“I need to come back with wins. I’ll fight anybody. My goal is to be the champion. When I get a title shot, this is my goal. I had a long way to go to get a title shot, and I’ll do it again. I believe I need a couple of wins. And then more and more fights I need to win…. I’m here. I’m training hard to come back with my best condition to give my best show to my fans. I need to come back with wins, but my goal is still to win a belt.”
– Former number one heavyweight contender Gabriel Gonzaga tells Sherdog.com that he intends to once again challenge for the division championship. “Napao” lost his bid to claim the strap against Randy Couture at UFC 74: “Respect” in 2007. He followed that up with another loss to Fabricio Werdum earlier this year. Now he’s set to take on Justin McCully at UFC 86: “Griffin vs. Jackson” at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 5. The journey begins all over again. Can he make it?
36 Comments »
no
I got some UFC 88 (Atlanta) news for you guys:
Matt Hamil vs. TBA
Rich Franklin vs. TBA
Rich is still deciding if he will fight at 185 lbs or 205 lbs. I have a feeling he will fight at 205 lbs. in Atlanta If he does decide to fight at 205, who knows we may see:
Franklin vs. Hamil, but there is no evidence to support this, I am just speculating!
I really want to see Franklin vs. Hendo. I don’t care if it’s at 185 or 205. Prediction: Hamil beats whoever he fights at UFC 88 (I don’t think it’ll be Franklin).
Henderson is already booked to fight Palhares (unfortunately).
I dont get it, is the UFC doing everything in itys power not to give us Hendo vs. Franklin? THis fight should have happened by now and it will be a travesty if it doesnt happen before 2009.
I dont even care what weight class they want to do it in, they can both fight at 185 and 205. Just match these 2 up already! WTF? I dont get it!
No he will never be champion! Might get another shot though with how thin the division is.
same thought here.
I think he could definately be in the top tier again, I just don’t know if he has what it takes to win the title.
at least 3 more fights with 1 big name before a title shot…
If Brock Lesnar beats Heath Herring, I’d love to see Lesnar vs Gonzaga before the end of the year.
not a bad fight, but Brock needs about atleast anobther years worth of ju jitsu lessons before facing Gonzaga, cuz Gonzaga will submit Brock really fast, right now!
Get this guy out of here, he was over hyped for the Randy fight and prevented the fans from seeing a fight I would have paid $80 to see. Randy vs Cro Cop. Honestly Gonzaga is not going to beat anyone at the top whether it be Randy, Nog, Mir, or even if Sylvia was still around
wow even KNOWING how crap mirko was in the UFC you would still dump 80 bucks to see randy destroy him within a minute or two? Make sure you never make any large financial decisions.
so he losses to one of the best hw fighters due to a headbutt crushing his nose and then losses a fight to a top ten hw after and that means everything he has done before means nothing? so when chuck lost two he should have left too? same with bg after hughs and gsp? maybe hughs should never fight in the ufc either. point is the guy has skills he just had some bad luck. at least he’s sticking in the ufc to work his way back up and not just running to japan to beat bums like crocop did.
cheers to that doom, I have so much more respect for people who can stick through the tough times in the UFC instead of running to the land of the rising roid, erm i mean sun. Gabe is young and is solid everywhere, he’ll be a top “gate keeper” to the belt until he’s ready for his next shot.
agreed he has the skills to be great i just think his one weakness is his cardio once he takes care of that, if he does, then he’ll be a hard man for anyone to beat but only time will tell.
Chuck, Hughes, and Penn are all proven veterans of the sport. Their records speak for themselves and I am a huge fan of all three. I’m sorry that I make it seem like Gonzaga is not a skilled fighter but he does not and did not deserve a title shot. I believe that he was over hyped going into the Randy fight no doubt about it and that since he lost to Randy (who I also think is over hyped by the way) and Werdum (twice) I just think he has more work to be ready to be called a number one contender, a gate keeper or contender yes but he is not ready to take that title in the UFC. Yes I would have dropped $80 on a fight like Cro Cop Randy becasue I would not have known Cro Cop was not on the top of his game, get my point, its a I wish it could have happened situation.
hate to make it seem like i’m arguing just to be a big fat “d” word but you have to look at the timeing of the fight. gabe was on a roll and undefeated in the ufc when he fought randy and kicked a super stars head off. now when randy fought gonzo there realy wan’t any one else for him to fight but gonzo wil always be a contender in the ufc hw division cause it will be half decent for a for months then it’ll suck again and repeat.
Randy over hyped? Where the hell have you been the past five years? So beating Chuck on his feet(TKO 3rd rnd.) at 40 years old is easy? Making Vitor as well as Tito looklike chumps was easy? Coming out of retirement at 43 years old and defeating Big Tim at his own game was easy? Defeating Gonzaga with a broken forearm, EASY??
