by: Alex Mattis
UFC 130 goes down this Saturday night in Las Vegas and while the event’s overall intrigue cooled down with the loss the Edgar-Maynard III, the event still boasts two huge fights. In the co-main event of the evening, former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir will meet ‘Big Country’ Roy Nelson. 130’s feature bout will set a tone in the light heavyweight division as Matt Hamill looks to gain his biggest win to date over former champ, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. These four men recently took part in a media conference call for the event and the most interesting quotes, to no one’s surprise, came from Rampage.
Many have been questioning Jackson’s commitment to the sport of MMA and even more have questioned if he still has the desire to compete. These questions were intensified leading into this event when Jackson had stated he wasn’t excited about the fight. When addressing the media, Jackson labeled it as a “misconception” and drove his point home when he added, “I’m not really excited about anyone I fight!”
Quinton seemed distant and frankly perturbed during the call, which is highly understandable when you take in to account what fans and media have been saying about him for over a year. His opponent, however, couldn’t have been happier to be there. Matt Hamill took no offense to any comments made by Rampage thus far. Hamill thanked Rampage for the opportunity and even went as far as defending Rampage’s disinterest in fighting him: “Rampage should think about fighting the top guys.” Hamill admitted multiple times throughout the call that he isn’t in the ‘Top 10,’ but knows a win here will put him up there.
Jackson acknowledged that he took exception to Hamill previously stating he was going to break his will. “I think Matt made a mistake when he said he was gonna break my will and I’m gonna overlook him. That lit a fire under my ass and made me train a little harder so I can break his will so I can make sure I outclass him.”
Both of the big boys taking center stage on the 28th admitted they were a tad reluctant to take the fight against one another as they would considered one another a good acquaintance. Mental struggles aside, both are coming in with the business is business attitude, or as Roy put it “Eh, we get paid to win.”
Nelson is coming off of one of the ballsiest losses in recent memory against Junior Dos Santos, whereas Mir is coming off of quite the ugly win. Point being? A win is needed for both. Redemption is also on the line as the famed grappling video of the two, in which Nelson won, has been the topic of much discussion leading into this bout. Neither man sees much weight in comparing the two but Nelson assured he is a “bigger and fatter guy now.”
Both of these hard-hitting battles go down Saturday night. Also on the card will be Thiago Alves who is slated to fight the unbelievably overlooked Rick Story, Stefan Struve and Travis Browne will wildly exchange, and Brian Stann (AMERICA!) looks to keep his middleweight run afloat against returning Jorge Santiago.
Don’t miss it, yo!
