UFC Fighter Jon Jones who trains at Jackson's MMA also won "Breakthrough Fighter of the Year" last night. We are happy for Jones who just three years ago decided to fight and has been nice to his fans when we met him twice.
by Steven Marrocco on Nov 14, 2010 at 2:30 am ET
OBERHAUSEN, Germany – UFC president Dana White is very happy with the Germans who fought on UFC 122's card; they delivered exciting fights and did not succumb to hometown pressure at Saturday night's event in Oberhausen, Germany. He does not share the same overall sentiment about the evening's main event.
White had some particularly harsh words for headliner Nate Marquardt (30-10-2 MMA, 9-4 UFC), who saw a second title eliminator slip through his hands with a unanimous decision loss to Yushin Okami (26-5 MMA, 10-2 UFC).
"He is a choker," White bluntly told reporters following the UFC 122 post-event press conference. "He choked tonight."
Okami's win earned him a shot at the winner of an upcoming fight between reigning middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and challenger Vitor Belfort, which takes place Feb. 5 at UFC 126.
But the 8,421 fans at Konig Pilsener Arena were largely indifferent to the fight, which often lacked decisive exchanges both standing and on the ground. Okami, though, came out ahead on all judges' scorecards with two judges who awarded him the fight two rounds to one and one who gave him all three.
At the post-event podium, a marked-up Marquardt said he landed the more significant shots in the later rounds and thought he had done enough to win the fight.
White was perplexed with that assessment, and he placed blame squarely at the feet of a key figure in Marquardt's coaching staff.
"Marquardt is such a talented guy, and what I'm seeing is stuff from the Greg Jackson camp," he said. "This camp continuously – when these guys fight, their corner is either telling them they're ahead or they're winning.
"I mean, Nate Marquardt sat here tonight and said that he thought he won the fight. Where the [expletive] is his corner? You go into the last round and you're getting outstruck by a wrestler, and you think you won the fight? And this is consistent with the Greg Jackson camp."
Marquardt often works with Jackson's camp alongside such fighters as Georges St-Pierre, Rashad Evans and Shane Carwin, among countless others.
This past Saturday, though, Marquardt was cornered by his primary trainer, Trevor Wittman, who heads the Jackson-affiliated gym Grudge Training Center in Denver.
White dismissed the idea that Marquardt could succumb to the pressure of Saturday's opportunity.
"Listen, [Marquardt and Okami] are both professionals who have been around for a long time," he said. "The first time I ever saw Nate Marquardt fight was 10 years ago, when we first bought the UFC. (I saw him) up in Northern California. He was the King of Pancrase back in Japan. This dude has been in the game for a long time.
"You already blew a title shot once; you're in a fight for the title shot again in the third round, and you're not throwing any punches or kicks? It has nothing to do with pressure. You're ... professional, and you're going to go after it in the last round to get your title shot."
It's not the first time White has gone on the offensive against fighters he perceives as tentative in key situations. Following August's UFC 118 event, White criticized co-main draw and two-time lightweight contender Kenny Florian as a fighter who falls short when the chips are down.
"Listen – you couldn't meet a nicer guy than Nate Marquardt," White said. "He's a great guy. Nice kid – choked tonight."
Marquardt remained upbeat despite another setback, though he was not privy to White's words, which came after the official press conference ended.
"I'm still one of the best, and I'm going to get back in there and be the champ one day," Marquardt said.
For more on UFC 122, stay tuned to the UFC events section of MMAjunkie.com.
White had some particularly harsh words for headliner Nate Marquardt (30-10-2 MMA, 9-4 UFC), who saw a second title eliminator slip through his hands with a unanimous decision loss to Yushin Okami (26-5 MMA, 10-2 UFC).
"He is a choker," White bluntly told reporters following the UFC 122 post-event press conference. "He choked tonight."
Okami's win earned him a shot at the winner of an upcoming fight between reigning middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and challenger Vitor Belfort, which takes place Feb. 5 at UFC 126.
But the 8,421 fans at Konig Pilsener Arena were largely indifferent to the fight, which often lacked decisive exchanges both standing and on the ground. Okami, though, came out ahead on all judges' scorecards with two judges who awarded him the fight two rounds to one and one who gave him all three.
At the post-event podium, a marked-up Marquardt said he landed the more significant shots in the later rounds and thought he had done enough to win the fight.
White was perplexed with that assessment, and he placed blame squarely at the feet of a key figure in Marquardt's coaching staff.
"Marquardt is such a talented guy, and what I'm seeing is stuff from the Greg Jackson camp," he said. "This camp continuously – when these guys fight, their corner is either telling them they're ahead or they're winning.
"I mean, Nate Marquardt sat here tonight and said that he thought he won the fight. Where the [expletive] is his corner? You go into the last round and you're getting outstruck by a wrestler, and you think you won the fight? And this is consistent with the Greg Jackson camp."
Marquardt often works with Jackson's camp alongside such fighters as Georges St-Pierre, Rashad Evans and Shane Carwin, among countless others.
