Steve Cofield and the boys at ESPN 1100 once again get UFC president Dana White to rail on Fedor Emelianenko and Affliction, but at least this time they use a new tact and bait Dana into an argument over whether or not Fedor is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.
An obvious ploy to get Dana's blood pressure to rise... but, hey, it worked...
The second part of UFC president Dana White's UFC 100 video blog, showing the big fireworks display in Vegas, and the behind the scenes as the countdown to UFC 100 gets into full swing.
ESPN 1100's Steve Cofield talks with UFC president Dana White about a number of subjects, but notably about the "he is, he isn't" situation around Chuck Liddell retiring from mixed martial arts, the Cro Cop situation, Roger Huerta's return, and Vitor Belfort's prospects in the UFC.
Liddell has been mum on the retirement talk, but the UFC has said they will induct someone into the Hall of Fame at UFC 100. Are they just waiting for the Hall of Fame ceremony to make a dual announcement out of Chuck's retirement and then subsequent induction into the Hall of Fame or are they inducting someone else entirely?
Vitor Belfort is currently under contract with Affliction Entertainment, scheduled to compete on the promotion's third effort, Trilogy, on Aug. 1 in Anaheim, Calif. He will face current Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago on the pay-per-view portion of the fight card.
But could he end up back in his old stomping grounds, the UFC... facing current UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva, no less?
Stranger things have happened.
UFC president Dana White on Saturday night -- during The Ultimate Fighter Finale telecast -- more than alluded to the possibility of a return of "The Phenom."
"I know (Anderson) wants to stay at 185 pounds. So, while he's fighting Forrest (at 205 pounds in August), I'm working right now on some other 185-pounders," stated the UFC big-wig.
And just who might he be working on... well, he at least has his eyes on?
"Vitor Belfort. Vitor is a former heavyweight, moved down to 205, now at 185. He's got great hands, great on the ground. If his head is right, he's a dangerous, dangerous guy. I think that'd be a great match-up," said White.
Would it be no surprise that he might want Belfort back, especially after he destroyed Matt Lindland -- a fighter that White isn't exactly fond of -- at Affliction's sophomore effort in January?
And more than that, could Belfort actually be "the bad match-up" for Silva? Could he be the one to dethrone the king?
UFC president Dana White's latest WEC 41 video blog with guest appearances that include legendary boxing broadcaster Al Bernstein and TUF 10 coach Rashad Evans.
UFC president Dana White's second installment of his WEC 41 video blog. Includes Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, and others leading up to the rematch between current WEC featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown and former champ Urijah Faber.
The Carmichael Dave Show talks with UFC president Dana White about bringing Kimbo Slice on for The Ultimate Fighter: The Heavyweights and what it took to secure him for the show. You might be surprised!
(Courtesy of Steve Cofield of ESPN Radio 1100 and Cagewriter.com)
UFC president Dana White's first time doing a WEC video blog. Includes a teaser about a "big deal" in L.A. that could change the UFC and MMA forever, plus a little bonus interview with Kimbo Slice as he heads into The Ultimate Fighter taping.
MMA Live recaps all the news of the week, including Tom Atencio war of words with Dana White, Chuck Liddell's uncertain future, a highlight reel KO at Bellator, and much more. Also, interviews with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans and UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn.
Deadspin and Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertham, author of Blood In The Cage, discuss why the UFC should dump company president Dana White. (Courtesy of CageWriter.com)
The 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway is the fastest racetrack in the world and the president of the fastest growing sport's biggest promotion, Dana White, and former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight titleholder Chuck Liddell will be attending this weekend's Aaron's 499 at the storied Alabama landmark.
Mixed martial arts and NASCAR both rose from grass roots backgrounds into mainstream sports with effective marketing and a bit of luck. Their histories are extremely similar. It was the now famous The Ultimate Fighter season one finale featuring the epic bout between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin that launched mixed martial arts into mainstream, and while NASCAR is about racing, it's rise to greatness also began with a fight.
