Issue 109
December 2013
The UFC lightweight champion is a life-long video game addict
When did you start playing video games?
“I started playing video games when I was a kid, I think every kid is into video games during that stage in their life. Plus, my little brother, Sergio, was really into them so I’d play against him all the time.”
A little bit of brotherly competition is always good. What was your first console?
“I think we had the Super Nintendo first. That was our first console and it was a pretty good one if I remember rightly.”
It’s arguably one of the best consoles to ever be made so we definitely agree with that. What type of games are you into?
“I’m really into first-person shooters nowadays, games like Call of Duty and stuff like that. I play UFC Undisputed 3, basketball games and whatever Madden game is out at the moment. I’m really enjoying Grand Theft Auto V at the moment. I think that’s a pretty good game.”
How crazy was it to be the one of the two main fighters to be showcased in the trailer for the new UFC game?
“I was actually training when the show came on so I didn’t get to see it live, but I recorded it so I could watch it when I got home. When I saw the amount of publicity I got from it, it was amazing.
“I’ve been watching E3 (games expo) since I was a kid, ever since they started doing shows to showcase the games. We were the guys who would link up a bunch of TVs and have tournaments going on (laughs).
“It was amazing to see myself as a video game character and it’s one of those feelings where you feel really proud of yourself for it.”
Who would you say is the best at video games at the Roufusport gym?
“Erik Koch is really good at Call of Duty. He’s the type of guy who plays all day every day so he’s definitely got the skills. He can pretty much tell you everything about it. I’m more of a guy who runs and guns people, but he picks places to hide and shoot you (laughs).”
BACK TO THE FUTURE
A VIDEO GAME HISTORY OF MMA: GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN
In case you missed it, several months ago the mixed martial arts community was ready to commit seppuku. (Ritual suicide performed by samurai, you uneducated swine.) Because for five minutes fight fans believed femme-fighting heroine Ronda Rousey was planning on leaping out of the Octagon and onto a full-time silver screen meal ticket ASAP.
It turns out it was all just comments taken out of context. But you can’t blame people for being twitchy about it; between 2007 and 2009 striking striker Gina Carano was poised to do what Rousey’s mainstream-cracking personality and fighting style has halfway completed. That was until Haywire director Steven Soderbergh came and swept her off her feet and out of the MMA-curious public’s awaiting arms.
And there’s another scrapping siren responsible for these suspicions too: Tina, from big-boobed beat ‘em up series Dead or Alive. Because the battling babe joined the ‘Dead or Alive tournament’ to increase the chances of becoming an actress/model/singer. Which one depends on the installment (it first hit arcades in 1996 with several sequels on every platform ever), but the coincidences between the fictional and physical fighters are many.
Not only is Tina beloved by (probably quite creepy) gamers for her digitized physical dimensions, she’s also from Texas; Carano’s father was the back-up quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys when Gina was born. Tina is a wrestler turned-mixed-discipline fighter; Rousey went from judo to MMA jewel. And while Tina used to be brunette (like Carano) she turned to the bottle to be blonde (as Rousey is). And thus the bizarre sequence of tenuous links from pixelated princess to current-day UFC queen is complete, fully explaining, with no holes whatsoever, why fight followers were so alarmed by Rousey’s recent taste of Tinseltown.
What does all this mean? Well, despite trying since the 1996 series debut, Tina has never got out of the ring in 17 years and 10-plus games. Maybe ‘Rowdy’ will be the same.
1. Torquing joints and taking names – this girl has Rousey written all over her.
2. ‘Rowdy’, armbarred? Never!
3. That’s fight gear? We have a feeling this is where Tina and Rousey’s similarities end.
LAUZON'S BEST BITS
Geek and UFC 155lb contender Joe Lauzon shares morsels from his life in video games
Lauzon on Mega Man
“I loved Mega Man because it was kind of the first game where you level up. There’s nine levels or whatever there is, and you’d beat the first level and you kill this boss and you take his power, and then you’ve got to pick out the order of things you want to do because you need this guy’s weapon to kill that guy, and this guy is weak against this. There was a little bit of strategy to it.”
SEPARATED AT BIRTH
MIKE BELTRAN/DR ROBOTNIK
Behold what could be the greatest Separated at Birth in the history of this feature – even if we do say so ourselves. Noted referee Mike Beltran and Sonic The Hedgehog baddie Dr Robotnik are both bearers of some of the greatest mustaches we’ve ever spied, and the fact the bald could-be brothers both have the same haircut is the icing on our lookalike cake.
