10 Excruciatingly Awkward UFC Post Fight Interviews
2. No-one Knows Paul Buentello's Catchphrase
In fairness to Paul Buentello, he actually recovered pretty quickly from this to carry on and have something of a normal interview. No-one remembers what he said though, as everyone was too busy cringing.
Buentello was coming off a heavyweight title shot, where Andrei Arlovski had knocked him out in just 15 seconds. Needing a quick bounce back, he defeated Gilbert Aldana at UFC 57 in 2006. Buentello decided to see how many fans he had. Going by the reaction, it wasn't many. Perhaps none.
He debuted a new catchphrase. "Don't fear me. Fear the consequences." A lame enough sound bite on paper, Buentello's plan was he would say the first part, and the crowd was supposed to shout out the second part. What could possibly make this worse?
Silence.
I don't know whether no-one cared, or whether no-one had any idea what he was talking about, but it went down like a lead balloon to almost dead silence. Unfortunately, he never got to try it out again in the UFC, immediately signing with Strikeforce. He made a return in 2009, but his two fights back were losses to Stefan Struve and Cheick Kongo, and our fear of the consequences of another Paul Buentello octagon interview were rendered moot.