Didn’t I mention yesterday, during the middle of all this furor surrounding the Chuck vs Wandy announcements that I wasn’t holding my breath and wouldn’t believe this fight was happening until it was officially announced. Well, yeah, looks like that was a good perspective to take.
Kevin Iole at Yahoo Sports, who seems to have quickly become Dana White’s first go-to choice in the media, is reporting that the Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell fight is over and the deadline passed with no fight contract being signed by July 11 (yesterday). I’ve never heard of a July 11 deadline for this match to be made, but who knows what the real story is.
White said he had reached terms for Liddell, arguably the UFC’s most popular fighter and its recently deposed 205-pound champion, to meet the Brazilian Silva in a highly anticipated bout at UFC 76.
But White said Wednesday he was told by a member of Silva’s Chute Box team that Silva did not want to fight Liddell. White said the deadline for having the fight made was Wednesday.
“This is the worst news I could have possibly gotten,” White said. “It’s horrendous. I have been trying to make this fight for six years. I have done everything in my power I could do over the last six years to make this fight and it’s still not happening. I just don’t see it happening now.”
“This just happened (Wednesday afternoon) and I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” White said. “We’re trying to figure it out. It’s not a fun time right now.”
He said he’s not certain if he’ll keep Liddell on that card and match him with another opponent. A possibility would be to bring in more fighters who are under contract with Pride and have them fight in the main event.
White said he planned to go ahead with Rua against Machida and wasn’t at the moment considering a Rua-Liddell bout.
“We haven’t really had enough time to figure this out because it all just came down,” White said. “It’s been a bad day ever since I heard that.”
Sounds like it could all be a big smokescreen and a bunch of Dana White’s crap if you ask me. Seems strange that all this talk arises yesterday and Wanderlei is personally announcing the fight on this supposed deadline-day, and then the day after Dana White says the fight will never happen.
Like I said yesterday, I’m sick of all this nonsense with the Chuck vs Wandy fight, and I’m sure most of you are as well. Whether this September at UFC 76 or anytime after that, Chuck and Wandy will fight and then we can stop talking about it.
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This is a Dana White ploy. One of two things, either Dana is afraid that Wandy will kick Chucks butt and that will be the end of his popular MMA spokesman, or Dana is trying to lowball Wanderlei and let Chuck take the big purse and Wandy isn’t having it. Either way, it’s wrong and Dana White is a Lier and everyone knows it, he never gives a straight story, and Wand want’s this fight bad, anyone who reads the blogs, checks his website, and has read the recent interviews with him knows he is wanting this more than any fight in the past 10 years .. bull crap if you ask me..
I would like to challenge Dr.J, Zach Arnold, Ivan Trembow & most of the Sherdog staff to form your own fight promotion. Perhaps then you will find out just how tough the business side of this is, as I feel you have absolutely no clue of what you “blog” about.
I’ve promoted wrestling shows in the past and there is a reason I no longer do so…the sh*t is tough. Not only is booking & contracts a pain in the *** to deal with, but you have “couch potato” critics who feel they can run a show better. Well…prove it.
I enjoy reading these blogs, but having been in the promotion business for 5 years in the past, I can tell you that 90% of the time, none of you have a clue what you are talking about.
Dana White & Zuffa are the BEST things to ever happen to MMA. Compaired to wrestling promoters, they are saints. Compaired to corrupt boxing promtoers (most are), they are saints. They are running a business, attempting to make money and attempting to give the fans the best possible match ups.
If you don’t like it…band together and see if you can sign Wandy vs Chuck…
YEA WANDY SUCKS ***
Wandy might be scared?
has it ever occurred to any of you that Dana White might be telling the truth? He hasn’t sold out yet and if he could take this fight he would because i guarantee he wants to see it as bad as anyone else.
@Gatties,
I’m not trying to bash the UFC in this case. Personally, I find it extremely hard to believe that since the fight wasn’t signed by yesterday that the fight will NEVER take place. That is what Dana said and/or implied. I find that pretty hard to swallow.
Dana said he has been trying for 6 years to sign this fight. Now all of the sudden, since the fight wasn’t finalized by July 11, 2007, he is just going to throw in the towel and forget the whole thing???
Does that make any sense to you?
Nope DrJ it doesn’t … period.. and Patrick, there you go sounding ignorant again, if Wand sucks then I guess Rampage sucks for losing to him twice, and if Rampage sucks for losing to him then Chuck sucks for losing twice to Ramapge, and if Chuck sucks then I guess Randy Couture sucks for losing to him twice,…. shall we go on with this stupid rehtoric?
gatties
i think there are differences between u trying to promote and dana trying to promote the difference is millions and millions and millons of dollars that dana has at his leisure ,he doesnt give it to the fighters so where does it go?And us couch patatos u talk about are the ones danas always talking about pleasing
“But White said Wednesday he was told by a member of Silva’s Chute Box team that Silva did not want to fight Liddell. White said the deadline for having the fight made was Wednesday.”
