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(One of MMA’s greatest rivalries is about to get a completely unnecessary epilogue. Photo courtesy of ko.susumug.com.)
Bloody Elbow and The Sun are both reporting that the UFC is currently in negotiations to have dethroned heavyweight champion Randy Couture and former light-heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell face each other for a fourth time in Cologne, Germany, on June 13th. As BE’s Michael Rome writes:
The UFC wants to have Randy on their [first-ever] Germany show because he speaks the language and can do all the promotion. The winner of the fight would face the heavyweight champion in a big fight at the end of the year.
Couture is uninterested in moving down to 205 where Forrest Griffin is champion and Wanderlei Silva is also a contender. Both are close to him and in his camp, and weight cutting takes a toll at his age…
For Liddell, the thought is that…whereas he would have to win a bunch of fights to get back at contention at 205, the heavyweight division is thin enough where he could jump in and be an immediate contender with a win.
It is believed internally that Couture/Liddell will draw better than Silva/Liddell, and they know that a potential Liddell/Lesnar match would probably be the biggest PPV in the history of MMA.
You can’t really argue with the business logic of angling for a Liddell/Lesnar superfight, what with Anderson Silva’s disappointing PPV numbers. And if Couture vs. Liddell IV goes like the previous two installments in 2005 and 2006 (which Chuck won via knockouts), the UFC will get their wish. But where does this leave the Spider?
Well, it leaves him with a superfight that’s maybe a little less super. Here’s how The Sun hears it:
[UFC] matchmaker Joe Silva is considering offering the Brazilian a fight with the loser of one of the two big light heavyweight clashes taking place at UFC 92 on December 27. That line up sees reigning 205lbs champion Forrest Griffin defend his title against Rashad Evans, while Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson faces Wanderlei Silva for a third time. And we understand middleweight champ Silva is being lined up as an opponent for one of those four men in a light heavyweight bout at [London’s] O2 Arena on February 21.
It should be noted that the personal relationship between Anderson and Wanderlei could sink any chance of a fight between them ever happening, which is too bad because I’d cut off one of my girlfriend’s toes to see Silva vs. Silva — preferably, one of the extra ones on her right foot. Still, the other possibilities here are just as compelling. I don’t see the Spider having an easy stroll through any of these guys, and that’s a good thing.
As for Chuck and Randy, it’s a bittersweet situation. It looks like their days of being champions are officially over, so they’ll have to be content with competing in crowd-pleasing and profitable, though ultimately meaningless fights in a weight class that they aren’t really built for. If Couture beats Liddell in their next fight, maybe the UFC can use them to break open the Phillippines market with a best-of-five rubber-rubber match. Still, you have to admit that “Liddell vs. Lesnar” has blockbuster written all over it…
Written by admin on November 23rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Brock Lesnar and Rumors and Germany and News and Randy Couture and UFC and Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva and MMA.
(Guess who’s back?)
Well that didn’t take long. Jon Fitch is once again a UFC fighter, and will still fight Akihiro Gono at UFC 94, as planned. Apparently all it took was a conversation with Lorenzo Fertitta. MMA Rated has the scoop:
“Communication kind of broke down with Dana (White) so we talked with Lorenzo,” Fitch told MMARated. “(I) just got off the phone with him and we came to an agreement. We’re going to move ahead and I’ll be back in the UFC. We’re going to sign off on the video game and I’m back. It was never even about the agreement or the contract. It was the approach that we felt Dana was being a little bit hot-headed and was threatening us right off the bat. It didn’t seem like a professional way of doing things.”
Cooler heads, as they say, have prevailed. Should the ease with which this was resolved once Fitch and his management team were able to speak with someone who wasn’t Dana White perhaps tell us something? Threatening, bullying, saying things in the media such as “[Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them,” maybe that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t help negotiations with one’s employees, who one claims to want to be “partners” with. Thankfully Lorenzo Fertitta is on board to smooth things over.
Now you have to wonder, what lesson will Dana White take from this? Fitch did sign the contract. The UFC got what they wanted. Will White now be convinced that he can get what he wants if he plays good cop, bad cop with Lorenzo? Or will he see that sometimes talking things over is preferable to flying off the handle? Let’s hope it’s the latter. Right now Lorenzo is looking like Michael Corleone and Dana is looking like Sonny. And we all remember what happened to Sonny.
Written by admin on November 20th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on fight and contract and back in UFC and Lorenzo Fertitta and News and UFC and Jon Fitch and Dana White and MMA.
(He’s wearing a hockey jersey! What more do Canadians want?)
