Tim Kennedy predicts Belfort will fail test or ‘look like a gay giraffe’

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UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy recently made cryptic remarks indicating he might be thinking about quitting the sport. There was widespread speculation that he remained incensed over the “Stoolgate” ending of his fight with Yoel Romero. In the interview with Submission Radio, Kennedy cleared everything up. He is staying in the sport, but remains upset with all parties involved, including, admirably, himself.

I’m still pissed off, you know,” said Kennedy. “At the sport, at the ref, but most importantly at myself. You know I made a huge mental error in that fight. I thought the fight was over a few different times. I thought I knocked him out when John pulled me off him. And then after I knocked him out I’m sitting there on the stool, trying to figure out what’s going on. You know my corner’s celebrating, the fans are celebrating, I’m like ‘yeah it’s done, cool.’ I’m watching him telling John and his corner ‘no mas, no mas’ you know like ‘I’m done, no more, no more.’ And then me standing up when the bell sounds and walking over there and John telling me ‘Nope it’s done. Go back to your corner.’ So again I start celebrating. I’m like ‘whoa, yeah’ and then I turn around and we’re supposed to be fighting. You know, I had left the ring before that third round and I had left the ring when the third round didn’t start. When I was supposed to win. Which is a big error on my part. I should have stayed in there – evidently – obviously till I guess, I don’t know when.

So I’m really disappointed at the sport, I’m really disappointed in John, I’m really disappointed in myself. So I’m gonna keep hunting. You know I got five more weeks of hunting season. I’m still training. I’m still doing two or three workouts a day when I’m not up in the mountains…….. but I’m not there yet.

“I haven’t done anything official with the athletic commission – again another level in which I’m disappointed that me as an athlete, I have to appeal a rule violation when they openly acknowledge that there was one. Post fight in their release they said there were a few different rules that were broken that night, and if he wants to appeal the ruling then he’s more than welcome to do that. Like how asinine is that, that an athletic commission is like ‘yeah rules were broken, but we’re not going to do anything.’ Just again stoking the fire of me being pissed off at the sport, you know. It’s wrong that I’m an athlete, that I would have to do anything, so I’m not going to. So I’m a pretty straight forward black and white guy, and when rules are broken it’s how just it’s supposed to be, and I’m not going to do something…..I don’t know. Even worse is that like the MMA community, if I go and appeal it, it’s like I look like the bitch, you know? I’m the one that’s like complaining about the outcome of the fight, you know? That’s not how I am. I’m not complaining, I’m just a straight forward person. I like things being the way that they’re supposed to be, which is just and right, which it wasn’t the case on that night. So I don’t know. It just seems like a lose, lose.

I’m told it falls on the responsibility of the athlete. So like I’m supposed to go to the athletic commission and officially appeal and protest something? That’s asinine. It’s the athletic commission’s job to make sure that the officiating and judging occurs correctly. It’s not the athlete’s job. The athlete’s job is supposed to be to go out there and fight, and he’s supposed to execute his athleticism within the guides and limitations of the sport, and those limitations are the rules. But I guess the rules don’t exist. So I guess I’m gonna bring them back to my next fight. Or I’ll just ask Yoel if I can borrow the stool that he’s sitting on and beat him with the stool, and I guess that would be legal as well, but he wouldn’t have gotten off so I guess that would be a different stool.

I don’t give two shits (about a rematch). I told John McCarthy before the fight ‘he’s going to cheat when he starts losing.’ He started cheating when he was losing and I don’t think that would be any different again. I knocked him out at the end of the second round. That should be represented in my record, you know. No I don’t want to fight a cheater again, after a guy I already knocked out. So no on two different levels.

So Kennedy will fight on, perhaps at middleweight.

Yeah it’s something that’s very possible,” he said. “Like I’m a big strong dude, but obviously I’m super short for my division, 185. When you fight guys like Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping and Roger Gracie; like Yoel (Romero) and Rafael Natal, they’re both like 6 foot, like 6’1” and they’re the shortest guys I’ve fought I think in that division. So there’s some major advantages to moving down to 170 and something that we’ve talked about and kicked around a lot, and I can make it. You know, like I enjoy being 230-240, but a cut to 170, I’ve been there before and it wouldn’t be impossible.

Two of the biggest problems for any fighter at welterweight are division champion Johny Hendricks, and Robbie Lawler, who fight on Dec 3, and UFC 181.

Both of those fights are fun for me,” he said. “The only problem is my brain man. Both of those guys hit so hard. I’ve never been hit by Johny, but just watching how he hits and the guys like he’s put down, it’s obvious he hits hard, and I have been hit by Robbie and that guy hits like a freight train. So yeah I’d love to get in there with possibly both of them. I think it would be a lot of fun.

However, Kennedy expressed great willingness to fight Anderson Silva, but declined to make a pick for the winner of Silva vs. Nick Diaz at UFC 183 on Jan 31.

Yes, man in a drop of a dime I would come back to fight that guy,” he said. “You know I hate the sport, I love that guy, and he’s been a guy that’s like, in my perspective has been a purist, a martial artist in this sport. You know, never failing any tests, always showing up to fight, always being a true artist, and when he does, he’s like a violent ballerina in the cage.

Nick and Anderson, I don’t even know. I can’t make a prediction on that besides, I will be tuned in and I will be glued to the TV. I’m a fan of both of those guys on so many different levels and I’m so excited to see that fight.

Kennedy has been among the most vocal figures in the sport denouncing PED use, and chief among his targets has been Vitor Belfort, who fights Chris Weidman, who fight at UFC 184 on February 28

I hope (Belfort) passes,” said Kennedy. “We’ve seen pictures of him of late, whether he’s a little fatter than we’ve seen him ever, or he’s a little skinnier than we’ve ever seen him ever. Well guess what, steroids work and that’s what happens to a body when you don’t get to use what you’ve been using. So one of two things are going to happen, he’s going to fail a steroids test moving toward this fight against Chris Weidman, or he’s going to try to be clean and he’s going to get injured, or he’s going to look like a gay Giraffe. Either one of those instances, Chris Weidman will freight train him, or he won’t show because he failed the test.