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« | Home | »

Tuesday tough talk

By Zach Arnold | February 26, 2007

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  1. MMA Weekly: Pennsylvia state athletic commission preparing to regulate MMA in its state
  2. Sherdog: Greg Savage has unkind words for Jerry Millen
  3. IFL HP: Dear Don – advice from “The Predator”
  4. The Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): The Iceman (Liddell) ready to get back to training, looks forward to Sylvia-Couture
  5. Vegas Pop: Star PRIDE (celebrities show up for PRIDE 33)
  6. Mad Squabbles: Judging PRIDE 33 (a good article)
  7. Egotastic: Pretty soon, Jenna Jameson will be all breasts and no face
  8. MMA California: Murilo Ninja seminar in Los Angeles today
  9. The Cumberland News (UK): Fight fans in ticket rush for Workington War
  10. Salt Lake Tribune: More on the athletic commission fall-out in Utah that could affect MMA negatively
  11. The Cleveland Plain Dealer: MMA knocks out boxing
  12. UFC Mania: Bruce Buffer, poker pro
  13. Ground and Pound: Paul “Semtex” Daley interview (he’s going to Elite XC)
  14. The Canadian Press (via The Ottawa Citizen): From comedy to MMA, welcome to the world of Joe Rogan
  15. Fox Sports: American stars shine at PRIDE 33
  16. The Washington Times: In reality, Rulon Gardner’s good TV (the writer rips on Gardner for fighting Hidehiko Yoshida in MMA)
  17. The Canadian Press: Liddell-Silva match-up no longer on the cards, UFC rues lost opportunity (Dana White shreds PRIDE apart over their booking of Silva)
  18. The Boston Herald: Chuck Liddell is open for anything (including a run in the UFC Heavyweight division)
  19. Ivan Trembow: PRIDE 33 fight salaries (if Silva is fighting for only $150,000 USD…)
  20. UFC HP: Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture ready for historic battle Saturday
  21. NBC Sports: Dana White wants to sign Emelianenko Fedor

Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 88 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

88 Responses to “Tuesday tough talk”

  1. Mike says:

    There’s good comedy, bad comedy, Carrot Top painfully bad comedy … and then Dan Daly’s attempts at humor in that column. One joke that falls flat after another.

  2. ukiro says:

    Dana pretending like he’s done everything in his power to book Lidell vs Silva is perhaps a bit rich. I’m not saying I have the inside scoop, but I find it very hard to believe that one side did all the stalling here. I also think his apparent lack of interest for Shogun is all facade – of course he wants him… I mean, in another sentence he says he’s running out of opponents for Lidell at 205, so why not go after such a badass 205’er as Shogun? If Rua fought for 50k as Trembow says, it’s perfectly feasible, given the financial strength of UFC right now. He’s not going to be forced to pay him 350k like Mirko. As we’ve seen in the past with Anderson Silva for example, you can build up a foreign/unknown fighter pretty quickly, so Shogun being unknown in the US is a non-issue.

  3. Zach Arnold says:

    And, historically speaking, outside of Vanderlei the majority of the top Brazilian fighters fight at a lower price tag than foreign counterparts.

  4. Ivan Trembow says:

    Regarding Fedor Emelianenko, we have posted this information before, but once again: The UFC could sign him tomorrow (or could have already signed him already), but the sticking point is that Fedor still only wants to sign one-fight contracts and not any exclusive multi-fight contracts.

    The UFC is not willing to sign anyone, even Fedor, under those circumstances, and it’s very easy to argue the case in support of that policy because why would you want Fedor to come in, win one fight, and then potentially leave?

    They want Fedor only if he will sign a multi-fight contract like Cro Cop did. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be six fights like Cro Cop’s contract, but it would certainly have to be more than one fight.

  5. Ivan Trembow says:

    Regarding the UFC’s assertion that they “cut Nick Diaz” and that’s why he is in not in the UFC, that is false.

    For whatever it’s worth, the UFC did not “cut” Nick Diaz. In fact, the opposite is true— Nick Diaz chose to leave the UFC to sign a bigger offer with The World Fighter.

