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Chuck Liddell to fight Wanderlei Silva? That sounded a lot like wishful thinking just two days ago but today, the sun seems to be shining a little brighter in MMA land. UFC president and co owner Dana White announced on PPV that he, along with Pride President Nobuyuki Sakakibara, struck a deal to bring the Pride Middleweight (205 lbs Light Heavyweight in America) Champion to fight the “Iceman” Chuck Liddell.
Chuck Liddell to fight Wanderlei Silva? That sounded a lot like wishful thinking just two days ago but today, the sun seems to be shining a little brighter in MMA land. UFC president and co owner Dana White announced on PPV that he, along with Pride President Nobuyuki Sakakibara, struck a deal to bring the Pride Middleweight (205 lbs Light Heavyweight in America) Champion to fight the “Iceman” Chuck Liddell. The bout is tentatively scheduled to “possibly” taking place in November provided Liddell can get past Renato “Babalu” Sobral in their title bout on August 26th. This is an important development for MMA, Pride and the UFC, the two biggest organizations in the world will finally allow their champions to fight each other. This is something that hardcore fans have been eagerly awaiting for years and it could finally happen. The operative word there is “could” there are a lot of stars that have to align in order for it to take place but the biggest hurdle of all, the political one has clearly been vaulted. It is expected that Liddell will be able to defeat Sobral for a second time in their rematch, however this is the sport of MMA and anything can happen so nothing is set in stone until the Sobral fight is over and done with and Liddell’s hand is raised in victory and raised injury free. Pride has had Chuck Liddell in Pride, it was time for the favor to be returned and apparently it has. It is unknown what kind of deal had to be struck, and more importantly it is unclear at this point why it struck, especially considering Pride has publicly announced that they are going to hold a show on American soil in October for the first time ever in the UFC’s home town of Las Vegas. But frankly I am glad it was struck and you can only wonder if it had anything to do with the stiffer competition now creeping into America like Strikeforce and the WFA but that is another article all together. Dana White has taken his fair share of criticism from the MMA media of late, but I will say that the applause in the Lim household heard around the block was for him. I am eagerly anticipating not only this fight, and I am crossing all my fingers and toes in the hope that the cross trading of future MMA athletes between the two promotions will not cease with the Liddell vs. Silva fights. The potential match-ups are endless, Tim Sylvia vs. Fedor Emelianenko for the unified Heavyweight Championship, Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin for the 185 lbs middleweight championship (welterweight in Pride), and there are more, many more. All three bouts already have me salivating on my keyboard. I would even love to see such athletes as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Rodrigo Nogueiara, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, maybe even former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett make their way to the UFC, or have UFC fighters sent over their to compete against Pride’s best. I am sure that Andrei Arlovski, Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre going over to Pride to fight some of their top guns sounds good to a lot of hardcore Japanese fans as well, and they deserve to see some of the UFC’s best over on their native soil too. We are not the only ones that would like to see those marquee fights first hand, I think that many of the fans in Japan may even want to see those fights more then we do, we the fans in North America are not the only intelligent fight fans that demand the best. The UFC and Mr. White have done some things that I don’t agree with, and I will go out and call him on it, it is my job, but on the flip side if the UFC comes along and does something that is as good for the sport as this is, and believe me this is a biggy, it is only fair I do the same the other way around. Liddell vs. Silva? Sounds like wishful thinking just turned into wishful reality. So I raise a glass (of hot sake) to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Pride Fighting Championship, as of UFC 61, they are "Bitter Rivals" no more...(please excuse the pun)
For this developement, "The Sushiboy" gives the UFC 5 Tuna fish out of a full can of 5.
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