The Weekly Wrap: Sept. 26 – Oct. 2

Quoteworthy

“I study the distance, the pace of fighting, because everybody knows how to punch. When to punch is the more difficult part. I train with a piece of wood for about 400, 500 hits a day at each side. I also attack the punch bag to strengthen the movement.” -- Lyoto Machida describing his training regimen to Brazilian media outlet R7 Esportes.

"I learn from my mistakes, I don't feel bad. I'm lying. I feel bad. I feel like sh--. I lost the fight by TKO. But I just got to pick up and keep going. The road doesn't end there for me." -- Kevin Ferguson on “The Ultimate Fighter” following his loss to Roy Nelson.

"Me, I went in and was like, I want Zak (Jensen). They were like, ‘why do you want Zak?’ I was like, well, he got gogoplata’d by Brad Imes, so I want Zak. They were like, ‘you match better against Kimbo.’ I’m like no I don’t. I match really good with Zak, trust me… You just need somebody that will make Kimbo look better than what he is because he can’t lose to nobody else." -- Roy Nelson to MMA Weekly on being tapped to face Kimbo Slice first on The Ultimate Fighter.

"… the Kimbo fans… I kind of ruined or shattered their dreams. But I'm just kind of reopening their eyes or letting them know that their dream could still live on because I suck and I'm going to go around telling everybody I suck so bad that I'm the official suck-meter of the UFC. So if you can't beat me, and I just suck so bad, I'll be the gatekeeper, then you shouldn't even be in the UFC. So at least I'll always have a job because I really suck. I'm just a fat guy, out of shape. If you can't beat me, you need to get some new coaches or something… I'm just kind of going to go with the flow with what the fans are saying. I just want to be agreeable; I want to be a pleaser." -- Roy Nelson to MMA Fanhouse on the response to his win over Kimbo Slice.

"The only thing I can tell you fans is everybody knows I’m a spiritual person and I have to leave it up to my heavenly father. I’m gonna pray to him and ask him what role he wants me to take, what road he wants me to go. He’s the one that’s given me all the skills that I have. For Dana to say that I’m not a movie star and that he’s heard it before, I don’t think there’s been someone like me. So I’m going to pray to my Father, who gave me these skills and see where he wants me to go and leave it up to him. If he wants me to fight and do movies or just do movies or just fight then he’ll direct me. I’m gonna put everything in his hands.” -- Quinton Jackson to MMABay.com.

“Yeah, got it. ‘Battle,’ ‘War,’ ‘Hero,’ and ‘Soldierly,’ are the kind of words you don’t really need to use describing me any more. Stop it… While I’m proud of being a Special Forces sniper and all that… Maybe we should respect him as a fighter and not as a prima donna, thinks-he’s-Tom-Cruise-from-Top-Gun Maverick.” -- Tim Kennedy on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show.

“I'll put dimes to donuts all the heavyweights on the show right now I will beat… Dana always tells people to put their money where your mouth is," Walker said. "And I'll tell Dana that since he says I'm so old, why doesn't he step in the ring with me because he's been practicing, as well?” -- new Strikeforce signee Herschel Walker on “ESPN First Take.”

"My feeling was, if I don't do this, somebody else will. I felt, somebody is going to look at her and go, 'She should be in a movie!' And I felt like, 'Why shouldn't I be the person saying that?'” -- film director Stephen Soderbergh to Empire magazine on why he cast Gina Carano as the lead in his upcoming spy film “Knockout.”

“There's no real motivation anymore to fight (Matt Hughes). We know he's not going to agree to it. It's just a game now. He won't take a fight with any of us and we're just going to keep continuously calling him out.” -- Mike Swick to Cage Potato explaining why American Kickboxing Academy fighters keep calling out Hughes.

“This guy actually asked me a good question the other day, and this is a real story and I really like it: first off, he was very confrontational; I didn't like him much to begin with, and he goes, 'Hey, man, I have to know,' because it's his business to know, 'why did you run out of the cage that night after the Silva fight.' And I said, 'Look, man, I haven't told anybody, let's keep this on the down low, but the truth is your mom was waiting for me in the back to suck my d---, and you know how good of a b--- j-- your mom gives, so I didn't want to be late for that sh--.' And that's pretty much the answer I give. I like that answer, so I'll give that answer to everyone.” -- Forrest Griffin to MMA Fanhouse in one of his first interviews addressing his UFC 101 loss to Anderson Silva.

The Week Ahead

Plenty of action to be had on HDNet, as the Maximum Fighting Championships stages MFC 22 “Payout” on Oct. 2, headlined by Jason McDonald vs. Travis Lutter, and Dream stages a card Oct. 6 topped by the finals of the featherweight grand prix tournament and Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki for the promotion’s lightweight title.