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Eddie Bravo: - UFC 45: Revolution Fall Out!
Reported By: Boxing Insider - 02/01/2005 06:04 PM
UFC 45: Revolution - Post Fight Interview with Eddie Bravo
Boxinginsider.com: What are was your impression of UFC 45? Do You think the show was a sucsess?
Eddie Bravo: I thought the show was great, it's hard not to have a great time when you see the show live. The best fight of the night had to be the Frank Trigg/Matt Hughes fight, that was epic.
I thought it was a great show, but there were some people that were disappointed in the amount of fights that were actually shown on the pay-per-view show -- which was five. Five is a low number. I think if it was up to me, I'd have a hundred, but I don't run the show, I'm just an employee, so what do I know. It's tough running a world-wide pay-per-view show -- you've got to make sure you don't run over the 3 hour block. And it's happened before and when it runs over, you have to give out alot of refunds and losing money is something Zuffa isn't into.
Photo: Joshua Hedges/UFC.tv
Boxinginsider.com: What was the fight of the night? Could you explain your thoughts on that?
Eddie Bravo: Definitely, the Matt Hughes Frank Trigg fight. It appeared, initially, that Frank Trigg was the better wrestler. He took Matt Hughes down really early in the fight, controlled Hughes on the ground, and had Matt on his back. Matt did pick up Frank and slammed him, but other than that, it seemed that Frank Trigg was controlling most of the action on the ground. Then, after a few scrambles, Matt Hughes got Frank Trigg's back… Frank Trigg thought he could stand up and Matt Hughes would just slip off his back. But he didn't. Trigg was caught in a choke and he ended up tapping standing up. That's something which is very rare in MMA, a standing rear naked choke. It looked like a WWF bout and I think that's what made it exciting.
Boxinginsider.com: What are your thoughts on Matt Hughes as a fighter?
Eddie Bravo: I think he's incredible. Matt Hughes -- I'm completely blown away by him. The guy is just a tremendous athlete. He's got freaky strength. The way he picked up Frank Trigg and slammed him -- not many people can do that. His jiu-jitsu also seems to be improving by leaps and bounds from fight to fight. His stamina isn't too bad either. He's going to be very difficult to beat at 170.
Boxinginsider.com: What about his upcoming fight with BJ Penn?
Eddie Bravo: That's going to be a very interesting fight. BJ Penn is a top lightweight contender -- which is 155, and now he wants to move up to the welterweight division, 170. I know he's walking around right now at about 180, which is pretty huge for him. But he says he's very comfortable at that weight. Will Matt Hughes overpower Penn? Probably, but BJ Penn is almost impossible to submit so if Matt Hughes wins, it will have to be by grounding and pounding. But never count out BJ, he's a jiu jitsu phenom AND Matt has been submitted twice before.
You got to give BJ some mad respect for wanting to challenge Hughes. He just wants to go after the top guys, and he doesn't want easy fights. And what a challenge -- if you really want to challenge yourself, what better test than Matt Hughes, right?
Boxinginsider.com: There were several incidents that marred the event. Can I ask you your thoughts on each of them. First, Phil Baroni was suspended for one year for striking an official. What are your thoughts on that incident and how it transpired?
Eddie Bravo: I don't think he should have punched Larry Landless. The one-year suspension sounds about right. A referee should never have to worry about getting punched from one of the fighters. That's something you shouldn't have to worry about. It should be something that never comes up. That's why if it ever did come up -- and it did -- you've got to stick with the penalties. One year seems about right.
I do think that the fight was stopped early. There were only 22 seconds left in the round and whether you thought Baroni wouldn't last those 22 seconds or not is really not the issue. The fact of the matter is, it's a big mistake for the referee to try to communicate with a downed fighter, especially when he's being mounted and trying to protect himself from dropping elbows. I think the fight should have been stopped based on how Baroni was defending himself. So I think that was a mistake on the referee's part. But things like this happen in all sports, so we all just have to learn from this mistake, make adjustments and move on.
Boxinginsider.com: Tank Abbott's fight erupted into an in-ring melee. What are your thoughts on that -- and on Tank Abbott receiving the largest ovation of the evening?
Eddie Bravo: Well, no doubt Tank Abbott is one of the founding fathers of the UFC. It doesn't surprise me at all that the crowd went nuts for Tank and that they were behind him. He's definitely a legend in the UFC. And about what happened after the fight was stopped against Cabbage, well apparently somebody in Tank's camp didn't really appreciate the celebration dance that Cabbage performed… though, according to one of Tank's trainers, he did flip someone off in Tank's camp. Maybe that started it, or just maybe the actual celebration dance started it. I'm not too sure.
