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UFC 76 – the aftermath

By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2007

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Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports attended the UFC 76 post-fight press conference. Some highlights:

White launched into a tirade against the PRIDE fan boys and the Internet sites he said who encourage them to denigrate the UFC.

“I want to say something and everybody knows how I’ve felt for years about these goofy Internet websites,” White said through gritted teeth. “I hate them. They’re biased, crooked and there are a lot of other bad things I can say, but I don’t want to waste my time.

“They’ve been biased against us for years. Their reporting was always biased against us. They talk about fights that don’t make any sense. Let me tell you what: We’re the best in the business. Our matchmaker (Joe Silva) is the best. We put on the best and the biggest fights.”

Why go on a tirade about the Internet after the show, Dana? Why take a shot at Elite XC and call them Triple-A MMA, Kevin?

UFC 76 show reaction: UFC HP | MMA Junkie | UFC Mania | Sam Caplan | Fox Sports | Irish Whip Fighting | Sprawl ‘n Brawl | Dave Doyle | Steve Sievert | Fight Report | Long Beach Press-Telegram | CBS Sportsline | Orange County Register | The LA Times | The Canadian Press | The Houston Chronicle | Orange County Register 2

Other news:

Lorenzo Fertitta is quoted in the latest edition of GONKAKU (Gong Kakutougi) as stating that he hopes UFC and WOWOW reach a new agreement to start re-airing UFC shows in Japan in 2008.

Also in the latest edition of GONKAKU, Ed Fishman admitted that he was approached by Pancrase to buy the promotion.

The latest edition of Inside the Cage Radio.

The Fightworks Podcast: Luis Heredia and Richie Hightower interviews

MMA on Tap: Turner, Belfort Victorious at Cage Rage 23

Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Pancrase, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 72 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

72 Responses to “UFC 76 – the aftermath”

  1. Zurich says:

    Nobody’s talking about Machida? I think he can beat _anyone_ at 205.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    I have a feeling they are going to match up Machida vs. Alexander in order to knock Alexander down a few pegs….

  3. The Gaijin says:

    Yeah…I’m not sure who ‘Page will fight – Jardine? That fight probably won’t be too sexy, but he got a big win over a huge name in Chuck, KO’d Griffin but I guess it’s the same problem as Griffin in that he’s only one fight away from a KO loss.

    Why don’t they go Machida vs. Rampage?

  4. The Gaijin says:

    I think one thing Silva has on his side coming into the UFC is that this isn’t the first time in a cage and under unified rules. Granted his record isn’t impressive, I think the “been there before” goes a long way in negating the “jitters” that everyone else seems to have had.

    Plus he’s given himself time to adapt to the US, he’s in the crowd at the events and getting acclimated to the atmosphere, he’s seen the effects of ill-preparation of the other PRIDE fighters and the real ace in the hole is that he’s been training with Randy.

  5. AS says:

    I’ve got a post up looking at the business ramifications coming out of UFC 76 and where they likely go from here at 205:

    http://mmapayout.blogspot.com/

  6. Pontus says:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they let the winner of Tito vs Rashad get the title shot.

    If Rashads wins they get Rampage vs unbeaten TUF winner as title fight and if Tito wins they get RAMPAGE vs TITO as a title fight.

    I think both would sell alot of ppvs but the Tito one would get crazy press and do outstanding money.

  7. 45 Huddle says:

    Tito vs. Rampage would have to happen for a lot of money because neither want to fight each other. If Rashad Evans wins, I could see him getting a title shot, but it does feel like it would be too early. Then again, why risk it at this point.

    Also, would Griffin/Silva work…. Don’t both train with Couture now?

  8. The Gaijin says:

    “Also, would Griffin/Silva work…. Don’t both train with Couture now?”

    I was actually just thinking about that…I’m not sure what the affiliation b/w Wand and Xtreme Couture is at this point. I think he’s still officially a Chute Boxe guy, but I guess that would mean he wouldn’t be training with Randy in that case.

    And both Tito and Rampage have more or less said they wouldn’t fight each other unless there was a lot of $ on the table.

  9. The Gaijin says:

    I think if Evans were to pull it off against Tito, they’d be pretty much forced to go with Evans – Rampage. If he were to lose in the interim there probably would be stuck even worse than they are now.

    The biggest trouble for them seems to be that everyone is a fight away from being in line for a title shot or coming off a loss. Last night royally F’d up a lot of their future plans.

  10. m.d. says:

    I just love Zach bringing up “performance enhancers” with regard to Pride fighters stinking the joint out. I thought UFC testing was a joke too since they don’t test everywhere and don’t test everyone? Is commission testing an intelligence test or is it a deterrent? It can’t be both.

