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New interview with Bjorn Rebney over the weekend on Submission Radio
[YT]E9AWMX1VEE4[/YT]
Some of the topics covered:
-King Mo situation and if he knew Mo felt like that all along
-Does Rampage really want the title or just wants to make movies
-UFC's relationship with FOX and will it continue
-The Nick & Nate Diaz Situation and if he would sign them
-Who the biggest star in Bellator is
-On bringing the Women's division back to Bellator
-Bellator Champions vs UFC Champions
-If Bellator would always keep the tournament format
-Sponsors and if they'd bring in uniforms
-Fighters Choosing their own entrance music
-Bellator Video Game and when can see it
-How much MMA Bjorn has trained in MMA, what he is good at and who he's rolled with
-The new Everlast Fight Glove
-Typical day for Bjorn Rebney
-Who would play him, his wife and Dana White in a movie about his life
Also answered some fan questions from this thread:
http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2742303&highlight=
Some Quotes:
Thoughts on the King Mo fight and his reaction post fight
"He and I spoke post event, because first I wanted to get it right from the horse's mouth. I wanted to find out what was going on, because I didn't expect it, because Mo and I have had pretty good communication over the last few years since I signed him and I got him the deal with TNA, and we've done a lot of things, and we were doing a lot of things in terms of promotion of the event, so I confronted him backstage. It was like, 'hey, let's pull away from everybody else, get the microphone away from you and tell me what the hell is going on."
"There's no shame in having lost twice to Emanuel Newton and Rampage, but I think (King) Mo was under a lot of pressure. Legacy pressure, position in the space pressure, money pressure etc, and so that loss was not a good one for him. And I think you saw some of that reaction emotionally post fight, is that he was very upset. Now look, I said it, and often times I step away from saying 'here's how I think a fight should've been scored', or 'I agree or disagree', but a lot of the judges have been interviewed and I agree with the judges that have been interviewed. I think that look, I think that Mo clearly won the first round with takedowns. I think Rampage clearly won the second round, controlling the fight in the stand-up game and landing more solid punches, and the third was very close. But as I reviewed the third round and as I've looked at it, now I've watched it multiple times, Mo landed a takedown and Rampage controlled the fight standing, landed more effective punches and pressed the action. So I don't have any hesitation in saying the same that I said post fight, which was, as I watched the fight, and I've been around a lot of fights, I think Rampage win the fight."
If Rampage really want the title or if he prefers to make movies and fight occasionally
"The Pinnacle, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for fighters is that strap, is the world title strap, and I know it's something he and I have talked about many times. So I think he wants it."
"There are some issues and hurdles in the way of that because of the fact that he (Rampage) and (Emanuel) Newton share a trainer, and I think we saw that with Rashad and Jon, and we've seen it before at the top level in MMA. It just so happens we've also seen it at 205."
"The advantage that we've got with 'Page is that those TV opportunities, and the film opportunities, the reality show projects that we're working on with our partners at spike, the film opportunities, are all things that we're doing together. So what's not happening is like what happened when he was with the UFC, when he was fighting and then got an incredible opportunity from an outside source to do a film project called "The A-Team", which did a hundred and twenty million dollars worldwide, and then step away from the fight game."
"I think what happened in the past with him is he got an incredible opportunity to do an incredible movie that was wildly successful, and he went and did it, which is what he should've done because it helps build up the Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson brand and the Q score, but it wasn't coordinated with the promotional company, so they got very upset by it. Well we've got everything under one umbrella.
What to improve on in future Bellator Pay Per Views
"In terms of improvement and things that I might do differently, pacing wise, looking at the show now six or seven times; we're always trying to force as much water through the fire hose as we can when we're doing our shows on a weekly basis on spike. We're trying to put as many fights on TV as possible, so we're always rushing, we're always running really fast, trying to make the show have more fights, and more fights, and more fights. We took a little bit of a brake off of that and we gave more time between fights, told more stories, spent more time doing interviews. I think we may have gone a little too far."
"I would probably do it a little bit quicker next time we do it."
If Shlemenko's loss damages him and aura in Bellator
"When a HUGE man fights a smaller man, does that take away from what Shlemenko has done at 185, does it take away from how dominant he's been as a middleweight champion and from the amazing performances he's put on? I don't know. That's a tough question. We're gonna have to see how people respond as he gets back into the cage to defend that 185 belt, but don't lose track of the fact that he was THIRTY FIVE POUNDS smaller. THIRTY FIVE pounds smaller than Tito when they went into that cage, and you could see it when they stepped in and after Tito made that glorious entrance."
