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Eddie Bravo - POST UFC 46 Thoughts
Reported By: Boxing Insider - 02/01/2005 06:11 PM
BoxingInsider.com Interview with Eddie Bravo
Boxinginsider.com: UFC 46 Postscript -- it was a crazy night overall. What are your thoughts on UFC 46?
Eddie Bravo: It was a fantastic night of fights, except for the main event. Unfortunately the Randy Couture-Vitor Belfort fight ended in a very anticlimactic way. But all the other fights were action-packed, especially the BJ Penn-Matt Hughes fight. That was probably one of the best fights of the year and for jiu jitsu fans around the world, one of the best fights ever.
Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan at UFC 46
BoxingInsider.com: The Belfort-Couture fight had a very strange ending. Based on what you know, explain how this type of injury happens.
Eddie Bravo: Well, this type of injury really doesn’t happen too often. It was a rare situation to say the least. Randy Couture threw a kick and threw a right-hand, Vitor stepped back and countered with straight left. It appeared that he missed, but the outside of his left hand seemed to graze his left eye, and people were saying it was the edge of the glove that cut the bottom of Randy Couture’s eyelid. That’s probably what it was. So they gave Vitor the fight and the belt, but it did have a no-contest feel to it.
But I guess you have to give it to Vitor Belfort because it was a punch, and even though it may have been the seam of his glove that cut Randy’s eye, I guess you have to give it to Vitor. It was an unfortunate thing that happened. Everybody on the planet wishes that it didn’t go down that way, but hopefully, we will get to see a second rematch so they could try it again.
BoxingInsider.com: BJ Penn not only won the welterweight championship but dominated it. What do you think happened to Matt Hughes?
Eddie Bravo: I mean there is a possibility that Matt Hughes took BJ a little lightly. It didn’t seem like he was giving BJ too much respect in the pre-fight interview and maybe rightfully so. Here is a guy, BJ Penn, who couldn’t win the light-weight belt, and he’s stepping up to the welter-weight division to take on the champion right away, with no tune up fights. So, I understand if Matt Hughes took BJ a little lightly, but BJ is a special guy. I picked Matt Hughes to win, but I also said that I wouldn’t be surprised if BJ choked out Matt Hughes. A confident BJ is an unstoppable force.
When grooming a boxer you give him 20 to 25 ducks before he’s ready for a belt, and that’s all based on building confidence. It takes about 25 to step into that ring and face a champion with confidence, and not have the crowd faze you. But BJ fought for the belt at lightweight early in his career, yet he only had a handful of fights when he faced Jens Pulver, and he kind of froze and buckled under the pressure. But now it seems that BJ is finally getting the confidence that he needs to take the world by storm. He just beat two of the best fighters on the planet, pound for pound. He beat Gomi in Hawaii and now he beat Matt Hughes. I think BJ is going to take over now. I think he can even go up to 185 and dominate as well. He’s a special guy. Not very many people can do what BJ does.
BoxingInsider.com: What is a “bad night”? How does a fighter feel on a bad night?
Eddie Bravo: Who had a bad night -- are you talking about Matt Hughes? I’m not sure about if he’s had a bad night. I mean, I think if they fought again I think BJ can beat him again. Like I said, BJ with confidence is unstoppable. That’s all he needs and I think he finally has it.
BoxingInsider.com: So if they fought again you think –
Eddie Bravo: Yes, if they fought again I would put my money on BJ now. It’s always been about BJ’s confidence. He’s going to be scary once he has 20-25 fights under his belt. I think he’s going to crush people. He might be able to go up to heavyweight and dominate as well. I know that sounds crazy but BJ really is the prodigy.
BoxingInsider.com: What do you take from BJ’s performance. How long do you think he’s here to stay?
Eddie Bravo: I think BJ can stay as long as he wants. You know, he’s had under ten fights still. He can fight 10 to 15 more years if he wanted to. Whether or not he wants to, I don’t know, but he can. And the longer he stays in the game and the more confidence he gets the harder it’s going to be to beat BJ. I think ultimately, if BJ can stay focused, he will be known as the best pound for pound fighter ever.
BoxingInsider.com: How does Matt Hughes go about refocusing? What elements of his repertoire (both physical and mental) will he have to work on for his next fight?
