From www.maxfighting.com
"Suave" no Longer, Ricco Rodriguez Begins the Road Back - The Hard Way : :
By Thomas Gerbasi (November 18, 2003)
From the outside looking in, you might have thought that the world of Ricco Rodriguez crumbled to pieces on February 28, the night the Staten Island native lost his UFC heavyweight title to Tim Sylvia. Add to that loss a subsequent knee surgery and controversial defeat to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and you might be looking to hide any sharp objects from the man formerly known as "Suave".
Then again, you'd be wrong.
"I never do anything the simple way," Rodriguez told MaxFighting, and if the interview ended there, that would be the story of the heavyweight contender in a nutshell. But Ricco had a lot more to say, days before he returns to the Octagon on Friday night to take on perennial contender Pedro Rizzo in what pro wrestling fans might like to view as a "loser leaves town" match.
"Putting me against Pedro Rizzo, its two guys on their last contract, so let's come to reality," said the always-candid Rodriguez. "These guys are both on their last contracts, let's finish them off. Whoever wipes the other one out, then we'll work with the other person. That's what it looks like to me, and that's what that is."
It hasn't been the easiest eight months for the young man many thought would be the standard bearer of the UFC heavyweight belt for years to come after he stopped Randy Couture in September of 2002. He's gotten thrashed inside the ring and out, and he's now looking at the world of mixed martial arts through decidedly less than rose-colored glasses. And while that may be a hard pill for some to swallow, it steels Rodriguez' resolve.
"I'm not really doing anything for anybody but myself right now," he admits. "I'm coming off two losses. I come off a third loss I'm pretty much gonna quit. I'm putting all my eggs into one basket, and I'm just training for Pedro. I really don't care about anything else right now. I know that I fight the toughest opponents. I know that I can sleep at night, saying I fought the toughest fighters in the world. Who have you fought lately? Everyone wants to talk smack about me; I fought the studs. I've never run away from a fight and I've never turned one down. I say what I want and I do it. I know that beating Pedro Rizzo would get me the recognition to put me back to the status I need. Just like I knew when I took the Nogueira fight. I got more recognition from the Nogueira fight than I did for the Couture fight. People saw that I had the ability to beat a champ and that's what I did. I beat a former champ and I didn't even train for the fight."
If Rodriguez' tone sounds familiar, it's the same mindset he had, more or less, when he made his UFC debut in June of 2001 against Andrei Arlovski. With a daughter to feed, a girlfriend in the hospital recuperating from a serious accident, and bridges burned with Pride and King of the Cage, Rodriguez had a one-fight UFC deal against Arlovski. Win, and he could rebuild his life with the biggest MMA organization in the United States. Lose, and the former Abu Dhabi champion may have had to look for another line of work.
He won.
From there, it was your typical rags to riches tale, with Rodriguez' next four fights all ending early, culminated with the gutsy win over Couture. But the belt didn't prove to be the cure-all for Rodriguez' ills, and he let complacency and outside affairs enter through the cage door with him against Sylvia, not someone to be taken lightly.
"I just had a lot of personal problems I had to deal with and I brought it over to the Octagon, therefore I didn't have a good night that night," said Rodriguez of his knockout loss to Sylvia. "My cards weren't adding up to what I wanted them to add up to. I really didn't sleep on the fight, I just didn't prepare for it the way I needed to. Also, a lot of people don't know that I threw my knee out in the first 30 seconds of the fight. I had to go to the emergency room a week later to get my knee worked on. My knee popped out in the first 30 seconds of the fight on my first shot."
Even with that adversity, Rodriguez still had a chance to finish the fight when he locked Sylvia in an armbar early in the bout. But seconds later, a stiff right hand put an end to Rodriguez' title reign, and all the naysayers who had doubted him before the Couture fight resurfaced.
Then Rodriguez, always open and accessible to the media, had surgery on his knee and disappeared.
