Watch today’s pre-UFC on FOX 9 press conference on MMAjunkie at 4 p.m. ET
- from http://mmajunkie.com/ on Dec 12, 2013
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The pre-event news conference for this week’s UFC on FOX 9 event took place today, and if you missed out, you can get all the highlights here from MMAjunkie’s live coverage of the media and fan event.
UFC on FOX 9 takes place Saturday at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Attendees at today’s news conference included UFC President Dana White and fighters Demetrious Johnson, Joseph Benavidez, Urijah Faber, Michael McDonald, Chad Mendes, Nik Lentz, Joe Lauzon and Mac Danzig.
For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 9, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
Featherweight Nik Lentz is asked if he feels disrespected being such a big underdog to Chad Mendes. “It makes me think I can win a lot of money. I don’t care what the odds say. I know I’m going to win. When it comes to the fight, I’m going to win and I’ve never been in better shape, never been more confident, and I can’t wait for Saturday.
Dana is asked if he’s considered the winners of any of Saturday’s fights as potential coaches on Season 20 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” But the UFC president says they haven’t even remotely considered who will coach the all-women’s strawweight edition of the show yet – they need to get through Season 19 first before they start to figure that one out.
Joseph Benavidez says he’s only watched his first fight with Demetrious Johnson one time – the night of the fight, after UFC 152, when he lost a split decision. Said he went to his room, saw a link and decided to “just get this over with” and watched it then, but not since. But he says the first one was good, and he believes this rematch will be just as good.
Benavidez says there’s no pressure fighting in Sacramento. Instead, fighting with the hometown atmosphere, he just has “a greater amount of support.”
Mac Danzig says he’s really happy to have his fight with Joe Lauzon bumped up to the main card when Carlos Condit-Matt Brown fell off. “We get to showcase our skills to even more people. But just fighting in the UFC alone, whether you’re the first event on the prelims or the main event of a pay-per-view, it’s about the fight itself and the moment itself. It doesn’t change my focus or the way I’m going into this. I’m going in 110 percent no matter what, and I’m just happy to be here.”
Danzig drops a bit of a bombshell when he says he’s managing himself, and doesn’t have any sponsors for this fight. He wanted “to do things on my own this time. Maybe it’s silly to blow off money, but I’m happy to be a part of the UFC.” Danzig says he was tired of being just someone to have a sponsor slap a logo on his butt and not care about him.
“It’s about damn time, for sure, that I got some attention.” – Nik Lentz comments on his fight with Chad Mendes, and isn’t sure why people think Mendes will knock him out. Mendes counters and says that if he doesn’t knock him out, he’ll be all over him the whole fight – which elicits some major eye rolling from Lentz.
Joe Lauzon has 12 bonus wins in the UFC, including five “Fight of the Night” victories. But he tells MMAjunkie’s John Morgan that he’s not out there trying to get a bonus check.
“I don’t try to get ‘Fight of the Night.’ Ever. Almost every time I’ve gotten ‘Fight of the Night,’ it’s been on a losing effort. I try to finish people quick and have exciting fights. But most importantly, I’m trying to win. I’m not trying to have a three-round war with my head caved in. I’m not getting caught up in the bonus money – I just want to win.”
For the record, Lauzon is 1-4 in bouts he gets “Fight of the Night” in, with the lone win coming … wait for it … wait for it … on FOX, when he submitted Jamie Varner and got a second bonus for “Submission of the Night.”
Michael McDonald says he and Urijah Faber both have strengths. “He’s going to get me with what he’s trying to do, and I’m going to get him with what I’m trying to do, and the person who can get through those things and endure will come out on top. I don’t really know what’s going to happen, but I know I’m going to hit him, he’s probably going to hit me, and we’re just going to see what happens, I guess.”
Chad Mendes admits he doesn’t like Nik Lentz – “his demeanor, the way he thinks he’s going to run through me. He’s cocky, and I just don’t like it.” Says Lentz hasn’t fought anyone of Mendes’ caliber, and “he’s going to fight someone who’s a true No. 1 contender and he’s going to feel it.”
Lentz said he was confident, or he wouldn’t have taken the fight. He had the option, he says, to opt out of the fight, but why else would he take it if he wasn’t confident he could win?
Dana White says he love sit that Nik Lentz wanted to step up to fight Chad Mendes. “Good job, Nik – I love it.”
Chad Mendes: “I’m hoping I go out there and put on a great statement and (a fight with champ Jose Aldo) is next. But that’s up to (Dana White).”
Dana White says about 46 percent of the UFC’s fanbase now is women. “There are situations now where I’ll meet people and they say, ‘My wife got me into the UFC.’”
Urijah Faber rattles off some other Team Alpha Male fighters who aren’t yet in the UFC, and has a list that includes Alex Sandoval and Lance Palmer.
Dana White wraps things up, and they’ll quickly tear down the stage for fighter faceoffs. Stay tuned … Lentz-Mendes could be fun.
Chad Mendes and Nik Lentz’s faceoff was less heated than a couple moments in the news conference between them.
Joe Lauzon and Mac Danzig
Urijah Faber and Michael McDonald
Flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez, your UFC on FOX 10 main event on Saturday night from Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.
That’s a wrap from the UFC on FOX 10 pre-fight news conference. Make sure to keep it tuned to MMAjunkie through the rest of the week and the weekend for tons of coverage from UFC on FOX 10. Then don’t miss the fights on Saturday on FOX (8 p.m. ET), FOX Sports 1 (5 p.m. ET) and MMAjunkie (4:30 p.m. ET).
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UFC boss Dana White is in the building. Talks about how the UFC is glad
to be back in Sac-town. To open up, MMAjunkie’s John Morgan asks White
if the flyweight division is getting the respect it deserves. White says
he thinks it is, and lauds the rematch between champion Demetrious
Johnson and onetime challenger Joseph Benavidez.