Pros Pick: Christmas Lists

Ring girls at Pride 18 | Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com

As Christmas approaches, kids usually write some sort of wish list filled with their desires for material objects. With time, those lists become smaller and smaller until, eventually, as adults, their motivations change from “I want this for Christmas” to “What do you want for Christmas?”

All about the giving spirit, Sherdog.com asked a number of professional fighters and trainers from across mixed martial arts to reveal something -- anything -- from their 2010 Christmas wish list.

Shamar Bailey: For Christmas, I would love for my little brother, who has been locked up since 2003, to be able to watch me fight for the first time ever, to get back on his feet and to train MMA with me -- all in 2011. That would make my year. He is due to get out in late spring.

Charlie Brenneman: All I want for Christmas is for my family and friends to be happy and healthy -- and an autographed Frankie Edgar picture.

Yves Edwards: All I want for Christmas is a Happy Kwanzaa.

Roy Arriola: I would like for Santa to rid the MMA universe of all the negative MMA media wannabe copy-and-paste Web sites. They are a negative virus and diseased-filled source that only looks to hurt the sport. Sorry for rambling on. I was having a moment. OK, aside from saving the world from the virus-filled MMA Web sites that have no original content, I would like Santa to bring those hard-working fighters lots of fights, title shots and health, peace, happiness. I wish all MMA promoters a great 2011 year. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Keith Berry: I have all the material things I need, so I gotta say I just want a ton of fights in 2011, so promoters hit me up. I guarantee no boring fights. P.S.: a purple belt in jits would be nice, too.

Robin Black: For Christmas, I want to work with Bas Rutten on a broadcast somewhere. That dude is the coolest. And I want to win my fight Jan. 28. And I want to grow a bit taller ASAP. And I want $14 million dollars. Oh, and world peace and s--t.

Travis Lutter: Well, if Santa is feeling generous this year, he could bring me a BMW 1000rr.

Ray Elbe: I want California’s Proposition 19 to become law worldwide. That way I can finally find suitable treatment for my suspected glaucoma.

Roli Delgado: I just want to get a good training session in since I am fighting Jan. 14. I’ve been blessed with plenty of material things, so family time and good training is all I want.

Nam Phan: I have a very supportive and loving family, good students and a livelihood that I am very passionate about. Christmas has come early for me this year.

Miguel Torres: All I want for Christmas is an empty hand to smack me in the face to remind me of what I don’t have and that life ain’t fair. Then I would have learned the most valuable lesson of all; there is such a thing as luck, but we have to make it ourselves. Nothing is free in this world. Merry Christmas.

Erik Paulson: I want this vibrational shift to get over soon. It’s making me very feisty and edgy. I’m getting ready for the 2012 change of heaven on earth. Sounds weird, but we’ll see.

Scott Lighty: I would like a UFC contract; also, an official Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle. Please?

Brian Warren: As far as Christmas goes, I got everything I need: healthy family, bills are getting paid, etc. One thing I always wanted was to fight in the UFC. Santa, please tell [UFC President] Dana White I need to hurry up and get in there. Merry Christmas, people, and God bless.

Seth Petruzelli: All I want for Christmas is for the people on Sherdog to stop making fun of me. It hurts my soul.

Duke Roufus: My wife and I are trying to start a family, so I hope we are blessed with a baby. I hope Alan Belcher makes a full recovery. I also want Anthony Pettis to become the UFC champion and to have another fighter fighting for a UFC championship by the end of 2011. Dana Claus, please bring the UFC to Milwaukee. As well, I want to keep growing Roufusport Academy in Milwaukee and the Roufus Kickboxing Affiliations worldwide teaching our training methods. I am so blessed to have great people around me. Happy holidays.

Gary Shaw: I want to find my dog, Perro.

Martin Kampmann: I want a Copenhagen-Las Vegas [air travel] route for Christmas. I’m tired of layovers whenever I go home.

Cub Swanson: All I want for Christmas is a brand new brush and the world’s finest shampoos. [This way], I can be Clay Guida’s official hair coach.

Pete Sell: For Christmas, I would like an MMA winning streak.

Rory Markham: I am thankful for a successful mindset. For Christmas, I just want and look forward to more opportunities to work and act and fight hard in 2011.

Javier Vazquez: I have what I want for Christmas: a healthy wife and family. I’m living the dream, fighting and teaching jiu-jitsu and MMA. I truly feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.

Greg Jackson: I would like a Flux Capacitor to travel through time, see all the amazing events in history and ride on a triceratops.

Dan Hardy: All I want for Christmas is for 2011 to be better than 2010, which shouldn’t be too difficult.

Jeff Monson: Peace.

Michael Guymon: This X-mas I want a manicure and pedicure, as well as a massage. So it’s a little gay, but so is asking for rollerblades.

