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Dana White: Why would Fedor fight in the UFC when he can lose for millions in Strikeforce?
By Zach Arnold | February 26, 2011
Video courtesy MMA Fighting and Ariel Helwani
ARIEL HELWANI: “It’s been a few weeks since we’ve talked to you. We’ve never got your thoughts on your friend Fedor Emelianenko’s loss. So, I just was wondering what you thought about his performance a couple of weeks ago in New Jersey.”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, you know… I, uh… heh heh… I’ve been saying it for a long time. You know, I’ve had all these goofy reporters arguing with me and everything else about where this guy stands in the pound-for-pound … *laughs*… in the pound-for-pound list and… his fans just need to deal with it. Deal with the fact that he’s not one of the best in the world, he’s not. It’s over, and as great as this guy was, it’s what I was saying, you know, all that was back in 2005. It’s not 2005 any more. The guy’s inactive, hasn’t fought anybody good in a long time, and… he looks old and it’s over. It is what it is.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “He’s lost two fights in a row. If they came to you right now and said, forget about all the co-promotion stuff, we just want to have a fight in the UFC. Do you even do it at this point?”
DANA WHITE: “The biggest problem is that, what all of you can’t seem to understand and I don’t know what it is, if I acted like these idiots act, Vadim and these guys, you can’t do business with these people. You just can’t do business with them. And they’ve made it very clear, even before he got beat up twice, that they don’t want to fight the guys in the UFC. They don’t want to. Why would you want to come in here? You saw what happened to him the last two fights. Why would you want to come in here and fight these heavyweights when you can go over there and make, you know, you can make a couple million bucks getting beat up by guys (Fabricio Werdum & Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva) that aren’t good.”
While he was hedging his bets in the video interview, Dana White did indicate that Jon Fitch would become the #1 contender at Welterweight if he beats Penn at UFC 127. As for Yushin Okami, he indicated that Okami would have to win one more fight and then he probably would get a Middleweight title shot against Anderson Silva.
Michael David Smith isn’t happy with Michael Bisping’s language these days.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 50 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I don’t understand why Michael David Smith wants the UFC to do anything about what Michael Bisping says. I think all the UFC should do is say that they don’t support his choice of words and that it reflects only on himself not the UFC as an organisation. If Bisping calls someone a
f*gthat reflects poorly only on him and it shouldn’t be a reflection of the UFC or all fighters.The personalities of the fighters sell fights too. If you never heard Floyd Mayweather open his mouth, would you be so willing to pay money to see him get punched out?
Allowing fighters to show their personality and character (good or bad) is important to the fans, in my opinion. Who wants to hear every fighter read the “professional athlete script” like they do in other sports? Things could be a lot less interesting if everybody answered questions like GSP does.
After watching years of post game Yankees interviews were nothing is said that isn’t overly politically correct…. It’s nice see a sport were the athletes are authentic. Even if that means they come across like juveniles. It’s syllable refreshing. In the case of Bisping, he’s not exactly a rocket scientist….
As for Fedor…. The UFC saved a lot of money and headache when M-1 was unwilling to sign with them. Sometimes the best deals are the ones that don’t get signed.
Fedor has a long history of being a strain both financially and emotionally on MMA companies. The MMA world is better off with his negotiating tactis hopefully behind the sport.
“Fedor has a long history of being a strain both financially and emotionally on MMA companies.”
Total astroturfing statement. Fedor’s contracts had NOTHING to do with ANY company he was in going under. NADA. If you can say one thing it’s that post-PRIDE he found every money mark that ever lived and he was a beneficiary of their complete lack of fight promotion business sense. But he himself had nothing to do with their failures.
The best Japanese fighter ever in the UFC is ONCE AGAIN pushed aside. How many times is he going to be declared the #1 contender, and then end up not fighting for the title? He’s lost it once again, has to defeat someone else, and then PROBABLY will get that title fight.