"I didn't want to talk to any reporters," said Rodriguez. "They're gonna ask me ****** questions about why I got knocked the f**k out. No one really talks about the five or six undefeated fights I had before that, no one talks about the people I beat before that. They only want to talk about your last defeat. So do I want to talk to reporters after two losses? No. They don't pay my bills. And then they're going to charge somebody to listen to my interview on their website? I get sick of reporters and I get sick of the same bulls**t questions, the same scenarios all over again. I stay out of sight because I don't even want to get them in my head. Until I do something positive and turn it around, then I'll cut all that s**t out. And my attitude has totally changed about the industry, so now it's one of those things like I don't care about anything else but winning, fighting, and making money. I don't have anybody helping me out or protecting me or looking out for who I take fights with. There's only tough guys to fight now. Nobody wants to fight me. I can't go fight a scrub because a scrub won't fight me. So I'm forced to only fight tough guys. And if people are going to fight me, they want to make sure they get paid. When I go ask for a payday, it's all weird. So this is why I don't like giving interviews, because nobody really understands the whole story of what goes on. If I stay out of the picture, it's less havoc."
After surgery, Rodriguez, eager to get another shot at Sylvia, waited for that phone call. It didn't come
"I've worked so hard for everything I've gotten," said Rodriguez, 26. "I worked super hard for that title, and I think it was a slap in my face for me not to get a rematch. That's what it comes down to. And then, bottom line is, they were sending me over to Japan, two weeks before my fight, knowing that I hadn't been training, knowing that I just had knee surgery. They called me for the Frank Mir fight, and I had just been out of surgery for two weeks. How do you want me to fight Frank Mir two weeks after surgery? This is the s**t I'm coming up against. If the company doesn't like you, they can do whatever they can to destroy you."
But while Rodriguez is lashing out, he still reserves enough blame in the situation for himself.
"I think the company was behind me, but my attitude and my mouth gets me in trouble," he admits. "I just tell it how it is. I don't bulls**t anybody and I don't kiss anybody's ass. I'm not saying I'm against the world; I just have to work harder than the other guy."
You want to talk about hard work? How about a bout on two weeks notice against one of the best heavyweights in the world in Nogueira? And, in the eyes of many, you win the fight?
"You could see the expression on his face," Rodriguez said of Nogueira. "He was shocked that he won. I beat him fair and square, and I know what's up. If you look at the Murilo Bustamate vs Rampage (Jackson) fight (won by Jackson), that was the same exact fight and I just couldn't believe that they didn't give me the decision compared to those two. Rampage was in the same situations - he had an armbar and triangle escape, and he had a guillotine escape. I had a kimura escape and an omo plata escape. They just didn't want to watch UFC fighters come and dominate. Not that night at least. If you would have given me my regular two-three months to train for that guy, I would have killed Nogueira. I'd kill anyone in that organization (Pride). I know I would. I went in there with one guy (Sylvia), got caught with my hands down, and boom. You get lazy, you become the champ, you slack off a little. But if people think there are better people out there than me that deserve a title shot then let them speak. If not, give me my title shot. But they're going to make me fight Pedro and whoever else. This is me working against the stacked deck. But that's fine with me. I like being the underdog and I like it when everyone thinks I'm not going to have a chance to do it."
Given his quick exit against Sylvia and Rizzo's dangerous punching power, many see Friday's bout as a true pick-em contest. And if you think Rodriguez is taking "The Rock" lightly, you would be terribly mistaken.
"I consider him to be one of the most dangerous fighters," said Rodriguez, who has based his camp in Houston with longtime trainer Saul Soliz, and has also worked with the likes of Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Tra Telligman, and Guy Mezger for this fight. "No matter whether you win or lose against Pedro, you're going to come out with a scar that you're going to remember for the rest of your life. Look at guys like Kevin Randleman or Randy Couture; guys he's fought, whether he's won or lost, he's pretty much damaged their thighs with those leg kicks. It's gonna be a tough fight. People don't understand - this guy gets paid a lot of money to fight and the only fights he's really lost have been title shots. The only time he lost another fight was to Gan McGee, and that was because he took a great shot that separated his nose and he couldn't continue. If that fight would have continued, I think Pedro would have come out on top."
But despite the intriguing nature of this bout, at press time, Rodriguez-Rizzo is not scheduled for the main card on Friday. So not only does the ex-heavyweight champ not get a title shot, he has been put on the undercard of his first show back.
