The main event for UFC 85, currently scheduled for this coming June in London, England, is rumored to be a showdown between Chuck Liddell and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
The fight between former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and former PrideFC standout Shogun Rua originally surfaced last week. Both Liddell and Rua’s camp confirmed the fight had been agreed to.
Liddell is coming off a huge victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79 after suffering back-to-back defeats to Quinton Jackson and Keith Jardine. Liddell had hinted that he wanted to rematch Jardine next and didn’t want to fight in England, but it appears he may not get either wish.
Rua last fought at UFC 76 where he lost via submission to Forrest Griffin in his UFC debut. Shogun is a long-time training partner of Wanderlei Silva at Chute Boxe Brazil and is eager to avenge his friend and mentor’s loss.
The June fight card is still completely up in the air with Marcus Davis, Brock Lesnar, and Brandon Vera also rumored to be on the fight card. With the recent “cancelation” of the UFC 84 fight card, I’ll leave this information up to your own judgement. For now this is all just speculation.
** UPDATE **
According to Gary Herman at 15rounds.com, Dana White confirmed the Liddle-Rua fight after UFC 81 this past weekend.
Liddell’s next fight will be against Mauricio “Shogun†Rua.
“Liddell vs Shogun is confirmed,†said White.
The date and location of the fight has not been completely determined yet, but White said that he believes the fight will be in June at the O2 Arena in London.
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Why is the UFC spoon feeding Sanchez still? He is on the main card and O’brien vs. Arlovski is not going to be shown? Neither is Koschek. Who is the pasty they are giving to Sanchez anyways?
Diego was originally rumored to fight Roan Carneiro (at least that is what Diego first said).
whoa Doc you ok man? a rumor?…. nah buddy im just bustin your balls. i would really like to see this fight and im sure a lot of other people would too.
hah. you dont know how hard it was for me to post this rumor.
you guys seem to be wanting me to post rumor updates like this so you can discuss them here instead of just viewing them on other sites, so I figured I’d give it a show.
If you guys want the rumors let me know. If you don’t like posting rumors like I have done in the past, let me know too.
two exciting fighters with exciting styles, i think this will pose to be a great fight, chuck MAY knock him out. I dont know if rua got a chin like wandy though.
Rua probably doesn’t have the Wandy chin.. but he can best either Wand or Chuck in the speed/WTF was that? departments.. I think Rua can best Chuck if he stays “athletic” I dunno if you know what I mean.. when Rua is ON he is like GSP in a sense that he pulls awesome crazy “HOW THE HECK DID HE DO THAT” stuff out of the bag that other fighters just don’t.. not to mention if he gets in close enough with a clench, he is tall and long enough, (wandy is 2 inches shorter with a shorter reach) to maintain it.. Chuck on the other hand could knock Rua out in round one… so everything is up in the air on this..
good stuff Doc, I think you should keep posting the BIG rumors, and its good that you point out its only a rumor. Gives us stuff to talk about and we know its still just a rumor, keep up the good work!
The best thing about all this is that we get to see the best fighters in the world go at it man! finally! guys can hate on Dana, but HE DID IT, he gave us Chuck vs Wandy, Rampage vs Chuck, etc..
All these years of waiting and wishing all the best fighters were in the same organization, and now its happening. The best thing is, it doesnt matter who the champ is, Chuck was always a legend, but now hes really showing his stuff against the top fighters of the world.
So are Wandy, Shogun, Rampage, etc.. win or lose man, were seeing the best of the best! i love it!
where the fuks richard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This should be a top notch matchup…
I really think that Dana is putting on these great fights for one simple reason.. to up the stock of the UFC for a quick and bloated sale, he wants to make the big ones happen, draw as much dough in as he can, make good on his promise for great fights, and then the whole org goes on the chopping block for a billion dollars to some idiot like Vince McMahon … just my sick thinking
heh i dunno about that Kansas, they invested so much time and effort into the UFC, I dont think theyre gonna sell it man. Dana was already talking about plans for like 2012 for the UFC and TUF and that new fight Show theyre developing. Theyre building an empire that will definately exceed a billion eventually.
Of course they have to look ahead and keep building, but like White said, “my house isn’t for sale, but if you had enough money and wanted it, I bet you I would sell it” … fact is there are BILLIONAIRES out there that if the UFC hits a better TV deal, yeah, they would def. have some strong buyers..
lol well ya, i guess everything is for sale in that sense because everyone has their price. I dont realistically see anyone buying the UFC, atleast not within the next 10 years, because who else knows how to run and balance a business like that??
I guarantee Vince doesnt know how lol.. nobody in the “pro wrestling” mileu knows how to manage the UFC. The closest you would get is boxing promoters, but mma isnt boxing, especially the way the UFC is structured they dont just put together a fight card every so often.
I dunno.. if i was Dana, i would never sell the UFC.. even with some ridiculous offers. Would it really make a difference if you made 10 billion or 50 billion? your still filthy rich, you still have everything you could ever want (unless you want 50 billion lol).
See your point but believe it or not BV there are plenty of people that could manage the UFC as good as the current crew or better plain and simple. God didn’t come along and give Dana White and the Fertittas some special gift, matter of fact, there are people on this website right now that would probably claim they could do it BETTER because of all the WRESTLING and BOXING event’s they have been part of… I hear Gatties could do it… lol he could do anything… lol
haha nah, im not saying they have some special gift, what they have is the experience which nobody else has. Because nobody else has done it! the next closest was Pride, but they werent structured like the UFC is.