People are so willing to criticize other promotions no matter how minuscule the situation, but nobody criticizes the UFC when they really deserve it.
I agree. It is absolute
bullshitthat UFC keeps pushing Okami to the sidelines. If he wins his next fight, UFC will probably do the same thing (he has to win ONE MORE fight, blah blah blah).I also think it’s funny that Dana White basically trashed Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum. If either guys’ contracts ends, you can bet everything you have Dana White will go after them to fight in UFC anyway. He did the same to Seth Petruzelli (he trashed Seth after Seth beat Kimbo Slice, then ended up signing him back anyway).
This is why I am cheering for Shields to beat GSP. So the passing over stops. They will be forced to do Silva/Okami and Shields/Fitch.
Hopefully if Shields wins the passing over
bullshitwill stop, but will it? I would bet my own mother’s life (can’t bet on my own life, could I?) if Shields beats GSP, especially if it’s a close-ish decision, then there will be an immediate rematch, then Jon Fitch gets shafted. Again. And Okami will get shafted no matter what happens. Okami should probably fire his manager at this point.I love how no media source does a follow up question with Dana regarding the “Fitch vs BJ #1 contenders match.” Given the GSP fights twice a year, and his next fight will likely be against Anderson at the end of the summer, is the winner of BJ/Fitch going to sit on the sidelines for almost a year waiting for a title shot?
They are two of the more active fighters in the upper echelon of the UFC.
Okami is hardly getting shafted again this nonsense with fans crying about him getting passed over is ridiculous. Okami has had plenty of shots to win a title shot and has failed. He lost to Franklin, he was manhandled by Sonnen, he got injured and lost his shot so him having to win another fight is nothing to be crying about.
Same goes for Fitch, he was dominated completelly by GSP and if he wins against Penn he’ll get his title shot even if he has to wait. Save the tears for people who deserve it neither of these guys are draws and have any real shot at beating either GSP or Silva so this whinning is uneccesary.
Them being “draws” should have only LITTLE bearing on whether they should get title shots or not. Anderson Silva isn’t really a draw, and he just might be the best MMA fighter ever. And if he doesn’t have much of a shot to beat Silva, so what? Who does? Chael Sonnen? Yeah Sonnen was whupping Silva, but he was roided up for that fight, how would he do clean against Silva? And who else would YOU have to go against Silva? GSP? He has to get past Jake Shields first.
Sure Okami lost to Franklin and Sonnen, but those were his only two UFC losses. He beat everyone else. And yeah he got injured last year, but if he wasn’t injured, would he still have gotten the title shot? Doubt it.
Okami was promised a title shot because he beat Marquardt, and that fight was designated a number one contendership fight, and now Dana is saying he needs to win ONE more fight. That is the very definition of getting shafted.
As I said, who at middleweight is more deserving of a middleweight title shot?
Whom should Okami face to defend his claim as #1 contender? The Bisping/Rivera winner? Maia? Sonnen is in still in a legal quagmire given his guilty plea on money laundering. After those guys, there’s no real clear-cut opponent for him to defend his contendership against (as far as I can tell).
I don’t think Rivera nor Bisping are quite deserving yet. A Maia/Okami fight would be fine, so yeah, there we go. But I think Okami should just get his shot already, but oh well.
I’m as big a guy who supports these dudes cleaning out their divisions before taking unnecessary superfights, but if GSP wants to fight Anderson, you do that fight regardless of whether or not GSP loses to Jake Shields. Honestly. Its a fight more people want to see and its a more interesting fight than Okami is.
What Okami can do is string together 6-7-8 wins in a row and put forth a valid argument. “He has three wins in a row in the UFC” is meaningless unless he beat all top contenders. That is not the case.
Which top contenders should he beat to string together 6+ wins in a row? Seriously, I can’t think of any other guys like Maia and the Bisping/Rivera winner who are viable contenders at this point.
Maia, Sonnen, Bisping/Rivera winner, someone else thats top ten in the UFC.
