Issue 081

November 2011

Video games and the MMA fighters who love them

Back in 2007 I visited Jens Pulver in Iowa as he prepared to rematch BJ Penn. The pair had met years before in a UFC lightweight title match that saw Pulver come out on top. Pulver left the organization soon after but returned in 2006 and at the time of our visit had just coached opposite Penn on the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter. 

Pulver and Penn had been feuding since their first fight and their return bout was a true grudge match with serious career implications for both men. Our first stop on the Pulver training camp visit was at the former champ’s house. He opened the door for us, walked us hurriedly through his living room with trophies scattered about and his UFC title belt sitting against a wall on the carpeted floor, and downstairs to his den. There was a desk complete with fully-charged gaming station and a flat screen monitor displaying the latest Call of Duty game on pause. 

“My screen name is CroCop,” Pulver buzzed, as he put his headset back on to play with friends and fans alike online.

Over the course of the weekend we saw Pulver put himself through hell in training in preparation for Penn. But we learned that in between running, wrestling, boxing and sparring, ‘Lil Evil’ always made sure to start and end his days playing video games.

To this day, it isn’t uncommon to find the king of the left hook posting a Facebook status talking about his latest gaming experience, from new GameStop purchases to his Farmville updates. But Pulver certainly isn’t alone. 

Current UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon talks about video game systems he’s owned and the ins and outs of his favorite games for them like Frank Sinatra rattles through a verse of It Was a Very Good Year. 

“I’m a big-time gamer,” the former IT professional says. “I go back to Nintendo. I played Atari a bit because my cousins had it but Atari kind of sucked. For Nintendo some of my favorites were Mega Man 2 and Ninja Gaiden. I just love the idea of being a ninja – sneaking up and killing people from behind, throwing ninja stars. For Mega Man, I loved that at each stage you’d get a new weapon…” Lauzon’s voice trails off in the dreamy way all video-game playing children of the 1980’s understand. 

After Nintendo, Lauzon moved on to Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, then Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PS2 and now he’s an Xbox man with a very clear stance on the PS vs Xbox debate. “For one thing, PlayStation got hacked and people’s credit card information got out there. Another thing, PlayStation’s online play is free and Xbox’s is paid but the Xbox network is a hundred times better. Xbox get a lot of exclusives on [multiplayer level] maps. PS3 won’t have maps for Call of Duty that came out months ago for Xbox,” Lauzon explains. 

Not even PlayStation’s dual function as a Blu-ray player can sway the fighter who has been trying to get an Xbox sponsorship for years. “That’s a silly reason to get a system – just get a blu ray player.”

Lauzon insists he plays about five hours a week but denies that his gaming gets in the way of his fight training. “I tweet sometimes when I’m going online to play so that fans who want to play can, and I also blog about gaming sometimes. But fighting is my first priority, always. I game in my downtime. After my loss to George Sotiropoulos (at UFC 123), where I gassed big-time, fans were writing on the forums that I played video games too much instead of training, but that’s ridiculous,” he scoffs. 

‘Baby Joe’ says he’s a, “huge COD guy,” – because of the technical nature of the gun fights, enjoying Black Ops especially – he’s giving Battlefield a second chance due to the urgings of friends and that upcoming releases he is looking forward to are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3. 

Meanwhile, when UFC bantamweight Miguel Torres games, he makes it a team affair, organizing students and training partners from his Indiana gym into late-night God of War marathons. “I have two of each system (PlayStation and Xbox) so people don’t have to wait,” he says.

Something else Torres does a whole lot of, according to sources not wanting to get cranked extra hard by their coach for telling, is talk a lot of trash while playing. Though those burns are likely offset by his generosity in supplying food and drinks to his guests.

Torres, incidentally also a huge paintball player, says he plays shooting and fighting games almost exclusively, with almost nothing in the way of soccer, basketball or football games taking up space. “I just don’t have that much time to play most weeks so when I do, we need to focus and play games where you can kill people,” he laughs. 

While killer gamer nerds like Pulver, Lauzon and Torres abound in the MMA world, not all fighters enjoy video games. Lauzon tells us that his friend and UFC middleweight ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor hates video games with a passion. Lawlor later confirms with us succinctly saying, “I really do.” UFC veteran Jason Reinhardt also says that he “can’t stand” video games.

Featherweight contender Kenny Florian is usually one of those fighters who doesn’t get into video games, but while recovering from a knee injury recently he temporarily became addicted. “When I tore my MCL and had surgery I was bed ridden for weeks and couldn’t do much at all,” Florian remembers. “My brother had gotten me an Xbox and a few games, including Black Ops and since I was laid up with nothing else to do I started playing. It got serious for a while there. Since recovering I’ve stayed away,” he chuckles. 

Even Florian can admit to having succumbed to the temptation of playing the UFC video games. “It’s actually more complicated than you would think. I just kind of mash buttons and go. I’m a lot worse video game fighter than I am in real life,” he laughs. 

Welterweight Diego Sanchez has said in interviews that he plays as himself in the UFC’s latest game against his opponent 20 times each night to help him visualize success. As seems to often be the case with Sanchez, the fighters we spoke with for this feature think his ideas are a bit much. “Yeah, I don’t know about that, but to each their own,” Florian says. And neither Lauzon nor Torres think that their UFC video game skills are transferable to the ring. 

Maybe they can settle their differences of opinion on the digital battlefield. Lauzon reveals he has played online against former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and is also on TUF coach Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller’s friends list. He’s even open to doing it with fighters in his own weight class. “Yeah, sure. I think Jeremy Stephens plays, and maybe I’ll try and tweet Melvin Guillard for us to play against each other,” he says.

Fighters like Lauzon often don’t mind fans adding them online to play, but don’t feel insulted if you they don’t get to you right away. “It’s crazy because when I tweet that I’m playing online, my friends list maxes out in like 10 minutes. So I play with as many fans as I can but I can’t get to everyone. I’ve actually gotten hate mail saying I was a jerk because I didn’t play with someone. I can’t play with everyone.”

PRO TIP

If you ever do get your chance to take on a fighter online, like Lauzon, Torres or Pulver, you may want to prepare like they do – by watching YouTube instructionals. “I think YouTube is the biggest asset to video game people out there,” Lauzon states. “There is a whole community of guys out there and they lay out tips and play with commentary. It’s very useful.”