In the midst of promoting Saturday’s UFC 134 event, UFC President Dana White has also discussed the UFC’s future plans, including negotiations with Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem and a possible fight between Rich Franklin and Tito Ortiz.
“We’re talking to Overeem,” White recently said on The Dan LeBatard Show. “When everything fell apart, you heard me say, ‘We can’t do business with these guys the way these guys want to do business,’ meaning his management. Well, they’ve changed their opinions on how they can do business with us, so now we can.”
Overeem was released from the final fight on his Strikeforce contract after he was unable to face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the semifinals of Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix in September, leaving him in an exclusive negotiating period with the promotion with his management confident a deal could be reached.
Tito Ortiz is just weeks removed from his loss to Rashad Evans as a late-replacement in the UFC 133 main event, which followed his upset win over Ryan Bader in July, but his next matchup may already be in the works against fellow former champion Rich Franklin, who was pulled from UFC 133′s planned co-main event after Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was injured.
“We do like the idea of Tito vs. Rich Franklin,” White said during an online chat with fans on Friday.
White also reiterated Friday that the UFC 134 results could decide who headlines the UFC’s debut on FOX, even though Anderson Silva isn’t being considered for the Nov. 12 main event.
For the latest UFC news stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com.
Pictured: Alistair Overeem
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Well good move by all parties! Now we can talk about Brock’n'roll vs AO. But it will be pretty bad for Brock may be. I think he will get tooled.
Tito vs RichF gonna be fun and I think it is a winnable match for Tito.
Is poor Machida on Dana’s hate_radar now? No news of him……..
Why is it still all about what Brock can do? He’s one of my favorite fighters, but it seems everytime a fan of Fedor or AO wants to prove how good they are by stacking them up against a UFC fighter, they always default to Brock. Uh, what about out HW champ, Cain? Or JDS? Or ANYONE with more experience than Brock?
Is it so you can have the ability to say, “Well he beat a former champ in Brock Lesnar?” I don’t get it. Brock completely tooled a former champ… TWO former champs… and it didn’t mean d!ck when he fought Cain.
I hope AO does come over and fights everyone the way he fought Werdum. That way he can lose 2 or 3 in a row and go back to K-1. Just cause you can slouch off in Strikeforce, doesn’t mean you can in the Octogon. Sorry if I sound bitter, but that last fight left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
hate to break it to you but those people you listed don’t have the ground game of werdum, alistair was worried about a takedown during the werdum fight so he cuoldnt let loose and start throwing full swings and kicks, you think alistair is going to worry bout a takedown fighting dos santos? no he’s gonna act like it’s k1 and run through any1 in the division
So he was afraid of Werdum’s TD’s but he wouldn’t be afraid of Broc’s or Cain’s and would just “roll through” the HW division in UFC?? Your argument is pretty baseless….
The thing about brock is he is just huge like a grzzly bear. It’s just fun to watch this monster rolling around all the corner of the octagon. Its just for the entertainment purpose……
The two televised fights on Fox will be Ortiz/Franklin and Overeem/Mir.
Liked the guess or whatever it is……
Maybe if Schaub beats Nog unscathed they can get an Alistair vs. Schaub fight.
@ swami
Is that actually confirmed or an educated guess?
meh, i wanted overeem vs bigfoot or to see barnett tying overems nads in a knot
@ Diaz4life
Definitely not confirmed and I would say more of an uneducated guess than an educated one.
yeah i would like to know whos next for machida
Why has no one mentioned the possibility of Davis vs Lyoto Machida for the number one contender status for the Fox main event? Exciting fight? Yes. Marketable names? Yes. Main event worthy? Yes. Does anyone else agree???
no, because Davis is unlikely to be ready by then
No, even if Davis was ready to fight, Machida is a great boring fighter, I wouldn’t want him on my card to debut on Fox.
I would put Shogun(if he wins, and I think this is who Dana is waiting for tonight) vs Rashad Evans. (not fair for Rashad, but I’d like that fight and it makes sense)
alright then gustaffasson