So you thought you could keep the UFC out forever, eh, Toronto? You and the whole province of Ontario, just hanging out, watching hockey and that bullshit Canadian football, thinking you’re safe from MMA just because it’s technically illegal there. Well there’s one thing you didn’t plan on: Dana fucking White. And now he’s coming for you, and he won’t take no for an answer:
“I’m going after Canada after (I get approval in) New York and Massachusetts. I’m attacking Canada. I’m going to spend so much time in Canada I’ll have to buy a house. I’m going to live here until it’s done. I’m going to be sitting on the porch every day they come to work.”
You see what you’ve done, Toronto? You’ve forced Dana White to start stalking you. It’s like you’re Heather Locklear and White is me circa 1995. What can I say, it was a phase. Then she got old and starting appreciating the attention and I moved on with my life. It’s a whole thing I’d rather not get into. The point is, Toronto, I doubt you’ll be so lucky.
As much as Canadians seem to love MMA, it’s hard to understand the resistance to it at this point. But I guess you could say the same thing for New York. Eventually they’ll all give in, and they know it, so why not just quit stop screwing around and accept it. Unless this is all an elaborate ploy to see if Dana White will really buy that house. And he will. But damn, is the real estate market that bad even in Canada?
Written by admin on November 18th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on legalization and Toronto and Canada and News and UFC and Dana White and MMA.
(Yeah, laugh it up.)
Welcome to MMA’s alternate universe. It looks like the MGM Grand the day before UFC 91, but something weird is going on. Junie Browning is getting mobbed in the hotel lobby while Forrest Griffin walks through unmolested. Roger Huerta sits in a bar quietly sipping espresso and no one says a word to him. Bruce Buffer walks by looking like he’s fresh from the gym and a drunk guy in an Affliction shirt almost loses his mind.
That’s the situation, fight fans. Fortunately for the UFC, they also have fans lined up around the corner just to see the weigh-in. At least two thousand of them fill the stands by four o’clock. Amazingly, the weigh-in starts right on time and is over twenty minutes later. Everyone makes weight. Brock Lesnar elicits as many boos as camera flashes. Joe Rogan interviews Randy Couture and compares Lesnar to the final boss in a video game. As much as I hate to admit, it’s a pretty good metaphor.
What’s worrisome for Couture is the cold hard numbers game. He weighs in at a svelte 220 pounds. Lesnar cuts to down to hit 265. By the time they step in the Octagon tomorrow night, Lesnar will likely be closer to 280, while Couture won’t be any bigger. It’s a sobering reality for Captain America. Or at least it ought to be.
Complete figures from today’s weigh-in after the jump.
Randy Couture (220) vs. Brock Lesnar (265)
Kenny Florian (156) vs. Joe Stevenson (156)
Gabriel Gonzaga (256) vs. Josh Hendricks (238)
Demian Maia (185) vs. Nate Quarry (185)
Tamdan McCrory (170) vs. Dustin Hazelett (170)
Aaron Riley (156) vs. Jorge Gurgel (155)
Rafael dos Anjos (155) vs. Jeremy Stephens (155)
Mark Bocek (155) vs. Alvin Robinson (155)
Ryan Thomas (170) vs. Matt Brown (171)
Written by admin on November 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and MMA.
In a development that few of you will admit to caring about, Tito Ortiz now says that returning to the UFC is a real possibility, and he’s looking to emerge from his competitive hiatus this summer. As Michael David Smith at AOL MMA FanHouse writes:
[At] last weekend’s Rumble in the Park in Fresno, Ortiz said, “It’s either going to be with the UFC or it’s going to be with Affliction, but guaranteed, you guys will see me fight — no matter what — by July.”
Ortiz also mentioned that he had back surgery last month, which he deemed successful. He also said it was the same surgery that Nate Quarry had, and Quarry was out of action for 15 months after his back surgery. So Ortiz is very optimistic if he thinks he can guarantee that he’ll return just seven months after the surgery.
He’s also optimistic if he thinks Affliction will still be in the MMA business in July. And he’s optimistic if he thinks UFC will still be willing to do business with him. Bottom line, Ortiz is an optimistic guy.
Of course, it could be worse: Ortiz was close to signing a contract with EliteXC. As former EliteXC fighter Jake Shields said, “Good thing he didn’t sign with them. He’d be on eBay.”
Quick timeline, if you haven’t been keeping up…
May 28th: Tito Ortiz definitively states that his decision loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 was his last appearance in the UFC’s Octagon. “Me going to somewhere else is 100% happening,” he says in his usual eloquent style.
August 5th: Ortiz says he’s about to sign a “ground-breaking record contract” with Affliction. But it turned out that he was kind of exaggerating, and by August 21st even Donald Trump Jr. was publicly venting about how outrageous Tito’s demands were.
