Thoughts on Potential Mark Munoz Fight
First off, my fight with Mark Munoz, I know it's rumored, but I can neither confirm nor deny it at the moment. Nothing is signed yet, so I can't confirm whether that is my next opponent. If it is, then I will welcome it, because it will definitely be a great fight, but I don't know for sure if it is yet.
Regarding his last fight, Mark Munoz looked fantastic. You can't take that away from him. Tim Boetsch is a tough guy, and had a good first round, but in rounds two and three Munoz completely controlled the fight. He threw him around like a ragdoll, he controlled him, he took him down, he got some good ground and pound and I thought he looked fantastic. I thought he looked really, really good. He looked like a contender for the title.
That said, on the flip-side, Tim Boetsch, while being a very, very tough fighter, kind of plays into Munoz's style a little bit. Boetsch plods, he's not exactly the most graceful footwork artist in the UFC. He kind of just walks straight forward, and that plays right into Mark Munoz's hands. So he kind of gave Munoz the victory in that respect, but nevertheless it was a fantastic victory and a great performance.
Costa Philippou
Costa Philippou is doing well. He's won four or five I think, and good for him, but he's not in a position to be making claims that I have to go through him. He hasn't been around very long. He's not a household name in mixed martial arts. If I was to fight him in Manchester, a lot of the English crowd would be like, 'Who? Who is this guy he's fighting?'
I'm not saying he wouldn't be a tough fight, but he doesn't excite me and he doesn't have the buzz or the name recognition that I'm looking for, so he's still got some more work to do. He had a fluke win over Tim Boetsch anyway. It was a clash of heads, and after that Boetsch kind of fell to pieces. Costa saying I have to go through him ... The guy really needs to get a grip on reality. He's been around two years, I've been in the UFC for eight years, so he needs to check himself.
Avenging Losses
I would love to rematch all the guys that have a victory over me. Chael is one of them, Rashad, Henderson, Vitor ... I'd love to fight them all. I'd love to get another crack. After every loss I've gone back to the drawing board, so to speak, figured out what went wrong, and I've come back as a better fighter.
Dan Henderson? I know I'd definitely take care of him. Chael? I beat him the first time, but I'd make it even more unanimous in the second. Vitor? I was doing very well until I got caught with a head kick, so I've adjusted for that as well. I believe I could beat everyone that has beaten me up until now. They beat me on the night, so fair play to them, but I would love a rematch with any of those guys.
Beating Guys That Are on TRT
To be honest, it's not something I give too much thought to. I don't sit around thinking about TRT, and thinking about how I want to beat all these guys. I just think it's a disappointing way for guys to manipulate the system, and I don't think it should be allowed.
TRT is only allowed in Boxing and mixed martial arts, and that's crazy. These are sports where somebody could get hurt, or god forbid, people could die under the right circumstances, so I don't think they should be allowed to enhance their testosterone. When you're punching and kicking people in the head as hard as you can, you shouldn't be allowed to have it. That's my view on it.
His Underrated Anti-Wrestling
I think people underrate me in general. Mark Munoz seems to think that he has me beaten in all areas, and he's sorely mistaken. It happens every time. Alan Belcher, in the last fight, was so confident that he had me beat in all areas, but I'm not sure the guy landed a single punch. He couldn't take me down, and he had nothing for me. It's the same with every one of my fights, and I love it. I go into the Octagon, and they don't think I'm very good, but they certainly have a very different impression afterwards.
Regarding my anti-wrestling, being British, we obviously don't have a wrestling background, so I've had to work hard on my takedown defense, otherwise my career would have been over before it started. I would have lost my first few fights in the UFC, and got cut after The Ultimate Fighter. So I had to work hard on that, and I've just tried to absorb as many techniques as I possibly can. I've worked hard on being able to get back to my feet and being able to stuff the takedowns, and now I'm getting to a point where I'm confident in my offensive wrestling, and my ability to take them down.
It's been a lot of hard work, and yeah, I'm happy with my takedown defense. Mark Munoz, if we do fight, he's a wrestler, and you know, good luck trying to take me down, pal.
People Calling Him Out
You'd think people would learn to stop calling me out, but they keep doing it. They think I'm an easy target. I'm one of the longest standing fighters in the UFC now, and I don't want to sound arrogant, but a lot of people know who I am. Some of these fighters who want to fight me and beat me, just want a bit of my name recognition for themselves.
Even an English guy, Tom Watson, has been dropping my name left, right and center, trying to get a bit of my name recognition, and I said to him, 'Listen, do it off of your own back, mate, leave my name out of your mouth.'
A lot of the Americans do it, a lot of fighters in general love to call me out, and I get a kick out of it. It makes me chuckle. As long as they keep calling me out, I'm going to have a job for a long, long time.
Weidman vs Silva
To be honest, I picked Weidman to win the fight, but I thought he would win it by decision or submission, or if he did stop it, by ground and pound. I never in a million years thought it would be on the feet. It's a cliché but you've always got to respect your opponent, and Anderson didn't do that. He's been able to get away with it for far too long, and he ultimately paid the price. He paid the price. It's as simple as that. I don't think he'll act like that in the rematch, but in the rematch I think Weidman is just going to be all about the takedowns, and I see Weidman winning the rematch as well, to be honest.
For me, I'm single minded in the fact that I want the title, but I would love to fight Anderson. Regardless of whether or not he lost the other week, or loses the rematch, he's still a legendary fighter. He's going to go down in the history books. He's probably going to end up like the Muhammed Ali of MMA, so it would be an honor to fight that guy one day.
