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UFC 77 & 78 card information
By Zach Arnold | October 3, 2007
UFC 77 (10/20 Cincinnati) card line-up:
- Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva
- Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera
- Eric Schafer vs. Stephan Bonnar
- Alan Belcher vs. Kalib Starnes
- Jason MacDonald vs. Yushin Okami
- Alvin Robinson vs. Jorge Gurgel
- Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
- Matt Grice vs. Jason Black
Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans was announced for UFC 78 (11/17 New Jersey). UFC’s press release says “Bisping vs Evans To TUF It Out.” This show will also feature Akihiro “Japanese Sensation” Gono vs. Tamden McCrory. Also on the 11/17 show is Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva, David Terrell vs. Ed Herman, Karo Parisyan vs. Hector Lombard, and Frankie Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher.
Breaking news: Kevin Iole is reporting that UFC fighter Anthony Torres failed an anabolic steroid test (boldenone – horse steroid). Torres has been cut by UFC. Ken Pavia responds.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The big question for UFC 78 is whether or not Tito Ortiz will fight. If they can put on Tito Ortiz vs. Dan Henderson… Along with Bisping/Evans… Then the card is good enough to be put on PPV.
If Tito is holding out for more money… Because he can’t get along with ANYBODY…. Then this card should be on SpikeTV… Unless they find something else to interest the masses.
Not to bash Tito Ortiz, but the rumor is that he wants guaranteed more then $2 Million a fight. He feels if the UFC is offering Fedor a certain amount, he should get more….
Rashad v Bisping is a better match than Rashad v Tito, but still not a main event. Hopefully the UFC takes advantage of Henderson’s expressed willingness to fight in November. Hendo v Lambert, added to this card, while still not a main event, would make the overall card worthy.
On pure face vs. heel logic, Evans vs. Bisping makes a lot of sense. Bisping is expected to be hated because of the Hamill fight, combined with the fact that the Jersey crowds are… well, Jersey crowds (ask BodogFight and Sam Caplan). I wouldn’t expect a heel foreigner to draw a great reception in Newark or Trenton. 🙂
A posted this on UFCJunkie, but I figured it was worth a reposting….
I have seen a lot of past posts with people basically saying: “Come on Dana White, why not give us a better card in NJ?” While I agree this probably won’t be a good card… And Zuffa (in the end) is responsible for what they put out… There is a huge back story to this card. Some of the details provided have been made public by Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer.
1. ORIGINAL MAIN EVENT – BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk – When Sherk got busted for roids, it completely killed this main event.
2. PENN VS. STEVENSON – This was the next plan, but Stevenson was hurt. And then when Sherk’s commission hearing got pushed back to Oct 31, it made it impossible to have this fight anyways, because it would be too late for advertising.
3. Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans 2 – This fight was supposed to be on the card. Tito Ortiz already can’t get along with Dana White. He now negotiates his contracts with Frank Fertitta (owner). Even still, Ortiz can’t come to an agreement. He thinks he should be paid a lot more. In fact, Ortiz has ALWAYS complained about how much he is making. So this is not new. He has always been a pain to work with, even back before UFC 30.
4. Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill 2 – Another fight supposed to be on the card. Hamill is injured and now can’t compete until 2008. I think this news was reported on this website.
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cheick Kongo – This fight is happening in December but was supposed to happen on this card. I believe it was Kongo who needed more time due to injuries, so this fight was put off for another month.
As you can see… Anything the UFC tries to plan is getting knocked down. Hopefully at the end of the day, we see guys like Ortiz, Henderson, and others on the card… And we won’t have to worry about it. But as of right now, I think even Zuffa is worried. They have around 60 days before an event to get the commercial spots out to the cable companies… And without a main event signed, that is basically impossible. They are currently between a rock and a hard place.
So they fired Torres for “poor performance” not for using steroids.
In his UFC career, he won one fight on a UFN, then lost the fight at UFC 75. Before that, he was undefeated in a handful of ICON events.
His win was a first round submission…so I’m kind of wondering where “poor performance” came from.
Arlovski vs. Nogueira would have been a good main event, but I guess Arlovski is asking for way more than the UFC is willing to pay.
Their refusal to beef up the MW division is hurting them–Franklin/Silva is the only marquee fight in the entire division.
They’re also getting karmic payback for putting the welterweight division on hold. November would have been about on pace for St. Pierre/Hughes 3 or Serra 2.
“Their refusal to beef up the MW division is hurting them–Franklin/Silva is the only marquee fight in the entire division.”
They’re not “refusing” to beef up the MW division. Filho is in the WEC (for now), Kang is getting paid more in Asia than the UFC is willing to pay, Lawler is under contract but it’s a fair bet he may jump to the UFC when it’s over). That’s 3 top fighters they are missing. I can’t think of any other quality MW fighters the UFC doesn’t already have. They’ve got Silva, Frankline, Marquardt, Henderson, and an entire stable of up-and-comers.
It’s got more to do with the fact that Silva is just so freaking dominant. It makes everyone look bad.
You forgot Matt Lindland. Now that would be a good pick. Why not Trevor Prangley or Cung Le ?
Signing of Ryo Chonan is a effort on ufc’s part to give Silva a run for his money while beefing up the class.. I like Chonan but we’ll c if the cage is for him.