The problem isn’t Okami getting passed over for a title shot. The problem was Dana claiming the winner of Nate/Okami would get a title shot (which is the same situation now). Okami is not better than Sonnen, and he might not be better than Maia. If GSP destroys SHields the next logical fight is GSP-Silva. GSP has cleaned out his division, and frankly Okami doesn’t intrigue enough people to warrant a title shot over GSP at 185. I mean seriously, does anyone think Okami has a snowball’s chance in hell against Anderson?
The problem with Sonnen is that he’s not getting put into any fights for the time being until the heat on his criminal conviction dies down – he would probably be the logical opponent for Okami. Maia would be the #2 choice (IMO) with Bisping/Rivera third. Not really sure which other guys who could be ranked top 10 in the UFC who have built up enough momentum to get a contendership fight at this point, especially since they keep on losing to one another below the top 5-6 guys in the division.
He should go out and beat other top contenders to establish that he deserves a shot ahead of the guy in his prime who is perhaps the single biggest draw in the sport and arguably the single greatest P4P fighter in its history as well. Yes, he should go out and beat Maia. That would be a difficult stylistic matchup for him given that Okami’s strength (wrestling) falls into the traps of Maia’s ground work. Vitor Belfort and Jorge Santiago, should he win his next fight, would also be excellent competition.
Right now, what are his marquee wins? Marqhardt and….what? Mike Swick? Honestly, that’s the fight that got him ranked in the top 10 to begin with. His rise has as much to do with people around him losing fights or changing weight classes as it does his personal success as a fighter. Let him clean up some of the contenders. GSP did that to get his rematch with Hughes by fighting Sherk, Trigg, and Penn (the era’s murderers row) along with Strasser and Mayhem. Have Okami do the same if he is to demand a title shot.
Belfort really shouldn’t be ranked in the UFC top 10 MW beyond his overall career achievements since his other recent UFC fight (vs. Franklin) was at LHW. Santiago could be a good opponent (assuimg he gets by Stann) as well. All I’m saying is that the ranked MWs who have at least won 2 fights in a row right now are pretty shallow and the pickings slim, so I’m not buying that Okami has to KO/Sub/Decision 10 guys given that there aren’t 10 guys who have any sort of momentum to warrant a title eliminator. If you can list more guys than the aforementioned ones, I’d appreciate it, because I really don’t see it right now.
We’re going to have a tough time agreeing because you feel that wins that don’t take place in a weight class are thusly irrelevant to a fighter’s ranking. By that same token, I can argue that Tim Sylvia shouldn’t have dropped nearly as dramatically as he has given that all his losses took place in the super heavyweight class. Vitor Belfort’s win over Franklin not being relevant because it was at a catchweight is silly. Of course it matters. He clapped out a guy that Okami lost to.
If you are asking for a list of middleweights who demand a title shot more than GSP, you will find my reply of “none” lacking. I would argue in fact that Jake Shields has done appreciably more to demand a fight with Anderson Silva than Okami has, having defeated a then consensus #2 middleweight in Henderson, a consensus top 10 middleweight in Lawler, and having defeated Okami himself at a made up welterweight limit that falls within the presently accepted middleweight limit. The two best middleweight contenders are in the welterweight division, which given the generally weak nature of middleweight I suppose isn’t that surprising.
Sylvia’s last 2 HW fights were back-to-back sub losses to Fedor and Big Nog, so while he may have warranted being top 15, he wouldn’t be top 10. As for the Franklin win, even if you want to count it, given that Franklin was on a 1 fight win streak (one that arguably could have been an L as well), I don’t think it was a particularly scintillating win for his record, but a decent one to have set up a 1-2 fight elimination for a shot rather than the shot itself (which was going to get before Sonnen just off that win before he got hurt).
I actually don’t have any issue with you arguing that Shields would have been worthy of a 185 shot given his Henderson win, nor GSP based on his dominance at 170. Nonetheless, I don’t see how that’d justify tossing more guys Okami’s way rather than giving him a shot against the Silva-GSP winner.