Overhyped my Arse. Randy is a true MMA GOD…
Yea dude Randy is hyped at HW, he came back to beat a slouch called Tim Sylvia. Nobody can say that if Tim had been more active or actually worked on something called a ground game he wouldn’t have beaten Randy. Don’t get me wrong either man all the respect in the world for a man who never says quit but honestly your telling me he beats Sylvia and then Gonzaga and now he deserves to be called the best HW in the world? His calling of Fedor was premature. He should have faced Nog, Werdum, Arlovski anyone before he tried to claim being the best HW in the world. Because how fair is it that he comes straight out of retirement and gets a shot at Sylvia? Seriously and now he’s ducking Nog cause he doesn’t get paid enough and he only is interested in Fedor nobody else matters. Thats disrespectful to the Heavyweights he thinks don’t matter the guys who will knock him out including Fedor if they ever fight.
must admit randy does get speacial treatment. but bringing randy in to fight tim cause vera’s contract stuff just goes to show how week a division hw was. still pretty much is. no one deserves title shots in that division but some on has to get is at what ever point the ufc is in. gabe kinda did cause he won a few in a roll in the ufc and had beat crocop. but realy hw is so thin you might as well just give any one with three wins a shot cause all the good guys are not in the ufc at hw. barnet fedor now aa and big timy so nog will be fighting undesrverd chalengers for some time.
The Road Back To The Main Card.
Gonzaga is a very solid fighter, but won’t make it past the likes of Fabricio (who seems to be his downfall) let alone Minotauro. I still like seeing the guy fight, and I’m calling 2nd round arm triangle win for Napao.
Gonzaga showed the hearf of a Champion against Couture. The dude gets his nose broken in the 1st round. The fight ended in thee 3rd via GnP. I felt that Couture at the time would Gonzaga..even though at the time it was a very tuff task. In that fight Gonzaga showed he has what it takes to be a UFC Champ. He is skilled. He’s a big HH. Legit Jitsu. Always improved striking. Heart. Young. Somemay say the High KO kick to the dome of Cro cop was his 15minutes of fame.. I beg to differ, he will be back in a title match one.
I agree with you Phil. Gonazaga is by no means done. He is still under the age of 30, and he only has 3 losses in his career. One was to Randy for the title, and he also has 2 losses against Werdum. That is by no means a sign that a fighter is done.
When they match Gonzaga up against inferior competition, he runs right thru them, just like he did against Carmelo Marero. I expect Gabe to take the fight with McCully to the ground and dominate him world class style. The lower lever HW’s can NOT hang with Gabe. But unfortunately at this point in time, Gabe can not hang with the Top 5 of the division. But then again, who is the Top 5 of the UFC HW’s???
Its actually really simple. Gopnzaga needs to train for every fight, just as hard as he did for the Couture fight! If he does that he will be very tough for anyone to defeat!
As for McCully, I feel bad for people that believe Gonzaga will loose to McCully. All McCully can do is take the fight to the ground…Hello! tHats GOnzaga’s world.
My prediction is GOnzaga via submission. THis will be a good fight for him to showcase his world class Jits!
well said. g.g. just needs to get his head on straight or his cardio worked out. he fought very well against randy(when randy was peaking) and was winning easily against werdum until either he gassed or mentally broke down. i hope its just his cardio that’s his main problem not his head. he has way to many skills to be written off.
more like “Road To Not Gass In The First Round” i will say this though, his kicks are something special. broke crop-top’s dome, broke natural’s arm, and put fabby fab on his butt a few times.
“Road not to Gas in the 1st round”
HAHAHA! Yeah.. if He has Cardio, and Heart.. then yeah.. he is a dude not to be messed with…
lesnar vs gonzaga i`ll wait for this one
if he trained a lil’ bit of cardio instead of just kicking the damn pads..
it just takes some fighters time to realize how important cadio is. bj is a great example of that.
I LOVE GONZAGA. GREAT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SPORT WITH AMAZING SKILLS. HIS ONLY WEAKNESS IS IN HIS HEAD BUT IF HE OVERCOMES THAT. HE WILL BE BACK TO DESTROY THE HW DEVISION
i just hope the title fight doesn’t last 5 rnds so we can see the gonzaga fight televised. i expect gonzaga to win this one and reckon he could beat mir too.
he’s too powerful but too slow for the elite HW out there
I’m glad to see he is still competing. He can become the new gatekeeper of the gold division once Frank Mir hangs up the gloves for good.
WAR GRIFFIN!!!