"If it was supposed to be the way it should have been, I would have had my title shot," said Rodriguez. "Instead, Gan McGee gets a shot (at Sylvia) first. And now, I'm going to have to wait for Frank Mir to fight Tim Sylvia, which is what's going t
"Suave" no Longer, Ricco Rodriguez Begins the Road Back - The Hard Way : :
By Thomas Gerbasi (November 18, 2003)
From the outside looking in, you might have thought that the world of Ricco Rodriguez crumbled to pieces on February 28, the night the Staten Island native lost his UFC heavyweight title to Tim Sylvia. Add to that loss a subsequent knee surgery and controversial defeat to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and you might be looking to hide any sharp objects from the man formerly known as "Suave".
Then again, you'd be wrong.
"I never do anything the simple way," Rodriguez told MaxFighting, and if the interview ended there, that would be the story of the heavyweight contender in a nutshell. But Ricco had a lot more to say, days before he returns to the Octagon on Friday night to take on perennial contender Pedro Rizzo in what pro wrestling fans might like to view as a "loser leaves town" match.
"Putting me against Pedro Rizzo, its two guys on their last contract, so let's come to reality," said the always-candid Rodriguez. "These guys are both on their last contracts, let's finish them off. Whoever wipes the other one out, then we'll work with the other person. That's what it looks like to me, and that's what that is."
It hasn't been the easiest eight months for the young man many thought would be the standard bearer of the UFC heavyweight belt for years to come after he stopped Randy Couture in September of 2002. He's gotten thrashed inside the ring and out, and he's now looking at the world of mixed martial arts through decidedly less than rose-colored glasses. And while that may be a hard pill for some to swallow, it steels Rodriguez' resolve.
"I'm not really doing anything for anybody but myself right now," he admits. "I'm coming off two losses. I come off a third loss I'm pretty much gonna quit. I'm putting all my eggs into one basket, and I'm just training for Pedro. I really don't care about anything else right now. I know that I fight the toughest opponents. I know that I can sleep at night, saying I fought the toughest fighters in the world. Who have you fought lately? Everyone wants to talk smack about me; I fought the studs. I've never run away from a fight and I've never turned one down. I say what I want and I do it. I know that beating Pedro Rizzo would get me the recognition to put me back to the status I need. Just like I knew when I took the Nogueira fight. I got more recognition from the Nogueira fight than I did for the Couture fight. People saw that I had the ability to beat a champ and that's what I did. I beat a former champ and I didn't even train for the fight."
If Rodriguez' tone sounds familiar, it's the same mindset he had, more or less, when he made his UFC debut in June of 2001 against Andrei Arlovski. With a daughter to feed, a girlfriend in the hospital recuperating from a serious accident, and bridges burned with Pride and King of the Cage, Rodriguez had a one-fight UFC deal against Arlovski. Win, and he could rebuild his life with the biggest MMA organization in the United States. Lose, and the former Abu Dhabi champion may have had to look for another line of work.
He won.
From there, it was your typical rags to riches tale, with Rodriguez' next four fights all ending early, culminated with the gutsy win over Couture. But the belt didn't prove to be the cure-all for Rodriguez' ills, and he let complacency and outside affairs enter through the cage door with him against Sylvia, not someone to be taken lightly.
"I just had a lot of personal problems I had to deal with and I brought it over to the Octagon, therefore I didn't have a good night that night," said Rodriguez of his knockout loss to Sylvia. "My cards weren't adding up to what I wanted them to add up to. I really didn't sleep on the fight, I just didn't prepare for it the way I needed to. Also, a lot of people don't know that I threw my knee out in the first 30 seconds of the fight. I had to go to the emergency room a week later to get my knee worked on. My knee popped out in the first 30 seconds of the fight on my first shot."
Even with that adversity, Rodriguez still had a chance to finish the fight when he locked Sylvia in an armbar early in the bout. But seconds later, a stiff right hand put an end to Rodriguez' title reign, and all the naysayers who had doubted him before the Couture fight resurfaced.
Then Rodriguez, always open and accessible to the media, had surgery on his knee and disappeared.
