IT IS A question that many professional footballers get asked a lot, “What would you be if you weren’t a footballer?”
While some would choose a mundane or predictable answer, one championship-winning player from last season has revealed a rather left-field alternate career choice.
One of the English Premiership biggest characters, Mario Balotelli, has hit the headlines again this week as he claimed that if he wasn’t a footballer, he would be a fighter in the UFC. Balotelli made the revelation in an interview with Manchester City’s kit maker Umbro in which he also stated that he would like to work with renowned American rapper Drake.
It’s a statement that will only serve to enhance his cult hero status with City fans and could we be seeing his now infamous Euro 2012 celebration inside the Octagon in the near future? In “Super-Mario’s” case, anything is possible.
YouTube Credit: UMBRO
Other news
Former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir has ended his 11-year association with the organisation this week as he announced he was moving to Strikeforce to fight Daniel Cormier for the belt. It was a shock move that surprised many as Mir has been ever-present in the UFC for a long time. Despite this, the move makes a lot of sense. Mir was defeated comprehensively by Junior dos Santos last time out and Cormier is lacking any real top quality opponents in Strikeforce.
As well as this, it gives Mir another shot at a title which he realistically wouldn’t have got again had he stayed with the UFC while Cormier has already revealed that he sees this as a way to introduce him to UFC fans eventually paving the way for him to join Dana White’s company. The fight has been provisionally scheduled for October/November time this year.
Despite losing out on the bantamweight championship again, Urijah Faber has once again proved he is one of the hardiest fighters in the UFC. Faber famously fought Mike Brown with predominantly elbows for five rounds after breaking his right hand and dislocating his left thumb in the first round of their fight back in 2009. Echoes of that fight surfaced in last week’s matchup against Renan Barao as “The Californian Kid” ate a vicious knee to the body in the first that broke one of his ribs. Severely hindered, Faber refused to give up and made it out for all five rounds of the fight and although he was soundly beaten, he enhanced his reputation with such a resolute showing.
