— Here’s the latest on Liddell/Couture IV: it is now certain that Zuffa desires to book this fight, and in fact have talked with the camps for both Couture and Liddell about making the fight. There is a roadblock, however, because the management teams for both fighters are opposed to doing it. They’ve expressed concern that nobody will want to see the fight yet again, and so they have thus far refused to accept it. Liddell has said that the fight doesn’t make sense at this point in time, and he also doesn’t want to wait until June to fight again.
Randy Couture is of the same mindset, and sources say that he’s angling to fight the loser of the eventual heavyweight tournament finals because it’ll be his best shot at getting back into title contention. Ideally, he’d like to fight Lesnar, but there is also some appeal to a legends match between he and Antonio Rodrigo Nogiuera.
The company has talked internally about putting the event on Spike for free, but that would be a tough sell to the fighters, who would be taking a drastic pay cut due to the loss of pay per view revenue they would typically get. Obviously they can make up the loss in pay with locker room bonuses, and that fight would probably break the MMA cable ratings record quite easily and increase awareness for the company, so I’m certain they would be handsomely rewarded in some fashion. Plus, a win by either man puts him right back in contention for the title and it’s quite possible that a Lesnar vs. Liddell matchup could eventually be made, which would undoubtedly be the biggest fight of all time.
The thing everyone needs to remember is that this giant mainstream audience wasn’t around for the first two Couture/Liddell fights, and only a small percentage of them were around for the third one. Making the fight might not seem like a great idea to hardcore fans who have already seen the fight three times, but this is a fight that would do very, very well with the masses, mostly because it’ll be new to most of them.
Liddell also said that he’s not fighting Anderson Silva at UFC 95 in February.
— Dana White has been telling people that he’ll have Fedor Emelianenko under contract by the end of 2009. Well, Affliction will probably go out of business by February, which means he’ll be a free agent again and thus technically available, but I can’t imagine that negotiations for Fedor’s services will go any better than they did the first time around. The UFC certainly is not going to co-promote a show with M-1, and I can’t see Emelianenko relenting on any of the stipulations he asked for the first time around. Dana can tell people anything he wants, but until he’s willing to actually negotiate with someone and not act like a ten year old kid, he’s going to have a tough time getting this deal done.
— Despite what the world saw on the latest season of the Ultimate Fighter, there are high hopes within Zuffa for Junie Browning. He has signed a regular fighter contract with the UFC and will be fighting Dave Kaplan at the Ultimate Fighter finale show on the 13th. Our source tells us that Dana White is the one who pushed for Browning to join Xtreme Couture, believing that it would teach him a little maturity and responsibility, and he’d also be able to keep his eye on Junie via Randy Couture and other Xtreme Couture fighters.
For what it’s worth, Browning has been a model citizen since joining Couture and is said to be acting light years differently now than how he was portrayed on the show. He’s been seen at several events with Dana White, who seems to be mentoring the kid, at least as much as Dana possibly can. He could certainly stand to be less psychotic and bi-polar, but I do believe that the personality Junie Browning displayed on the show will always be around in some form or fashion.
The big money in any sport or facet of the entertainment industry always comes from having a strong bad guy to root against. With a strong villian, people will pay to see him beaten. The biggest feuds in MMA history have come from either legitimate or carefully-crafted bad blood; all you have to do is take one look at Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz, quite possibly the most important feud in North American mixed martial arts history, for a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
A fight between two guys with no issues, two guys who are loved by fans, will almost always be less interesting than a fight between a guy the fans love and a guy the fans love to hate. Josh Koscheck realized this early during the filming of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter and played it to the hilt. Junie Browning might not be smart enough to take advantage of it right now, but you can be sure that Dana White (who has apparently taken Junie under his wing) will teach him a thing or two.
This isn’t demeaning the sport or putting the money aspect over the traditions and honor of mixed martial arts whatsoever. This is simply adding an extra layer to the mix, a “hook” to bait the fans who otherwise may have been uninterested in seeing people like Josh Koscheck or Junie Browning fight. It’s a successful business practice, and it’s why Junie Browning is already signed to the UFC roster before the two guys who actually made the finals of the show even step foot in the cage.
— Speaking of The Ultimate Fighter: the full card for the December 13th finale show has been released, and it features 16 cast members from the show fighting on the card. Here’s the full lineup:
TELEVISED CARD
- Efrain Escudero vs. Phillipe Nover (Lightweight final)
- Ryan Bader vs. Vinny Magalhaes (Light Heavyweight final)
- Wilson Gouveia vs. Jason MacDonald
- Kevin Burns vs. Anthony Johnson
- Junie Browning vs. Dave Kaplan
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Shane Primm vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
- Jules Bruchez vs. Eliot Marshall
- Kyle Kingsbury vs. Tom Lawlor
- Shane Nelson vs. George Roop
- John Polakowski vs. Rolando Delgado
— The Atlantic recently profiled Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with a lengthy but excellent piece. In fact, it’s one of the best pieces covering mixed martial arts that I’ve ever read. It spans from the leadup to the Forrest Griffin fight through his, well, rampage on the streets of California. It’s a highly recommended read. The Atlantic also recently interviewed Lorenzo Fertitta, which is also a good read.
— The UFC 87 DVD (featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch for the welterweight title and Brock Lesnar facing Heath Herring) is now available on Amazon for the low price of $17.
— Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson will serve as a North American announcer for HDNet’s coverage of the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 2008 this coming Saturday. The show begins at 3am ET exclusively on HDNet. Normally I’d never get up in the middle of the night to watch a K-1 show, but the absurdity of Ferguson doing commentary on a kickboxing match might just be enough to make it a priority this time around.
— Gina Carano was named the 5th most influential woman in America for 2008 by Yahoo. She’s definitely the most beautiful woman in America.
— The UK magazine Nuts named Michael Bisping its fighter of the year.
