It’s weird not having any fights to kibitz about for the next few weeks, but I was still able to find a few other things to drop a little knowledge on…
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER: Every year on “The Ultimate Fighter” you always have the one whining pussy who wants to give up the opportunity of a lifetime because he’s homesick and/or misses his girlfriend. Granted they’re whining pussies who would kick my ass (especially Joe Scarola, who lives less than twenty minutes away from me), but you would think they would see how big of a whining pussy the guy on the season before them looked like, and not want to be that guy. I mean, if you’re really concerned that your girlfriend can’t go six weeks without cheating on you, while you’re away AT THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME, she’s just not worth your time bro.
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS: The UFC’s LW division is starting to come down from last week’s shape up. For starters, Chuck Liddell is not retiring, and his people are looking towards Shogun Rua as his next opponent. Wanderlei Silva says he’d like to fight Forrest Griffin next, and if Griffin thinks he can be ready by December (when Silva is supposed to fight) I’m sure he’d take the fight. Tito Ortiz is either fighting Dan Henderson or Rashad Evans next, depending what you read. That just leaves Rampage Jackson and Keith Jardine, which I suppose you can sell as a title fight since “The Dean of Mean” did just beat the former champion.
KURT ANGLE TO THE IFL?: I’m sure this will have all the dorks at the wrestling channel downloading in their shorts, but there was an interview with Kurt Angle at www.ifl.tv, where they hinted at him working with the International Fight League, either as a fighter or as a coach. There have been rumors of him getting into MMA for a few years now. Dana White even offered him a deal to train with Randy Couture, but he had to choose if he wanted to be a fighter or an actor. Angle chose to be an actor.
WHERE’S FEDOR?: The latest on the UFC/Fedor Emelianenko signing comes straight from UFC Grand Puba Dana White himself, “I think that Fedor, right now, the word is he wants to fight in this Sambo event, but I won’t let him fight in it if he’s with us. I think he’s going to wait until he fights in this thing in October, November, and we’ll probably come to a deal with him at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I’m very positive we’re going to end up with him. It would be crazy for him to fight anywhere else other than the UFC.” If/When he signs, he’d go right to a champion vs. champion fight with Randy Couture.
UFC 76 PAY-OUTS: They released (or, it got leaked to the Internet) the pay-outs for UFC 76. The top five were Chuck Liddell ($500,000), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua ($150,000), Forrest Griffin ($84,000, 44k plus 40k for submission of the night), Lyoto Machida ($50,000), and Jon Fitch ($44,000). Poor Keith Jardine only got $14k for upsetting Chuck Liddell. Someone needs to get himself a better agent.
