMA fighters because I'm not a doctor, and I can't compare the force of a 94-mph fastball with the force of a punch or kick because I'm not a physicist. I can say, however, that I'm glad MMA has state athletic commissions that oversee fighter safety and gives medical suspensions to fighters who suffer concussions. I also write about football, a sport in which it's very common to see a player suffer a concussion one week and then return to the field the next. That doesn't happen in MMA, where the culture of the sport is to be much more cautious about concussions than that.
CRM_alumnigonzo: How did you not get the Dancin' scoop? Liddell obviously didn't find you trustworthy.
When I interviewed Chuck Liddell last week, he told me, "I've got some things coming up," on the entertainment front, but I never even thought to ask if he was considering Dancing With the Stars, which he'll appear on this season.
uchoo786: DVD you should get next: Being Human season 1.
Thanks for the recommendation. I just added it to my Netflix queue, but the availability is listed as "unknown." It's tough for us in the States to get those BBC shows, but when we can I always enjoy them.
OliviaSilver: Have you seen any Forrest Griffin interviews post fight?
No. Griffin was obviously embarrassed by his loss to Anderson Silva, and he has maintained an extremely low profile since running out of the Octagon that night. You'd think such a fan favorite would have said something to his fans by now, but he still hasn't had anything to say.
stevecofield: You had to be there to watch Akiyama walk out after "winning."
Our friend Steve Cofield sent this came in response to my tweet noting that when the UFC re-aired UFC 100 on Spike Saturday night, Joe Rogan's claim that Alan Belcher was "robbed" against Yoshihiro Akiyama was edited out. I know Akiyama didn't look like the winner after the fight, but I was impressed with the way he toughed it out after suffering a low blow and a fractured orbital. My case for Akiyama is here.
Overall, I thought the most interesting aspect of watching the re-airing of UFC 100 was seeing what the UFC decided not to show again, like Rogan's comment about the judging and some of Dan Henderson's comments about Michael Bisping. And, for as much as some folks claimed that the UFC liked the pro wrestling antics that Brock Lesnar brought to the festivities, all of that stuff was cut out, too.
Want to be part of our next UFC Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.
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