« Is the state of MMA’s heavyweight division lacking in quality? | Home | MMA Link Club: Attitude adjustments for UFC 136 »
Ed Soares: Machida wanted to fight Dan Henderson, Anderson/Henderson 2 almost happened
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2011
Click on “Easy” Ed Soares’ mug to listen to him explain why he’s the king
ARIEL HELWANI: “How did this (fight with Jon Jones) come about (for Machida)?”
ED SOARES: “Actually, (Wednesday) night, Dana called said and said, ‘hey, Ed, don’t say anything, but is Lyoto (Machida) willing to take a fight December 10th against Jon Jones for the title? And I said, you know, yes, let me check with him, but I’m going to tell you yes. I called Lyoto, he was at his friend’s birthday party and I called his phone, it didn’t pick up. And I called his wife’s phone and told her and then she tell, ‘tell Lyoto! tell Lyoto!’ and I told Lyoto and he said yes. Then, I called Dana back, told him, ‘hey, he accepted,’ he goes, “OK, I’m going to send you the bout agreement.’ I said, ‘send it right now.’ HE sent it last night. I e-mailed it to Lyoto’s wife and this morning when I woke up the signed bout agreement was in my e-mail, I forwarded it to the UFC, and it was a done deal.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Was it your understanding that the first choice was to Jon fight Rashad Evans and because Rashad wasn’t healthy they then chose Lyoto?”
ED SOARES: “I didn’t really know all the details that was going on but I knew that they were trying to get Lyoto a fight by the end of the year, you know… at first, you know, we were really hoping to get that fight against (Dan) Henderson on November 19th and then it ended up going to Shogun. But, you know, once again that’s proof that everything happens for a reason and we were really bummed about that and then this opportunity came up. So, you know, it always seems to work out in the end.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And did they talk to Lyoto about potentially fighting Phil Davis on that date and then Phil couldn’t fight?”
ED SOARES: “They never talked to us about that. As a matter of fact, I found out about it when Dana announced it and I was like, ‘really? they never mentioned it…’ But I texted Dana right away and said, ‘hey, even though you guys didn’t ask us, we accept.’ So, it was all good.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “A lot of people are wondering what Lyoto’s relationship was with Dana after the whole story that he didn’t choose to fight on August 6th. “The Anderson Silva money.” Did the relationship get strained a little bit because of that?”
ED SOARES: “No, I don’t think it got strained. I think, you know, we have a good working relationship with Dana and it wasn’t exactly said in the way it was put out in the media that he wanted “Anderson Silva money,” but you know sometimes it gets twisted around and it kind of appears that way. Or things are put out… not the way that they were said. There were reasons why he didn’t take the fight. But, no, I think at the beginning, you know, Dana was probably a little bit frustrated. But after I spoke with Dana, I spoke with Dana right after it happened, I was in Vegas and had a meeting with him and told him. I don’t think it affected anything, you know, Dana… Lyoto is part of the UFC and we have a great relationship with Dana, Dana has a good relationship with Lyoto, and it’s all good.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Dana said (Wednesday) at the press conference that Anderson Silva is suffering from bursitis in his shoulder. How’s he feeling and how long do you expect him to be out for?”
ED SOARES: “I think we’ll see Anderson fight in the beginning of next year.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did they offer him the Dan Henderson fight? Dan Henderson said at the press conference…”
ED SOARES: “They offered us that fight right after he fought (Yushin) Okami, they offered him the fight. His shoulder was already hurt before the Okami fight and we said, ‘hey, let us go check it out before we accept.’ And then we went, in Brazil, we went to a doctor there in Sao Paulo and the doctor said he’s going to need 4-to-6 weeks of rehab, thank God he didn’t need surgery, but he had… he had a torn tendon, I forgot he had one torn ligament or two torn ligaments and one tendon or something like that, not torn but just stretched or something and they said that he’s not going to have surgery and that he’s going to need 4-to-6 weeks of rehab before he starts of training again. So, that was good news but unfortunately it was bad news that he wasn’t able to fight Henderson on the 19th.”
(later on)
ARIEL HELWANI: “There are some who think that if Chael wins on Saturday that a fight against Anderson in Brazil would sell out a 50,000 or 100,000 seat stadium. I’m wondering… do you think it would be smart from a security standpoint to have Chael really come to Brazil to fight Anderson?”
ED SOARES: “I don’t think the UFC or Chael would do that, but who am I? I… the Brazilian people don’t care for Chael too much, if you know what I mean. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure if that was to happen, I’m sure they’ll have increased security around Chael.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think we’ve seen maybe the last of Jose Aldo’s days of fighting at 145 are numbered because he had so much trouble cutting weight and because there are some big fights for him at 155 and if he gets by (Kenny) Florian there aren’t as many big fights left for him at 145, do you think we’ll eventually see him move up?”
ED SOARES: “I think eventually we’ll see that but I think, you know, Jose’s still, you know, this time to me it seemed like he was making weight much easier than he has that I’ve seen even against Urijah Faber. I don’t know. It just depends. But I definitely think in the future we’re going to see him at 155.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Why did Big Nog fight in Toronto? Because he wanted to fight in Japan. He said he was only still 80% when we spoke to him in August after his win over Brendan Schaub. Why did he decide to come back so quickly?”
ED SOARES: “Well, because it was an opportunity to fight Frank Mir and he was going to fight with his brother on the card and it was just, you know… Nog never turns down an opportunity to fight, never turns down a challenge. So, I think he just wants to avenge that loss and the sooner he can avenge that loss, in his mind the better, probably.”
Topics: Brazil, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
1) This is a great match-up. Machida’s kicks could cause Jones problems. Some sports book has Jones a 4 to 1 favorite, which is absolutely insane.
A year from now, I think Jones easily beats Machida. But as of right now, Machida might be able to expose something in his game. I’m still going with Jones as a pick, but man this is going to be interesting.
2) Did Jose Aldo say within the last year that he could fight at Bantamweight if he wanted to? I guess that’s never happening. I am kind of hoping that Gray Maynard beats Frank Edgar so we see Edgar move down in weight and fight for that title.
3) Sonnen in Brazil is a bad idea…. And when I say Sonnen in Brazil is a bad idea…. Think Renzo, Tadeu, & Pentagon…
You’ve got to think if Jones beats Machida that they will do TUF 15 with Rashad & Jon Jones as coaches and remember we will be seeing the coaches preparing for there fight as well on TUF.
Again this is another UFC fight that has left me scratching my head, this is starting to happen way too much for my liking. Bones vs. Evans is a mega fight and why the UFC wants to rush him back to face a guy who doesn’t deserve a title shot is baffling. More and more stuff like this is going to hurt the UFC which I always respected for thinking long term this is a rush move and really is going to lead to the UFC missing out on a close ot million buys fight.