You hear them saying it all the time, “were still learning this business” they continue to grow but its always new territory. Theyre trying to create an mma entity that doesnt exist yet, there was alot of innovation for them to get the UFC to this point. If someone were to just come in and buy it, they dont know what to do automatically, it takes time for them to get the hang of it.
Im sure someone else could run it, but they will definately make mistakes along the way.
The mold has been set, the way has been paved.. getting in on the INSIDE of how things run now wouldn’t be hard, I think it could be run by another group..
Im sure someone else could run it, i mean its not rocket science after all hehe, but still, if i were Dana i wouldnt sell it. would you?
Nahh.. I don’t think they would either.. Dana is nothing without the UFC.. it defines him as a person.. he would have an identity crisis if he couldn’t drop the f-bomb a million times on ppv tv and get bleeped out on Spike, but again, they would sell if it were lucrative.. Dana only withholds a minority share so he doesn’t have much say, the Fertitas are business men, they are majority holders they I think WOULD sell if it was lucrative enough, and there is plenty of money out there for investors interested in getting in on the ground floor.. a guy like McMahon might not be able to RUN the thing, but he has made more money over the last 20 years in wraslin than boxing has made.. period.. so he has the financial wherewithal and the interest i am sure… he could hire a smuck like Dana to come in a run it..
“Dana is nothing without the UFC.. it defines him as a person.. he would have an identity crisis if he couldn’t drop the f-bomb a million times on ppv tv and get bleeped out on Spike”
ROFL!!!!!!! thats so true tho Kansas.
Nice interview with Mazzagatti at mmajunkie today, ofcourse talking about the Mir - Lesnar fight. Check it out http://mmajunkie.com/2008/02/05/referee-steve-mazzagatti-discusses-lesnar-mir-fight-an-mmajunkiecom-interview/
yea bv now we know… steve did give a warning so **** lets move on …
i persoanlly think dana definetly will never see the ufc ever… hes
looking at it as his own personal empire
@DOC
Hey Doc, I heard that Dana White publicly said that he doesn’t know if Mirko will be back in the UFC, and laid down a Feb 4 deadline that if Mirko didn’t contact him by then, he was moving on basically…
Have you heard anything? Guys any of you heard about this or what’s up with Cro Cop?
Chuck better get used to towing the line for the UFC if he want’s to keep his contract in tact.. he isn’t the champ now.. and he cannot be out there whinning about ” I want the fight in Vegas, London is too far ” or “I want another shot at Jardine” (cause back to back REAL fights would be too much). Whatever, no breaks for the Iceman, he gets to take on the GUN and we get to see Shogun fight uninjured for the first time in the Octagon. I know its an excuse, but after Tim Sylvia’s surgery there was an undeniable difference in his fighting, striking, ect.. I think the same will prove for Shogun, his game will be better post surgery, just my thoughts on it. NEITHER fighter having home advantage seems good to me, its more even, and I think that is right.
I like the fact Chuck has been fighting tough guys even though he lost to Jardine, who cares it was just one fight (just like Hendo and Wandy). Im definately with Shogun in this fight, its been a tough transition for alot of the Pride fighters, most notably, crocop and Gomi. It takes time i guess, im not giving up on them for a few bad performances, theyre the kind of guys who bounce back hard man.
Yeah Chuck deserves a LOT of respect, I agree with you 100% on the rest of this post.
Hey BV has Richard been on this week.. I have been busy, but Patrick is screaming about Hillbilly so I guess maybe he jumped ship?
nope, his comments still 1590.. its been looooong, i dont remember when his last comment was.
i think this was his most recent comment
“fitch needs to start fighting bigger names sanchez was one ,karo would of been great”
Comment Posted By richard On 10.01.2008 @ 23:23
Loser….
hey *******….I think we did lose richard…..
Well Patrick.. do you know why.. what his email is.. or how we can get in touch to get him back on????
kansas
no maybe doc does?
I’ve got his email that he uses to leave comments but I’m not going to give out that kind of personal information.
I’ll send him an email and let him know everyone here was asking for him and see whats up.
Thanks Dr J
Funny thing… Wand’s trainer was talking about him dropping to 185lbs … but then on Wandy’s site TODAY he posted on his blog that he got a call from the UFC and he will be fighting Keith Jardine in MAY.. cool fine ..
kansas…don’t blow ur load just yet
Too late!…
@Doc
Heard Machida vs Ortiz was OFF and in the process of being replaced with a co-main event of Wand vs Jardine…
Think theres any truth to that Doc?
Supposedly, from what I’ve been reading, Babalu mentioned in passing that he had heard the Ortiz-Machida fight was off. Then with the combined speculation that Wand and Jardine arent fighting at 82 as some were rumoring, it looks like that might be the case.
But I haven’t come across anything credible yet on either story
Yeah… there’s no way the UFC is gonna let ORTIZ go out there and completely trash their name to the 5th power and PAY him good money one fight before doing so, either that or Ortiz pulled out afraid that he would lose and then nobody would want him in their org. coming off so many split decisions draws and losses… this would put a nail in the coffin..
Personally I think Ortiz is talented enough but he is so consumed with other things that his heart just isn’t in FIGHTING anymore, he should go be a “beerman” for the Angels or Raiders… lol
lol