October 4th: During the doomed broadcast of EliteXC: Heat, Ortiz says he’s about a week away from signing with EliteXC; a little over two weeks later, Pro Elite began circling the drain.
As much as Dana White hates Tito Ortiz, the UFC might be the only organization left that would actually deal with him. Put against the right opponents, he’ll still have a decent amount of drawing power, even though he’s no longer worth as much as he thinks he is. Still, Ortiz should approach a new UFC contract with extreme caution. Because if I was Dana White, there’d be nothing stopping me from signing Ortiz to a three-fight deal — and then making him fight Lyoto Machida all three times.
Written by admin on November 9th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Affliction and Tito Ortiz and UFC and EliteXC and MMA.
(Brock Lesnar will get his gross sweat all over you. Look out, Randy.)
Brock Lesnar is preparing for Randy Couture with his jiu-jitsu coach Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros, who as you might recall was the man to help Lesnar figure out the mystery of the kneebar after his loss to Frank Mir. Comprido tells Graciemag.com that Lesnar is training at a new academy, mixing it up with world class submissions guys like himself and decorated wrestlers like Cole Konrad. As for a prediction, Comprido isn’t shy:
“I know Couture is a very strategic fighter, but I believe Brock will take this fight in the first round.”
Somehow Frank Mir is unmoved by this endorsement, claiming that he’d still rather rematch Lesnar than take on Couture in the finals of this so-called heavyweight “tournament”:
I’d rather fight Brock than Randy. Randy has been dealing with MMA for a lot longer and he knows how to fight off submissions to a greater degree than Brock does. Brock’s only trained for two or three years. I’ve been doing it a lot longer.
But Randy’s ability to stop my submissions would be about the same as my ability to stop his takedowns. He’s been wrestling for 18 years - I’ve been doing martial arts since I was four, so I’ve been practicing for 25 years. For him to catch up on the submissions game is going to be one heck of a feat.
That’s all very interesting, Frank. But maybe you should think about how you’re going to get past Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira first.
Written by admin on November 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and training and fight and UFC 91 and Comprido and Brock Lesnar and News and UFC and Randy Couture and Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and MMA.
(Either on his way to corner a fighter or commit a break-in. You just never know.)
All day long I’ve been waiting to hear details on exactly what combination of prescription drugs, nachos, and crippling depression was responsible for Paulo Filho showing up seven pounds overweight and then fighting like a bored schizophrenic at last night’s WEC. Judging by his remarks to Tatame, however, it sounds as if Filho is going to try and play this one off as nothing more than a bad night after a bad training camp:
“What can I do, it’s sad… The fact is that I have no excuses, he (Sonnen) went there and did his job to neutralize me and that’s what happened, he did the right job and he has all merits… It was good to give me a new spirit.”
A new spirit? I guess that’s a start. The old one looked pretty worn out, if not non-existent. As far as how he’s planning to turn things around, Filho seems to think the answer consists of moving to Los Angeles and eventually going up a weight class.
“Here will be good, everybody is coming here and that’s because it works. At Brazil we hadn’t a good training camp, and here I believe we’ll have a high level training. The loss isn’t good, but that’s good to learn. We need more focus, responsibility, and the weight is a problem… What happened yesterday we’ll forget and start all over again. We’ll train here and get our rematch with Sonnen, and then go to light-heavyweight division.”
Oh great, a rematch. That’s just what we all want to see after last night’s odd snoozer of a fight. Going up to light heavyweight might be a decent idea, but at 5′9″ Filho is far from your typical 205-pounder. The better approach might be to stay at middleweight and simply become more disciplined with his diet and training.
Or just moving to L.A. and calling it good. I’m sure that will fix things.
Written by admin on November 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and fight and Interview and Chael Sonnen and Paulo Filho and UFC and WEC and News and MMA.
(In Brock’s defense, he is really, really white.)
We all know why Brock Lesnar deals with accusations and insinuations about steroid use. It’s because he’s a white dude. Right? Simply couldn’t be any other explanation. At least that’s what he told Pro MMA Radio:
“I’ve been accused of using steroids my entire life, probably since the tenth grade in high school… I’ve never failed a drug test. Now if I was a black guy and I looked the way I do would I get asked this question a 100 times? I just happen to be a white guy that has some great genetics, so I guess that puts a bullseye on me… I’m a white dude that’s shredded and you don’t see a lot of it — a guy that’s walking around that looks like me.”
I feel silly even typing this, but I think Brock Lesnar is oversimplifying this issue. I kind of see his point. Almost. But in answer to his question, if he was a 280-pound black man who was a former pro wrestler and who looked like an action figure, I tend to think that he would still get roughly the same amount of steroid questions. Does the name Bob Sapp sound familiar?