    When that organization went out of business before its first show, Diaz got offers from the UFC, Pride, and EliteXC. The biggest offer was from EliteXC, and it also was non-exclusive so it would allow him to fight elsewhere. That’s when Diaz signed with EliteXC, and he signed with Pride as well very shortly thereafter.

    The Pride money that Diaz got is nothing to the EliteXC money that Diaz is going to get, but then again EliteXC is throwing around money like crazy. Diaz may or may not get a big pay raise on his Pride deal now that he has beaten Gomi.

  6. ukiro says:

    Ivan: What about the news from earlier this year that Fedor had signed a new multi-fight contract with Pride? Was that all in Sakakibaras fantasy world, or is the catch that the contract is somehow non-exclusive? I recall reading that his old Pride contract had an exception in it that let him fight outside of Pride if the fight was in Russia, which is why the Bodog thing is happening, so I guess that would have carried over into the new contract if there is one?

  7. Ivan Trembow says:

    ukiro— The words “multi-fight” or “long-term” were nowhere to be found in Pride’s release about “re-signing Fedor.” Therefore, one can’t be sure whether they actually did sign him to a multi-fight contract or whether they just signed him to another one-fight contract (all of his contracts have been one-fight contracts in recent fights).

    What is known for sure is that prior to signing the one-fight contract with BodogFight, and even after that since the BodogFight contract is not an exclusive contract, Fedor’s people were saying in negotiations with the UFC, among others, that he only wants one-fight contracts. The UFC did not want to sign him under those circumstances, whereas Pride and BodogFight want(ed) him under any circumstances possible. Also, as of a couple months ago, Sakakibara was still denying that Fedor was fighting in BodogFight, so that could theoretically be denied forever. But whether Pride acknowledges it or not, he is fighting in BodogFight on April 14th.

  8. Xenos says:

    The “news” about Fedor signing a two-year deal with Pride came from a random poster on the forum of Fedor’s website. Some people translated it through babelfish and ran with it to Sherdog and the UG.

  9. Stu says:

    Asked if Pride’s Mauricio (Shogun) Rua would make a good substitute for Silva against Liddell, White said: “Nobody knows who the hell Shogun is.”

    Yeah because everyone who doesn’t know Shogun knew who Silva was, what an awful excuse.

  10. ukiro says:

    Thanks, both Ivan and Xenos, that cleared some stuff up for me.

    Dana is smart by refusing one-fight contracts, yet expressing desire to sign him. Fedor will know where to go when/if Pride folds or pays less, but he also knows that at that point he will have to sign for at least 3 fights.

    Could the plan from Dana be to focus his buying power on a single division in Pride (HW), in order to inflict as much damage as possible? It’s a fairly weak theory, but the signing of both Mirko and Werdum points in that direction. If he can ruin the entire HW division for Pride (arguably their best), and he’s just big nog or hunt away from actually that, the money invested will in the end give him Fedor for much less than if he’d tried to go for him right away.

    I came to MMA for the fighting, but now I’m equally intrigued by the politics… I blame this site.

  11. Zack says:

    Dana is a promoter and has been a great one in the last couple years. I think its funny that people take his words at face value. In the past year he’s also said that he hasn’t really paid attention to Fedor. The guy will say or spin anything to make the company he works for look good or to draw a dollar. That’s his job and he does it well. It’s amazing that so called “smart” fans believe him or side with him so much.

    Also, good info from Ivan on this thread. This page provides some of the best discussions about MMA on the internet. I’d like to see a small messageboard sometime in the future so we can prolong some of the better discussions beyond just a day or two.

    I also I think that the FO radio show has gotten good enough in the last handfull of episodes that the comments should be turned on again. It’s a great start for good discussion.

  12. Armen says:

    I agree with Zack about Dana. The man will say anything to twist the market in his (UFC’s) favor. Not to mention that at this point, anything he says about Shogun or another PRIDE fighter will probably be heard/seen by just about as many people as Shogun’s fight in a PRIDE show (in the US).