While much of the country was inundated with winter weather and the blizzard of 1978-79, people were glued to their television sets in mid-February of 1979, and what they saw was a final lap wreck in the Daytona 500 when leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison bounced off one another on the backstreatch that led to a fist fight between Yarborough and the Allison brothers, Donnie and Bobby. The interest in NASCAR dramatically increased as a result.
The NASCAR and mixed martial arts demographics are very similar, dominated by the 18-35 male. And while White and Liddell aren't likely to see a fight – although anything is possible – they will witness four-wide racing at speeds close to 200 miles per hour.
It will be White's and Liddell's first time attending a NASCAR event.
UFC President Dana White is still feeling the heat from his recent video blog controversy where he drew an irate response for his comments that offended many homosexuals and women.
The derogatory remarks used in his rant about a Sherdog.com article by Loretta Hunt have TSN (Canada's version of ESPN) Off The Record host Michael Landsberg putting White's feet to the fire about whether he went too far in his blog, if and/or why managers are denied credentials, his thoughts on the media and more.
There were two fights at UFC 96 on Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio, that took to extremes two of the most debated issues in refereeing in mixed martial arts: stopping fights too early and stopping fights too late.
The night's opening bout -- between Shane Nelson and Aaron Riley -- was widely believed to have been stopped well before it should have. Riley was knocked down, but was already back into the fight before the referee stepped in.
In the case of Pete Sell and Matt Brown, the referee stepped in to stop the fight, appeared to have a change of heart once the fighters were already separated and stopping action, then inexplicably restarted the fight. What followed was what made it a much harder situation to swallow. Sell was clearly in another dimension for most of the rest of the fight, being battered around the cage, with Brown practically begging Yves Lavigne to stop the fight before he finally called a halt to the brutality.
"You've heard me so many times, especially in the last few weeks – wait until The Ultimate Fighter comes out – talking about reffing and judging; it's one of the hardest things in this sport right now. It drives me crazy," said UFC president Dana White at the UFC 96 post-fight press conference.
"Yves Lavigne is usually a very good referee. I hurt my arm tonight, beating on the Octagon screaming to stop that fight. I've never done that in eight years. I don't even know what to say."
There are definitely good referee's in this sport, but White pointed out a difference between those at the top, and those that just aren't quite getting it done.
"I think when they see a guy make a mistake, that it was a brutal mistake, like in the (Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley) fight, it messes with their head. And they think, 'I don't want to do that.' I think these guys just need to be confident and go in and make decisions. Stop the fight. If that's your decision, let them boo you. Who cares? You're the boss," he said, citing the lack of decision making among many officials.
He went on. "There's nobody, I shouldn't say nobody. There's a couple of guys out there that are real good. There's a whole bunch of guys that aren't.
"Yves Lavigne usually does a good job. The fight tonight was horrible. I think Herb Dean is great. Mario Yamasaki is good."
The latest edition of Dana White's UFC 96 video blog includes a look at the UFC 99 press conference in Germany along with Dana and Lorezno Fertitta spending time with Wanderlei Silva, Rich Franklin, and more.
Fedor Emelianenko confirmed that he will indeed fight on the next Affliction show, although he couldn't name his opponent yet, according to a recent interview on DreamFighters.com. Affliction VP Tom Atencio has long stated that the plan is to pit Fedor against Josh Barnett, but Vitor Belfort is another name that has been tossed around recently.
Perhaps the bigger news though is that Fedor is hopeful to meet face to face with UFC president Dana White this summer with hopes of a bout against Brock Lesnar becoming the fruit of their talks.
"Yes, I will fight again on the next affliction card. Besides this me and my management hope to get a chance to talk to Dana White in person in June to discuss a possible fight between me and Brock," said Fedor in the DreamFighters interview.
Such an outcome has many hurdles before it. Firstly, Lesnar and Frank Mir are expected to meet before June to unify the UFC heavyweight championship. The outcome of that bout could have a big influence on any possible match-ups.
Aside from that, there is the matter that Fedor is under an exclusive contract to Affliction and M-1 Global. The folks that head M-1 Global also handle management duties for the Russian fighter.
A one-off deal or co-promotion is not something that the UFC has even remotely considered to this point, which is a major hurdle for both sides.
