Phil Baroni – This Sport Is My Life: Part II
By Dave Carpinello
In a two part segment, “The New York Badass”, Phil Baroni recently talked with PDG about his upcoming fight for Titan Fighting Championship, Hammerhouse, living and surviving in mixed martial arts career mode, the future of Japanese MMA, the Michael Bisping situation, race involved shit talking, the hardest part of a fighter’s head, video games, grudge match mentality and more!
PDG: In Part I of this interview, you brought up Michael Bisping. You have always been a volatile fighter during your career, what did you think of Bisping’s post fight antics after his fight against Jorge Rivera at UFC 127 (supposedly spitting on Rivera’s cornerman and telling Rivera to “Go home you fucking loser”)?
Phil Baroni: I am going to be taking Bisping’s side on this one; those guys (Rivera’s camp) started the whole thing. They were making videos mocking Bisping and drinking tea and constantly talking shit.
PDG: So you didn’t find the videos at least a little amusing?
Phil Baroni: I am sure a lot of people found those videos funny but I doubt a lot of people from England were laughing. If they pulled that same shit with Puerto Ricans or another race, they would have been condemned for racism. Imagine if they made a bunch of videos of a Mexican opponent eating tacos or they were making fun of black people, there would be outrage in the fight community. I don’t know what Puerto Ricans do but I do know think those videos were racist towards people from England. It seemed that way to me and if I was Bisping, I would have been really pissed off also. If someone was making videos of me, my family and my heritage and putting them on the internet, they would be in serious trouble.
PDG: OK but you still can’t just go out there and spit on your opponent’s cornerman.
Phil Baroni: Why not, it is a fight. If I was in someone’s corner and the guy spit on me I would have punched him in the face and if I had been making those videos, I would have already been prepared to fight the guy in that situation. Rivera lost and he just needs to take it like a man and don’t say you were just trying to promote the fight because you were only trying to promote yourself. Rivera was just trying to be someone and he has never really had any fanfare and to be honest most people didn’t even know who he was. So he tried to swing for the fences but he lost, so why would Bisping want to be his friend and shake hands? Rivera called Bisping out, he got beatdown, he was forced to quit and basically cry uncle, so Bisping didn’t need to hug it with him and be brothers. Where I am from that is how things are done, you talk shit, you get beatdown and then it is over. We aren’t going to friends, deal with it. In some fights guys lay it all on the line and fight for three rounds and then there is a mutual respect but Rivera got his ass beat for two rounds.
PDG: Bisping landed that illegal knee that I believe changed the course of the fight; do you disagree with that?
Phil Baroni: I have been hit with illegal knees before, you can have your opinion and I’ll have mine, but it is a fight, a cage fight. You are fighting in a cage and sometimes “illegal” stuff happens, was that knee intentional? I don’t know but I know that I have definitely seen worse in my career. I can’t even say if that knee affected the fight because Rivera came back out throwing hard after it happened.
PDG: That knee landed flush to Rivera’s face unlike when Mark Coleman was delivering knees to the top of Allan Goes head in PRIDE 13. Goes was knocked out even though the knees were hitting the top of his head (the hardest part of your head) and Rivera took it to the face and forehead.
Phil Baroni: No, the forehead is the hardest part of your head.
PDG: Are you sure about that?
Phil Baroni: Yes, but why does it matter.
PDG: Because my point is that Goes was able to take more of those shots because it was to the top of his head and not to the face like Rivera.
Phil Baroni: OK but Rampage Jackson kneed plenty of people in the face during his time in PRIDE and most of those people weren’t knocked out.
PDG: Fair enough I guess we will just agree to disagree.
Phil Baroni: Sounds good to me but I still don’t think that the knee that Bisping landed was that hard and it definitely wasn’t as hard as the knees that Coleman used to throw. Coleman in north-south position throwing knees was gruesome and it looked to me like Bisping let up a little bit.
PDG: So do you think that knee affected Rivera as the fight went on?
Phil Baroni: I think he played it up a little bit and that when the referee said the knee was illegal he used that to get some rest. If Rivera says he was hurt then it is hard to question him but I have been in this sport for a long time and I am a pretty good judge at what hurts and what doesn’t. When I watched the way he reacted I didn’t think he was hurt as bad as he was acting. I think it just comes down to the fact that Bisping broke him down mentally in that fight.
PDG: Dana White said after the fight that he thought it was an intentional knee by Bisping and he will be punished for his actions in the cage.
