Phil Baroni wants back in the Zuffa family
“The UFC released me just as they got on SPIKE. I think if people had seen me, seen fights like…
“The UFC released me just as they got on SPIKE. I think if people had seen me, seen fights like the one with Minowa, I would be a really popular and big name fighter,” Baroni told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive interview. “But unfortunately I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. When PRIDE was at its best, I was in the UFC. When the UFC blew up and PRIDE was crumbling, guess where I was? I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I remember hitting him (former middleweight champion Dave Menne) with a right hand and seeing him stagger against the cage. I remember thinking that was my opportunity – that I could be somebody in this sport … I just let my hands go and unleashed all the power and speed I had on him. To get what I wanted so bad. To be somebody.”
“I go back with those guys a long time. I don’t get to talk to them as much anymore because they are busy, traveling around the world and doing great things. Joe Silva was my good friend. I’d drive him around because he didn’t have a car. We’d go to find him comic books and he’d take me out to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. It was cool. I’d go to Joe’s office and watch tapes and it was like a soundtrack to the world. Back then the tapes were in different languages. We’d watch fights from Brazil and they’d be in Portuguese. We’d watch fights from Japan like Pancrase and SHOOTO and it was cool. I got to be real tight with those guys. Dana, when I tore my back and was out for almost a year, he took me to Hawaii for the first time. Those guys were good to me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to win for them and it’s a business. But I plan on winning now and getting back into the Zuffa family. I got to know these guys back then when they started and I’m proud of them. I want to be a part of what they are doing today.”