BS all the way. there is no fckin way wandy didn’t this fight. the ufc is looking shadier than ever. this fight has been SO anticipated money shouldn’t be a factor. if silva has publically called out liddell in public twice on national t.v., and then to say ‘silva did not want to fight liddell’ sparks some serious questions.
@Kansas
haha havent you noticed Patrick says everyone sucks? its his thing, he doesnt mean anything by it. I just laugh when i see it now, im sure he was on boxing sites before saying sht like.. Muhammed Ali sucks.. LOL
Your one of a kind Patrick!
lets face it, this could be the most lucreative ufc ppv event (if promoted right and the debut of shogun) ever, if any of you agree, you can assume that ufc is offering a generous contract to silva. i dont see chute boxe’s party hindering this whatsoever. mr. gatties, im no fight promoter, but with the events that have taken place in ufc recently, (the acquision of some of PRIDE’S finest) it seems as PRIDE’s elite are flocking to ufc. shoguns contract should have no more difficult than wandy’s.
we gotta remember most of these guys hate the UFC anyways.. the actul fighters i mean. Certain guys we will never see in the UFC again, like Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman.. plus alot of champs walked away from their UFC belts in the past. Theres only 1 reason they would do that.. Cuz theyre probably getting shafted..
Ive never promoted a fight either, im not saying its easy, the UFC has done a good job signing fighters and advertising mma to a mass audience. Theoretically they should have more money than the other organizations, and yet they pay their fighters less. I can understand if theyre dumping sht loads of cash into advertising.. but dont the guys who risk life and limb deserve a bigger piece of the pie??
YES!! THEY DO!!
thats what im saying these guys the ufc have money to burn im to second guessing wandi didnt want the fight i say maybe a money issue for sure
BV
LOL I JUST SAID TTHAT TO GET A RISE OUTA KANSAS… LOL NO WANDY IS GOOD WELL WAS GOOD HES GOTTA WIN HIS NEXT BOUT!!!!
yea but wandy might be scared?
or wandy might want a “easy”fight
this could be one of those cases where we are just being fooled. when the idea of Chuck vs. Wandi first came up people went nuts and Chuck joined the Pride GP so everyone thought it would happen but it didnt and people were bummed but they still wanted to see it happen. skip forward a bit Wandi shows up at a UFC pay per view and they announce Chuck and Wandi will do it this time but it didnt happen and people get bummed but they still wanna see it happen. skip forward a bit more Dana White says he is going to sign all the best fighters, ALL THE BEST! then Wandi puts up on his site that its on and people go nuts but Dana says its not and people are bummed but they still wanna see it. do you see a pattern happening? i think they might be playing with our minds by dangling this super fight in front of our face and then taking it away but every time they do it make people want to see the fight even more then befor. do you think there is anyone left out there not interested in this match or anyone left that not going to buy the pay per view? the longer they hold this off the more people will talk about it and the more people talk about it the more people wanna see it and on and on. i might be full of sh*t and completely wrong but it just seems like a good business tactic and something that may make them a bunch of money in the long run.
@Todd & Richard
Yeah.. Wandi scared…. rofl.. lmfao … whatever…
Yeah scared of killing an OLD man…
you guys keep saying “Maybe Wandi” this and “maybe wandi” that.. ever stopped to think that maybe drinking the zuffa kool-aid isn’t what its all cracked up to be.. I mean, not to totally bash them, but in this particular situation, I don’t think its all “wandi wandi wandi” . you guys keep speculation on why he hansn’t taken the fight.. uhh ever thought he has taken the fight but Dana and Co are playing games.. ????
kansas
i agree with u maybe there offering chuck way more than wandi and wandi aint having nothing of it they should get paid the same cuz im buying it just as much to see wandi than chuck maybe even more
yea your probably right kansas, i just say it to have a little fun and get a rise out of you. But in all honestly i donno wat is going on behing the scenes…especially when it comes to dana white, i wouldnt put nothing past him………
well, what i think is, both camps fear the possibilities and the worse case scenario for their fighter and they (zuffa,wandy-camp) probably came to the table with some outrageous numbers just in case their respected fight lost, and it just didnt work out
crap, I think Bodog should just jump on this and sign them both and make it happen .. lol at this point why not.
good idea.
