Dana White: Liddell-Silva Within 6 Months, HBO Deal To Be Done “Very Soon”, and More
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jul 10, 2007 at 6:10 pm ET10 Comments
UFC President Dana White recently completed an interview with ESPN about a variety of topics. Here are the important points White discussed in the interview:
- Â The UFC actually booked the Marlon Sims vs. Noah Thomas fight but decided afterwards it wasn’t such a good precedent to set and axed the fight. White publicly said they would never fight in the UFC although the criticism sounds a bit harsh considering how the close the fight came to becoming reality.
- He again confirmed that the UFC Light Heavyweight and PRIDE Middleweight Championships will be unified at UFC 75 in the main event between Quinton Jackson and Dan Henderson.
- The Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva fight sounds far from being official although White seemed confident a deal would be reached and the fight would happen in the next 6 months although a September fight seems unlikely unless the situation changes rather quickly.
- Dana confirmed that the UFC will be holding a UFC event in New Jersey in November expected to be dubbed UFC 78 barring any other fight cards coming up between now and then. It will be a pay-per-view and is expected to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn.
- Stated the UFC will be working on getting MMA sanctioned in New York.
- White didn’t complete shut the door on the idea of having Frank Shamrock fight in the UFC again although he did call him a “jackass”. Even though the door was left open this is extremely unlikely to happen.
- White said the UFC was planning 10 PPVs for the coming year.
- The deal to put the UFC on HBO should be done “in a matter of weeks.”
- Fedor is expected to be signed with the UFC by the end of the year and that the UFC talks to his agens twice a day.
- White downplayed the PRIDE vs. UFC mega-events we were expecting to see. His comments make it sound unlikely that the “Super Bowl” events will ever happen and that PRIDE is unlikely to be resurrected. Expect to see all of the PRIDE titles put on the line in the UFC against the UFC’s champions to unify them into a single championship.
Tags: Dana White
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Sylvia seems pretty solid on not fighting until next year. So I don't see this fight coming on within 6 months. I'm sure Sylvia would also like a warm-up match after the long lay-off before a huge fight with fan favorite Chuck.
Dana could easily pay big bucks to get Sylvia in the cage in September.
I don't think it will probably happen before the end of the year either. Silva just doesn't seem to want to fight too quickly and if the UFC's deep pockets cannot convince him I don't think much will. It will be interesting to watch but considering just how much Liddell wants to fight I wouldn't be surprised to see him face someone else before he might face Silva, if the fight even happens.
I think jumping directly into a fight with Silva after a loss is a bad idea for Chuck. I realize that Silva is coming off a loss also, but he put up a great battle with Henderson, Liddel not so much against Rampage. I am an Iceman fan, but I don't think he will remain on the top of the "new" UFC. (new being the unified PRIDE and UFC) I'm probably going to finally get to see my dream fight of Fedor vs. Coutour unification bout now though.(just thought I'd through that in) as long as Randy beats Gonzaga, which I think he can and will.
I say let the Marlon Sims vs. Noah Thomas fight happen …they should get a second chance because anyone can make a mistake in that crazy house of "stress and anger".
Scotchy – Fedor taking on Couture sounds great on paper but I am not sure it will end up being that great of a fight. Couture is getting older but it would surely be interting. I agree on the notion of Liddell fighting someone else before Silva. The last thing he needs is another loss.
Lazer – I think you will see the fight happen somewhere else. I think the UFC could have easily done the bout in the organization especially if they edited what White said to them making it on much friendlie terms. With how it all went down the UFC really couldn't put on the fight even if they wanted to.
I guess there is a verbal agreement that they will fight in September in Anaheim. I hope it's true (Anaheim is 20 minutes from me) but I will not get my hopes up until the Bout Agreement is signed.
Steve24 – Check back tomorrow for more on the fight. I am going on vacation and am preparing some stories tonight that won't go live until tomorrow but there is an update on the situation as well as the background on the fight.
Kris: Silva just confirmed the fight on his website vs Liddell for the 22nd.
Thanks Kris, I look forward to reading the updates.
Thanks for the heads up – The fight update is ready to post tomorrow while I am on the road. It's a great background on Silva as well as why this fight means so much to UFC fans.