    Some of us who don’t want to see a UFC monopoly on big fighters in MMA might very well be upset with the amount of clout and influence the UFC is on track to wield in the industry. I hate to admit it since I still get more enjoyment on average out of the fights on a PRIDE show than a UFC one, but the UFC has been doing A LOT of the “right” thing lately in order to sustain and grow their business long-term. PRIDE? Yeah, not so much.

  13. ukiro says:

    Damn I’m posting a lot today… slow day at work. Anyway: I think the top10 rankings would be supported by more people if we could see some of the background reasoning. Currently I mainly see them being ridiculed on various forums. Personally I would have Mark Hunt slightly higher (above Aleks at least) and Nick Diaz a bit lower; Diaz face a Gomi that was obviously messed up somehow, and couldn’t knock him out (or even down) despite a total lack of defense on Gomi’s part. So while I respect the stamina, warrior spirit and admittedly beautiful submission, I think he needs to prove his striking (power) a bit more before he’s top 5 in the world.

    But then I’m a total newbie in the MMA scene, so what do I know =)

  14. Preach says:

    Zack, there’s already a Fight Opinion message board: http://www.fightopinion.com/forum Only nobody uses it, since we can comment on the articles right here 😉

  15. “Regarding the UFC’s assertion that they “cut Nick Diaz” and that’s why he is in not in the UFC, that is false.”

    I have a couple questions in regard to this … my understanding was that Diaz was gone from UFC after his loss to Sean Sherk but was brought back as a last second replacement to fight Josh Neer. After winning that fight, the UFC gave him another fight as a ‘reward’ but past that there were all sorts of contract issues and arguments between UFC and Diaz’s manager Cesar Gracie. This ended with no new contract, Diaz getting dark matched and that was it with the UFC.

    I’ve always wanted to know more about the subject because even though it was clear that Diaz was done in the UFC he was talking in his dark match post fight interview about wanting to stay and fight the top names. It seemed to me like Cesar was the one basically dealing with everything business oriented and Diaz did was Cesar said, which is what lead to him leaving the UFC. It’s worked out well for him now with the EliteXC and Pride contracts, but honestly at the time, Cesar pulled Diaz out of the UFC to fight in the Gracie Fighting Championships … which looked absolutely retarded to me.

  16. Utimo Santa says:

    Dana White is NOT interested in putting together the best two fighters – he’s interested in building champions with clever booking to make them look much more impressive than they are. Then when they finally DO lose to a credible opponent, he can bill them as ‘legends’ by touting their past accomplishments.

    While PRIDE was matching Wanderlei Silva against guys like CroCop, Hunt, and Fujita – all legitimate threats to beat him – UFC was being MUCH more conservative with their poster boy.

    In 2006, Chuck Liddell gets to fight a very tired, sluggish looking Randy Couture (whom he’s already beaten), Renato Sobral (whom he’s already beaten), and Tito Ortiz (whom he’s already beaten).

    “Styles make fights” as Dana likes to say over and over again…and he knows exactly who he can let Chuck KO, and sell it a phenomenal accomplishment.

    I don’t think Dana would be that excited at the prospect of someone that “nobody knows who the hell they are” – like Shogun – potentially KO his meal ticket in R1.

    And do you think we’ll be seeing CroCop vs. Liddell any time soon?

    Unfortunately Pride is not a marketing company, they’re a fighting company. Which is one of the reasons they’re fading, and UFC is thriving off the ignorance of the average, un-informed fan (they type of person who buys a PPV headlined by Shamrock vs. Ortiz or Hughes vs. Gracie, and actually doesn’t know who’s going to win beforehand).

  17. Grape Knee High says:

    Zack, why do you continue to misspell Wanderlei Silva’s name with a “V”? We get it. You’re old school. You remember the days when he was Vanderlei with a “V”. But then why aren’t you calling him “Vanderlei da Silva” instead?

  18. Zach Arnold says:

    I spell it phonetically more or less so that no one screws it up. Take the name Dirk Nowitski for example. Sure, you don’t spell it “Novitski,” but guess how many people pronounce his name wrong? Lots. I could spell Tsuyoshi Kohsaka “Kosaka” but adding the h (like I do with Shinjiro Ohtani) helps people out in pronouncing it right.

