The Pit Report: Making Enemies Is Good

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NEW UFC/SPIKE TV LIVE EVENTS ANNOUNCED

June will be a busy month, despite the fact that UFC will not have a pay-per-view until July 8th. Spike TV will air The Ultimate Fighter 3 finale on Saturday, June 24th. The live event is scheduled from 9pm-12am EST.

Then, just four days later, Spike TV will air a Wednesday night live special on June 28th. The event, which will most likely be an Ultimate Fight Night card, is scheduled to air from 8pm to 10pm EST, leading up to the premiere of Blade: The Series.

UFC 60 UPDATE

UFC 60 will air live on pay-per-view on May 27th from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. The official card, so far, is as follows.

  • Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie
  • Brandon Vera vs. Assuerio Silva
  • Joe Riggs vs. Mike Swick
  • Diego Sanchez vs. John Alessio
  • Melvin Guillard vs. Rick Davis
  • Spencer Fisher vs. Leonard Garcia
  • Dean Lister vs. Alessio Sakara
  • Fabiano Scherner vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

Fans of The Ultimate Fighter 3 will recognize Dean Lister as Tito Ortiz’s ground coach. This will be Lister’s UFC debut.

MMAWeekly is reporting that Evan Tanner vs. Jeremy Horn was supposed to be added to the UFC 60 card, but now it’s being changed to Jeremy Horn vs. Chael Sonnen. This is the first I’ve heard about the possibility of UFC having Tanner vs. Horn just four weeks after Tanner fought Levens at UFC 59. This makes absolutely no sense to me. MMAWeekly claims that Tanner, “was battling personal problems and issues and will not be fighting at the end of the month.”

Horn vs. Sonnen has yet to be added to the official card, but Chael will appear on MMAWeekly Radio today to talk about this upcoming fight.

LIDDELL CLEARED BY DOCTORS?

I have yet to see anything official from UFC, but several sources are reporting that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell is claiming that he has been cleared by doctors to begin training for his August title defense against Renato “Babalu” Sobral.

BJ PENN TURNS DOWN TITLE SHOT

I’ve been sitting on this item for about three weeks now. It’s been reported that BJ Penn was offered a title shot for the UFC Lightweight Championship against Sean Sherk, but BJ Penn wasn’t interested. Penn is looking to face the winner of GSP vs. Hughes, with plans move up to 185, then back down to 155. I’m not sure why he would want to move up to 185, unless he wants a shot at the Middleweight title as well.

OMFG! SOMEONE MENTIONED UFC! QUICK, TO THE SPECULATION-MOBILE!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Dana White claimed that UFC would be on HBO “very soon.” On Saturday night, UFC got a mention during the De La Hoya vs. Mayorga pay-per-view, which was presented by HBO. Fast forward to Monday and MMA writers are creaming their pants, speculating about this potential deal between HBO and UFC. Ivan Trembow (who I’m a fan of) wrote a long-winded column at MMAWeekly wondering about how “exclusive” UFC’s exclusive deal with Spike TV is, and whether or not the mention was just a coincidence. I’ve read Ivan’s blog for years, and he does have a habit of going overboard with speculation, but this is such a waste of bandwidth. Maybe there is a deal in the works, maybe not, but UFC was mentioned because of Leon Tabbs. Get a f*ckin’ grip. I expect this kind of pointless speculation from wrestling sites, but then again, Ivan does cover wrestling too.

De La Hoya vs. Mayorga was an incredible fight. Check out Trent’s latest edition of Body Blows for more info.

THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS ACTION FIGURE

Shamrock fans, rejoice! You can finally get yourself a Ken Shamrock action figure. No, UFC isn’t licensing action figures, but WWE and Jakks Pacific will be releasing series 11 of their “Classic Superstars” line in July. Click here to check it out, and check out PK’s latest figures update for info on how to pre-order.

Personally, I wish it was a talking figure with all of Ken’s f*cking awful insults from his WWF days. If you don’t believe that Shamrock’s trash talking skils are atrocious, check out Shelly’s recap of The Ultimate Fighter 3: Episode 5!

NOT PICKING A FIGHT

I don’t mean to pick on MMAWeekly today. I just have a problem with a lot of MMA sites and their so-called “exclusive” content. It reeks of the bullshit I used to deal with in the late 90’s with wrestling sites. Exclusivity is a great thing, but only if it’s not a bunch of bullshit that some idiot made up to attract hits. Anyone can call themselves a journalist and quote unnamed sources and pass it off as fact (newspapers across the U.S. do it every f*cking day).

I’m not saying MMAWeekly is full of shit. In fact, they’re one of the most reliable MMA sites around. Ryan Bennett knows his shit, and he has legitimate contacts in the industry. I’m a f*ckin’ nobody, preaching from my soapbox. Regardless, I hope he’ll appreciate my opinion. The bottom line is, I can’t stand this “jump the gun” mentality that so many writers have: “Ooooh, I have to get this on our website before it appears on 5,000 others!” Everyone needs to f*cking relax.

CORRECTION

I was almost tempted not to post this, but at least it shows I own up to my mistakes. In part one of Who’s Who in the UFC, I said, “Brad Imes from TUF 2 is still fighting at 260 lbs, but has not fought since the TUF 2 finale (his mother died of a heart attack later that evening).Kevin Wong from the IP TV section e-mailed me to remind me that Imes lost to Dan Christison at Ultimate Fight Night IV…something that was posted on April 10th by yours truly. I suppose that’s what happens with non-televised fights: out of sight, out of mind.


I really am a total zilch.

DISAPPOINTMENT/WHORE TIME

Okay, Ask the Rev was a bust. My boy Gabe was the only person to send in an e-mail, and it was horrible. If you want to shoot the shit with me, hit me up on either on my MySpace profiles (here and here) or head on over to the WhiteTrashDevil.com forums. I would tell you to look for me at IP’s Sports forum, but no one f*cking reads it.