Ibland undrar folk hur fighters kan försöka skada varandra i en match för att sedan kramas om efteråt. I podcasten Fighter and The Kid talade nyligen UFC-fightern Brendan Schaub om relationerna mellan honom och hans tidigare motståndare efter deras matcher, och menade att han aldrig har ont blod med någon efter en match oavsett om han vinner eller förlorar.
Brendan Schaub (10-5) är som vanligt aktuell i podcasten Fighter and The Kid tillsammans med Bryan Callen. Nyligen talade han om hur relationen är efter att man har gått match mot någon, och delade med sig av sina tankar kring sina tidigare motståndare.
Han menade att ingenting är personligt och att man respekterar varandra när man vet hur det är att kliva in i oktagonen. Han menade även att han alltid hoppas att hans gamla motståndare går segrande ur sina matcher.
”Anyone. Travis Browne, Andrei Arlovski, Matt Mitrione, Lavar Johnson, [Mirko] ’Cro Cop,’ [Gabriel] Gonzaga, [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira, the list goes on. All these guys I fought, whenever you see them it’s just like, ’I get it. What’s up, man?’ You realize what it takes to get in there. There’s no animosity. It’s not about the guy. It’s just, win or lose, it does not matter. I hold no grudges with the guys who beat me or the guys I beat. It does not matter. You’re just like, ’I can’t believe we did that crazy [expletive].’ It’s this kind of weird understanding. Because, you know what each other have gone through. Very special. And, only you two can understand that. Because, you studied film on the guy. You went through it. You did three rounds with him, or whatever. I root for all the guys. Every guy [I fought], I hope they [win].”
”You have this trauma, or this dark cloud. You’ve been through some [expletive], man. Most people can’t understand. It’s so weird, man. Win or lose, I always go back to the locker room and hug the guy like, ’damn man, that was crazy. Damn, I can’t believe we did that.’.”
Han fortsatte med att gå igenom några av sina upplevelser efter matcher, och gav exempel på vilka slags konversationer han haft med sina motståndare efteråt.
”With Nogueira, I was the biggest Nogueira fan. I asked Nogueira how did he prepare for me, what he saw I was doing wrong. He said he could tell I was emotional so he knew if he could weather the storm, he could capitalize on it, which is such a veteran move. With ’Cro Cop’ I just talked to him, like, about his training camp, did he come in injured, stuff like that. Rothwell was great guy. He beat me, came in the back I said, ’Man, I’ve never seen you in such good shape.’ He said, ’Yeah, man. You’re known for your cardio so this is the hardest I’ve ever trained. This is the best I’ve ever looked, because I was worried about your cardio.’ That’s a loss but it takes a little bit away from it.”
”Roy Nelson was weird because we gave each other a hug. It was just the start of great careers for both of us. Just the start. So, we both gave each other a hug and were like, ’alright man, see you down the road.’ Just gave each other a hug and went about business. Lavar Johnson, I asked him, ’hey, did you think I was going to take you down?’ And he said, ’no, not at all, man. I thought we were just going to sit there and bang, and slug it out.’ I said, ’come on, bro. Why would I bang with you? I could wrestle and grapple my ass off?’ ’Because, I don’t know, I thought you wanted to bang.’ ’Come on.’ That was our conversation.”
Hela avsnittet kan ni lyssna på här eller via iTunes.
Foto: Micha Forssberg