“The fact of the matter is that a loan-out is something that the UFC would not desire, they would never go for such a deal,” M-1 Global Chief Operating Officer Joost Raimond told MMAWeekly.com last October. “And secondly, the way we have our program set up for the next years, and our event schedules set up, it's just not feasible to have a Fedor fight within the UFC.”
The UFC-Fedor soap opera has been a long and winding road, but it looks like there are still a few twists and turns left before we find out what the destination is.
"Yeah, I think if Quinton beats Jardine, he'll get the next shot at the title," said UFC president Dana White following Wednesday's UFC 94 pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas.
And that is regardless of the outcome of a key battle at UFC 94. Lyoto Machida, the No. 4 ranked light heavyweight fighter in the world, and No. 10 ranked Thiago Silva are slated for a showdown in the top undercard fight at UFC 94. Both have been on a tear through the 205-pound division and both are undefeated.
But while the winner of Machida vs. Silva is likely to narrow the field of contenders to the title currently held by "Sugar" Rashad Evans, it appears that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson -- with a win over Keith Jardine at UFC 96 on March 7 -- will jump to the head of the line.
White has stated in the past that Jackson vs. Evans might have already been on tap, but Evans was not fully recovered yet from his title victory over Forrest Griffin at UFC 92, so they put Jackson and Jardine together for the Columbus fight card.
Dana White kicks off his UFC 94 video blog on Monday with a special guest appearance by pro skateboarder Mike V. and then takes off to the WEC event in San Diego to get GSP vs. B.J. Penn picks from the likes of Duane "Bang" Ludwig, Jens Pulver, Matt Hume, WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner, Urijah Faber, Robbie Lawler, Caol Uno, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, and WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown.
Of particular interest was the presence of Kid Yamamoto at the WEC. During his blog, White asked Yamamoto if he was ready to come fight (in the WEC) and Yamamoto replied, "Yeah." White immediately replied, "We want you here."
Of course, that is far and away from being a done deal by any means, but it's sure to stoke the rumors of Kid Yamamoto coming to the WEC, especially with the on and off reports of him fighting soon in Japan.
In the Jan. 16 edition of Dana White's UFC 93 video blog, Dana takes viewers behind the scenes to the UFC 93 weigh-ins and the fighter meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
In the third episode of his UFC 93 video blog, Dana goes for a workout and tries to figure out how much weight he's got on the barbell - in kilos, hangs out with Marcus Davis, takes a behind the scenes look at the arena, meets up with Chris Lytle, Rich Franklin, and more.
Dana White's UFC 93 video blog continues with more from The Ultimate Fighter 9 at the Wolfslair, plus talks with Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson prior to their UFC 93 fight this weekend, TUF 9 coach Michael Bisping, and more.
Although UFC president Dana White has recently made public comments that he would be willing to entertain the prospect of former EliteXC star Gina Carano competing in the Octagon, it's not the Ultimate Fighting Championship he's talking about.
White said that he's not ready to put women's fights in the UFC, but he would give Carano a run in the UFC's sister promotion, the WEC.
"I heard that," confirmed WEC vice president Peter Dropick on Monday.
There's still a hang-up in having Carano fight even in the WEC.
"First off, I don't know if anyone knows really what the contractual situation is with any fighter from those other organizations," he said, referring to ProElite-owned promotions like EliteXC. "I think until that is flushed out, we would... we really don't have anything at this point."
That's not to say that Dropick isn't interested. On the contrary, he's very interested in adding more talent - including Carano - to the WEC's roster of athletes. "We'd be open to having some of the better fighters and the most exciting fights. (Carano) is certainly a star and she certainly has drawing power. So, we'll see how that plays out."
For now, like many EliteXC fighters, Carano is in limbo, trying to figure out just what her contractual status is while ProElite keeps toying with the idea of whether it will continue on or not.
