"Stikeforce has requested me to accept the fight for Sept. 10, to agree on that, but I have not agreed on it." - Alistair Overeem, on his second-round fight against Antonio Silva in the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix. (MMA Fighting)
"I've had some threats of cutting me out of the tournament if I don't participate. I don't know if they're going to do it. Personally, I don't like to be threatened." - Overeem, who woke up next to a severed horse head. "The Reem" appreciated having breakfast in bed.
"He said he couldn't compete because he hurt his toe. ... He was never strong-armed or bullied or disrespected in any way, shape, or form." - UFC President Dana White (MMA Fighting)
"Strikeforce promised me a date in the fall (October/November), I acted on it and chose to go on holiday and start my training in August. Zuffa/Showtime then decided to do it in September and then the ball was in my court." - Overeem (MMA Fighting)
"Showtime picked the date for September, they control the dates and that's when they want to have it." - White. So, I'm supposed to believe that Showtime is so married to that September date that they're willing to sacrifice the most marketable and interesting fighter left in the tournament to ensure the event goes off? Showtime's either thinking with Magoo glasses or they are displaying a greater level of incompetence than Chris Webber 1993 or there is more to this story.
"I love to be very active. I'm going to fight [in] October regardless. If it's not going to be for Strikeforce, then I'll fight somewhere else." - Overeem. Oh, look. There are three UFC events in October.
"Just to clarify because I've seen on twitter where they're saying that he's been 'taken out of the tournament.' Why the hell would we take Alistair Overeem out of the tournament?" - White
THE GOD DELUSION
"This situation made me look at what was going on and I looked at the situation and I’m like, why am I being punished? Is God punishing me for something I did?" - Nate Marquardt, who forgot commandment number seven: Thou shalt not inject thyself with artificial hormone. (Inside MMA)
"I look at that and I don’t see anything that I was doing wrong. If I was being punished, I would know why. So, in my opinion, this happens for a reason." - Marquardt, who doesn't feel like God is punishing him because he (Marquardt) doesn't feel like he did anything wrong. Brilliant.
"God is letting this happen to me and there’s a reason and I don’t know if it’s because he wants me to fight in another organization, if he wants me to come back at a later time to the UFC." - Marquardt. BAMMA's pretty big up in the Pearly Gates.
"It’s actually made my faith very strong because that’s all I have." - Marquardt, winding up and slapping the faces of his family, friends, and fans in one stroke.
HEARTLESS FITCH
"He's the only man that's ever talked s*** about me, and he talked s*** about me when he was protected by not being in our organization." - Jon Fitch, on former Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz. Diaz is scheduled to fight Georges St. Pierre for the UFC title in October. (MMACanada.net)
"I feel that his recent career is very padded. He fought at 160 against some very small guys, and he fought at 170 against guys who couldn't wrestle." - Fitch. And he fought at 180 against one guy who wears braces and another who hasn't met an incoming fist that he didn't like.
"He was just insulting my style. Well, f***in'...if you can't beat my style, then you suck. Sorry." - Fitch. Angry Fitch is the best Fitch.
"He has no takedown defense, anybody who can even wrestle a little bit can take him down all day long and hold him down." - Fitch
"I'm irritated. I'm pissed off. I wanna hurt some people" - Fitch
THE WEEK IN RAMPAGE
"Now when females come and notice me I'm like, 'Aww yeah, this is cool,' but when you get approached by dudes and they want to take a picture with you and they touchin' the small of your back, they wanna touch your arm or touch on your head, it's kinda weird for me. Girls can do all that. I'm happy, bring more girls to the sport." - Quinton Jackson, on Dana White's announcement that around 45% of the UFC fanbase is women. The homophobia, it is like a fasting man high on energy drinks driving through Orange County during a religious revelation. (MMA Mania)
"I guarantee you Jon Jones don't fight me like a man. Just like his boy, his old teammate Rashad." - Jackson (104.3 The Fan)
"I don't lack any passion. This is what I do. But yeah, I got lots of things I want to do. I wanna design video games, a whole lot of things. I want to make motor-boating contests." - Jackson. UFC 135: City of Manchild.
WHITE NOISE
"The problem with female fighters is there's not enough girls in each weight division to create an entire division so you can do these one-off fights but you can't create an entire division." - UFC President Dana White, on women fighting in the UFC. (MMA Mania)
"We talked about a lot of stuff. It was both [business and personal]. We talked about what we're doing, what they're doing, stuff like that." - White, on his meeting with Vince McMahon. Word has it that Dana begged Vince to clue him in on the CM Punk situation. (MMA Fighting)
"You know, we're looking to make a new fight and we have people available and an opponent there, you know, I expect that you should take that opponent but I don't disagree with Rich's position on it." - White, on Rich Franklin turning down Alexander Gustafsson as a replacement opponent at UFC 133.
PARTING SHOTS
"You feel lazy. Your arms feel heavy. Your legs feel heavy, and that's how I felt after the first round. You learn from it. Now I know. ... It wasn't that I got tired. I had that adrenaline dump." - Gray Maynard. The medical term, of course, is lactic acidosis. (Cleveland.com)
"I haven't had to deal with many negative things in my career. Now, I see, 'You suck. You lost to Tito.'" - Ryan Bader. Yeah, well, you suck. You lost to Tito. (ESPN)
"The UFC basically has told me that they're not interested in having me fight at 185 anymore, which is the only reason why I made the move to 205 in the first place." - Rich Franklin. It's great to see the UFC coercing a fighter's career choices. (MMA Weekly)
"I'm officially the first person to ever use it. But I guess if I do something, I do it big. That's kind of my thing." - Cub Swanson, who used up his entire $50,000 annual insurance coverage on a broken jaw that he suffered in sparring. (MMA Junkie)
"It's no accident that he figured out he didn't have to have thumb surgery after I signed to fight Phil Davis." - Rashad Evans, on Jon Jones. It's a little-known fact that Jones first used the injury excuse to turn down a fan wanting him to sign a UFC replica belt. (Sherdog)