  19. The Gaijin says:

    While I think there’s no question that Chuck would fight a rhino if he was told to – Ultimo Santa is right….UFC isnt interested in booking #1 vs. #2 fighters in the world b/c they want to build monster champions ala Franklin and Chuck. After watching A. Silva destroy Franklin, I’m pretty sure Dana was very tentative to book Wanderlei and Chuck. Granted he’s able to snipe now and say “oh I knew all along that Chuck would KO him”, without us ever getting to see the fight and acting as if he has golden proof.

    As for the Shogun thing – I believe its just him talking out his ass. The rest of the MMA world knows who Shogun is and I’m pretty sure with DSE footage US fans would be drooling all over themselves to see that fight.

    Fact of the matter is since 2005 – Shogun is 8-1 (1L @ HW) and has 6 of those wins against top 10 LHW fighters. Chuck is 5-0 since 2005 – four of those fights being rematches: Jeremy Horn, Babalu a legit top 10, Couture who at this point was a quickly fading fighter who looked nothing like the one that beat him at UFC 43 and had already been KO’d by Chuck but would have been considered bottom half top 10 and of course Tito Ortiz whom I do not consider to be a real top 10 level of talent but I guess some do.

    Shogun is basically an uncrowned champion right now at 205 and would be holding the belts in PRIDE if his teammate hadnt have dominated the division for the last 6 years or in the UFC had he been fighting there. He’s the true #1 205er in the world and the pure quality of his track record and matches speak for themselves but I’m sure I’ll take a lot of flaming from the Chuck side of things.

  20. J-Man says:

    So UFC protects champions and Pride don’t ? Come on who the hell can argue that with a stright face.
    Fedor’s last three fights were Mark Hunt off a bad loss to Barnett, Coleman who’s best days were years ago and Zulu.
    Silva had more cans than a coke machine and more losses than a champion should.
    Henderson can’t even be ranked first in his own division in Pride he had one defense and beat Misaki who really had no business fighting for the title.
    Gomi has lost twice in non title shots to guys who can’t be called title contenders.

  21. Grape Knee High says:

    With all due respect, your explanation is a bit weak, IMO, Zach. (Sorry for spelling it with a “k” last time.)

    Look at how you deal with Fedor’s name. You always refer to him as “Emelianenko Fedor”. Well, for one, I’m unsure why you always put his surname first (when you don’t even do this for Japanese fighters), but why aren’t you spelling his name as “Fyodor” which is a more phonetically correct pronunciation?

  22. JThue says:

    “I’m in New York (and) there’s about 50,000 people downstairs right now that can beat Kimo.”

    Quote of the week 🙂

  23. Ben says:

    Who gives a fuck how he spells the name?

  24. Ultimo Santa says:

    My argument is that PRIDE is not afraid to book #1 vs. #2 fights – on a very regular basis – and UFC is.

    In their recent Openweight Tournament, in one night, we saw CropCop vs. Silva, Barnett vs. Nog and then CroCop vs. Barnett. That’s the best of the best fighting each other, period – and NO ONE was being protected.

    Do you think UFC is EVER going to do something like that?

    Outside of their Welterweight Division, there isn’t enough talent in the UFC, even now, to make many new, meaningful fights that Dana White would be willing to chance.

    CroCop KO’s Silvia for the world title. Big f’ing deal. Liddell beats another jobber. Whoop-de-doo. St. Pierre demolishes Matt Serra. Didn’t see that one coming.

    I’m sure we’ll see St. Pierre take out Hughes again in similar fashion, and Anderson Silva dispose of Rich Franklin for the second time.

    But then what?

  25. Zach Arnold says:

    I could spell Fedor’s the name the way I pronounce it and the way the Japanese input it on a keyboard (Fyodor), but I go with the common spelling that the promotion itself has always used in English.

    If this is the worst offense I’ve committed, then I’d say I’ve had a pretty good run lately. Of course, judging by lots of comments, I’m not a liked man very often. 🙂

  26. Ultimo Santa says:

    We all love you Zach. You’re the man.

