Saved by Fighting, Rivera Will Always Respect the Game
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- Category: UFC News
- Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 05:00
- Written by By Thomas Gerbasi
If things seem a little bit different for Jorge Rivera this time around, days before his UFC 133 bout with Costa Philippou on Saturday in Philadelphia, that would be an accurate assessment.
There’s no trash talk, no bad blood, no tempers flaring like there was in February, when Rivera and Michael Bisping went to war before, during, and even after their UFC 127 match. It was almost out of character for the always affable Rivera, leading to the question, had he ever been in a fight quite like that?
“Not professionally,” he laughs. And he keeps laughing, because when you think about it, bad blood or not, at the end of the day, you put on the gloves and settle your business in the Octagon.
“It’s a fight,” he agrees. “Whether I love you or hate you, I’m going to go in there and punch you in the face, and vice versa. We’re not gonna always like one another.”
And when it was all over at Acer Arena in Sydney, Bisping was the one who emerged victorious via second round TKO. It wasn’t the way Rivera, who brought a three fight winning streak into the bout, wanted or expected things to end, but that’s the fight game, and if anyone knows that game, it’s the 39-year old native of Framingham, Massachusetts. And hey, they say you learn more from your losses than your wins, right? So were there any positives that he took home to New England?
“I’m sure there is,” he chuckles. He just hasn’t found them yet. And more than any of his previous defeats, this one hit home the hardest, and even had him contemplating retirement.
“Just how the whole thing unfolded, I was like what the f**k?” he said. “But it is what it is. I can’t sit there and cry about it, I gotta keep moving on.”
So how do fighters move on? They fight. And Rivera is back this weekend doing what he does best, and in Philippou he’s got a dance partner willing to give him the standup war he wants. That’s the good part. The bad? He only got his new opponent on short notice after Alessio Sakara suffered a knee injury and was forced from the bout.
“It doesn’t really affect me too much,” admits Rivera, 18-8. “The only thing that’s kinda bothering me this time is that I only have a week to study and prepare for my next opponent. But at the same time, he (Philippou) is similar to Sakara in the fact that he’s a banger. I think he has a little more power in his hands, but whatever, it’s a fight. This is what we do. If we were in the streets fighting, I wouldn’t get to pick and choose who I fight – it’s whoever I had the problem with.”
And stylistically, Philippou may be the better matchup simply because the Greek bomber is almost guaranteed to keep the fight standing.
“I didn’t think Sakara was gonna take it to the ground either,” counters Rivera. “I think he’s in the business of entertaining fight fans and he knows what he’s good at, and that’s what I think that fight was gonna look like. But with Costa, I think it’s a little more secure that this is what he does and this is what he likes to do. This is his strength and his bread and butter; this is how he makes his money.”