Okami needs to go out and produce some demand for a fight with him against Silva or the winner of a potential GSP/Silva fight. You produce that demand beating the best possible contenders and making it clear that you are by far and away more deserving than the other options available. In the nearly 3 years now that “Okami deserves a shot!” has been repeated by various voices in the sport, he’s only once faced and defeated the kind of opposition that would demand such a bout. That was Marqhardt. Its up to him then to try and get fights against the other notable fighters in the weight class – Santiago, Wanderlei, Belfort, Maia, etc. If he does that, then he leaves no question. Meanwhile, if Jorge Santiago blows away Brian Stann (a distinct possibility) the argument that he is just an overrated middleweight who will fold at the first sign of the big show disappears and he suddenly looks much more viable as a contender. Sonnen may also have worked his way back in with a tuneup fight, and if Wanderlei beats Belfort, again, that’s a big name getting a big name win on a big stage and whom looks more marketable and more exciting an option than Okami.
As for the statement about Sylvia – that’s precisely it. He shouldn’t be top 50. Losing to Abe Wagner and Ray Mercer should get you demoted completely out of the discussion of the top 30 or 40 at heavyweight, even if he was a fat mess well over 265 when it happened. He’s as erratic as Tengiz Tedoradze and about as successful. It also calls into question how we should historically look at rankings. Would you seriously argue that Heath Herring deserves to be essentially demoted throughout his career because his second greatest career win was against a guy who was well over the 265 limit?
The mention of Franklin being on a one fight win streak is accurate, however, Franklin was fighting some of the highest level of competition available and was a former middleweight title holder. Not to mention that if we’re going to give rankings value to historical wins that, retrospectively, wouldn’t mean much now (like most of Okami’s wins in the UFC), Belfort’s win over Lindland was pretty damn impressive and quite important.
I’m pretty certain Belfort-Okami was proposed at one point but the UFC decided to give Belfort the shot at Silva instead. As for Wanderlei Silva, what has he done to make him worthy of a contendership-level fight besides edging out Bisping (which was solid) and going 1-5 before that (3 of those Ls via brutal KO)? He’s a name and I guess someone to beat up, but other than that, he’s not done much (he also had surgery after the Bisping fight and then was iffy about facing the mid-level Stann to build some momentum). Sonnen seems to be in a nexus at this point with his legal troubles, so I think it’s reasonable to keep him out of the conversation for the foreseeable future.
If we want to be technical about HW and SHW, not all promotions recognize(d) a distinction, so arguing 205.1+ as HW wouldn’t be a wacky proposition (which would have buried Sylvia even quicker than delineating his HW and SHW fights). As for Lindland, are you referring to his gameness in the Fedor and Rampage fights? While I agree that he was a quality opponent, I’m not quite sure how much props I’d give the W given that he did ultimately get subbed by Fedor and had a relatively tight fight against Rampage and not (IMO) a complete screw job.
I don’t know how we are getting into an argument of Belfort’s credentials vs. Belfort’s. If you ask me, the combination of Belfort’s wins, when they occurred, over Lindland and Franklin (consecutive wins, might I add) are better than any two wins that Okami even taking in the rankings at the time of the bout. Belfort obviously doesn’t have as many 185lb wins because he didn’t compete at the weight class as long, but to me, that’s meaningless. Two elite wins are worth much much more than 10 wins over journeymen and gatekeepers. That gets to the heart of why I want to see Okami taking on other contenders to establish why it is he deserves a title shot.
As for Wanderlei getting one over Okami – Wanderlei is a name. He’s a guy people want to see fight. He is going to fight in an exciting manner. Any time someone like that can put together a couple wins that get the crowd moving, they’re going to leap boring fighters who don’t fight and don’t beat elite guys.