Eddie Bravo: Well, even though Matt Hughes lost, he’s still, in my book, one of the best fighters pound for pound in the world. But all fighters need to improve on some aspects of the game. You know, we’ve got a lot of world-class wrestlers coming into the sport and, obviously, they have to work on their striking and their jiujitsu. You’ve got world-class jiujitsu guys coming into MMA. They’ve got to work on their wresting and their striking, and Matt Hughes is one of the top NCAA champion wrestlers in the sport. He had to catch up with his striking and his jiujitsu. I think he needs to keep focusing on working on his striking and working on his jiujitsu.
And his confidence is as high as you can get. That guy does not have a confidence problem. Matt Hughes steps into that ring extremely confident in every way. You don’t have to worry about that with Matt Hughes. He’s got the heart of a lion – but, of course, he needs to work more on his jiujitsu, and he’s gotten a lot better -- working with Jeremy Horn on the Miletich fighting systems -- and he will continue to work on his striking. He’s got a lot to improve on when it comes to striking and jiujitsu, but he will always be a feared man. Matt Hughes will always be a war for any fighter.
BoxingInsider.com: Frank Mir showed some solid striking and punching in his match against Wes Sims. What did you think of that fight?
Eddie Bravo: That was an awesome fight. Frank Mir showed that he has tremendous heart in that fight. He was all over Wes Sims on the ground in the first round. He took him down, mounted him, took his back, put him in the arm triangle. He was mauling Wes Sims. But Sims survived and Mir began to fatigue in the fight, and it seemed as if he might just fall apart. But he got it together and put together one of the sweetest combos I’ve seen, 2 perfect knees to the head, followed by a right hook and an overhand left to put him out. Four strikes in a row that connected, that’s really rare in this sport. And all with just a few drops of gas left in his tank. We saw a part of Frank Mir that we hadn't seen before.
BoxingInsider.com: Where do you think Frank Mir ranks now in the UFC heavyweight division? How would he do in a match against Tim Silvia?
Eddie Bravo: I wouldn't be surprised if Frank Mir got a title shot next. I think that, as far as heavyweights go, he's definitely one of the most technical guys on the ground. And his striking's not too shabby either. There aren't too many guys who, at 250 can move like Frank Mir. His jiu jitsu's top shelf as far as the heavyweights go and I think a match between him and Tim Silvia would be fantastic. It would be a hard one to call.
BoxingInsider.com: What does Sims have to do before his next fight?
Eddie Bravo:Wes Sims has to continue to work on all 3 phases of the sport, his wrestling, his jiujitsu and his striking. I think he was a basketball player before. He just got into MMA recently and he has a lot to learn. Obviously his jiujitsu's nowhere near Frank Mir's jiujitsu and he has to work on his wrestling as well. So he needs to continue to train. He's with a good team, the Hammer House, so he just needs to keep pushing forward, because he has the right mental attitude. He loves fighting in front of big crowds, so big crowds will never faze him. The mental part of the game is something that he has all figured out already. He sets the octagon on fire. He just needs to get the techniques down -- the ground techniques, the striking techniques, the wrestling techniques -- he needs to work on that. And I'm sure he'll be back.
BoxingInsider.com: What did you think about Lee Murray’s performance both in the fight and after the fight in the exchange with Tito?
Eddie Bravo: Lee Murray shocked the hell out of me. I thought he was coming into the UFC as a pure brawler. I would have bet that he had no ground techniques, based on pre-fight interviews. He was saying that all he wanted was the knock out -- that he didn't care about submissions, he just wanted to knock someone's head off. And then to end the fight with a beautiful transition from a triangle to an armbar-- that was perfect jiujitsu. I think it shocked everybody, really. And the whole thing with Tito Ortiz, I love it. I love the fact that there's a rivalry between Lee Murray and Tito Ortiz. And after what happened in London, where Lee Murray knocked Tito Ortiz out on the street in the middle of some brawl, and now to bring that same heat into the UFC… I would love to see a match between Lee Murray and Tito Ortiz. That would settle it once and for all. Who knows? Maybe Lee Murray did cheap shot Tito. We'll find out who the better fighter is once they do get a match in the UFC.
BoxingInsider.com: What other fights impressed you?