    My only complaint would be (and this is semi off-topic) is during the Fight Opinion Radio Show, you seem to go into painstaking detail about each and every UFC fight – which is good…except when Pride has a PPV, everyone just says “DEATHWATCH!!!” 100 times and virtually ignores the fight results.

    Especially when it’s something like the Openweight Tournament a couple months ago, which was twice as good as any UFC PPV from 2006…and it seemed like everyone on your show was just interested in making fun of PRIDE for their legal troubles.

    I do enjoy hearing that aspect of the business, and getting some insight I would not normally get, but for now – at least while they’re still in business – maybe there can be a little discussion about their actual fights?

  27. J-Man says:

    Fine look at the OWGP lets see what happened because of it. First off there is no #1 vs #2 because Fedor was not there. They had a #2 #3 #4 and a semi champion from a lower weight class.
    Crocop kills Silva making the middleweight champion look like shit. Then he beats Barnett for the third time wins the OWGP title and heads for the UFC.
    Fedor is fighting in Russia so theres nothing for Barnett and Nog to do but keep fighting each other and Silva gets knocked out again and loses his belt to Henderson.
    So what good came from the OWGP where the best fought the best if you over look the first round.

  28. iain says:

    Zach did you check out the yahoo thing? it’s sort of like technorati but for sport searches on yahoo. Pride is high ranked and near the UFC.

  29. iain says:

    well it was higher this morning anyways!

  30. “more cans than a coke machine” – classic 😀

    You don’t take a promising fighter and throw him to the wolves. The UFC is interested in developing talent so that they a) gain the skills to fight at the top of their abilities and b) gain the exposure to be effectively marketed. Nowhere in this schema is there some conspiracy to ‘protect their champions’.

    As for Pride, they’re definately guilty of booking fights on spectacle rather than merit (not really a bad thing for me because I’m guilty of enjoying these from time to time). Mark Coleman and Dan Henderson were given fights based on the perceived marketing value rather than their place in the ladders. However, I really don’t understand the reasoning behind non-title bouts … that makes no sense whatsoever to me. And while the UFC’s champions are protected more by the lack of veteran top tier depth, Pride champions definately don’t seem to be squaring off against the top fighters in their division very often.

  31. JOSH says:

    Agreed PRIDE does both booking for merit and spectacle. The Fedor/Coleman fight was only put together so the Americans have an americna fighter to “root” for. But then again Fedor has foguth the BEST of the BEST to keep his title, its not his fault he’s beaten all of them.

    I can see the reason for the non-title fights as PRIDE wants to showcase their champs but dont have a legitimate contender to figth them. Fedor vs Zulu…at the time who else was trhere for Fedor to fight? Silva hasnt really fough that many non tile fights as he has been mostly in GPs but at the same time taking out top contenders like Rampage and Sakuraba in those GPs. And Gomi’s non title fights were only because again in a newly created LW division who was he going to fight? There was no clear cut no.1 contender. I would rather see a cahmp fight a nobody in a NON title fight then have trhe federation make it seem like this nobody is a somebody and deserves a title shot (ahem like UFC back in the day). The only non-title fight I had a problem with was the Ishida/Gomi fight as Ishida earned his title shot at the time..but well Gomi answered that one didnt he.

  32. Jordan Breen says:

    “And Gomi’s non title fights were only because again in a newly created LW division who was he going to fight.”

    No.

  33. The Gaijin says:

    I wasnt saying the the UFC “protects” their champions per se. They just arent interested in doing #1 vs. #2 very often….I mean look at Liddell – they’ve made millions off booking revenge rematches and feuds. Thats the way they’ve decided to go and there’s nothing against it, fuck its worked out pretty well for them I’d say.

    MY main point was that: Saying shit like “no one knows Shogun” is a completely hollow arguement. All it would take is an appearance or two, HL reel or an “All Access” show to have people salavating at the prospect of Chuck vs. Shogun. And my other point was that Shogun based on his amazing performances over the past two years should be considered by and large the #1 205er in the world, title belt or not.

  34. Stu says:

    “And Gomi’s non title fights were only because again in a newly created LW division who was he going to fight.”

    No.

    Could the Diaz bout even have been a title fight at 160? Wouldn’t it have had to be at 155 then or am I completely wrong?