"The question now is not 'Oh Tito's washed up', the question now is what did that fight on Saturday prove, and is Tito really back?"
The UFC's deal with FOX and if it will continue
"They have articulated an expectation of success numbers wise, that they have not yet achieved."
"There is an awful lot of UFC content out there. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, and they're having a more difficult time now maintaining higher levels of pay per view buy rates on average. They're pay per view buy rates have dipped down."
"It's interesting that the conversation comes up and it's interesting when I get asked about it because you don't know."
Bellator Champions vs UFC Champions
"Given that GSP is not in the space right now and given that there are a lot of different 170 pounders out there, but if you look across the expansive MMA at 170 they're mostly strikers. They're reliant upon their striking, they rely on their striking, that's where you see the strength in the welterweight division right now across the full expansive MMA, I think doug Lima beats anybody on earth. If you're standing up inside of a cage and you're 170 pounds, I'll put my money on Doug Lima putting you to sleep.
On when will we see Will Brooks vs Eddie Alvarez
"That's the question. I said it post-fight, per Ed's (Eddie Alvarez) agreement, per all the settlement agreement that we had with Ed to make all these fights happen, the next fight in Ed's contract is Michael Chandler. And that's per his agreement with us. So we're gonna have to sit down and we're gonna have to talk with Ed and talk with all the relative participants. You know, but it could be Chandler/Alvarez three in the trilogy and it could be Will Brooks defending the interim belt against one of our tournament winners. That could be the scenario that ends up unfolding, because contractually Ed is contracted per his settlement to fight Mike in this second fight. So that may end up being the route that we have to go."
The future of the Tournament format
"When I started this company, when I started building it in 2008 and launched it in 2009, the essence in our point of difference was that we were a real sports competition. We weren't guys in a shiny suit deciding who was gonna fight for what and when. We weren't gonna hand pick guys that we thought we could sell to consumers, we were gonna let fighters earn it through a tournament. So that's not going anywhere."
"Will we make adjustments, will we make small tweaks, will we change things ever so slightly to give us a little bit more flexibility? Yeah. We did that with the championship rematch clause. There are some other small changes we're looking at, but at its core, those four and eight man tournament are gonna stay, because that's what's allowed us to develop you know, a collection of the greatest fighters in all of MMA."
Will put up more quotes later when the transcript is finished
[YT]E9AWMX1VEE4[/YT]
Some of the topics covered:
-King Mo situation and if he knew Mo felt like that all along
-Does Rampage really want the title or just wants to make movies
-UFC's relationship with FOX and will it continue
-The Nick & Nate Diaz Situation and if he would sign them
-Who the biggest star in Bellator is
-On bringing the Women's division back to Bellator
-Bellator Champions vs UFC Champions
-If Bellator would always keep the tournament format
-Sponsors and if they'd bring in uniforms
-Fighters Choosing their own entrance music
-Bellator Video Game and when can see it
-How much MMA Bjorn has trained in MMA, what he is good at and who he's rolled with
-The new Everlast Fight Glove
-Typical day for Bjorn Rebney
-Who would play him, his wife and Dana White in a movie about his life
Also answered some fan questions from this thread:
http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2742303&highlight=
Some Quotes:
Thoughts on the King Mo fight and his reaction post fight
"He and I spoke post event, because first I wanted to get it right from the horse's mouth. I wanted to find out what was going on, because I didn't expect it, because Mo and I have had pretty good communication over the last few years since I signed him and I got him the deal with TNA, and we've done a lot of things, and we were doing a lot of things in terms of promotion of the event, so I confronted him backstage. It was like, 'hey, let's pull away from everybody else, get the microphone away from you and tell me what the hell is going on."
"There's no shame in having lost twice to Emanuel Newton and Rampage, but I think (King) Mo was under a lot of pressure. Legacy pressure, position in the space pressure, money pressure etc, and so that loss was not a good one for him. And I think you saw some of that reaction emotionally post fight, is that he was very upset. Now look, I said it, and often times I step away from saying 'here's how I think a fight should've been scored', or 'I agree or disagree', but a lot of the judges have been interviewed and I agree with the judges that have been interviewed. I think that look, I think that Mo clearly won the first round with takedowns. I think Rampage clearly won the second round, controlling the fight in the stand-up game and landing more solid punches, and the third was very close. But as I reviewed the third round and as I've looked at it, now I've watched it multiple times, Mo landed a takedown and Rampage controlled the fight standing, landed more effective punches and pressed the action. So I don't have any hesitation in saying the same that I said post fight, which was, as I watched the fight, and I've been around a lot of fights, I think Rampage win the fight."
