In honor of their Aug. 8, 2009 event to be held at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pa., the UFC held a “UFC 101: Declaration” media conference call today.
Headliners UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn and Kenny Florian, along with Forrest Griffin and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva fielded questions from the media and uh… one impostor.
Here is the audio with a few of the highlights after the jump:
UFC 101 conference call
[podcast]http://promma.info/audio/ufc101.mp3[/podcast]
The audio quality is not the greatest to begin with but does improve.
B.J. Penn was asked (9:35 mark)why he had been making more posts on his personal website and less interviews with the media. B.J. got straight to the point. “I didn’t like how the media portrayed me after the GSP fight,” he said. “I didn’t like how MMA Weekly portrayed me after the GSP fight…That’s just it. I don’t like how Sherdog, how MMA Junkie, how MMA Weekly, and all you guys portrayed me after the GSP fight and I’m done working with you guys,” stated Penn.
When asked how he feels he was portrayed, B.J. replied (10:30 mark), “All you reported was Penn files a complaint that GSP took a pill that made him greasy. You guys didn’t want to report on anything else, how we warned the commission before the fight. You didn’t want to report on anything.”
“You’ve got to remember when Ryan Bennett (founder of MMA Weekly) died, our family, my family, donated how much stuff for you at MMA Weekly? We kept doing stuff for MMA Weekly because of our love for Ryan Bennett and that’s how you want to treat us? But whatever, I’m done with you guys,” explained the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
One of the most “interesting” parts of the call (around the 30:00 mark)had to be when an impostor told B.J. he had heard a recent interview with him on a certain website (that the impostor was obviously trying to promote) and wanted to know if it was true if he got the name “B.J.” from a camp counselor in eighth grade.
When B.J., who had not got the joke yet, said “Camp counselor?” The impostor replied, “Or was it from your gay porn days? Did you do gay porn?” Penn half-laughing said, “Gay porn? How about I kick your ass?”
If the first time was not bad enough, the impostor somehow got back on the call (around the 38:30 mark) and once again tried to promote his website by saying, “I want to direct everybody in the media to go to a certain website.” He then said, “And B.J. I really want to kick your ass too.”
Other highlights of the call included B.J. talking about how if you are a fighter, it is not good to be around your daughter right before a fight. “If you love your daughter and like to fight, it’s not good to be around her before the fight, it makes you weak,” said Penn.
At one point Penn makes a statement about UFC President Dana White regarding something White said about Penn prior to his fight with Georges St. Pierre. “Dana started talking about stuff he didn’t know about, saying I was surrounded by yes men,” said Penn.
B.J. was asked why it seems there is always some kind of bad blood between he and his opponents and if he needed to be angry at the other guy. “No not all, I don’t know why this keeps happening,” said Penn. He goes on to explain his theory on the situation.
Anderson Silva was asked, if he defeats Forrest Giriffin, will he continue to fight at 205 lbs. even though he would never fight for the title as long as his friend Machida is the champion. Ed Soares, speaking on behalf of Silva, stated that Anderson just wants to participate in “the big fights” whether they are at 205 or 185. He will defend his belt at 185 when there is a worthy opponent but other than that he just wants the “big fights” in either weight class.
There are many more nuggets in the audio. These were just a few points that stuck out in my head as I listened.
By: Jack Bratcher