  35. JOSH says:

    Ok who was Gomi going to fight at the times he was facing Aurielo and Baron, Breen? He just beat Sakurai for the title, who else was going to step up? Frankly Im glad that they didnt just throw title matches at Gomi like the way the UFC somehow made Sherk/Florian a title match for the LW title when neither one of them came into the UFC as original LWs.

  36. JOSH says:

    BTW Shogun was easily the most cheered on figher at both weights ins and the show in Vegas…so Im pretty sure alot of people know who Shogun is.

  37. The statement Dana made regarding Shogun was that he was too unknown to be brought in to fight Chuck immediately … the context of the question was “Who are you going to bring in to fight Chuck at UFC71?”. And i can understand … if you’re going to bring in a guy like Shogun, you need to showcase his ability against a few guys so that when the title shot comes, it’s going to make UFC a lot of money.

  38. JOSH says:

    Fine but did Dana not hear the pin drop when Silva came out to stare down Liddell?

  39. MMA Geek says:

    Hardcore fans need to understand that matching the two best fighters isn’t always the fight the sells to the general public. When Dana White says that know one knows who Shogun is, he’s not saying he can’t fight or isn’t a match for Chuck. He’s saying that know one would buy it and I believe him because he had a hard time seling Chuck vs Babalu and Babalu is guy that had a fantastic record and had many showings in UFC PPVs. What makes you think that the general public would want to see Shogun with zero UFC appearances? Shogun would have make a near perfect ascent to the top of the UFC chain like Anderson Silva did and even then, it would take probably a year. Chuck needs opponents now and that’s why Dana White dismisses Shogun as an opponent for the immediate future. Sure UFC can just match up the top guys, but then they would be in danger of going out of business like Pride.

    As fans, you got to understand that UFC has to make money and while that sounds terrible for the “sport”, without profit, the UFC would go away and then where would the “sport” be? If the way Pride did things was go great, why are they in such financial peril?

  40. Well, it’s unfair to say that PRIDE is in trouble because of how they book things. They’re f*ed because they lost their tv deal and they lost that because of the yakuza scandal.

    Why was Dana so stoked for Wanderlei? To take a page from sherdog, Wanderlei’s highlight reel is so extensive it’s catalogued using the Dewey Decimal System. He was Pride’s middleweight champion. Basically Dana saw a product that he could really market. And I agree – although the live crowd didn’t know Wanderlei, I bet by fight time the UFC hype machine would have had him stacked up there. Shogun is a great fighter but he’s not elite like Wanderlei … not yet anyways.

  41. JOSH says:

    Really fightlinker? But by ur logic u could just replace Silva with Shogun’sname and it works all the same. Shogun has a highlight reel hell PRIDE KO’s Vol 2 is like 40% Shogun. If the UFC marketing machine wanted to they could ahve easily hyped up Shogun’s fight with Lidell. Hell look at how they worked Mirko and Rampage, and thats without ANY highlights from PRIDE, hell they didnt even show Mirko’s face half the time. Honestly Dana plays this so two faced, if he wanted to he could easily turn any star INTO a superdtar…its not that hard, look at how wrestling does it and u can apply the same to MMA. White just has the McMahon mentaility and hates to make money off of someone HE didnt discover or own. The only reaosn why he brought in Mirko and Rampage was because of the lack of challengers for Sylvia and Liddell in the first place.

  42. JThue says:

    Come NYE at latest, either Silva or Shogun will be the PRIDE MW champion and… “problem” solved. White’s comment about Shogun being unknown of course is a contradiction considering Silva’s non-name value. The only difference between Silva-Liddell end Shogun-Liddell is that Liddell and Shogun doesn’t have the same appeal to about 100 people ordering UFC PPV’s who have had this dream of Silva-Chuck for years now. For marketability on a UFC show, Shogun or Silva makes absolutely zero difference, as long as it’s champion versus champion.