If Rampage really want the title or if he prefers to make movies and fight occasionally
"The Pinnacle, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for fighters is that strap, is the world title strap, and I know it's something he and I have talked about many times. So I think he wants it."
"There are some issues and hurdles in the way of that because of the fact that he (Rampage) and (Emanuel) Newton share a trainer, and I think we saw that with Rashad and Jon, and we've seen it before at the top level in MMA. It just so happens we've also seen it at 205."
"The advantage that we've got with 'Page is that those TV opportunities, and the film opportunities, the reality show projects that we're working on with our partners at spike, the film opportunities, are all things that we're doing together. So what's not happening is like what happened when he was with the UFC, when he was fighting and then got an incredible opportunity from an outside source to do a film project called "The A-Team", which did a hundred and twenty million dollars worldwide, and then step away from the fight game."
"I think what happened in the past with him is he got an incredible opportunity to do an incredible movie that was wildly successful, and he went and did it, which is what he should've done because it helps build up the Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson brand and the Q score, but it wasn't coordinated with the promotional company, so they got very upset by it. Well we've got everything under one umbrella.
What to improve on in future Bellator Pay Per Views
"In terms of improvement and things that I might do differently, pacing wise, looking at the show now six or seven times; we're always trying to force as much water through the fire hose as we can when we're doing our shows on a weekly basis on spike. We're trying to put as many fights on TV as possible, so we're always rushing, we're always running really fast, trying to make the show have more fights, and more fights, and more fights. We took a little bit of a brake off of that and we gave more time between fights, told more stories, spent more time doing interviews. I think we may have gone a little too far."
"I would probably do it a little bit quicker next time we do it."
If Shlemenko's loss damages him and aura in Bellator
"When a HUGE man fights a smaller man, does that take away from what Shlemenko has done at 185, does it take away from how dominant he's been as a middleweight champion and from the amazing performances he's put on? I don't know. That's a tough question. We're gonna have to see how people respond as he gets back into the cage to defend that 185 belt, but don't lose track of the fact that he was THIRTY FIVE POUNDS smaller. THIRTY FIVE pounds smaller than Tito when they went into that cage, and you could see it when they stepped in and after Tito made that glorious entrance."
"The question now is not 'Oh Tito's washed up', the question now is what did that fight on Saturday prove, and is Tito really back?"
The UFC's deal with FOX and if it will continue
"They have articulated an expectation of success numbers wise, that they have not yet achieved."
"There is an awful lot of UFC content out there. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, and they're having a more difficult time now maintaining higher levels of pay per view buy rates on average. They're pay per view buy rates have dipped down."
"It's interesting that the conversation comes up and it's interesting when I get asked about it because you don't know."
Bellator Champions vs UFC Champions
"Given that GSP is not in the space right now and given that there are a lot of different 170 pounders out there, but if you look across the expansive MMA at 170 they're mostly strikers. They're reliant upon their striking, they rely on their striking, that's where you see the strength in the welterweight division right now across the full expansive MMA, I think doug Lima beats anybody on earth. If you're standing up inside of a cage and you're 170 pounds, I'll put my money on Doug Lima putting you to sleep.
On when will we see Will Brooks vs Eddie Alvarez
"That's the question. I said it post-fight, per Ed's (Eddie Alvarez) agreement, per all the settlement agreement that we had with Ed to make all these fights happen, the next fight in Ed's contract is Michael Chandler. And that's per his agreement with us. So we're gonna have to sit down and we're gonna have to talk with Ed and talk with all the relative participants. You know, but it could be Chandler/Alvarez three in the trilogy and it could be Will Brooks defending the interim belt against one of our tournament winners. That could be the scenario that ends up unfolding, because contractually Ed is contracted per his settlement to fight Mike in this second fight. So that may end up being the route that we have to go."
The future of the Tournament format
"When I started this company, when I started building it in 2008 and launched it in 2009, the essence in our point of difference was that we were a real sports competition. We weren't guys in a shiny suit deciding who was gonna fight for what and when. We weren't gonna hand pick guys that we thought we could sell to consumers, we were gonna let fighters earn it through a tournament. So that's not going anywhere."
"Will we make adjustments, will we make small tweaks, will we change things ever so slightly to give us a little bit more flexibility? Yeah. We did that with the championship rematch clause. There are some other small changes we're looking at, but at its core, those four and eight man tournament are gonna stay, because that's what's allowed us to develop you know, a collection of the greatest fighters in all of MMA."
Will put up more quotes later when the transcript is finished