Tank's camp said that Cabbage was flipping everybody off and that's why they erupted. Who knows? From what I saw, Cabbage was doing a little dance, then seconds later, Marsh jumps in and… it's no big deal.
I don't think it's going to affect the sport at all. That happens in baseball all the time -- the bench clears … I think Martinez; didn't he just beat up some old coach or something? It happens. In hockey, there are fights all the time and in basketball there are fights. Why wouldn't you expect there to be a fight at the fight? It's no big deal. I never thought it was a big deal.
Boxinginsider.com: What are your thoughts on Frank Trigg being fined for wearing a porn-star hat?
Eddie Bravo: I was shocked at that really to tell you the truth. I've read about it on the internet but I didn't know if it was true or not. I heard from Joe today that it was true. He was fined and they didn't want him to promote a pornographic website. I'm not really sure what to think about that. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with porn, but I do understand that if we want the sport to go mainstream, maybe you do have to draw the line somewhere. You know, when it comes to advertising sponsors on the TV .
Boxinginsider.com: Ricco Rodriguez walked out in disgust after his fight. Did you talk to him about that? What was the problem?
Eddie Bravo: Ricco was obviously disappointed in his performance with Pedro Rizzo. He never really got on top of Pedro Rizzo, which was his plan. He wanted to take Pedro down and control him from the top. He never got the opportunity. Pedro Rizzo just countered the takedown beautifully and as the fight wore on, it was harder and harder for Ricco to even shoot because Pedro was landing some leg kicks that were just taking the steam out of Ricco's shots.
After the fight, Ricco just was just beat down. Pedro beat him down …I could understand why he was disappointed and left the ring before the winner was announced. He did come back and he was in the ring -- or in the cage when Pedro Rizzo was announced the winner. He just had a mental lapse. He'll be back, though. Ricco's a warrior.
Boxinginsider.com: The 10th anniversary show featured the return of many legends and the induction of Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie into the Hall of Fame. As a mixed martial arts fan, what does that mean to you? And, who do you think should be inducted next?
Eddie Bravo: If there's going to be a UFC Hall of Fame, Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock have to be in it. These guys have been there since UFC #1. You have to put them in. They deserve it. Royce was 175 lbs taking out 260 pound-wrestlers and an assortment of martial artists. He took out a boxer, and he was always the smallest guy, except for Minoki Ichihara -- I think that guy was smaller, but nonetheless, he took him out. Basically, Royce showed the world the effectiveness of ground-fighting and the lack of knowledge that most martial artists had of ground-fighting at that time. He exposed everybody. Nowadays, training jiu-jitsu, training the ground-fighting, is something that every MMA fighter does.
Boxinginsider.com: If you were on the induction committee, who would be the next five people who you would induct into the UFC Hall of Fame?
Eddie Bravo: The next five? Hmm. OK -- Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Marco Ruas, Don Frye, and Oleg Taktarov.
Boxinginsider.com: Give me some of your favorite memories of the UFC over the last ten years.
Eddie Bravo: Favorite memories? Shoosh. Royce tapping out Dan Severn, that was classic. Amaury Bitteti getting beat down by Don Frye was shocking. That was the first time a jiu-jitsu guy was really beat down in front of the world. Marco Ruas taking out Paul Varelans -- showing the world the effectiveness of leg kicks. Everyone started leg-kicking after the Ruas fight. And, let's see, one more, one more memorable moment. Tito Ortiz beating down Ken Shamrock, that was pretty memorable.
Boxinginsider.com: Finally, Randy Couture – The Viewers' Choice. Explain why you think Randy is so popular? What qualities do you think are the most important to the fighter?
Eddie Bravo: Well, he wasn't around in the early UFCs, but he was around in the middle and he's still around now. Considering the fact that he took out Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz -- the top two light heavyweights in the UFC and took them out convincingly AND the fact that he's forty years old -- it just makes sense. Why wouldn't he be the viewers' choice? The old man -- cleaned house! (Laughing)
Boxinginsider.com: Finally Eddie, tell us when we can expect to hear from you again on boxinginsider.com?
Eddie Bravo: As soon as this interview is printed out. (Laughing) I'm thinking about doing a regular column at Boxinginsider.com. That would be really nice to do. I think we could work something out where maybe I could contribute a Q&A, maybe a column once a month or something. We're talking about it right now. We're not sure exactly what format, but I think I'm going to be a regular at boxinginsider.com.
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