If Brock is tired of being asked about steroids, I have bad news for him. Unless he suddenly starts to resemble a normal human being it isn’t likely to stop. Perhaps his piles of money will console him.
(Props: MMA Mania)
Written by admin on November 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and fight and steroids and Bob Sapp and Brock Lesnar and UFC and Randy Couture and News and MMA.
(’Oh, the bruises? It’s not her fault. I just make her so mad sometimes. She’s really very sweet. You don’t know the things she says to me when we’re alone’.)
You think the death of Pro Elite was a great day for MMA, Dana White? There are those who would disagree with you. For example, the newly unemployed Scott Smith who puts a very, very sad human face on the whole thing:
“I’ve been in camp for over eight weeks and I’ve been pushing myself hard. It’s one thing if [it happens] two months out from a fight, but two weeks? It’s devastating. Even if I lost, worst case scenario, (including sponsorship money) I would still be out close to $40,000. Until all the paperwork and everything is done I’m not going to be cleared to fight somewhere else before the end of the year. It’s close to the holidays, I got a mortgage to pay, I’ve got two kids, it’s tough.”
Damn, Scott. Now I just feel terrible. There may have been a lot of small failures and a few colossal ones behind EliteXC’s demise, but you sure as hell can’t put any of it on Smith, whose clashes with Robbie Lawler were among the most memorable (for the right reasons) bouts in EliteXC’s brief history.
So if it ain’t Scott Smith’s fault, dammit, whose fault is it? Former Pro Elite VP of Home Entertainment Turi Altavilla doesn’t explicitly say it was Jared Shaw’s fuck-ups that did them in, but he certainly doesn’t absolve $kala from responsibility either. Apparently after Jared’s father, Gary Shaw, left the company under the condition that his son would stay on, things took a turn for the stupid:
“Jared would try and make it very clear that both he and the matchmaking team were calling the shots with the matchmaking,” says Altavilla. “There wasn’t even any pretending that they would try and throw us a bone. There were times when others had different ideas for matches that were clearly better ideas, and he’d make it clear that that wasn’t going to happen.”
[…]
“At the end of it all, you’re talking about guys with years and years of experience that have seen and done this on many levels, and then you’re talking about Jared, who was basically a fan,” says Altavilla. “It often seemed to me like he was a fan who won some reality show and got to be a part of an MMA company.”
[…]
“I think a lot of us were guilty of keeping our mouths shut, because we thought it was a matter of time before Jared was going to get the boot,” says Altavilla. “We thought it would be any week. Obviously, that never happened.”
Altavilla also criticizes the younger Shaw for becoming a part of Kimbo Slice’s entourage, for making their contract dispute with KJ Noons both public and personal, and for being a general jackass who preferred to show up and steal the limelight rather than do the actual work that makes an MMA event happen. Somehow I remain completely unsurprised at these accusations.
As for what ultimately went wrong with EliteXC, Altavilla said they simply “blew it.” Some more than others, it would seem.
Written by admin on October 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Scott Smith and General and fight and Jared Shaw and News and Dana White and EliteXC and UFC and Kimbo Slice and MMA.
(That’s worth a little thumb ouchie. Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)
- Thiago Alves proved himself worthy of a title shot with his victory over Josh Koscheck at UFC 90, but he didn’t get out unscathed. MMA Weekly reports that he suffered a dislocated thumb in the fight. It’s not a serious injury, and a spokesman from American Top Team said they expect him to be fine, but maybe it’s a good thing that he’ll be forced to wait out the GSP-B.J. Penn superfight before getting his shot at the welterweight strap.
- Patrick Cote, on the other hand, has a more serious injury situation. He suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee on Saturday and will have to undergo arthroscopic surgery next week. This will most likely sideline him for the next six to eight months, rendering prospects of a rematch with Anderson Silva just that much dimmer. By the time Cote is ready to fight again, Silva could have notched another two fights. Perhaps we’ll all be ready to put this one behind us by then.
- Finally, Fabricio Werdum says he was “surprised” by Junior Dos Santos, adding that it was the first time he had ever been knocked out and “it happened so fast.” Indeed it did. Werdum declined the chalk it up to a lucky punch, saying Dos Santos deserved it, and claimed the loss “won’t change anything” with regards to his pursuit of the UFC heavyweight title. Not sure how he means that, but he’s probably going to have to get back in there and notch another significant win if he wants a shot at the eventual heavyweight tournament winner.
Written by admin on October 27th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on injury and Fabricio Werdum and General and fight and Junior Dos Santos and UFC 90 and Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves and Anderson Silva and UFC and BJ Penn and Josh Koscheck and News and Patrick Cote and MMA.
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