More than 800 miles separate the Canadian cities of
Winnipeg and Calgary. Regardless, UFC’s director of operations for Canada, Tom
Wright, assured the press Tuesday afternoon UFC 161 in Winnipeg would be far
and away from last summer’s Calgary card — a card UFC boss Dana White famously
said, “sucked.” Like it’s Calgary counterpart, Winnipeg’s UFC 161, scheduled
for June 15, has been beset by injuries, including injuries to Renan Barao and
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, that forced the cancellation of two headline bouts.
“Injuries are part of any sport and they’re certainly
part of this sport,” Wright said. “But when you take a look at this you’ll see
the 161 card has two Ultimate Fighter champions, you’ve got two former
Strikeforce champions, you’ve got a former light heavyweight champion in Rashad
[Evans] and a former Pride champion. . . Winnipeg, Manitoba is not going to be
disappointed.”
Other quick hits from the call:
• Evans
will be returning to the Octagon for the first time since his listless
unanimous decision loss to Nogueira last February at UFC 156. Earlier this
year, the 33-year-old Evans talked about worries of being cut by the UFC with
another bad outing. But now, it seems, Evans is only looking forward. “You
definitely want to get the monkey off your back when you stink up the joint,”
Evans said. “I’m going to go out there and put on a show but not only to shut
all the naysayers up but for myself. I felt like I let myself down more than
anything and I can live with disappointing anyone else but I can’t live with
disappointing myself.”
• Evans’s
opponent in the main event, Dan Henderson, is also seeking redemption.
Henderson dropped a split decision to Brazilian Lyoto Machida at UFC 157 last
February. It’s a loss that obviously still irks Henderson. “I know I didn’t
perform to my best and I could have done some things differently, but it’s hard
to fight a guy that doesn’t really want to fight you.” But Machida, Henderson
admits, isn’t the only fight from the past that irritates him. He said he still
has “unfinished business” with Jon Jones. Henderson and Jones were scheduled to
fight last September before a knee injury forced Henderson to withdraw. UFC
matchmakers then leapfrogged Henderson and paired Jones with Chael Sonnen.
• After
dropping Cheick Kongo at UFC 159 last April with his trademark knockout punch,
fifth-ranked heavyweight Roy Nelson jumped atop the Octagon and rubbed his
hands around his ample belly in celebration. When asked about his “everyman”
physique, Nelson didn’t mince words. “People who tend to be in our sport tend
to abuse PEDs or performance-enhancing drugs, so that’s the reason why I
probably don’t look like the typical UFC fighter,” he said. Nelson accepted a
bout with Stipe Miocic on short notice after he said Daniel Cormier declined to
fight him. (Source)