Scott Epstein: This Christmas I wanna be Christian because [we] Jews already got our presents for Jew Christmas, and I want more gifts for non-Jew Christmas.

Doug Marshall: You know what “The Rhino” wants? My two front teeth (laughs).

Jason Von Flue: What do I want for Christmas? What every other former UFC veteran wants: a long win streak that will land me back in the UFC by late next year. Oh, and world peace.

Matt Hamilton: Luckily, there is very little that I want. I certainly want another year of health for my family. And I guess if I had to pick one material thing I’d pick Alonzo’s car from “Training Day.”

Matt Pena: For Christmas, I would like to see increased revenue sharing with the fighters. I have so much respect for what the Fertittas, Lorenzo and Frank, and [UFC President] Dana [White] have done. They deserve many spoils for their foresight and hard work that made the UFC the fastest-growing sport in the world. However, nobody is working harder to make the UFC a success than the fighters. Now that the UFC is a major brand in sports, it has the worst revenue sharing by far than any other brand in major sports. If details about company revenue came out along with what fighters are actually averaging per fight, it would probably be kind of embarrassing. I hope this doesn’t cause too much of a stink, but increased revenue sharing would be something that would be good for both sides.

You can also contact Mike Sloan at www.facebook.com/mikesloan19. Features editor Brian Knapp contributed to this story.

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No Christmas for ‘Feijao’

Rafael Cavalcante: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com

Of all those who watched Strikeforce “Henderson vs. Babalu II,” perhaps none was more interested in the main event than Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante.

The Strikeforce light heavyweight champion knew well in advance of Dan Henderson and Renato Sobral’s showdown -- which ended with a decisive-first round knockout from Henderson -- that the winner was likely to receive a shot at his belt in the coming year.

With his first title defense now lined up, Cavalcante discussed with Sherdog.com his thoughts on Henderson, his cornering of training partners Anderson Silva and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and his plans for the holidays (or lack thereof).

Cavalcante: I expect a war. He’s a tough athlete and has great knowledge of the ring. Thank God we have three guys on our team who have fought with him and we’ll build a strategy. I’m training for this fight for five weeks and certainly will get there prepared. Again, I will defend Brazil and show once again that I am proud of being Brazilian.

Cavalcante: Yes, I will train until the date of the fight. By the end of February, God willing, I’ll be well-prepared. I want to be well-prepared for this fight. Let’s go to war, because this athlete is very tough.

Cavalcante: Christmas, New Year and Carnival are over for me.

Cavalcante: I think he’s a very experienced fighter and knows a lot in the ring. He is a complete athlete and very tough. He is a great wrestler and is showing great evolution in the standup. On the ground, he’s no fool. We have to get there well prepared and never underestimate our opponents. Surely, it will be a tough fight, like all my other fights have been. I want to show that if I’m fighting for the belt or not, I’ll always be thinking about my next fight. That’s my next goal, to defeat Dan Henderson.

Cavalcante: It would be very cool. Hopefully we fight at the same event, doing our preparation and training together. With this team of stars that we have -- me, Anderson Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ronaldo Souza, Andre Galvao, who is out of the country, but he is a part of our team and will come here to give me a hand. I will also have Fabio Maldonado, among others. We have a great team and, for sure, with this unity and strength, we will bring another victory.

Cavalcante: This year was very good. I reached another goal and was able to test myself several times. That’s not for anyone else, but for me. I can really see that what I’m doing is working, and I’m improving in some aspects. I corrected several errors and that was most important this year. We have to look back on everything that has happened and fix what went wrong to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I think I’ve been fixing up some things, but I still have a lot to fix. It’s very difficult to train everything together. When you begin to train more boxing, your wrestling worsens. You focus on your wrestling, and then your BJJ gets worse. You have to be constantly fixing. This is very difficult, but we’ll get it.

Cavalcante: I do all my training here at X-Gym in Brazil. We haven’t discussed the strategy yet, but I’ve already more or less formed it in my head. I’ll still sit down with all my training partners and coaches and see what they think. I don’t have anything specific, but I’ll definitely do specific training for him.

Cavalcante: I’ll be there with him and I think this fight will be a great. Vitor is a very dangerous and explosive athlete. It’s gonna be a great fight and I hope that Anderson continues as champion. We have had the opportunity to train together several times. But at the end of the day, it's Team Nogueira. We all wear the same jersey and it’s Team Nogueira’s jersey, and God willing, we're gonna come back only with victories.

Cavalcante: We are training together. We are always together for everything. Rogerio has evolved a lot since his last fight and everyone is talking about it. God willing, he will also get another victory. Tito Ortiz is a tough athlete and is one of the icons of the UFC.

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