Anyone else think Diaz is going to demand 25-30% of Daley’s purse if he can’t make weight given that’s failed to make weight (I believe) 5 times in his last 11 fights?
I wouldn’t be shocked if suddenly he wanted tofight at MW again. Diaz talks a tough game but has ducked better fighters in the past.
Hieron? That’s the only guy I can think of?
“Yo! I wanna fight Mayhem! But only if he makes it to 125lbs and we fight on the moon. Yo, don’t be scared homie!”
Fitch and Okami are boring. People are going to piss and moan if there’s not another exciting fight on the card if/when they get title shots.
Let me get in before BJ/Fitch happens and say this: If Fitch lays on BJ for 3 rounds and wins UFC should cut him. Just go ahead, let him go and dare SF to sign him.
Fitch is going to KO BJ Penn. There, I said it. It’s my big prediction for this card….
I bet he dry humps him for 15 minutes. That’s my prediction.
🙂 you don’t say.
Please release Jon Fitch. The guy is incredibly boring to watch.
So what? The dude wins fights. Yeah MMA is a business that has entertainment elements to it, and relies on making money to stay afloat, but if he wins fights then why cut him if there aren’t any other extenuating circumstances?
Because he sucks. He will ruin a marque division if/when GSP goes to 185 and becomes champ.
There’s nothing that says the UFC needs to let him fight for the strap.
I bet even Coker is smart enough to not sign him if UFC releases him.
Could you imagine that? Scott Coker loses one dude with a propensity for laying in half guard and ends up signing a new one less than a year later who is more highly ranked!
This fight also came with the added humor of more “BJ Penn: Disappointment” fodder. Yet again he seems to gas down the stretch. Maybe from this we’ll get Fat BJ again.
Fitch didn’t do any damage in Rd 3 how the hell did he win it 10-8? Make him go away. He does nothing to finish fights. He’s just looking to win on points.
Didn’t do any damage? Penn had a hard time getting trough the post fight interview after the beating he too.
Easily a 10-8 round.
Fitch should have won the 2nd. Not sure why it was scored for Penn.
I think this fight along with a few others is starting to sway me towards at least a few more 5 round fights. Easy victory for Fitch if it was a 5 rounder.
Did I read this correctly? The UFC has to keep around Anthony Perosh, Dennis Siver, AND Brian Ebersole after tonight? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
I’m sure this show was “entertaining” like every UFC in history that sucked was. Whatever. I’m definitely skipping.
Thank you for once again exposing how full of it you are, yeah what a joke that the UFC has to keep guys like Siver and Ebersole around. I mean it’s not like they’ve beaten anyone and put on great showings tonight in wins smfh.
Aside from judges once again screwing over a fighter in the ME, I swear I hate these people with a passion I hate few things in life. This was a hell of a show and the people who passed on it because it didn’t have enough stars look foolish once again.
Those were guys being brought in to take beatings against guys who were far overhyped compared to what they actually brought to the table in terms of talent. Now the UFC gets to bring the world more Brian Ebersole fights while it will be forced to cut fighters who don’t suck on following shows. That is largely assumptive of the fact that they won’t cut Lytle or G-Sot, but, really…are they?
I’m sure it was every bit as awesome as the club fights HDNet showed last night. I’m glad you felt it was worth your $50.
Who cares why they were brought in for, in the end they earned their spot on the roster with wins. Also who is getting cut that doesn’t suck because these guys won?, nobody truly that is one of your biggest reaches yet. Both Lytle and G. Sot are coming off multiple wins in a row neither guy is even in the discussion to get cut, seriously where do you get this stuff?.
Also complaining about being forced to watch more Ebersole fights is hillarious since he put on a very entertaining fight. But again that goes against all your talking points. Not to mention the sillyness of throwing a guy like Siver who’s ever improving with the other 2 guys. Siver was a bad match up for Sot and the fact that people were sleeping on him was surprising, the guy is now a legit LW contender who puts on exciting fights.