Due to the threat of inclement weather, the venue has been changed indoors to the Blaisdell Concert Hall
On Friday, November 21, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn, and UFC President Dana White will hit Honolulu for a public press conference and free viewing party at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Doors will open at 4pm HT, with a live musical performance by J-Boog and Fiji talking place from 5 to 6pm HT. The press conference will begin at 6:15pm, followed by a free large-screen viewing from the Shell of classic St-Pierre and Penn fights. UFC T-shirts will be given free to the first 2,000 fans in attendance. There are no charges to attend this event.
UFC President Dana White presents the 7th edition of his video blog for UFC 91.
In this episode, B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre join Dana just moments before they officially announce their UFC 94 bout, we get a behind the scenes visit to the locker rooms of UFC 91, live at the event, and behind the scenes after the event including Dana's impromptu interview of Junie Browning... and the ESPN sports desk at UFC 91.
ESPN's MMA Live was live at the UFC 91 weigh-ins on Friday, broadcasting with the Octagon as the backdrop for the show. They discussed the Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar and Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson bouts with UFC president Dana White.
ESPN has been all over UFC 91, providing an unprecedented amount of coverage for the event. We'll see if this an anomoly or if the venerable sports network is committed to now cover MMA.
In the recent edition of Fox News Fight Game, the panel talks with UFC president Dana White about the struggling U.S. economy and how it has effected the MMA, specifically the UFC.
With the last few weeks of "The Ultimate Fighter" looking more like the seminal gross-out show "Fear Factor," many fans have been wondering what TUF cameras really want to focus on. At the pre-fight press conference for UFC 91, UFC president Dana White addressed critics who said the show was going down the toilet, literally.
According to White, it's not the men who are responsible for the seemingly endless stream of pranks involving bodily-fluids. It's the women, or lack of them.
"I want you to really seriously think about this," White told reporters. "If there were no women on earth, guys would probably never brush their teeth, comb their hair, they'd all be pissing on each other, they'd all be drunk, and god knows what their apartment would look like or your car. It's how guys are."
White said other athletes had corroborated the TUF 8 experience at his trip to a Tony Hawk Foundation skating event, which he documented on his popular video blog.
"I was talking to some of the snowboarders, and the guys who do some of those snowboard videos, where they drop them off in the helicopter, (and they) said there's times they get stuck up there because there's a storm and the helicopter can't come in," White explained. "They said what goes on is exactly like The Ultimate Fighter. It's the way guys are. It's unfortunate and we don't want to look at ourselves that way - that's who we are."
As to whether he would eventually crack the whip on the childish behavior, White shrugged his shoulders. After all, ratings are ratings - pranks and characters like Junie Browning have reversed a trend of declining ratings for the show.
"It is what it is," he said. "It's reality television. Would I sit around and drink piss with a bunch of guys? No, it's not my thing. I wouldn't do it. When they kept eating his food, I thought that was pretty funny. That'll stop you... anybody who's ever had roommates before gets that one. It is what it is. At the end of the day, the only thing I care about is that they step into the Octagon, they're in shape, they fight, and they represent the sport well as athletes."
The question is, are a bunch of urine drinking, semen eating, itching powder infested fighters a good representation of the sport?
Maybe not, but it's a guilty - or dirty - pleasure MMA fans are buying.
ESPN First Take sat down with UFC president Dana White to break down UFC 91, where UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture will defend against Brock Lesnar. They talk about the UFC's expectations for 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, Brock Lesnar's moodiness, ESPN's coverage of the UFC, Kimbo Slice, steroids, and more.
In its December issue, Muscle & Fitness features an exclusive behind the scenes look into The Ultimate Fighter season eight contestants' training regime's and life in the fighter house.
Not only that, but the magazine has an insightful interview with UFC president Dana White available on its website, discussing how hard it is for a fighter to sacrifice a few weeks out of their normal life for the surreal life of reality TV, and the training these guys go through on the show.
UFC President Dana White presents his sixth blog for the UFC 90 weekend. In this edition, Dana takes us behind the scenes at the Allstate Arena for UFC 90. Some of Dana's special guests in this blog entry include UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, interim heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, welterweight beltholder Georges St. Pierre, middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and many of the other fighters from UFC 90.
