According to Multichannel News, Spike TV and the UFC are close to extending their contract beyond 2008. The multi-year deal could be worth approximately $100 million.

I don’t know what the last contract paid the UFC but I’m making the assumption that the new deal would be an increase over their current deal. The report also says that more events will be televised under the new agreement.

I will be curious to see if the new deal somehow includes the TV rights to UFC 75. I talked to someone this week who confirmed that UFC 75 could indeed potentially be televised on Spike TV but I was told that “it will come down to money.”

Loretta Hunt from The Fight Network is reporting that K-1 tried to bring in Sokoudjou as a last-minute addition to fill one of two vacant spots on a card scheduled to be held on Monday at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan. However, Sokoudjou was unable to obtain a proper visa and won’t be able to fight on the show. Melvin Manhoef and Alistair Overeem both remain without opponents.

The report goes on to say that Sokoudjou is still expected to travel to Japan this weekend to discuss a multi-fight contract with FEG/K1.

You can read Hunt’s report by clicking here.

Apparently Bodog Fight received a small scare in regard to the status of tomorrow’s main event between Matt Lee and Eddie Alvarez in Trenton, NJ. Lee has been cleared to fight by the state athletic commission after undergoing a second EKG test.

Apparently Lee’s fight status was up in the air after his first EKG showed a low heartrate. A low heartrate is common in many highly-conditioned athletes but it also could mean that there’s a problem. After the second test the commission was convinced that the issue with the first test had to do with the former as opposed to the latter.

I know I’ll get slammed for this by some of you out there but this is a blog and after all, it’s my blog…

I just wanted to publicly wish my wife luck as she’ll be competing in the WKA North American Kickboxing Championship tomorrow. She’s been training very hard for this tournament the past few months and I know she’s going to do well. I think she’s probably a bit nervous but she was a bit nervous when she entered a Kung Fu tournament last year after only a few months training, and she won that one against more experienced fighters. She’s doing Muay Thai now, which is no joke, but she trains at one of the best schools in the Northeast with great training partners and the best trainers.

So if you’re reading this and will be attending the WKAs in Virginia this weekend make sure you cheer when you hear the name Andria Caplan called!

I also wanted to wish all the other fighters from Cool Hearts Muay Thai and MFS Philly good luck as well. Kick some ass!

Wow, it’s a busy news day in MMA today.

The latest breaking story pertains to Rameua Thierry Sokoudjou and EliteXC. In a yet to be published story attributed to Todd Martin by WrestlingObserver.com, Martin will be reporting in a story that will appear on SI.com later that EliteXC president Gary Shaw has indicated that talks with Sokoudjou have broken off and that the former Pride fighter could be heading to K-1.

Martin writes for both SI.com and the Wrestling Observer. The report is not yet available, but Observer publisher/editor Dave Meltzer makes the following claim:

After the deal had been just about finalized, negotiations fell apart between Gary Shaw of EXC and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. According to Shaw in an interview not yet published by Todd Martin for Sports Illustrated’s web site, Sokoudjou is expected to sign with Hero’s.

Sherdog.com originally reported that Sokoudjou had received a contract offer from EliteXC that his camp was favorable towards and that a deal was on the verge of being worked out. When I spoke with Gary Shaw a few days ago he informed me that Sokoudjou had not yet in fact signed his deal but that both parties had entered final negotiations. While speaking with Shaw, he expressed no concern that the deal wouldn’t get done leading me to believe things just recently fell a part.

Also, when I had interviewed Sokoudjou a few weeks ago he indicated that he was still under contract to Pride for two fights even though he was talking to other promotions. Then, during a conference call leading up to UFC 73 I asked Dana White about why fighters signed to Pride were talking to other promotions and why they were being signed to new deals in the UFC. White claimed that fighters signed to Pride were also contractually bound to the new company Pride World Widewide holdings and that while they had to sign a new deal to fight for the UFC, they couldn’t fight for anyone else.

White’s comment raised the question about how Sokoudjou could negotiate with other companies even though he still owed Pride two more fights of a contract White indirectly claimed was valid with the new ownership.

There are two possible explanations. One, that Sokoudjou is indeed still contracted to Pride but that he’s allowed to talk to other promotions because he may or may not have a non-exclusive deal.

Or, the contracts might have been transferable from DSE to Pride Worldwide, but only with consent.

It does appear that the contract of at least some fighters are not transferable without consent. Josh Barnett secured his release this weekend but he didn’t secure it from Zuffa or the new Pride Worldwide, but from the former parent company of Pride, Dream Stage Entertainment. When speaking with Denis Kang, he said to his knowledge that the contracts were transferable but that a fighter had to sign a letter of consent before the contract could be transfered to Zuffa.

The web site FightHype.com is also reporting that Sokoudjou has “secured his release from UFC/Pride” and that he contacted the site to let them know he is officially a “free agent.”