  43. JOSH says:

    agreed whole heartidly with JThue

  44. Jordan Breen says:

    “Ok who was Gomi going to fight at the times he was facing Aurielo and Baron, Breen? He just beat Sakurai for the title, who else was going to step up? Frankly Im glad that they didnt just throw title matches at Gomi like the way the UFC somehow made Sherk/Florian a title match for the LW title when neither one of them came into the UFC as original LWs.”

    There was an assload of routes DSE could have taken. I have no idea why people think that title shots need to be substantiated by a guy being the absolute number one contender, especially with no real ranking system in place. Champions ought to face all comers. This ladder-driven image of championship contention is straight foolishness. Non-title fights just straight up aren’t acceptable in fightsport if you’re gonna have titles.

    Also, while Shogun did get some surprisingly nice pops at the PRIDE cards, I encourage you all to talk to some extremely casual (i.e. not cruising sites like this, or even more popular fora for that matter) to get a better idea of the difference between Liddell/Silva and Liddell/Rua. Not that a match-up between Chucky and Shogun wouldn’t sell, but Silva definitely has more recognizability among your casual consumers who just buy UFC pay-per-views.

  45. Rollo the Cat says:

    “White just has the McMahon mentaility and hates to make money off of someone HE didnt discover or own. The only reaosn why he brought in Mirko and Rampage was because of the lack of challengers for Sylvia and Liddell in the first place.”

    Nonsense. Dana didn’t discover the fighters he inherited form Meyerowitz. Fact is, he couldn’t bring in a lot of top names when the UFC was on its death bed. You really believe Dana doesn’t want Fedor, Shogun, Yamamoto or others because they aren’t born in the UFC?

  46. Lynchman says:

    “White just has the McMahon mentaility and hates to make money off of someone HE didnt discover or own. The only reaosn why he brought in Mirko and Rampage was because of the lack of challengers for Sylvia and Liddell in the first place.”

    ————————————————

    That would explain the UFC signing Werdum, Herring, Lyoto, Okami and others.

  47. JThue says:

    “Not that a match-up between Chucky and Shogun wouldn’t sell, but Silva definitely has more recognizability among your casual consumers who just buy UFC pay-per-views.”

    Yes, because Wanderlei has been brought out and talked about on UFC TV/PPV. It’ll take all of one videopackage or appearance to bring Shogun to the pretty much same “level” with the casual UFC-fan in a day and age where Anderson Silva vs. Lutter draws the same PPV numbers that Liddell vs. Couture did last year.

  48. JOSH says:

    Dana did discover a mess of the fighers he is marketing right now, ever heard of TUF? Notice how half the cards and most of the FN cards are filled with TUF alumi (which is the biggest complaint of most anti-UFC people). The only fighters I see Dana marketing that arent TUF and were established before hand are Liddell, Tito and Couture.

    Yeah Werdum was picked up to spite PRIDE, Herring and Lyoto were picked up in the deal to kill the WFA and Okami…well that one Ill give to u. See none of those were really “hey this guy will bring in money for me.” No those were all “fuck you” moves to the MMA world from Dana. I firmly believe that White doesnt wnt stars unless he created them OR they have already been proven stars (ie Fedor). And to be honest i dont think those three guys mentioned above are going to be stars in the UFC (well maybe Lyoto..depending on which Lyoto shows up).

    I highly doubt Rollo that Dana wants Shogun, espeically after that comment he made. Yes I highly doubt Dana would make any move to grab any of the BRazilian fighters from PRIDE.

    And as for Mr. Breen granted champions should take on all comers and thats what Gomi did when he fought Aurelio but c’mon do u think Aurelio deserved a title shot? Who has he even beat? Who has Baron beat? Do u think Zhulu deserved a title shot with Fedor? Thats why those fights were NON title fights. PRIDE does let their fighters fight anyone and everyone, the problem is alot of the times there was no one for those champions to fight. The only person I could see fighting Gomi at the time was Hansen but im sure the Shooto organizations would have been upset about that and possibly not let it happen. So this sint really about number 1 contender vs champion (though it really should be) its that NO ONE else would have been a legitimate contender (number 1 or not). And if u think someone should have been, tell me (ur knowledge of japanese fighters is definitly better than mine) but Im sure if PRIDE could have they would have set the fights up.

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