Henderson, Faber, Shogun discusses upcoming fights
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The UFC journeyed to the shadow of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco for a press conference in advance of Saturday’s UFC 139 event an hour up the road in San Jose.
UFC President Dana White did not attend the press conference. A UFC public relations official said White was feeling under the weather.
– Dan Henderson said that he enjoyed his fights in Strikeforce and was satisfied with staying there. He had no idea that he would ever fight for the UFC again until he’d heard that “Dana bought Strikeforce because he missed me.” He said he hopes he’s not fighting at age 47 like Randy Couture.
– Faber said that the high ratings for UFC on FOX were “awesome” and that the reported numbers for Brazil were even more impressive.
– Faber tells the story of meeting Dan Henderson early in his career and says that Henderson never runs. Henderson says no comment, but that he can do a lot of other kinds of cardio work besides just running. Faber says Henderson is a pirate or something.
– Faber says he’s learned a lot about playing to the judges, about playing to the people who have opinions that matter.
– Wanderlei says that Shogun is a legend of the sport, hat he has a lot of power in the stand-up and on the ground. If he’s 100 percent, he believes that Shogun can beat Henderson. He says his most memorable fight is the rematch with Ricardo Arona.
– What went wrong for Shogun in the Jones fight? He says that staying on the sidelines for one year is difficult for any athlete because it’s an individual sport and not a team sport. He says that was the biggest difference.
– How does Shogun, in terms of his UFC record, view his legacy at the moment? He’s always trying to improve and to be his best. There are only the best fighters in the world in the UFC and you can only do your best, which is what he’s doing.
– Bowles is cool with being the forgotten man. He’s not the kind of guy to seek the spotlight and all he wants to do is train hard and win.
– Faber says he’ll go five rounds, he’ll go seven rounds, he’ll even do a fight to the death.
Short presser today with the crowd solidly behind locals Urijah Faber and Cung Le. As a reminder, the main event between Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua will be a 5 round non-title fight. Be sure and check back as we’ll have some images from today as well as an interview with TUF finalist TJ Dillashaw.