Issue 115
June 2014
The UFC ‘Menace’ reveals he’s as good on PlayStation as he is inside the Octagon.
How long have you been a gamer?
“I had a Sega and a Nintendo system and stuff like that as a kid. I was playing games consistently up until PlayStation 1 and the original Xbox. Then I really got into sports and went to college, so there was a big gap where I didn’t play much at all. Then my little brother got a PlayStation 3 so I got one. I was just amazed at the evolution video games had gone through in the time I’d been away. He lives in Florida and I’m in New York so we’d play online and keep in touch that way. The games have become so sick.”
What was the first games console you had as a children?
“We had the Nintendo and so we’d play Super Mario Bros. a lot.”
What were some of your other favorite titles?
“I was also really into Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega. On Sega I also played the one season of Madden where all I’d do was hand the ball off to Barry Sanders, put it on easy setting, and the score would end up being 100-0. Then for PlayStation 1 I really liked Gran Turismo and Twisted Metal. I liked Jet Moto, too. When the Nintendo 64 came out I liked good-old James Bond. Then on PS2 I played Gran Turismo there too. Now on PS3 Call of Duty is my game! I like Need for Speed, too.”
Being a sports fan what is your favorite sports game?
“When I play Madden or games like that all the people that want to play with me are like geniuses when it comes to that game. It’s tough to play Madden sometimes. If I really had to pick a sports game it would be field hockey. Honestly, when I play video games I try to do things I physically can’t do in real life. I go around shooting people, racing super-fast cars and throwing fire at each other, stuff like that. I mean, I can go outside and grab some friends and play football. I like to do things in video games I can’t experience in real life.”
What are your thoughts of the previous UFC titles and the new EA Sports game?
“The new one comes out in the spring and I’ll feel it out when it gets released. I played UFC 2009 Undisputed a little bit but I was constantly getting destroyed because I came to it late. It takes all the fun out of it! I didn’t have a chance. That’s my thought process with video games. If I’m late in getting the game, I’m not going to get into it. If I get it within a month of the release date then I’m in the hunt.”
You spoke about playing a bit online. Do you interact with fans?
“Sometimes people see my username and ask if it’s me. Then the game starts and they are into it. There have been a few guys who are really cooperative and it works well. Sometimes I play with my brother’s friends or my friends and they start asking me a bunch of questions about my fights, when all I really want is help with the game.”
If you could choose to be a character in any video game what game would it be and why?
“I was known for creating characters in my video games growing up. I’d take days to create full NFL line-ups. But if I could be one character it would have to be one in Call of Duty.”
QUICKFIRE
Sega or Nintendo? Sega
PlayStation or Xbox? PlayStation
Shooters or sports? Shooters
Three games on a desert island?
“Call of Duty, Gran Turismo, just give me those two!”
BACK TOTHE FUTURE: VIDEO GAME HISTORY OF MMA
Oh brother
These days, where UFC fighters are finding out on Twitter their contracts have been terminated before being told themselves, we doubt the shroud of mystery cloaking the (ironically) famous London street brawl involving Tito Ortiz and Lee Murray would have lasted the 12 years it has.
Because lord knows, even in 2014, a scrap involving UFC personalities Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Pat Miletich and future cash heist mastermind, plus one-time UFC fighter, Lee Murray would have made YouTube before they got back to their hotel rooms.
The abridged version involves the above parties and several hangers-on leaving a London club at four in the morning – all of them being in the city because of the UFC’s first British card, UFC 38. Apparently some play fighting gets misinterpreted, prompting one of Murray’s crew to KO one of Ortiz’s.
A melee ensues and Ortiz makes a beeline for Murray, missing with a punch (he says he slipped) he gets lit up with a combo, which drops him. Needless to say, the tale of the reigning UFC 205lb champion having his bell rung by a little-known British middleweight intrigued millions of fight fans. But still, nobody knows for sure.
Which means we need to fill in the gaps ourselves. We can’t think of a more appropriate way to do that than with one of the greatest beat ‘em up franchises in the history of history: Super Smash Bros. Think about the similarities.
Four Nintendo characters (mostly) all fighting in one arena; in 2002 it was four pivotal scrappers in a London alley. In Super Smash Bros. the aim is to knock your opponents off the fighting surface; for London these guys wanted to knock some other fellows out.
And what about the special moves? Chuck had his overhand right, sure, but was Donkey Kong’s windmilling haymaker involved? Could someone have used Mario’s water jet pack attack? Or Pikachu’s lightning strike? The truth is, they might. And until you can prove they didn’t we’re just going to have to live with that reality. Things just got surreal.
see images
1. Link doing his best Tito Ortiz KO pose. If you don’t have anything nice to contribute, Link, don’t contribute anything at all.
2. Stage select, eh? Where’s the London back alley on here?
3. We’re guessing Murray is unlockable after you plot to raid Hyrule with Luigi and Captain Falcon.
LAUZON’S BEST BITS
Geek and UFC 155lb contender Joe Lauzon shares morsels from his life in video games
Joe Lauzon on his game room: “I have a 24-inch computer monitor that I play on. I use that and a headset. It’s great for Call of Duty and things like that because you get to hear if someone’s behind you, someone’s to your left or wherever, but it’s also good because you can play with the volume really loud late at night and it doesn’t wake anyone. I have a big, huge game room.”
SEPARATED AT BIRTH
Rickson Gracie/Iwao Hazuki
Time to be obscure. If Rickson Gracie doesn’t look like Iwao Hazuki, the father of Shenmue protagonist Ryo, then we’re Time magazine. You see that gi Iwao’s wearing? (He’s the one on the right, remember.) It’s because he’s a lifelong martial artist, just like Rickson, who was born into the famous first family of jiu-jitsu. And when Iwao kicks the bucket at the very start of one of the greatest role-playing games ever (notch another one for Dreamcast), Ryo hits the road to avenge him. Which is barely at all like how Rickson’s son, Kron, is about to start his MMA career in Japan.
