Filipovic is fighting with a sense of urgency because he realizes that not only is this perhaps his final shot in the UFC, but he may be looking at the end of his career, “I’m ready to prove that I am a complete fighter and that I have a lot of good fights left. Of course I’m fighting for my job, and I know this, so I am prepared to win no matter where the fight goes.” the best feeling in the world is a hard workout, a shower and a protein shake. This is my life and I don’t want to give this up. This is my life. Martial arts gave me everything in life. It is not about a paycheck, it is about how I live my life. I don’t fight for free. I am not an idiot, but it is about fighting for victory.
“People say people who spend too many years in prison don’t know how to act when they get free. I don’t know how I am going to act, how I am going to kill time, once I am not a fighter,” he continued. “Retirement scares me, and I have to think about how I am going to handle it. But right now my body is fit and healthy. My body allows me to train hard all week. If I was old I couldn’t do that. Some people are old at 30, some 33. [UFC Hall of Famer] Randy Couture wasn’t old until he was nearly 50. Right now, I am not old. When I am, I will retire.”
Not only does he insist he’s not an old fighter, he resents insinuations that he’s too one-dimensional to succeed in the current environment, where the best fighters are competent, or more, in all disciplines. He’s clearly a hard puncher and a kicker, but he’s been besieged with questions about how he’d handle elite wrestlers or top-level jiu-jitsu fighters.
Though he lost to former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 119 in a dreadful affair, he wasn’t submitted and never was close to it. Mir has arguably the best jiu-jitsu among heavyweights in MMA, but it took a punch to knock out Filipovic.
Filipovic said he’s not simply a kick boxer, though that’s how he’ll be introduced Saturday in the Octagon by ring announcer Bruce Buffer. He said he is a multi-dimensional fighter and insisted he will have no concern grappling with Nelson, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, if the fight winds up on the ground.
“I think it’s stupid to say a guy who has trained in jiu-jitsu for as long as I have is just a stand-up fighter,” Filipovic said. “I have trained with some of the best black belts in the world. I am comfortable on the ground. I can fight wherever the fight goes and not be concerned.
UFC, Ryan Bader to Chase Tito Ortiz
Ortiz came in some 14 years ago as a strong wrestler in a fledgling sport, beating more experienced fighters as well as those with more all-around skill. Bader, after an even more successful amateur wrestling career, entered four years ago in a far more developed sport and has largely done the same thing.
In all combat sports, there comes the day when the role of the old lion becomes to give the rub, as they say, to the new lion. That is one of two themes of this UFC 132 co-feature fight, the other being Ortiz battling to keep his UFC career from what is likely its ending without either a win or a hell of a performance going down to defeat.
The bout is third from the top of Saturday’s card, but with the possibility of Ortiz’s final trip into the UFC cage, the fight has become the center of attention. Ortiz (15-8-1) was asked to retire after a loss to Matt Hamill on Oct. 23 and willingly took a pay cut for one last shot. He was given Bader, a consensus top 10 in the world in his weight class.
The scenario puts Bader (12-1), in his first match since his lone career loss, a thrashing at the hands of current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, right in the middle of a spotlight Ortiz’s larger-than-life aura as created.
“It was an interesting fight, he’s coming off losses and it’s not going to move me up the ladder, but he’s a huge name and people will tune in to see him fight,” said Bader. “Myself as a fighter and a fan of MMA, I couldn’t have passed up this opportunity. I always wanted to fight the legends of the sport, Tito, Randy [Couture], [Chuck] Liddell. I grew up watching Tito come from a similar wrestling background as I did. It’s going to be a fun fight. It’s an honor to be in the Octagon with him and hopefully get the win.”
Bader is a 5-to-1 favorite, by far the most overwhelming odds of any fight on the show. For all of Ortiz’s star power, one fact going into this fight hits harder than Bader’s overhand right: Ortiz hasn’t won since the end of 2006. He’s been plagued by injuries, which he claims are behind him. But he’s only fought top-level guys, and during that period has been very competitive with former champions such as Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin, and came a split second from submitting Lyoto Machida.