Phil Baroni: That is fine, Dana White can say whatever he wants because he is the boss and I am not going to be arguing with him. As far as Bisping’s future in the UFC, he is the most prominent British fighters in the sport and any talk of him being released is bullshit. It was a fight, shit happens in a fight sometimes and his future in the UFC isn’t going to be affected by what happened. Did he throw the knee on purpose? If he did he should have thrown it a lot harder, come on if they are going to give you a free knee then take advantage of it. Bisping should have broken his face with it.
PDG: What did you think when a bunch of UFC fighters started calling Bisping out after that fight (Chael Sonnen, Nate Marquardt and others)?
Phil Baroni: I think he is just really popular right now and everyone wants to fight somebody with a name. Bisping is the “Bad Guy” right now and if certain fighters want to point out what he did and get the public support or whatever, as it seems about 95% of people think he is dirty, then so be it and let them have there chance. Bisping is an easy target but he is also a very good fighter and a winner. Everyone wants to be like Rivera and get the fans on their side.
PDG: Good point, if Rivera wasn’t facing Bisping in that fight he probably would have been on the undercard somewhere.
Phil Baroni: That is true, in every fight there is the blue corner (Rivera and I am not saying he isn’t a tough fighter) and he taunted a guy (Bisping) who probably didn’t even know who he was and then Rivera wants to be friends after getting his ass kicked. Diego Sanchez versus Martin Kampmann was a fight to the death and so after the fight they had a mutual respect for eachother. When two guys get in there and give it everything they have, sometimes you push that other shit to the side and you end up with respect for eachother. If I would have beaten Frank Shamrock, the last thing I would have wanted was to be his friend afterwards and I doubt that he wants to be my friend now. We had a really good fight for the first two rounds and afterwards I didn’t go over and hug him because after he choked me out he kicked me off of him. He wasn’t trying to help me up and you didn’t hear me crying disrespect. I just don’t give a fuck, to the winner goes the spoils and it was Frank’s night. Seriously, what is worse, spitting on the ground in front of your opponent’s corner or kicking someone’s unconscious body (that you just choked out) off of you? If one of my cornermen were bitching about getting spit on, I would have said what the fuck do you want from me, that guy just kicked my ass.
PDG: Yeah but your corner used to be comprised of light tempered folks like Coleman and Kevin Randleman.
Phil Baroni: Exactly and if they complained I would tell them to go fucking kick his ass then.
PDG: Good call on the Sanchez – Kampmann fight from the UFC on Versus 3, did you agree with the decision going to Sanchez?
Phil Baroni: It was a really good fight and Kampmann definitely dominated the first round. In the second round Diego tried several times to get the takedown and with about two minutes left he aborted that gameplan and decided to stand with Kampmann and he rocked him twice. It was a very close round but Diego dictated the action so I gave it to him for the damage. In the third round I think that Diego just wanted it more and he was pressing the fight the whole round. A lot of people disagree but I think Diego wanted it more and that he won that fight. If it was the best looking fighter after the fight that won I would have a great record but that isn’t how it works and Diego had a hamburger face but he won that fight.
PDG: Sanchez said it wasn’t his best performance; out of your almost 30 career fights, which one was the most rewarding?
Phil Baroni: It had to be when I fought Ikuhisa Minowa because nobody was giving me a chance and I was hearing whispers that I should retire and other bullshit. That was when PRIDE was the best organization in the world and I knocked out one of their best fighters in the main event. It was one of the best fights that a lot of people have never seen because it was back in PRIDE Bushido, it was a back forth battle with great stand-up and a lot of submission attempts. I ended up winning with foot stomps to his head in the second round and you have to remember that was back when the first round was ten minutes. I got the win late in fight which was good because I probably wasn’t going to win a decision in Japan.
PDG: Out of the remaining six fighters in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix (Josh Barnett, Fabricio Werdum, Brett Rogers, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Silva and Sergei Kharitonov), who wins the tournament?
Phil Baroni: I really like Barnett but I am going to say Overeem, it is definitely a toss up and I am looking forward to watching the GP.
PDG: Thanks again for your time Phil, is there anything else you wanted to add?
Phil Baroni: No problem, I want to thank the Underground Crowd, FlatlineFight, all my fans and sponsors that help make this life possible for me and don’t miss me this Friday night on HDNet fighting in Titan Fighting Championships.
Read Phil Baroni – This Sport Is My Life: Part I Here!
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