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On top of Randy Couture's press conference on HDNet and ProElite.com the UFC will be holding one as well streaming on Yahoo at 4PM EST/1PM PST featuring Dana White, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva and Brock Lesnar.
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...Chuck Liddell for UFC's 12/29 UFC 79 event as announced by Dana White tonight on Spike TV.
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That's the word according to Pramit Mohapatra's post at the Baltimore Sun's MMA Insider blog
The announcement is set to come during the 2007 scream awards at 10:00 PM ET/9 CT on SpikeTV.
It has long been speculated that the opponent would be former Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell before a loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 76 put that in doubt.
This follows a special where SpikeTV counts down the top 25 TUFest moments in Ultimate Fighter history.
I'll be watching neither.
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According to Dave Meltzer, the fight has been verbally agreed to by both sides.
This is the latest in the on again, off again saga of this long anticipated dream match.
First, UFC and Pride to arrange it back in 2006. Then Silva lost in the Grand Prix and that ended that and then he lost his title to Dan Henderson in February, while Liddell was mowing down Babalu and Tito Ortiz.
Then UFC outright purchased Pride and talk was the fight would happen in September but Silva declined siting the fact he was moving to the states. Plus, at that point Liddell lost his championship to Quinton Jackson in May. Liddell was given a fight in September against Keith Jardine to get him ready for Silva and to fulfill a promise to the PPV company that Liddell would fight in September. Then after Jardine defeated Liddell by split decision, it appeared as though the fight was off.
Talk moved to Liddell facing Mauricio "Shogun" Rua instead before surgery sidelined the Brazilian.
At that point, the prospect of doing Silva-Liddell anyway became more realistic. The feeling is that waiting for the perfect time to do the fight means waiting forever and neither Liddell at 37 or Silva at 33 have that much time. Plus, they are both in the same boat coming off back-to-back losses and fan interest in the fight is still very high.
So why not do the fight anyway?
It appears that the answer is "why not indeed?"
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I'd say that my heading is a pretty good indicator as to what I think is the biggest story coming out of UFC 76.
Lets look at the questions in order of importance?
I believe the answer to that question is Forrest Griffin. All of the other challengers have either suffered losses recently, Liddell, Rua or are busy with other things, Tito and Rashad. Jardine is possible but I'd think the fact Forrest has 2 wins in a row makes him the top challenger to Rampage at this point.
This is an interesting question because he did lose 2 fights in a row and all night Mike Goldberg kept saying that if Liddell won he'd face Wanderlei silva in December. Fact is I really don't know what the UFC is going to do with Chuck next. I suppose they could still try the Silva fight but Goldberg was so insistant chuck needed a win it might be hard for them to go to that fight just yet.
Again, it is a case where you've got some guys who are occupied in the coming months and others you don't know what to do with at this point. If I'm the UFC, I give serious consideration to a Jardine Vs. Silva match. I think it would be a fun fight, and plus I don't really see how the UFC could lose by making that match. If Jardine wins then he takes the top spot for the belt after Forrest and if Silva wins then he's beaten a quality opponent in his UFC return.
Mirko Cro Cop 1-2 in the UFC. Since returning Dan Henderson is 0-1. Mauricio Rua 0-1. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 1-0 but should probably be 0-1 and Kazuhiro Nakamura 0-1. Its a good thing this isn't the Super bowl of MMA otherwise it would be like the time San Francisco beat Denver 55-10.
Maybe its the differences between ring and octagon. Maybe its the difference between UFC and Pride rules. Perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that no drug testing took place in Japan. Maybe the reason is different for each guy, but the established UFC guys have gotten the better of the newcomers from Pride.
Forrest Griffin beat Mauricio Rua who many including myself believed was the top Light Heavyweight in the world. Keith Jardine defeated Chuck Liddell who is the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion and one of the most dominant fighters in the history of the organization. These guys didn't beg for legitimacy, they reached out and yanked it for themselves. Guys who use TUF to get to the UFC can't be looked upon as reality show stars first and fighters second, they are clearly for real. Some of us knew this a long time ago but tonight put an exclamation mark on the end.
He's had 3 fights this year and gone 2-1 and all have been incredible fights and fight of the year contenders. I'd like to see him finish some guys but he's welcome on my TV any time.
The win will move Fitch up in the ladder of contention. Unfortunately, he's behind GSP and he's behind Matt Hughes. GSP won't get his shot at the Hughes-Serra winner until the spring and it will be longer for Fitch.
You can't have this guy sit out until then, so he's got to fight someone. I believe after his fight in March he said he wanted Kro Parisyan. If Parisyan is victorious in November, set up a Fitch-Parisyan match and have the winner of that face the winner of the GSP match against either Hughes and Serra. That's a more realistic option than having GSP fight Fitch with the winner moving on because UFC sees money in both GSP and Serra 2 and GSP-Hughes 3. So if Karo is victorious in November November, it would give he and Fitch both a legit claim at the next shot. Karo still feels he has a claim at a shot getting injured before his UFC 56 bout and not being granted an immediate match.
