Showdown Joe has arrived in the 'most livable city in the world'.
After an eventful travel day on Tuesday from Toronto to Portland, it was great to finally land in what many consider "the most livable city in the world". Portland is a beautiful city but is there anything better than being greeted by Wanderlei Silva and Demian Maia when at the hotel?
Maia looks great, as does "The Axe Murderer", who took it upon himself to inform me that I need to keep hitting the gym. Silva has been working with Maia on his striking while preparing for what I believe will be a candidate for Fight of The Night at UFC 102 vs Nate Marquardt. Seeing both guys was a great reward after the disaster that was our flight.
Wednesday was a much more grounded and familiar routine. It was media workout day today and an extremely fruitful one at that. Fighters flocked the workout rooms and we were able to interview many of them. All of the interviews will either air on Sportsnet Connected, sportsnet.ca and of course, a variety of content for MMA Connected.
Here are some of the highlights:
Randy Couture is looking sharp and has an incredible way of not only breaking down his opponents but verbalizing his method to victory. With Couture, it's often easy for me to forget that I'm doing an interview as we get sidetracked discussing winning strategies and fighter tendencies. To say he has an immaculate gameplan for Antonio Nogueira would be an understatement.
Speaking of Nogueira, he made it very clear to me that on Saturday night, fans can expect the Nogueira from Pride to show up in the Octagon, not the injured one who fought Frank Mir. Big Nog is fully aware that he may be booed mercilessly at The Rose Garden Arena, but he will have no issues blocking out the crowd and strictly focus on the task at hand; to defeat the hometown hero, Randy Couture.
Co-main event combatant Keith Jardine was as humble as ever. He is your prototypical blue collar fighter that simply doesn't get the respect he deserves and isn't bothered by it. He told me he simply has to show up on Saturday night, go to work, and everything will fall into place. I was especially impressed when he stated he's not into hyping his fights and that he doesn't crave the attention that so many fighters do nowadays. For Jardine, he said "I'm a humble guy and mean when I have to be" - a saying which he will abide by, come Saturday night.
Jardine's opponent, Thiago Silva showed up to the workouts looking far fitter than he did vs. Machida. He looks leaner and meaner than the fighter at UFC 94, who looked overweight and not his ruthless self. He was aware of the mistakes he did in training and preparing for Machida and changed everything up for this training camp. When asked what message he has for all his critics and fans who are wondering if the Brazilian Mercenary has lost a step - he disagreed and stated "I'm back", a clear sign that come Saturday night, we can all expect fireworks when he and Jardine collide.
We also caught up with Nate Marquardt, who was in fine form and excited about this bout vs. Demian Maia. We sat Nate down at our make shift set and it was a great time to say the least. His wife Tesa joined us and was snapping pictures and video as well, while Nate and I discussed everything from his bout, to training with strength and conditioning coach, Jonathan Chaimberg.
Chaimberg is the same coach that works with GSP, Rashad Evans, Shane Carwin and many others. Marquardt (and Jardine) also stated that Season 10 of the Ultimate Fighter is going to be great, what with their training partner Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson at each other's throats constantly. And as for Carwin, both guys believe the heavyweight will defeat TKO Lesnar at UFC 106.
Chris Leben was also in attendance and stated how excited he was about fighthing in Portland, his hometown. He recently opened up a new school but was finally able to get down to training for Jake Rosholt in a much better scenario than he did for his bout vs Michael Bisping. Leben stated this time around, he feels better and the mistakes from the past training camp, will not haunt him in this fight.
I'll be filing regular updates from Portland, so make sure you check out Sportsnet Connected, Sportsnet.ca and follow me on Twitter (and Facebook) to get all of the latest news from UFC 102.