Finally saying that UFC 127 was at the level of the club fights on HDNET might be the most delusional thing you’ve ever said seriously you really need to stop.
These are guys brought in, like Reinhardt was, to be cut. IE, not occupy roster space in the middle of the UFC trying to reduce it. In the spots where the UFC was obviously going to be cutting the loser at UFC 127, it instead has to move to guys in cards at UFC 128, the Versus card, etc. After all, they decided they have finite limits on the number of guys they can have signed, and they’ve shown every indication of sticking to it.
Frankly, there isn’t a single fighter on the Versus card that deserves to be in the UFC less than Perosh, Hunt, or, yes, even Mr. Fancy Shave. As for saying that most of those fights were on the level of the MFC tent show, well, yeah. They were. Brian Ebersole and Wildman Denny probably have pictures next to each other in the dictionary under “journeymen”.
Dennis Siver a “legit LW contender” LMAO. Some gassed up kickboxer who can’t fight more than 8 minutes isn’t gonna last in a division where he’s been taken down by bigger wrestlers over and over and over again. Or knocked out by big punchers. Get real, dude. He just exposed a guy who was looking plenty human after fighting Lauzon and Pellegrino. He won’t even get as far as Paul Daley’s overrated ass did.
You should have watched the fights. Ebersole was incredibly entertaining to watch and would have been brought back either way, and Siver was nowhere near the unemployment line either. Both guys fought great fights and it was really entertaining.
“LOL I didn’t watch it but i decided this sucked before hand so it must of!” Great argument.
I don’t have time to watch every fight in the world. I wouldn’t pay money to see Brian Ebersole fight ever. I’m not even terribly motivated to steal some of his previously recorded fights given the ones I have seen of him. “But he was so great against Chris Lytle!” LOLOLOL. Yeah. What a statement that is about Chris Lytle.
Wonderfully stated. (My comment was directed at EJ.)
“These are guys brought in, like Reinhardt was, to be cut. IE, not occupy roster space in the middle of the UFC trying to reduce it. In the spots where the UFC was obviously going to be cutting the loser at UFC 127, it instead has to move to guys in cards at UFC 128, the Versus card, etc. After all, they decided they have finite limits on the number of guys they can have signed, and they’ve shown every indication of sticking to it.
Frankly, there isn’t a single fighter on the Versus card that deserves to be in the UFC less than Perosh, Hunt, or, yes, even Mr. Fancy Shave. As for saying that most of those fights were on the level of the MFC tent show, well, yeah. They were. Brian Ebersole and Wildman Denny probably have pictures next to each other in the dictionary under “journeymen”.
Dennis Siver a “legit LW contender” LMAO. Some gassed up kickboxer who can’t fight more than 8 minutes isn’t gonna last in a division where he’s been taken down by bigger wrestlers over and over and over again. Or knocked out by big punchers. Get real, dude. He just exposed a guy who was looking plenty human after fighting Lauzon and Pellegrino. He won’t even get as far as Paul Daley’s overrated ass did.”
You are just all sorts of confused aren’t you?, the UFC wasn’t going to bring Ebersole in just to cut him. Guys who come in on ultra short notice and bring it will always get another fight. Again he’s not robbing anyone of a spot, guys who come to fight always stay on the roster like I said no one is getting cut because of these guys.
Trying to compare any of these guys to the fighters on the versus card is a waste and proves nothing. Because one has nothing to do with the other trying to claim that there is again is a reach. Far as comparing Ebersole to Wildman, last time I checked he didn’t come in on short notice and beat a top WW, seriously you are trying really hard here to make any sort of comparison between the two.
Gassed up kickboxer really?, now you’re just trolling and yes Siver is a legit contender. He came in as an underdog to a guy who was on a big role and many expected to get a title shot with a win and shut him down in his own backyard. The guy has improved big time since his early run in the UFC and that was clear as day in this fight. He’s already showed that he has become more of an overall mma fighter than Daley who’s still a one punch wonder again these comparison are silly.
