Dana White was able to clear up a few questions that many
people have been asking through the media conference he held earlier
today.
Regarding the television deal, he informs the public that an agreement between
the UFC and Spike TV has been reached. After signing a deal in 2005 and
having The Ultimate Fighter 1 start at Spike TV, a 4-year contract with the TV
network has been renewed. The deal will include 2 seasons of The
Ultimate Fighter (TUF) per year until 2010 and then only 1 show of TUF thereafter.
The reason it will only be 1 show of TUF is because Dana is trying to integrate
a new UFC series that is currently being worked on.
Along with TUF
officially being on Spike TV for the next 4 years, there will be a total of 12
"UFC Fight Nights" in these next 4 years. This is a huge television deal
the UFC had been working on and it has finally been approved.
A few questions were asked upon the Randy Couture situation. Dana had a
meeting with Randy and Lorenzo Fertitta about 3-4 weeks ago and they discussed
several issues (Dana did not want to give details on their meeting).
According to Dana, he felt there
was "something different" about Randy. The
UFC heavyweight champ attended UFC 76, but left before Chuck Liddell fought
Keith Jardine. Randy was never heard from again until Dana received a
phone call from him saying that he wanted to resign from the UFC.
feels that they will talk and make up once sooner or later.
Dana went on to say
that he doesn’t think the champ has talked to any other fighting organization
and is very optimistic with Randy coming back to fight for the UFC. Dana also stated that Randy has not
officially resigned with the UFC, telling us that the heavyweight title is not
vacant until Randy makes his mind up and decides what he is going to be
doing. He is planning on making a
private meeting to discuss the situation as soon as Randy gets back to
him.
him, he quickly replied, “Fedor’s people are fu%$ing liars…The #1 fighter
in the world is Randy Couture…Fedor Emelianenko Sucks!”
I respect the UFC because I believe it is the
#1 fighting organization in the world with the best fighters in the world as we
speak. However, Fedor is Fedor and Dana
White went a little too far with that statement. There is no doubt in our minds that Randy is
at the level of Fedor and a bout between these two heavyweight champs would be
fantastic. Any of these men can win, but
bashing a man like Fedor was extremely out of line. I would wonder if Fedor actually confronted
Randy and the Russian emperor won…how would Dana react? I beg for this fight to happen one day, please!!!
part of the media conference as they answered a few questions from the
media. Lesnar will most likely be
debuting on Super Bowl weekend, which is scheduled to be in
contract” as he replied to a question that was asked regarding Lesnar’s first
opponent. No opponent has been
officially chosen as of yet, so we will have to sit back and wait. Lesnar sounded pretty happy and confident to
be a part of the UFC. Lesnar went on to
say “Of course I can beat him (Tim Sylvia)” as he talked about the competition
within his weight class. Lesnar
continues to train in Minnesota
with a strong team as he prepares for his first match in 2008.
interviews as he is a straight-and-to-the-point type of guy. He briefly stated that he has been waiting
for the match against Wanderlei Silva for a very long time and he feels
confident that he will win. As for
Wanderlei, he also feels that he will quickly knock out Liddell and he will
look for the belt right after that. His future
goals are to become the best light heavyweight fighter in the UFC and he stated that
his next 2 years will be the best years of his MMA career.
conference. He talked about Andrei
Arlovski and the fact that he hasn’t forgotten about him. The UFC has been extremely busy with numerous
tasks that had to be done before the year ends. However, Arlovski has been looked upon and he will be fighting
in 2008 for sure. BJ Penn is most likely
fighting in December and no opponent has been given to him since Sean Sherk is
still waiting for the decision on his appeal as it is scheduled for October 31st.
including
arenas being sold out and pay-per-view sales going up on every event…this gives everyone enough
proof to say that MMA is indeed the fastest growing sport in the world today.
