Thursday's UFC 142 pre-fight press conference took place at 7:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. ET and featured UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and undefeated challenger Chad Mendes. Middleweight contenders Vitor Belfort and Anthony Johnson were also in attendance. Along with live updates and notable quotes, MMA Nation provided a video of the conference inside this StoryStream.
UFC 142 is slated for January 14th at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For more analysis, follow MMA Nation (@MMANation) and Shaun Al-Shatti (@shaun_alshatti) on Twitter.
Jose Aldo:
- (Aldo spoke in Portuguese for a majority of the presser)
- Mainly focused on cutting weight today.
- At the right time, when Ed (Soares) and my team thinks it is the right time, (a move up to 155 pounds) will happen.
- Our sport is growing in the communities. There is always a chance we can find a new Vitor, a new Jose Aldo, a new Anderson in the schools.
Chad Mendes:
- I feel great. I'm treating this like it's any other fight in the United States.
- I'm probably going to get booed because I'm here in Jose's backyard, but I can't understand Portuguese.
- Jose's a great champion. He's a big fighter here in Brazil and has many fans. He's a fighter I've watched for a while, I still remember his first WEC fight... I always hoped to fight him for that belt.
- He's a very explosive, precise striker and black belt in jui-jitsu, so my strategy is to use my wrestling pedigree to get in there and stop his muay thai and jui-jitsu .
- I come into every fight knowing I'm going to win in my heart. Mentally and physically, I'm more ready than I've been in any other fight.
- Saturday I'm going to get in there and show the world why I'm the best.
- I have a lot of friends, a lot of family that wanted to come to this fight, but obviously it's an expensive trip.
- Overall, I don't feel any extra pressure being over here.
- Urijah has helped me a lot for this camp. He's been in there and helped me a lot with Jose... Really worked a lot on leg kicks and Jose's stand-up skill.
Anthony Johnson:
- I'm speechless about this country... All I've experienced is great things, so thank you Brazil.
- I worked really hard for this fight. I have nothing to lose. No pressure is on me.
- The one thing that motivated me really hard for this fight, was Vitor Belfort said look forward to seeing a hungry, hungry lion... But I'm hungry too and I'm looking forward to the fight.
- Vitor's an amazing athlete. Very fast and very powerful so you have no choice but to respect him. So I'm willing to respect him, but I'm not afraid of him.
- As far as my strategy, it's called 'get it done.'
- It's crazy. I'm still speechless that I'm in Brazil.
- Preparation for this fight was amazing. I didn't have any injuries and trained really hard with the Blackzilians and Rashad Evans. Everything went perfect.
Vitor Belfort:
- (Belfort spoke in Portuguese for a majority of the presser)
- I can imagine everything I've been through, myself and other athletes, we've had to be pioneers, especially in Brazil.
- Dana White and Lorenzo invested a lot in this sport, especially abroad... They were eventually be able to remove that stigma.
- This sport has a lot to teach people because martial arts is nothing more than physical and mental respect.
- Brazil is very rich in fighters. All of them are champions.
- I think each person harvests what they plant. I can only speak for myself. Some people do anything for money, and others don't. I live off principles; I am what I am.