Lesnar Was Cheering for Couture Rematch, Liddell Texts White About Fighting Again & More UFC 102 Notes

Quick summary on the postfight news conference:

Randy Couture said he never felt close to being “done” in the fight.

Couture said the audience was the loudest he’s ever fought in front of.

Couture said he’d have to look at the tape to see what he did wrong, but he thinks he did a lot of things well and also got caught some.

Couture said he gave everything he had and he’s OK with that.

Couture said he didn’t think he won the decision. He said Nogueira clearly won all three rounds and he knew he had lost.

Couture said Nogueira was pretty much what he expected. He said he has a good jab and followed it with a good right hand. Couture thought he could have done better on the feet.

Couture said he signed a new UFC contract Saturday before the fight. He said it’s for 28 months and six more fights.

Couture said he’s “interested in interesting fights” when asked about fighting at light heavyweight or heavyweight.

Dana White said he’d love to see Couture at 205, but he’s also proved he can hang with heavyweights and that it’s up to Couture where he fights.

Couture said the opportunity to stay with the UFC was his motivation for re-signing with the UFC, which is where he said he’ll finish his career.

Couture said he’ll take his contract one fight at a time. He said he didn’t get the outcome he wanted Saturday but did have a good performance.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira said Couture had a good escape for his choke.

Nogueira said he had never worked in his life like he did for this Couture fight.

Nogueira said that every time he failed to finish, he was prepared to try something else. He knew it was going to be tough.

Nogueira said he had a staph infection and a torn meniscus for the Mir fight and he wasn’t prepared. He said the staph had made him weak.

Nogueira said he could have gone five rounds against Couture.

White said he didn’t know if the win would garner Nogueira a slot against the winner of Carwin-Lesnar.

White said Chuck Liddell was texting him all night about fighting again. White: “When he’s done dancing, I’m sure he’s going to be looking for me.”

White said Brock Lesnar was cheering for Couture and asking to fight him again if Couture won.

Nate Marquardt said he doesn’t care whom he fights next and that he’ll get his title shot when it’s his time. He said it doesn’t have to be next.

White said Marquardt looked great but stopped short of saying he gets the next middleweight title shot. He described the punch Marquardt landed on Demian Maia as the kind “you see in movies.”

Marquardt said he had noticed how Maia telegraphs kicks.

Marquardt said he did not think Maia would be his biggest challenge since Anderson Silva, but he said he’s up there.

White said the energy in the arena for the main event was “second to none.”

White said the UFC messed up on pricing the tickets, but he’s still happy and will return to Portland. He said the next time they visit the area, they will probably go to Seattle first, but they will be back to Portland.

White said that even in losing, Couture looked good.

White said Roger Clemens called him yesterday wondering who would win the main event.

White said nobody went to the hospital when asked if Tim Hague was OK following his loss to Todd Duffee.

White said Duffee told him backstage that he wants to fight good competition immediately. He asked to be put on the fast track.

White said both he and Lesnar were cageside wishing Couture-Nogueira was five rounds, but he said that’s his viewpoint as a fan. He said only title fights should be five rounds, which is one thing that makes title fights special.

Jake Rosholt said he tried to block out the crowd support for Chris Leben and stick to his plan.

Rosholt said he thought he won the first and Leben won the second, so he wanted to make the third convincing by taking him down and doing some damage on the ground.

Thiago Silva said he had studied Keith Jardine’s style.

Attendance: 16,088.

Gate: $1.92 million.

Nate Marquardt won Knockout of the Night for $60,000.

Rosholt won Submission of the Night for $60,000.

Nogueira and Couture won Fight of the Night for $60,000 each.