Wouldn’t that just be funny, too pull the rug out from under the UFC like that! lol.. I would love to see Dana’s face if something like that did happen.. I wish someone would come in and circumvent their efforts, it’s not like they are the only MMA group that can host an MMA event on PPV.. just the most known in the USA is all.. I don’t care who hosts the fight, I just want it to happen, and by the way CHUCK IS GETTING OLDER BY THE SECOND SO THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW RATHER THAN LATER…
you know, at 38years of age, what does Chuck have to lose, he should just fight his contract out then sign with Elite XC or bodog and get one last BIIIGGG payday fighting Wand.. like 2-3 million each, for one fight… wow, in the ufc thats like a 6 fight deal for a champion.. lol
bodog would really make a statement if they make this fight happen it would be great they should even try to sign josh barnett kang wandy they really should
well that bogus mma rankings site over there on mmaweekly says wandy didnt refuse the fight, but he did say the fight is on in november!!!!! whoo hoo!!
This is a really tough one to call. I have been wanting to believe Dana in the past, but many times it seems like his mouth gets ahead of him. I do believe that Dana actually wants to this happen himself. For him to make the public announcement all those ions ago and then have it not happen has got to be embarrassing for him as a President. However, the entire lanscape of the LHW division has just taken a drastic turn in a direction that I think Dana really didn’t believe would happen (Chuck’s loss to Rampage). I don’t know why some people use the argument of ‘the debut of Shogun” etc. as the ultimate highlight for a fight card. From my personal experience at a UFC event I can say that for the majority of casual American fans, (who btw outnumber all of us hardcore fans by the millions) Shogun and Silva are still no names here. As a matter of fact, Pride as an organization, is not known here . We all know that Chuck is the ultimate poster boy for American MMA and for Chuck to lose a second straight fight to a Pride guy, could very well be devastating not only to his career but to Dana’s ego as always having the best fighters in the world.
So for now, I guess we have the Kendall Grove vs. Patrick “I can’t get a win in the UFC to save my life” Cote.
Competition breeds good results, I think it would catipult them to international corp. status if this happened, but it’s a huge “what if”..
@Amir
Best post you have put out in 45 days .. very good, you put into words what I have been thinking…
wtf everyone!!! keih jardine and chuck liddell will headline ufc 76!!!!
well i know its a step down from wandy, but at least it will be a slugfest
I hate zuffa, ufc, dana white, I wont watch it, they can all kiss my grits, this is nothing short of a huge let down. they are saving a few bucks, and hoping to save their PLASTIC over protected champion from the embarrasment of losing 2 in a row to former Pride fighters, this is obvious… CHUCK IS A *****!
Wand is too good for their WWE wannabe organization anyways.. bull crap!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE THIS !!!!!!!!!!!
THEY ALL SUCK
Id rather see midgets wrestle in mud!
I want Chuck vs Wand… dana looks like a lier and an idiot.. Jardine isn’t a step down.. he is like a whole flight of stairs down from the super fight they were “TEASING” us with again.. can’t the IDIOTS at ZUFFA get ANYTHING right?
Dana should be saying this to himself after all the teasing they have done again:
I AM SOFA KING WE TODD DID
Scream that loud DANA WHITE, I hate you people! Pay the guys and put the fight on.. in this case the juice is worth the squeeze, these boys should be paid millions and the fight needs to happen..
well i guess the only time we will see these two in the same octagon is the staredown when wandy admitted he wanted to f*ck chuck…or fight him.. lol
Yea im starting to believe maybe chuck might be protected over there in zuffa, but screw that, give us what we want!!! dont give us no free spike broadcast of tity ortiz-frank shamrock3, we want chuck-wandy!!!!!!!!!!!!! the public demands it………mmahq demands it!!!
@ Todd
yeah.. funny your probably right.. looks like Dana just CAN’T get it right.. .lol .. shows how good he is..
I know man,, Dana thinks this is Rome, we are the masses and if he throws us some bull-crap fight we will just eat it up like bread and be happy…. this is the year 2007! I say we all write letters, blast fax, and email the p iss out of the Zuffa offices..
i say so to0!!!
I am boycotting UFC events on PPV until they get this fight done….. I can just rip it the next morning via the web if they want to be diiiks about this… lol… they are shooting themselves in the foot with hardcore fans for sure..
If you guys think I am crazy… well I am, maybe I am going overboard a bit, but I am a die hard Wand fan, I like Chuck a lot and have been wanting this for as long as anyone… and it’s is basically the culmination of “Ali vs Tyson” but in this case they have the ability to make it happen and they AREN’T… They will reflect one day and see the missed oportunity but it will be too late.. such a waste!
Fine I say let Keith fight Wand.. then when Wand kills him, Chuck Wand!
when will i be able to lift my head from shame?!!
@Todd
????? Don’t be a *** man