Issue 110
January 2014
The two-stint UFC veteran challenged Uriah Hall to a game of Tekken then beat ‘im up for real in the Octagon
Q. How did you get started with video games?
A. “I’ve been interested in games ever since I was a little kid – probably five years old. My mother got me into them actually. She got me the first Nintendo that came out, the first Super Mario Bros. It’s good after training, after a hard day’s work to just sit down, play some video games, relax and just have a little entertainment. I’ve been into that since I was a little kid and I still am as a 30-year-old man. People talk trash about it but it’s something that I just do, it’s so fun. And the way technology has advanced in video games you have no choice but to love them, at least in my opinion.”
Q. Is there a particular game that stands out for you?
A. “The only game is Tekken. That came out on PlayStation 1 years ago. That was, and still is, one of my favorite games. I still play it to this day. I’m a fighter so obviously it’s one of my favorite games. I love that game to the heart. That’s the best game I’ve played.”
Q. Who is your go-to character on Tekken?
A. “Believe it or not, Eddy Gordo – the capoeira fighter. Everybody thinks it’s a cheat character but I can actually play him pretty good. I could actually play him and compete at a pro level. He’s been my favorite character since Tekken 3. To tell you the truth,
when I started playing as him I started training capoeira because I loved him so much. So I know a little capoeira.”
Q. Joe Lauzon is a fellow Bostonian and a gamer too. Do you ever play online against each other?
A. “No (laughs). The only reason is because he’s an Xbox player and I’m PlayStation so we can’t connect. But we do both play Call of Duty. Maybe I should get an Xbox just so I can play against him.”
Q. You laid out a Tekken challenge to Uriah Hall before you fought at UFC Fight Night 26. Did he take you up on the offer?
“He did. We were going to let our injuries heal a little bit, take some time off and we’re going to link up and play some Tekken one day for sure. I don’t know what’s going to happen but hopefully I can get that recorded and see how that goes.”
QUICKFIRE
Sonic or Mario? Mario
Nintendo or Sega? Nintendo
Three games on a desert island?
“I would take Call of Duty, Tekken Tag Tournament and I’m going to have to say SoulCalibur 5.”
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS BACK TO THE FUTURE
Video Game History of MMA: THE BIGGER THEY ARE
Despite the introduction of weight classes under the Unified Rules over 10 years ago, contemporary mixed martial arts is full of tales of smaller men being asked to go toe to toe with larger folk. See Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi, poor old Japanese whipping boy Ikuhisa ‘Minowaman’ vs. Bob Sapp/’Butterbean’/’Giant’ Silva. Note in particular that only recently has Japan taken a shine to the Western rulebook.
Wander, the protagonist from the acclaimed PlayStation 2 title Shadow of the Colossus, can relate to these Davids among Goliaths. Because he too was forced to engage in combat with, as the game’s name suggests, several colossus-sized opponents. Except it wasn’t for a cash prize and the adoration of potentially drunk fight fans, it was to save the life of a girl – it always is.
In one of the most beautiful games of the mid-00s, Wander trotted around the Japanese game’s world on his horse, Agro, hunting the giants he needed to slay in order for his female pal to be resurrected.
Killing said behemoths involved finding their weakness and then exploiting it. Which went quite well for Wander, but less well for some of his MMA counterparts. Like, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC 100 in 2009, who couldn’t exploit Brock Lesnar’s limited striking and instead got pummeled into unconsciousness inside two rounds.
Undersized 185lb Minowaman, however, developed a bit of a knack for toppling all the titans he ended up facing. Sapp? Foot lock. Butterbean? Armbar. Silva? TKO. He even choked out super heavyweight striker Imani Lee, and tapped seven-foot-two Korean kickboxer Hong Man Choi with a heel hook. And for his final trick, competed in the Dream ‘Super Hulk’ tournament – a bracket filled with seven much larger men (one was disgraced baseball player Jose Canseco) – and won.
That’s it, remake one of the most emotionally and visually graceful games ever with a mullet-sporting, red-Speedo-wearing pro wrestler. Stat.
1. Pah, Mir could have taken Lesnar’s back too if he had large metal platforms to clamber up.
2. No, no, darling. You stay there. Keep your feet up; I’ve only got many more beasts the size of several hundred Shane Carwins to kill.
3. There’s probably a Hong Man Choi joke in here somewhere.
LAUZON'S BEST BITS
Lauzon on video game expos
“I’ve done PAX (Penny Arcade eXpo) the last two years. It’s fun walking around looking at all the people. You get all these super-nerdy kids, and I’m super-nerdy so I’m not picking on them, but they’re dressed up as their favorite characters. I enjoy video games but I’m not obsessed with video games. But you get some kids that are obsessed; this is all they do. They’re arguing about this developer versus that developer. It’s kind of funny.”
Separated at birth
Chad Mendes / Chris Redfield
What have we here? Only a case of serious lookalike syndrome. Truth be told, we had to think whether Resident Evil regular Chris Redfield looked more like UFC welterweight Jake Ellenberger or 145lb wrestler-boxer Chad Mendes. Ignoring the seven fictional inches Redfield has on the Team Alpha Male featherweight, the face fur cohesion meant we gave the nod to Mendes.
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