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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"Honestly, when we asked for the fight, the people at the UFC were like, 'He might not take it. His camp might not take it.' I was like, 'Don't worry about it. I'll make sure he'll take it.' I knew he was going to bite. He took the fight and then I knew he was going to keep on talking...
I watch guys like Chael Sonnen, who was basically going through the same thing. He was a good fighter not getting the notoriety that he wanted. He starts talking a little bit, and the whole world starts watching. I'm thinking to myself, that's the one thing that I feel MMA can learn from boxing. We have to be able to get people to want to watch this fight. Nobody wants to watch something more than two people who don't like each other...
This is how I make my living. Yeah, I want to be known. Yeah, I want to have exciting fights. Yeah, I'm going to bring it every single time. I want to be recognized for that. So let me hype it up a little bit and watch me deliver on it."
-Jorge Rivera talks to Sherdog.com about the reasonings behind his verbal sparring with Michael Bisping ahead of UFC 127.
Penick's Analysis: Rivera certainly accomplished what he wanted to ahead of this fight. He got Bisping riled up, and we'll see on Saturday whether he did enough to throw Bisping off his game. But for a fight that didn't have a ton of heat or interest, he's certainly made it a more appealing and interesting fight than it was initially. So now he just needs to back up his trash talk with a good performance on Saturday in Australia.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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