    Also, this chaos is not good for the sport. What a contrast to boxing with 3 huge fights coming up featuring all undefeated fighters. In a sport where the goal is to establish unquestioned physical supremacy, all we have is murky, ambiguous parity.

  11. Tomer Chen says:

    Is commission testing an intelligence test or is it a deterrent?

    Can’t it be both? It can be both an intelligence test in terms of the smarter fighters having to understand how to proper cycle or mask their drug usage at the right time to get a false negative on their test while being a deterrent to fighters who fail the IQ test segment or future potential fighters by seeing the penalties of not passing the test. In essence, it would force fighters to ‘smarten up’ (either in terms of cycling/masking or go completely clean) or not remain in the sport.

  12. 45 Huddle says:

    Well, what kind of position is boxing in? I just watched countdown to Taylor/Pavlik…. And neither have any marketability. Hence why a fight for the World Middleweight Championship between 2 undefeated fighters is being given away on HBO.

    I don’t think this chaos hurts, as long as the fans have somebody to cheer for. Forrest Griffin is really popular, so that win did a lot of good things for the UFC. Quinton Jackson not only beat Chuck Liddell, but then he won a solid fight with millions of people watching on SpikeTV.

    Feeding Quinton a guy like Jardine wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It would likely give him another win…. Giving the appearance of a more dominant champion…. Before they feed him another top contender like Griffin, Silva, Evan,s Ortiz, or Machida.

  13. zenki says:

    45 Huddle Says:

    September 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
    I don’t disagree that the ring to cage element is part of the factor. However, that has nothing to do with the huge stamina issues we have seen, along with the pudgy body types of these Pride Fighters.

    You would think that but how often do u c a guy pushing another into the ropes with all his might tring to get positon on him that way u dont.. In the cage u use it to your advantage if your not use to it a man full force pushing u into the cage is gonna gass u out..

  14. zenki says:

    Add me to the chorus of “Lidell vs Silva” anyway.

    Both coming off 2 ugly losses. Winner regains stardom, loser retires

    Wandy fights smart and goes the route taken and plainly shown by Jardine hands down Wandy wins.. If Wandy gets caught up in the ufc hype and fights a emotional fight then theres a good chance hes gonna get caught by Liddel and loses.. Wandy’s style doesnt match Liddel to good.

  15. JThue says:

    I would rather not see Wanderlei – Liddell at all than seing it in December. It’s basically a freakshow fight at this point. It’s the kind of hype fight K-1 would book for NYE. What is the rivalry? That they’re the two unbeatable 205-champions of the world, top class strikers, representing the two top promotions in the world. But they’re no longer unbeatable, they’re no longer champions and there aren’t even two companies anymore. The entire basis of the rivalry is gone. At this point it would be below UFC’s standards(I can’t believe I’m typing this) to book and hype this fight, and Dana White is all too aware of that.

    And Marcos Rosales apparently thought both Sanchez and Liddell won their fights. Added up that makes for damn near proof of a blatantly star struck judge.

  16. zenki says:

    hahaha…

    I couldnt agree more..But as crooked as Dana is the fight probally will still happen . Exspecially with the resent showings of all the other Pride fighters having troubles in the cage. Its a golden oppertunity for Dana to pull te old told ya so crap from his previous wants on promoting this fight.

  17. D. Capitated says:

    Well, what kind of position is boxing in? I just watched countdown to Taylor/Pavlik…. And neither have any marketability. Hence why a fight for the World Middleweight Championship between 2 undefeated fighters is being given away on HBO.

    Pavlik’s been on HBO once and people got psyched for him because he banged out with his opponent. Before that, he was bouncing around Versus and Shobox cards. Nobody saw him and few people wanted to face him. Its like me telling you that Dan Henderson/Quinton Jackson was on Spike because neither guy is interesting to the layman and have boring personalities. Then again, I remember people saying that Pavlik was a “boring guy” and that he was in no way controversial, in spite of his reputation as a partier and the fact that he beat up a cop.

  18. ajax says:

    The UFC needs a serious dose of steroids and a new rule set(tounge in cheek of course, but I do miss it).

  19. Zack says:

    45 Huddle…you sure seem to watch a lot of things that you don’t enjoy. Why not stick to reruns of Friends?

  20. Bravo Dana! I’ve been saying the same things for years about internet “opinion” sites that attempt to pass themselves off as “news” sites. Of course all the mma “journalists”, probably Zach included, will be offended by what Dana said but the truth hurts somethimes.

  21. Body_Shots says:

    He’s either being defensive or feels validated by the results of tonight’s PPV (hard to say without hearing the context). A lot of people believed Shogun-Griffin and Jardine-Liddell were horrible match ups and mismatches on paper, that obviously wasn’t the case.

    I watched the post fight presser, it was validation.

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