UFC President Dana White presents his fifth blog for the UFC 90 weekend. In this edition, Dana takes us behind the scenes at the UFC 90 weigh-ins and the fighter rules meeting with special guests like Playboy covergirl Rachelle Leah, the Tapout Crew, Matt Serra, and more.
MMAInsider is live in attendance for all the activities surrounding UFC 90 this weekend in Chicago. Today was the pre-fight press conference and these are a few of the scoops to come out of the event so far.
- UFC 90 currently has sold 10,081 tickets for a live gate at this time of $2.7 million, the largest in Allstate Arena's history.
- Thiago Alves has answered the question many times already, but he once again reassured the crowd in attendance that he would indeed make weight for his fight against Josh Koscheck on Saturday night.
"I'm going to make weight," Alves said simply.
- UFC President Dana White is also virtually guaranteeing Alves makes his weight saying, "If he doesn't, we're going to drag him downstairs and stone him to death."
(On a sidenote - please make weight Thiago)
Stay tuned to the MMAInsider's Blog for more information as it becomes available from UFC 90.
UFC President Dana White takes you behind the scenes of UFC 90 as he prepares for the production side of the show. Also catch training footage of UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, and other fighters competing on this weekend's card.
UFC President Dana White's UFC 90 video blog. This first episode focuses on The Ultimate Fighter tryouts in London for season 9 including some great behind the scenes footage showing some of the fighters grappling and sparring. Plus a little bit with Michael Bisping talking about the stitches in his ear following his UFC 89 fight with Chris Leben.
Junie Browning's drunken exploits and out of control behavior has been the prominent focus of The Ultimate Fighter season eight. After his alcohol induced tirade attacking several housemates, most, including Browning, thought he would be kicked off the popular reality show on Spike TV. The decision to keep Browning in the house was made solely by UFC president Dana White, and according to White, "It had nothing to do with ratings."
White explained he got the call from the producer alerting him there was a problem in the house. White then viewed the tapes of the multitude of incidents that transpired that night. The Spike TV producer was prepared to send Browning packing.
"That day that I got there, she (the producer) said, 'okay, so we've got his plane ticket home. We've got everything set.' And I went in and said, 'I don't if I'm going to kick him off the show,'" explained the outspoken UFC president. "She was like, what? Everybody knew for a fact that I was kicking him off the show. They knew."
"I went to the house that day and said, I don't know if I'm going to kick him off," added White. "She said, 'what do you mean you don't know?' I said, 'I don't know. I don't know what is going on. I just don't know if I'm going to do it.' I wanted to go inside and see how he was going to act. If he was a punk, I was going to kick him off the show. I went inside. He was upset. He looked like he was going to cry. He was apologetic about it, so I didn't do it."
When Browning remained in the house after shattering a glass off of Kyle Kingsbury's forearm, causing a laceration, push kicked Tom Lawlor to the ground, while trying to start fights with Ryan Bader and Krzysztof Soszynski, the only rational explanation was he remained due to ratings. White said, "It had nothing to do with the TV ratings. It had nothing to do with it."
Either way, Browning remains and ratings continue to rise.
Along with popularity comes an exponential amount of rumor and speculation and the Ultimate Fighting Championship is no exception... by far. If anything, having such a hardcore following on the Internet only adds fuel to the speculative fires surround the MMA juggernaut.
Accordingly, UFC president Dana White spends a lot of his time answering questions about things that just aren't true or at least haven't even been considered yet. One such rumor has been regarding plans for the UFC's century mark in numbered events.
There has been a lot of chatter on the boards lately that the UFC has planned to put all of their titles on the line at UFC 100... a true "Night of Champions" type of fight card.
Not true said White recently in England. He said that he has, "No ideas for UFC100," but it's not going to be a case of all five of the current weight classes putting titles on the line. That would just be too long of a night.
All UFC title bouts are five rounds of five minutes each. If you were to factor in that all five bouts could possibly go the distance that alone takes up most of the time alloted to a pay-per-view event, leaving little or no time for introductions, pre-fight hype, or instances where a fight may have to be put on hold for a doctor's check or other unforseen circumstances.
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