THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
"They had a good fight between him and Ben last year, so they need to come up with the best possible fights to sell tickets. Even though me and Cowboy would be a great fight, and it would sell a lot of tickets, him and Ben had fight of the year... I think Cowboy will beat him. Ben's a tough fighter, but honestly he gets lucky in fights. He fights scared. He's not as well rounded as Cowboy is, and as I am. I think Ben is a very tough fighter. If you make any mistakes with him he'll make you pay... I thought I was putting all the pressure on the fight. Ben was running away a lot. I felt Ben fought scared, he fought not to lose, and I don't think he was really fighting to win. I just gave him an opportunity. I served him my neck up on a silver platter."
-Jamie Varner talks to MMAWeekly.com about the rematch upcoming between Ben Henderson and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, as well as his loss to Henderson in January.
Penick's Analysis: Varner didn't understand why people were reacting to him so negatively after his bout with Donald Cerrone, but in interview after interview all he's done is reinforce a negative image of himself. Calling a fighter scared and playing off a defeat as "lucky" on the part of his opponent only makes him come off as a poor loser and a bad sport, when really he needs to accept the fact that he got beat by a better man in January. At the very least he keeps up the fans' interest in seeing him get beat by either Henderson or Cerrone in an eventual rematch.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...