This past Saturday, though, Marquardt was cornered by his primary trainer, Trevor Wittman, who heads the Jackson-affiliated gym Grudge Training Center in Denver.
White dismissed the idea that Marquardt could succumb to the pressure of Saturday's opportunity.
"Listen, [Marquardt and Okami] are both professionals who have been around for a long time," he said. "The first time I ever saw Nate Marquardt fight was 10 years ago, when we first bought the UFC. (I saw him) up in Northern California. He was the King of Pancrase back in Japan. This dude has been in the game for a long time.
"You already blew a title shot once; you're in a fight for the title shot again in the third round, and you're not throwing any punches or kicks? It has nothing to do with pressure. You're ... professional, and you're going to go after it in the last round to get your title shot."
It's not the first time White has gone on the offensive against fighters he perceives as tentative in key situations. Following August's UFC 118 event, White criticized co-main draw and two-time lightweight contender Kenny Florian as a fighter who falls short when the chips are down.
"Listen – you couldn't meet a nicer guy than Nate Marquardt," White said. "He's a great guy. Nice kid – choked tonight."
Marquardt remained upbeat despite another setback, though he was not privy to White's words, which came after the official press conference ended.
"I'm still one of the best, and I'm going to get back in there and be the champ one day," Marquardt said.
For more on UFC 122, stay tuned to the UFC events section of MMAjunkie.com.
by Steven Marrocco on Nov 30, 2010 at 6:15 pm ET
Greg Jackson has found himself in the unenviable position of defending his life's work – against a man to whom he owes his livelihood.
More than a month after UFC president Dana White singled him out as a partial cause of a dud main event at UFC 122, Jackson has broken his silence with a list of stats.
The list, sent today to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) via email, details the honors that his fighters have achieved in 2010: knockouts, submissions, quick finishes, and performance bonuses.
Some highlights: Jon Jones, who finished two his three most recent opponents in the first round; Clay Guida, who shrugged off his wrestling rep by submitting two of his three most recent opponents; former contender Shane Carwin, who stopped four of his five UFC opponents in the first round; Donald Cerrone, who's won performance bonuses in six out of seven of his most recent appearances; and, of course, Georges St-Pierre, who in March kept his welterweight belt by dominating Dan Hardy.
Perhaps the most impressive stat is the one that says Jackson fighters took home extra cash for their efforts in one out every two UFC events.
The stats, Jackson says, are a logical counter to White's assertion that his fighters don't put everything on the line. He's usually not the guy to get out the pitchfork on Internet forums or give bluster-filled interviews. He says he's still a mild-mannered guy.
But he also feels the facts paint a much different picture than White suggests.
Following this past month's UFC 122 event, an exasperated White took aim at Jackson-trained fighter Nate Marquardt, who dropped a split decision to Yushin Okami in a middleweight title eliminator bout. A short while after Marquardt said he felt he'd done enough to win, the UFC executive went off.
"Marquardt is such a talented guy, and what I'm seeing is stuff from the Greg Jackson camp," he said. "This camp continuously – when these guys fight, their corner is either telling them they're ahead or they're winning.
"I mean, Nate Marquardt sat here tonight and said that he thought he won the fight. Where the [expletive] is his corner? You go into the last round and you're getting outstruck by a wrestler, and you think you won the fight? And this is consistent with the Greg Jackson camp."
Jackson said that while the criticism is valid for an individual fight such as Marquardt vs. Okami, it's not fair to cast the blanket of boredom across his entire team.
"We might have had a performance that the fans didn't like," Jackson said. "So if you're going to criticize that, that's fine. Dana of all people has the right to criticize anything he wants. It's his organization.
"But to say (that) everybody doesn't try to finish, and that it's a consistent problem with us when the exact 180 degree opposite is true – I don't think there's another team that can claim half of all bonuses given by the UFC.
"Almost every event – one out of two – you're going to see us take home an award. I'm not making it up. That's hard facts."
With 20 of his fighters under the UFC umbrella, Jackson feels it's inevitable that a few will be duds.
"I think that the UFC has done such a great job of matchmaking that every once in a while, you're going to get two fighters who can't find their rhythm," he said. "They can't figure out how to take advantage of an opportunity. It's going to happen just statistically.
"But there's a reason that we're growing (into) the most popular sport in the world – because they put on amazing shows. Every once in a while, you're going to get a bad fight. That's just the game. There's been 22 shows this year. You're going to have a bad fight or two. It's impossible for every fight to be a barnburner.
"But because the UFC does such a great job, people expect a barnburner every time, and if it doesn't happen, they get upset. That's their right. They pay their money. They get to bitch; that's the whole part of American culture, and that's fine. But if you bitch, you've got to at least know about your stuff. You can bitch about the coach or whatever you want to say, but you can't say that we're boring fighters that never finish fights. That's silly."
At several points during the interview, Jackson stops himself. He doesn't want to make it seem like he's attacking White or the promotion that's bolstered his business.
