UFC 63 Press Conference Notes

Vista Room B of the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim was packed today for the UFC 63 pre-fight press conference. The presser was an opportunity for UFC President, Dana White and for some of the featured fighters from this Saturday’s event to hold court with reporters and answer questions. BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Mike Swick, David Loiseau, Rashad Evans, Jason Lambert, Roger Huerta and Jason Dent, Joe Lauzon and Jens Pulver all took turns at the podiums.

By in large, the comments from fighters were short on trash talk and heavy on sincerity. The former lightweight champion, Jens Pulver, who is returning to the UFC Saturday against Lauzon, had the most threatening words of the afternoon. Pulver promised fireworks saying, “I’m going to knock him out. If his hands are down and his chin is up, I’m going to shatter it”.

But Pulver, who left the UFC after winning the lightweight belt over four years ago, also produced some of the more reflective moments of the event.

“I think the biggest thing right now everybody asks ‘you’re back, how do you feel?’. Well up until right now, like there’s a bull’s eye shot right around my chest. I’ve got a lot of representation to do for the 155lbs division. I know I’m back to go after a title that was mine, once. Leaving the first time, you know, sometimes you’ve got learn things the hard way and uh, you’ve got to go down different roads to see what it is you miss and what it is you want to do. This is where I want to be. I’m home. I’m extremely excited for the 155lbs division. I’ve been an advocate for the lightweights forever. What I’d like to see one day is for people buying tickets, pay per views, for a 155lbs main event” Pulver said.

Throughout Pulver’s words, his opponent Joe Lauzon stared either at Pulver or straight ahead intensely. It became even clearer during Lauzon’s comments that the recent college graduate sees the opportunity before him.

“I hope everyone is ready for a fight, I know I am. Jens wants to knock me out, I want to submit him. We all know that. So it’s going to be a fight. It’s going to come down to who wants it more.”

David Loiseau took a 5-round beating from Rich Franklin when he challenged for Franklin’s middleweight title at UFC 58 in March, but insists that he’s learned lessons and is ready for his fight Saturday with Mike Swick.

“Whatever doesn’t kill you, you know, makes you stronger and I’ll definitely be stronger…

For his part, Swick, who Dana White called “one of the most promising fighters” in the UFC, seemed focused and respectful of Loiseau. “Obviously he has very dangerous elbows. He’s got very good kicks, so all of these are taken into consideration. He is a great opponent. But I’m the hungriest I’ve ever been and this will be the best fight of my career”.

Roger Huerta showed up for the first UFC press conference of his career with his club in the Spanish-language media outlet representatives. For a debuting lightweight to be given the stage so soon, represents a clear push for Huerta. All he has to do now is win. The unassuming and well-spoken lightweight will be fighting Jason Dent after his originally scheduled opponent, Jason Reinhardt was forced out of UFC 63 with a neck injury.

Neither fighter, Huerta with the short notice opponent change nor Dent with taking the fight on short notice, believed that the limited notice will be a factor. Huerta, who has already had his UFC debut postponed once because of an injury to his right arm, is going into this fight with a hyper extended left arm but is none deterred.

“I’m pretty excited to be here. Expect a war” adding in Spanish, “For the Latinos, I hope you support me and I’m going to be fighting for you all as well”.

Dana White’s reaction to Huerta’s bilingual fluency brought about a collective laugh in the room. “Finally” said White, “a fighter with a Hispanic last name that can speak Spanish”, ostensibly referring to other fighters with Latin surnames like Tito Ortiz.

The other laughs were provided by a typically confident but self deprecating and not all together politically correct BJ Penn. Penn spoke about how his motivation for fighting spiked when he signed to fight Hughes instead of going through with a previously scheduled match with an opponent hailing from Japan.

“It definitely put some pep in my step. I mean who would you rather fight, a Japanese guy you’ve never heard of or Matt Hughes?” Penn quipped prompting nervous laughter.

Bt Penn’s next barb was directed to himself when he referenced his weight, which has fluctuated from 155lbs to 190lbs depending on his opponents, as well as shape. While Penn says he weighs around 167lbs now and will have no trouble making weight, he joked that “Everybody thought I was “Cabbage” Penn’s heavyweight teammate, Wesley Correira) a couple months ago”.

Turning towards his fight preparation and how he has changed it, including he says, the elimination of hard sparring, Penn reveals his fight paradigm.

“When you sit there and you go through all of these thousands of rounds of sparring and this and that, to me it’s just a waste of time. I only need ego on night and that’s on fight night so I just save my ego till that night” Penn said.

“I just want to be amped up and ready to go just like when you fight when you are a kid” Penn added.

Hughes was honest and revealing. Speaking to what he credits his first loss to Penn to Hughes admitted that “I definitely made mistakes in that fight but it comes down to BJ was the better man that night. I mean there is nothing I can say to get around it. I don’t think I had the best day of my life and I think BJ had a decent day. He was just better that day. I’m making no excuses”.

Hughes went into detail how the most important changes in him are not just physical, but spiritual.

“There’s a lot less pressure on my shoulders now. Before I was always defending, defending, defending, and now I go in with the attitude that I’m going to win a new title. Every time I get to fight for the belt and so takes pressure off right there. Right after I lost to BJ I became a Christian and it’s a sin to worry…Since becoming a Christian, I just don’t worry about things. If I go out there and get my hand raised, that’s great. If I go out there and lose, and it’s God’s way, then live with that as well”.

The presser didn’t end without both a warm handshake between Penn and Hughes as Penn reached out to Hughes while at the podium, as well as an intense stare down. Both gestures a reflection, respectively, of the character of both men as well as the magnitude of the title fight.

UFC 63 Press Conference Coverage by InsideFighting.com