Mark Pavelich: ‘I’m kind of weird’
Elena Lopez: If you could say one thing to The Underground without getting blasted for it, what would it be?…
Elena Lopez: If you could say one thing to The Underground without getting blasted for it, what would it be?
Mark Pavelich: Spend one week with me and you’d all cut your tongues off for all the stupidity that came out of your pie holes. That’s exactly what I would say. You come walk with me for one week, I’m telling you right now, seven days you spend with me, I guarantee you that 99.9% of the people on the underground forums will become my biggest fans.
They would say, oh my God, I can’t believe I said that about him because in the process of all this work we have a lot of fun, so you’d be a part of all that to so they would understand then they would see me live and they’d understand, well, Jesus, he only sleeps four hours a night and maybe that’s why sometimes he’s a little bit crazy.
That might be sleep deprivation that’s not really how he is and then they’d go he does work 16 hours a day and he really doesn’t care about Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, New Year’s, nothing! He just wants to work and make money and be successful in the MMA business and then they’ll find out too that I’m compassionate with people, you know, I am, I’m very compassionate.
I’m kind of weird, I don’t even know why it’s like that, I think I get that from my mother. I’m compassionate and I care about people and I have great manners and people would be shocked if they see that live.
EL: Do you think Brock Lesnar losing at UFC 121 in the fashion that he did hurt the organization?
MP: Do I believe that? Of course I do.
Listen, Cain Velasquez is a great fighter, but he couldn’t sell a taco and he’s Mexican, how is he going to sell a fight? He is horrible, the guy can’t even speak , I’m telling you, did you see Dana White’s face when he was putting the belt on him? He almost started throwing up right there in the octagon.
You need people to sell the fight and like I said, Cain is an awesome fighter, I mean unbelievable, but at the same time did you see him speaking for this fight? He doesn’t like to talk. How you going to sell a fight when Cain doesn’t have a great personality, he really doesn’t want to talk too much. How is that going to sell a fight?
EL: If you were Bjorn Rebney and wanted to expand into Canada, what plan would you take to have a successful event on Canadian soil?
MP: Who? Who? Who is that? The CEO of Bellator.I have never watched that show in my life, I’m not kidding. Never. I didn’t even know that is. It’s hilarious when people bring that up with me. It’s like, do you know who that is? I’m telling you right now, I’ve never watched his show once in my life.
EL: What’s your opinion of M-1 Global?
MP: Of who? Listen,once again, I’m not trying to be arrogant or an a——, but I have never watched their stuff, NEVER. I don’t know anybody that fights in their organization. I’m sure they’re popular where they come from, I imagine they’re successful at what they do, but I don’t watch it.
EL: When do you think the sport of MMA turned around and lost it’s respect?
MP: When money got involved. When I was broke in this business everybody loved me, they said I was the nicest guy in the world. The second I started driving a Mercedes Benz and making money all of a sudden I’m the anti- Christ of MMA, which isn’t true. I should be rewarded for working 16-18 hours a day like I do everyday.
Why is it a crime that I make money in MMA? I’m one of the few people that actually make money in MMA, it’s a rarity. People think it’s the fastest growing sport in the world and everybody is making a ton of money and it’s bullshit, that’s not true at all. Very few people, very, very few people, you can count on one hand that make money in MMA that own promotions.
I’m the blue collar of MMA guy, meaning we put the grind in. If I wasn’t making money in this business something would be seriously wrong for the amount of effort and time that I put into it.
EL: Is the “Don’t Pull Guard” rule still in effect in 2010?
MP: Hell yeah, till 2020, so for all those nuthuggers on The Underground that are all jiu jitsu freaks and stuff like that, you pull guard in my organization, if you’re not getting the crap beaten out of you and you pull guard, you need to go fight somewhere else because you ain’t fighting in the MFC and I’m not taking it back and yeah, I said it and I said it again! I got five hundred emails from people going, ‘I can’t believe you said that’. Keep sending them and I’m going to keep saying it, if you pull guard in MMA then you shouldn’t be in MMA, you should be in jiu-jitsu tournaments.
EL: One last question for you. Do you believe in an afterlife?
MP: Do I believe in an afterlife? No, I believe there’s a God, and I have a great wife so hopefully I’ll end up in heaven, but I’m not a Buddhist so, I don’t believe in an afterlife.