"I didn't want to talk to any reporters," said Rodriguez. "They're gonna ask me ****** questions about why I got knocked the f**k out. No one really talks about the five or six undefeated fights I had before that, no one talks about the people I beat before that. They only want to talk about your last defeat. So do I want to talk to reporters after two losses? No. They don't pay my bills. And then they're going to charge somebody to listen to my interview on their website? I get sick of reporters and I get sick of the same bulls**t questions, the same scenarios all over again. I stay out of sight because I don't even want to get them in my head. Until I do something positive and turn it around, then I'll cut all that s**t out. And my attitude has totally changed about the industry, so now it's one of those things like I don't care about anything else but winning, fighting, and making money. I don't have anybody helping me out or protecting me or looking out for who I take fights with. There's only tough guys to fight now. Nobody wants to fight me. I can't go fight a scrub because a scrub won't fight me. So I'm forced to only fight tough guys. And if people are going to fight me, they want to make sure they get paid. When I go ask for a payday, it's all weird. So this is why I don't like giving interviews, because nobody really understands the whole story of what goes on. If I stay out of the picture, it's less havoc."
After surgery, Rodriguez, eager to get another shot at Sylvia, waited for that phone call. It didn't come
"I've worked so hard for everything I've gotten," said Rodriguez, 26. "I worked super hard for that title, and I think it was a slap in my face for me not to get a rematch. That's what it comes down to. And then, bottom line is, they were sending me over to Japan, two weeks before my fight, knowing that I hadn't been training, knowing that I just had knee surgery. They called me for the Frank Mir fight, and I had just been out of surgery for two weeks. How do you want me to fight Frank Mir two weeks after surgery? This is the s**t I'm coming up against. If the company doesn't like you, they can do whatever they can to destroy you."
But while Rodriguez is lashing out, he still reserves enough blame in the situation for himself.
"I think the company was behind me, but my attitude and my mouth gets me in trouble," he admits. "I just tell it how it is. I don't bulls**t anybody and I don't kiss anybody's ass. I'm not saying I'm against the world; I just have to work harder than the other guy."
You want to talk about hard work? How about a bout on two weeks notice against one of the best heavyweights in the world in Nogueira? And, in the eyes of many, you win the fight?
"You could see the expression on his face," Rodriguez said of Nogueira. "He was shocked that he won. I beat him fair and square, and I know what's up. If you look at the Murilo Bustamate vs Rampage (Jackson) fight (won by Jackson), that was the same exact fight and I just couldn't believe that they didn't give me the decision compared to those two. Rampage was in the same situations - he had an armbar and triangle escape, and he had a guillotine escape. I had a kimura escape and an omo plata escape. They just didn't want to watch UFC fighters come and dominate. Not that night at least. If you would have given me my regular two-three months to train for that guy, I would have killed Nogueira. I'd kill anyone in that organization (Pride). I know I would. I went in there with one guy (Sylvia), got caught with my hands down, and boom. You get lazy, you become the champ, you slack off a little. But if people think there are better people out there than me that deserve a title shot then let them speak. If not, give me my title shot. But they're going to make me fight Pedro and whoever else. This is me working against the stacked deck. But that's fine with me. I like being the underdog and I like it when everyone thinks I'm not going to have a chance to do it."
Given his quick exit against Sylvia and Rizzo's dangerous punching power, many see Friday's bout as a true pick-em contest. And if you think Rodriguez is taking "The Rock" lightly, you would be terribly mistaken.
"I consider him to be one of the most dangerous fighters," said Rodriguez, who has based his camp in Houston with longtime trainer Saul Soliz, and has also worked with the likes of Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Tra Telligman, and Guy Mezger for this fight. "No matter whether you win or lose against Pedro, you're going to come out with a scar that you're going to remember for the rest of your life. Look at guys like Kevin Randleman or Randy Couture; guys he's fought, whether he's won or lost, he's pretty much damaged their thighs with those leg kicks. It's gonna be a tough fight. People don't understand - this guy gets paid a lot of money to fight and the only fights he's really lost have been title shots. The only time he lost another fight was to Gan McGee, and that was because he took a great shot that separated his nose and he couldn't continue. If that fight would have continued, I think Pedro would have come out on top."
But despite the intriguing nature of this bout, at press time, Rodriguez-Rizzo is not scheduled for the main card on Friday. So not only does the ex-heavyweight champ not get a title shot, he has been put on the undercard of his first show back.
"If it was supposed to be the way it should have been, I would have had my title shot," said Rodriguez. "Instead, Gan McGee gets a shot (at Sylvia) first. And now, I'm going to have to wait for Frank Mir to fight Tim Sylvia, which is what's going t
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