As for Sanchez, you could always do Sanchez-Koscheck 3. Sure, the second fight was boring but part of that had to do with Sanchez' staff infection. Otherwise, you're going to have to find someone or bring someone in for that spot. With a log-jam at Welterweight, you wonder if some won't soon be making the jump to the WEC. I'm not suggesting that for either Fitch or Sanchez but for some on the lower level it might be a good idea. Plus, there's going to be an influx of talent in that division after TUF 6 is concluded.
If Sean Sherk is stripped which seems likely, this is what I would do. I would have Kenny Florian Vs. Tyson Griffin and BJ Penn Vs. Joe Stevenson. I'd either have those be tournament bouts or I'd have Florian-Griffin determine the top contender to a Penn-Stevenson winner. I actually lean toward the second option because if I were doing a tournament I'd have Penn and Stevenson as the top 2 seads.
So there's my look at where some of the things stand after UFC 76. I think it is safe to say my Light Heavyweight rankings need revising.
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Yeah, I said I'd have it last friday but things happened. Here it is though...Middleweights this Friday unless the world ends or I get busy.
Welcome to the first ever combat-hooligans.com attempt at a ranking system for the 5 major weight classes in MMA: Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welterweight and Lightweight.
A few notes on how this Is going to work. The panel is 1 person, and that one person is me. My rankings aren’t meant as a sign of all-time contributions, what could be done in the future, or a reflection of who I think would win in a fight between 2 fighters. This is pretty much the “What have you done for me lately” way of ranking things. As a result, champions get ranked hire by virtue of being champions.
I’m only ranking fighters I’ve actually seen. As time goes on this will be less and less of an issue, but I am willing to admit that my not having seen a fighter may be the only reason he’s missing from a list.
We’re going to look this week at the Light Heavyweight division (186-205)
Ranking last Updated: 08/27/2007
I want to say for the record that I do not think that Rampage is the best 205 fighter in the world. However, he does deserve to be the #1 ranked fighter because he is the UFC champion and he has 2 victories over Chuck Liddell of whom you may have heard. A loss to Shogun Rua and a couple to Wanderlei Silva are the major ones on his record.
He’s primarily fought at Middleweight but as I mentioned previously being a champion will get you higher in the rankings than guys who I think are probably better but don’t hold the belt. Plus, I’ve probably underestimated Dan Henderson in the past more than any other fighter and this will be payback. He faces Rampage on Sept. 9 to unify the belts, so that will have a definite impact on the next set of rankings.
This is the man who I think is the rightful best 205 pound fighter in the world and now that he’s in the UFC I don’t suspect it will be very long before he is at the top of the rankings. Hell, I think he’s so good I almost put him at the top even though he’s not holding a belt…but Rampage’s destruction of Liddell was too hard to be ignored.
His only 2 losses are to Babalu Sobral and Mark Coleman and those were a long time ago in MMA circles. Plus, at 25 he’s got a long career ahead of him and already holds a 2005 victory over Quinton Jackson.
Hey, don’t forget about this guy. Sure, the loss to Rampage was devastating but it by no means is a cause to forget the 7 straight KO’s that came before it. He does have to work his way back up to the title and his age is a bit of a factor but he’s been so great for so long that you can’t rule him out from getting back to the belt.
It was close for my final spot between Silva and Rimeau Thierry Sokoudjou. It is hard to ignore the fact that Sokoudjou was the first man to KO a Nogueira brother (Rogerio) at Pride 33 and then beat another top 205 fighter in Ricardo Arona at Pride 34 in a short span of time. However, I had to go with Silva in the end because the resume is longer and because he’s going to still be competing against the top of the division. I’m sorry but you’re not going to convince me that the Light Heavyweight Division in Hero’s is deeper than that of the UFC. Silva recently returned to the UFC and (assuming Chuck Liddell beats Keith Jardine) is headed for a probable match with Liddell in December.
Fighter on the rise: Sokoudjou: It is hard to ignore his 2 big wins this year.
Fighter on the Decline: Tito Ortiz: Barely beat Forrest Griffin, looked impressive against an out of gas Ken Shamrock, lost to Chuck Liddell, gassed out against Rashad Evans in a draw. He’s still young and I’m not counting him out but he’s not been as impressive lately as you’d think.
Hidden Gem: Wilson Gouveia, has been impressive every time I’ve seen him.
Fighter I want to see more from: Houston Alexander: He’s too charismatic to not be featured.
My final thoughts on this ranking are that it is the division that is most likely to be shaken up in the next month. We’ve got Gouveia-Lambert, Machida-Nakamura, Rua-Griffin and Liddell-Jardine at UFC 76. Then of course before that we’ve got Henderson-Jackson at UFC 75. So all the top Light Heavyweights are going to be in action soon and there’s the potential for this to have to be the first rankings that are completely redone.
For my heavyweight rankings: click here
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UFC Inks Wanderlei Silva; Brazilian Legend set for December Return
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