"There are few people I respect more than Dana White," Jackson said. "Before the UFC made it big, I was teaching in a shack. I'm under no illusions. He's always been very nice to me. I have not a bad word to say about Dana White. I just want to defend my team. I'm not going after anybody personally."
Still, he feels he must speak up.
"I'm doing the same thing MMA artists do when we're attacked in our sport," he said. "They say our sport is barbaric. ... Well, if you look at the numbers, football is much more dangerous. Boxing has more deaths.
"I understand your perception, but here are the hard numbers."
More than a month after UFC president Dana White singled him out as a partial cause of a dud main event at UFC 122, Jackson has broken his silence with a list of stats.
The list, sent today to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) via email, details the honors that his fighters have achieved in 2010: knockouts, submissions, quick finishes, and performance bonuses.
Some highlights: Jon Jones, who finished two his three most recent opponents in the first round; Clay Guida, who shrugged off his wrestling rep by submitting two of his three most recent opponents; former contender Shane Carwin, who stopped four of his five UFC opponents in the first round; Donald Cerrone, who's won performance bonuses in six out of seven of his most recent appearances; and, of course, Georges St-Pierre, who in March kept his welterweight belt by dominating Dan Hardy.
Perhaps the most impressive stat is the one that says Jackson fighters took home extra cash for their efforts in one out every two UFC events.
The stats, Jackson says, are a logical counter to White's assertion that his fighters don't put everything on the line. He's usually not the guy to get out the pitchfork on Internet forums or give bluster-filled interviews. He says he's still a mild-mannered guy.
But he also feels the facts paint a much different picture than White suggests.
Following this past month's UFC 122 event, an exasperated White took aim at Jackson-trained fighter Nate Marquardt, who dropped a split decision to Yushin Okami in a middleweight title eliminator bout. A short while after Marquardt said he felt he'd done enough to win, the UFC executive went off.
"Marquardt is such a talented guy, and what I'm seeing is stuff from the Greg Jackson camp," he said. "This camp continuously – when these guys fight, their corner is either telling them they're ahead or they're winning.
"I mean, Nate Marquardt sat here tonight and said that he thought he won the fight. Where the [expletive] is his corner? You go into the last round and you're getting outstruck by a wrestler, and you think you won the fight? And this is consistent with the Greg Jackson camp."
Jackson said that while the criticism is valid for an individual fight such as Marquardt vs. Okami, it's not fair to cast the blanket of boredom across his entire team.
"We might have had a performance that the fans didn't like," Jackson said. "So if you're going to criticize that, that's fine. Dana of all people has the right to criticize anything he wants. It's his organization.
"But to say (that) everybody doesn't try to finish, and that it's a consistent problem with us when the exact 180 degree opposite is true – I don't think there's another team that can claim half of all bonuses given by the UFC.
"Almost every event – one out of two – you're going to see us take home an award. I'm not making it up. That's hard facts."
With 20 of his fighters under the UFC umbrella, Jackson feels it's inevitable that a few will be duds.
"I think that the UFC has done such a great job of matchmaking that every once in a while, you're going to get two fighters who can't find their rhythm," he said. "They can't figure out how to take advantage of an opportunity. It's going to happen just statistically.
"But there's a reason that we're growing (into) the most popular sport in the world – because they put on amazing shows. Every once in a while, you're going to get a bad fight. That's just the game. There's been 22 shows this year. You're going to have a bad fight or two. It's impossible for every fight to be a barnburner.
"But because the UFC does such a great job, people expect a barnburner every time, and if it doesn't happen, they get upset. That's their right. They pay their money. They get to bitch; that's the whole part of American culture, and that's fine. But if you bitch, you've got to at least know about your stuff. You can bitch about the coach or whatever you want to say, but you can't say that we're boring fighters that never finish fights. That's silly."
At several points during the interview, Jackson stops himself. He doesn't want to make it seem like he's attacking White or the promotion that's bolstered his business.
"There are few people I respect more than Dana White," Jackson said. "Before the UFC made it big, I was teaching in a shack. I'm under no illusions. He's always been very nice to me. I have not a bad word to say about Dana White. I just want to defend my team. I'm not going after anybody personally."
Still, he feels he must speak up.
"I'm doing the same thing MMA artists do when we're attacked in our sport," he said. "They say our sport is barbaric. ... Well, if you look at the numbers, football is much more dangerous. Boxing has more deaths.
"I understand your perception, but here are the hard numbers."
We celebrate the winners we also voted for including MMAJunkie and the following below:
Shogun Rua's win for the belt over Machida for "Best Knockout of the Year"
Fabricio Werdum's win for "Submission of the Year" because we respect Fedor's ability.
Ariel Helwani's win as "Journalist of the Year" (honorable mention to John Morgan),
Jon Jones for "Breakthrough Fighter of the Year" and
Jason "Mayhem" Miller for "Best Entrance" at his fights in Japan.
