5oz’s of Fury: UFC/HBO, Team Serra, and More…

Columns, News

The UFC is pissed at HBO. Dana White is pissed at Tito Ortiz. Matt Serra is pissed at his best man. Matt Hamil is pissed at everyone. And Randy Couture would just like to know who his next opponent is. All this, plus Rachelle Leah. Hit it…

HBO/UFC – DEAL OR NO DEAL: The on again/off again deal is permanently off again…or is it? In a recent Multichannel News article, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg was quoted as saying “After lots of discussion, it became apparent that the business model doesn’t make sense for either one of us. So we agreed to go our separate ways. You never know what the future holds. We have enormous respect and admiration for the executives we dealt with at the UFC. We wish them well.” Only much like from “The Princess Bride,” the deal may only be mostly dead. According to Yahoo! Sports, Dana White seems to think it’s not all dead. “We’ll come to a deal with HBO, I’m 100 percent confident of that,” White said. “Ross is probably pretty happy now, but we’ll get a deal done with them. Believe me, we will. They want the deal, I want the deal, and when two sides want the deal, it gets done.” So in conclusion, ::shrugs::

UFC 78: The UFC announced the main event for UFC 78 and it features the long awaited match between Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz Michael Bisping?!? They’ve been having a wee but of trouble with UFC 78. First it was supposed to be Sean Sherk vs. BJ Penn, only Sherk might be suspended until July if he can’t get the little matter of a positive steroid test over turned. Then it went from Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz, to Tito Ortiz vs. Dan Henderson, only to go back to Evans vs. Ortiz. The rub is that Ortiz only has one fight left on his contract and when negotiations weren’t going anywhere (or weren’t going where the UFC wanted them to) we get a battle of undefeated Ultimate Fighter winners. But wait, what about the deaf kid you ask?

MATT HAMIL: He’s pissed. So sayeth “The Hammer” via his website, “Wow! Let me just say (that) I am in shock. First, I get hosed by two judges in London and now the much anticipated rematch has evaporated in front of my eyes. I posted a statement about my knee surgery on 9/25 so everyone would know it was minor, and I would be ready by mid December. I didn’t think six weeks was that long of a wait (but) apparently Bisping and the UFC did.” He’s blunt, but he has a point. Since Dan Henderson was rumored for November they could have had Henderson vs. Evans and saved Bisping vs. Hamil for UFC 79. Because I don’t know about you, I don’t see Bisping leaving UFC 78 still undefeated, and that ruins the Hamil/Bisping rematch a little.

TEAM SERRA: Matt “My Favorite UFC Star” Serra blogs for our local Long Island newspaper, and he had a little to say aboot the Joe Scarola situation on “Ultimate Fighter.” So sayeth Mr. Serra, “I guess we weren’t surprised that he was quitting on us, but I was definitely surprised by the level of selfishness on display. You lost, get over it, I’m over it too, now do your best to help the guys that are still in this competition, and who knows, if someone gets hurt, maybe you get another shot. That was what you agreed to coming into this experience, and if, for no other reason than for honoring that commitment, make yourself an asset to this team. He wasn’t being a team player, and that’s not my style, and it hurt to see a friend of mine act that way.” You can read the rest of Matt’s blogs by clicking here.

UFC SUPERBOWL WEEKEND – According to a report on MMAJunkie.com, the UFC has reserved February 2nd for a show in Las Vegas. The UFC usually does a show the day of the Superbowl, and the rumored main event is Randy Couture defending the heavyweight title against…actually, that’s a good question. Obviously the UFC would like to have Fedor Emelianenko signed for a champion vs. champion fight. If they can’t get it done, I still say Randy’s next challenger is the winner of next weekend’s Brandon Vera vs. Tim Sylvia fight. But, that’s just my opinion.

And just because Rachelle Leah is really hot…