Friday's UFC 141 pre-fight press conference was held at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT and hosted by UFC President Dana White. Highlighting the panel was former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and former Strikeforce, DREAM, and K-1 heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. The conference was open to the public and streamed live on MMA Nation.
UFC 141 will be held on December 30th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more analysis, follow Shaun Al-Shatti (@shaun_alshatti) and MMA Nation (@MMANation) on Twitter.
Here are partial notes from each participant.
Dana White:
- The winner of Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos will fight the winner of Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem.
- The UFC's heavyweight division has never looked better.
- We were the most worried about Brock Lesnar being healthy and able to live.
- "Imagine the heavyweight division without Brock Lesnar. It would suck!"
- Doesn't know how many times Lesnar will fight in 2012.
- "People are going to be ready to see this fight."
- "We're going to do just fine with this fight on Friday night."
- It's a big deal to have Brock Lesnar back.
Brock Lesnar:
- It took about 6 hours after the surgery for him to feel 100-percent.
- He avoided the surgery for as long as he could and it was a major decision.
- "Hindsight is 20/20. I'm back! And I feel good!"
- "Alistair has done a lot of good things overseas. He's had a lot of fights and its an honor for me to get in the Octagon to kick his ass."
- "I'm weighing about 278 right now."
- Hasn't had to make any lifestyle changes since the surgery.
- "It's a free country. He can train wherever he wants. It's not going to matter."
- Believes Velasquez will defeat Dos Santos.
- (Asked about Junior dos Santos) "We're BFF's now."
- (Asked about his training partners) "I don't think it gets much better than Pat Barry. He's a guy that has helped me out extremely."
- "I'm just trying to build my confidence and my stand-up and come back and win this fight to be the UFC heavyweight champion."
- "When I fight Cain again... I'll probably try to slow the fight down instead of running and gunning."
Alistair Overeem:
- The rib injury happened before the Werdum fight and was re-aggravated in the fight.
- He is fighting out of Xtreme Couture. Just recently moved to the United States and is getting used to it.
- Believes he has the experience advantage over Lesnar.
- "I'm going to tear this guy apart, piece by piece."
- The UFC offered him a title shot right away, but he wanted to stay active and not sit out for 4-6 months.
- Believes Velasquez will defeat Dos Santos.
- He has not done anything different for his cardio.
- "What Brock does is fairly straight forward. Big wrestling guys. I'll be prepared."