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Hicks first then Razor Rob would like to slug Varner in the mouth

Steve Cofield

The trash talk before WEC 38 reached epic levels as Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone traded barbs. The innocent victim in all that was Rob McCullough, who fought both during 2008 and lost to both. His name came up when Varner told ProMMARadio that Cerrone's win over Razor Rob meant nothing because "The Worm" had taken everything out McCullough in their fight. McCullough is prepping to fight Marcus Hicks as a means to an end, a rematch against Varner:

"He's trying to be mouthy, he's trying to be a young kid," McCullough chuckled as he was told about Varner's comments. "Get that, someone's talking about him whether it's good or bad. That's not my style. I just want to get in there and fight. It's not drama, it's not WWF."

McCullough was far from a shot fighter in his battle against Cerrone. In fact, many fans thought the WEC 36 slugfest was a Fight of the Year (video) candidate. Both fighters showed a lot of toughness in that fight something that McCullough says can't be said about Varner's war against Cerrone:

"I didn't think that knee hit him flush," said McCullough reacting to an illegal knee by Cerrone that ended the fight. Razor Rob thought Varner was gassing and took the easy way out. "In my mind and a lot of the people in the crowd who were booing they were like, 'sack up you're getting paid to fight.' Stop crying and saying you're sorry."

Watch McCullough with Cage Writer (Varner talk at 3:15 mark):

There may be some lingering anger on the part of McCullough with some of the hysterionics from that fight against Varner. Varner lost his mouthpiece and actually called his own timeout that for some reason was granted by the referee. The short break seemed to allowed him to gather himself after being on queer street. He went on to get the finish.

McCullough has trained heavily to defend the takedown from Marcus Hicks. He's had the benefit of working on his wrestling with UFC fighters Tyson Griffin and Gray Maynard. No shocker here, McCullough favors the strong striking of Leonard Garcia over Mike Brown in the WEC featherweight title fight.