So they were going to give Ebersole a couple of fights in a talent crunch where they’ve been releasing everyone? I seriously, seriously doubt it. And good for him on capitalizing on the opportunity, but would you bet on him in a rematch given 8 weeks notice in the US?
Ebersole didn’t beat a “top welterweight”. That’s the point. Top anythings don’t lose to the likes of Ebersole or Wildman Denny. Lytle was always a gatekeeper beating on mediocre fighters. That Ebersole was even competitive with him indicates that the entire Lytle as title contender discussion was utterly insane.
Siver is not a legit contender. He came in as an underdog and won, but he didn’t prove in beating G-Sot (who isn’t a great wrestler) that he can still defend the takedowns of much stronger guys, or that he isn’t going to get popped in the face by faster opposition. And he’s apparently still tiring out. If he got a title shot off this, it would be criminal.
“So they were going to give Ebersole a couple of fights in a talent crunch where they’ve been releasing everyone? I seriously, seriously doubt it. And good for him on capitalizing on the opportunity, but would you bet on him in a rematch given 8 weeks notice in the US?
Ebersole didn’t beat a “top welterweight”. That’s the point. Top anythings don’t lose to the likes of Ebersole or Wildman Denny. Lytle was always a gatekeeper beating on mediocre fighters. That Ebersole was even competitive with him indicates that the entire Lytle as title contender discussion was utterly insane.
Siver is not a legit contender. He came in as an underdog and won, but he didn’t prove in beating G-Sot (who isn’t a great wrestler) that he can still defend the takedowns of much stronger guys, or that he isn’t going to get popped in the face by faster opposition. And he’s apparently still tiring out. If he got a title shot off this, it would be criminal.”
Again your cofusing things, the UFC isn’t in a talent crush they are doing their usual spring cleaning. So yeah if Ebersole came in and lost a close fight he’d be back, because the UFC repects guys who take fights on short notice. As far as who I would take on a rematch, honestly I never thought that Lytle would lose to Ebersole in the first place. But he did in the end that’s what matters the rest is irrelevant.
Actually Lytle is a top WW, he was basically a win over Condit and another fight away from a title shot. Again Ebersole beating him proves he has nothing in common with a fighter Wildman who had his shot in bigger promotions and lost.
He proved plenty to me, I picked Siver to win because he matched up well with Sot who himself is a top contender. Beating him like he did and showing much better takedown defense and dangerous striking makes for a guy that other LW’s will have a hard time dealing with. In the end the fight was tied in the third round and he was the one who closed things out on the big stage in Sot’s backyard. At some point you gotta put the speculation aside and give a guy props for what he did in the cage which is all that matters.
BWAHAHAHA. “Chris Lytle” and “top WW” only belong in the same sentence together where it reads “Chris Lytle is not and will never be a top WW.” Lots of respect to Ebersole for stepping in on short notice and winning a fight in the UFC but he is not a UFC talent (hint: guys with 14 losses to the likes of Tony Fryklund, Alex Schonauer, Ed Herman aren’t UFC level fighters)
LMAO…and Siver as a legit LW title contender…wow. W-O-W. Sot was NOT a top contender, despite all the hype machine’s propaganda – that is the entire point.
And look – there’s nothing wrong with being in the class of the Alex Schonauers and Yuya Shirais and Derrick Nobles. Sometimes those guys put on fun fights. I can watch Denny fights all day. But they aren’t guys that should be fighting in the UFC against anyone you could confuse with a “top welterweight”. Unless they decide they are going to protect Ebersole, he’s losing his next two and leaving. And on top of it, he exposed Chris Lytle as being as ordinary as most sane people believed.
I will give Siver credit for the win, but it hardly elevates him to “serious title challenger”. What he did was about as impressive as Paul Daley’s win over Martin Kampmann that had the usual suspects on the board talking about what a different fighter he was. And he might be gone just as quickly.