Wednesday, September 2 11:26 am PT: Achieving a psychological edge is a hit and miss proposition anymore, but you could make a worse attempt than to slot noted stand-up trainer Freddie Roach in your corner.
Roach, who’s trained the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins and Mike Tyson in a career that’s spanned decades, has been amenable to helping out mixed-style athletes in the past few years. (Roach student Andrei Arlovski spent three minutes giving Fedor Emelianenko fits, which is three minutes more than most people get.)
His latest pupil: Tito Ortiz, who fights Mark Coleman Nov. 21. Among other bits, Roach told FightHype that Ortiz pukes a lot. “I think I made him throw up again yesterday...I push him hard and he won’t quit. He sucks it up and fights back and I like that.”
Ortiz’ strategy is pretty solid: fights between wrestlers can often turn into a C-level kickboxing contest. If Ortiz can raise his game to a B, he’ll be better for it.
Wednesday, September 2 12:00 am PT: Those three minutes against Forrest Griffin were apparently more taxing than they looked: according to MMAWeekly and manager Ed Soares, Anderson Silva is due for a vacation.
“He’ll take a rest... he’s fought twice this year,” Soares said. “He’s got three fights left on his contract. He wants to work out [all the] little kinks and bruises that he’s got. He wants to take a little break.”
Beating people up can take a lot out of you, granted, but is this Silva taking his ball and going home with it? The UFC didn’t appear receptive to two of his camp’s suggestions: that Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt fight for a number-one contender’s slot, or that Silva move up to heavyweight to face Frank Mir. (“He’ll box [Roy] Jones before he fights [at] heavyweight,” Dana White told the site.)