Eddie Bravo: The Josh Thompson-Hermes Franca fight was pretty amazing as well. Although Josh Thompson did get the decision, I scored that fight a draw. I was the unofficial score-card keeper for the championship fights, but I was actually scoring every fight, just to practice. And I scored that fight a draw. I was in the truck with the director scoring the fights and it looked like a draw to me. It was pretty obvious Josh Thompson won the first two rounds -- 10-9, 10-9, and in the third round, you had to give a 10-8 to Hermes Franca. He almost put Josh Thompson away -- he knocked him down, Josh was rocked. And there is no way you would score that a 10-9 round! If that's a 10-9 round, then what's a 10-8 round? The ref almost stopped the fight. It was almost ended with that flurry that Hermes unleashed on Thompson. So you'd have to give it a 10-8 -- and that's 28-28. That's a draw to my eyes. But Josh got the win. Even so, I thought that was one of the most exciting fights of the night.
BoxingInsider.com: What did you think of the Chuck Liddell-Tito Ortiz "in-ring altercation"?
Eddie Bravo: I thought it was interesting. It was nice to see Chuck and Tito going back and forth talking shit. That was cool I guess, to hype up the next UFC. Tito started it off by saying "f*** April 2nd -- what's up?" And then Chuck came back and said "If you're man enough to stand and trade with me, I'll knock you out and you know I'll knock you out." Tito ended the trash-talking by saying "You lost your last couple of fights, but you've still number 1 in my book" and gave Chuck the middle finger, then walked away. I guess Tito got the last word.
It was entertaining. It's a good thing. It's a good little preview for the next UFC. Fans will see that and then they'll see a commercial for the next April 2nd and they'll say "Oh, I remember that trash-talking" and they might order it based on that little trash-talking session. I think it was a good idea. I was amused.
Boxinginsider.com: Do you think those tyoe of "pro wrestling gimmicks" -- like staged confrontations, the Hannibal mask worn by Murray, Tito playing the heel, etc -- are necessary for the success of the show on TV. Where do you stand on that issue?
Eddie Bravo: I think it's very necessary. Anything that makes a fighter stand out, to be remembered, that has to be good. It's better to watch a fight when you know the history of the two fighters -- if you know whether they have history between them. Or just their past individual history. It makes it a thousand times more interesting to watch than just watching two guys fight you know nothing about -- their style, their upbringing, their trash-talking, their training, how they did in the amateur ranks.
Me, all I need to know is what their style is for me to get pumped. But for the casual fan -- and the casual fan is who's going to make this sport major -- it's better for them to know a fighter's history or "That's the guy who wore the Hannibal mask -- he's crazy." Or, "that's the guy who wore the wrestling mask." It's very necessary. You want fighters to stand out and you want the casual fans to remember these fighters. I think it's great and I think it's necessary.
BoxingInsider.com: The UFC was held the weekend of the Superbowl this weekend in Las Vegas. Do you have any tales to report from the Mandalay Bay?
Eddie Bravo: Well, I didn’t really care about the Superbowl this year. The more you get into MMA, the less you like regular sports. I used to be a big baseball fan, basketball fan -- and a football fan. I dropped baseball and basketball real quick and I held onto football for a while, but this year was the first year I just missed Sunday after Sunday. I used to watch football every Sunday but this year I just had other things going on, so by the time the Superbowl came along, I didn't know who the Carolina Panthers' quarterback was -- what was his name? Jake something? Jake Delhomme? Who the hell was this guy? It was kind of weird so I really didn't care too much about the Superbowl.
Basically, while the Superbowl was on, I got a flight out of Vegas. So, as I drove to the airport, and then on the plane, that's when the Superbowl was on. I missed the whole thing. Actually, by the time I got home, it was the last two minutes. I caught the last couple of minutes -- and it was an exciting finish to a Superbowl, which was kind of cool. But the more you get into MMA, the more you just forget about other sports. I used to be a big boxing fanatic, but it's very hard for me to watch boxing now. Arturo Gatti fought last week and he's the most exciting fighter in boxing -- no doubt -- and I fell asleep during the fight. You can't watch any other sport once you get into MMA. You just lose interest. I could care less that the UFC was on Superbowl weekend. It made no difference to me. It was all about the UFC.
BoxingInsider.com: And what are your final thoughts on the evening? How do you think the pay-per-view came off?
Eddie Bravo: It was awesome. The arena was sold out and I think the gate pulled in $1.7 million. That's not too bad. I could do a lot of things with $1.7 million. I could do some THANGS with that money. I need that money. (I'm doing my Quinton Jackson impersonation.) 1.7's a lot of money -- I could do some THANGS with that money.
Anyway, thank you for having me. And I'll see you next time.
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