It’s interesting that for months we didn’t hear anything about the contracts in Pride and now we’re not only hearing about the contracts, we’re seeing fighters on the verge of signing deals. Some with the UFC, some not. My guess is that the fighters were possibly patient for a few months but once rent and mortgage payments were due they needed to fight so they could get paid.

Another major plot detail stemming from this news that can’t be overlooked is that K-1 apparently is making a major play to sign former talent that had been associated with Pride. In addition to the report about Sokoudjou, the web site Kakuto.com reported earlier this week that Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi was going to sign with K-1 Hero’s. Kang also confirmed to me that he’s been contacted by K-1 and I know for a fact that K-1 has also contacted Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko.

UFCJunkie.com is exclusively reporting that the main event for UFC 76 on September 22 in Anaheim, Calif. will be a light heavyweight clash between Keith Jardine and Chuck Liddell.

The UFC needed a fall back after it was unable to make a match between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva and didn’t have many options on the table considering Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton Jackson, and Dan Henderson are all booked for other bouts.

I have to say I’m a little surprised that Forrest Griffin didn’t get this slot considering he’s coming off a win and Jardine is coming off a loss, but Jardine might be a better candidate considering he holds a head-to-head win over Griffin. Liddell will clearly be the favorite in this bout but Jardine is dangerous and this could turn into an exciting slugfest.

You can read Junkie’s exclusive by clicking here.

Wanderlei Silva has finaly responded to reports on Yahoo! Sports and UFC.com in which the UFC and Dana White claim Silva recently turned down an opportunity to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 76 on September 22.

Silva has issued his response via a video now posted on his web site. The video is in Portuguese, but thankfully MMAWeekly.com has translated it for their audience.

According to MMAWeekly.com, this is what Silva said:

I never said that I wouldn’t fight Chuck. I’ve wanted this fight for a long time. I received a contract with two options, I could fight in September or November. I have chose to make this fight in November. I was the first to want this fight, but they kept avoiding this fight. Now there’s a lot of people saying that I have ducked Chuck. This is not true.

Apparently the September 22 date just doesn’t work for him right now.

I am in a moment of transition in my life. I’m going to move to the U.S. in a few weeks. I’m going to live in the U.S. and there’s a lot of things happening, and I’m not focused on training the way I want to be. I always fought at the time the promoters wanted. Sometimes I did things I should not have done, but this time I won’t do that anymore.

Silva has a point. He’s a guy who fought injured as he went to the hospital in the days leading up to the fight against Dan Henderson to be treated for strep throat. Silva never used it as an excuse but I know who were with Pride at the time and they’ve always maintained he was in bad shape and probably had no business fighting. A lot of point also fault him for his knockout against Cro Cop but he was fighting outside of his weight class in the GP and he deserves credit for taking fights that most top light heavyweight guys would have shied away from.

And according to Silva, the fight with Liddell is still on:

This fight is on, if he Chuck doesn’t hide behind this mess.

Silva’s story and the UFC’s story are similar that an offer to fight Liddell was indeed on the table. However, they still don’t add up. If Silva was indeed offered an option and chose November, why would the UFC go to such effort to claim the fight is a not going to happen? And why would Silva leave a message on his official web site on Wednesday claiming the match is a done deal for September 22 when he’s now saying he agreed to the bout for November?

Maybe the UFC is angry he chose November over September, leaving them without a main event for 9/22 in Anaheim? But if that’s the case, then why would they have even given him November as an option?

This really doesn’t make sense to me. White is claiming the match is off and that he doesn’t think it will ever happen while Silva is claiming he’s decided on November as to when he’ll fight.

What it comes down to is that there is three sides to every story: in this case, Silva’s, White’s, and the truth. I think the truth lies somewhere in between Silva’s account and White’s account. At the end of the day I’m sure the real issue is money and that if the money aspect is figured out, we might actually yet get to still see this fight. I don’t think Chuck is afraid to fight Wanderlei and I don’t think Wanderlei is afraid to fight Chuck.

Another thing I wanted to communicate is that while I was watching Silva’s video (of which I could not understand a word of, but I like the way he talks) I started having flashbacks of how the Phil Baroni vs. Frank Shamrock main event was promoted. Dana has said he believes Chuck vs. Wandy will be the biggest MMA match in the sport’s history and perhaps a page is being stolen from Baroni and Shamrock and they are promoting the match on the Internet before they go public with it and promote it to the mainstream.

To read MMAWeekly.com’s report, click here.

And to view Wanderlei’s video message, click here.

Updated: Rudimar Fedrigo is quoted at http://portaldovaletudo.uol.com.br/s…rna.php?id=918 as saying that the message which appeared on Silva’s official web site claiming the fight was a done deal was unconfirmed information and blamed the site’s webmaster for posting it prematurely. Well, that answers one question.