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| UFC President Dana White |
| MMA News Written by Arnold "The Sushiboy" Lim | |||||
| Sunday, 08 February 2004 | |||||
Page 2 of 3
MMARR: So it is more of a matter of his [Jens Pulver’s] two losses rather then any sort of so called blackballing that people have talked about? DW: Yeah, Jens isn’t blackballed. Jens and I are friends. I talk to Jens all the time. MMARR: At UFC 38 back at England, Lee Murray and Tito Ortiz had some problems. Not many people saw what happened. I was just wondering if you knew what happened. Is it actually true, or something that you saw? DW: I didn’t see it, I wasn’t there. I have heard 27 different stories about what did happen from people that were there. Everyone who was there had a different story of what happened, so I don’t know. I couldn’t answer that honestly. MMARR: Is it your understanding that Lee Murray did punch Tito [Ortiz] though? DW: I knew that they did get into an altercation. Again, if you talked to five or six people that were there, they all have different stories. Everyone is drinking, and you are out of a bar, and stuff like that happens. Nobody knows what happened, nobody really saw what happened. The only ones that really know what happened are Tito and Lee, and it was an unfortunate incident. It wasn’t professional at all, not something that professional athletes should be doing, fighting out in the streets in London… Lee is in the UFC now, Tito is in the UFC, and we will see what happens. If they ever do hook up, it is going to be in the Octagon, not out in the street somewhere. MMARR: You spoke about Miami, and Bossier City being difficult markets that you guys have entered. How about London, that is a recent place that you guys have entered…. DW: London was awesome, London was a dynamite market for us, and we had a blast over there. We were well received by the fans, and I would love to go back to London. MMARR: Do you see anything in the future of going back to Europe? DW: The problem with London was, I couldn’t come to terms with Sky T.V, neither could Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon just left Sky T.V too. MMARR: Let’s talk about Eddie Bravo. He was recently replaced as the post fight interviewer and changed to the unofficial scorecard keeper. Was there a special reason for that? Why was he moved? DW: Eddie is working on his interviewing skills. I mean… Joe Rogan is great at what he does, and we are happy with Eddie. Eddie is not going anywhere, he is going to be there. MMARR: Do you think that Eddie’s public admittance and or public acceptance of smoking Marijuana, and his talk of hookers taint his public persona, or that of the UFC, in any way? DW: I have never heard him talk about hookers, but no, I don’t think it taints him in any way. MMARR: So that in no way had anything to do with the fact that… DW: No not at all. MMARR: We have seen on several occasions, UFC fighters going over and participating in Pride. We have seen Chuck Liddell go over 3 odd times. At UFC 44, Takada [Nobuhiko, President of the Pride Fighting Championships] even came over to the UFC and proclaimed very publicly, that we would see Sakuraba [Kazushi] and Fujita [Kazuyuki] in the UFC. It seems that you guys are doing the sending, and that you aren’t getting anything back in return. DW: I could not agree with you more… MMARR: Yeah? DW: I could not agree with you more… MMARR: What is happening? Are Sakuraba and Fujita, who he mentioned specifically, going to be coming to the UFC any time soon? DW: No. I just asked them the other day about Sakuraba and they said, “Sakuraba is going to take six months off, and then they would need him to fight for them when he came back.” So you are right, they went on national T.V, and said that they would. I am waiting. MMARR: Do you have any interest in bringing over a guy like Fujita? DW: Uhh… I am more interested in Sakuraba, but yeah I am open to anything. MMARR: Is there anyone else in the Pride organization that you would be interested in bringing over specifically? DW: I like “Cro Cop” [Mirko Filipovic], Dan Henderson. There are a lot of guys from Pride that I would definitely be interested in. Vanderlei Silva… like I said, Sakuraba… MMARR: At the Pride Grand Prix, the Pride announcers said that you had made a public bet that Chuck Liddell would win the tournament… DW: It wasn’t that he would win the tournament; I bet him that Chuck Liddell would beat Vanderlei Silva if they fought. MMARR: So nothing came of the bet because they never fought. DW: Right. MMARR: I See... DW: That was for him and Vanderlei Silva, I would never bet for him to win the whole tournament. MMARR: Yeah, I thought that was a tough bet… DW: Yeah. MMARR: We just saw Vitor Belfort defeat Randy Couture, like I said before, under somewhat dubious circumstances. What are the chances that we will see them face off again in the near future? DW: Randy and Vitor? MMARR: Yes. DW: We are hoping for June. MMARR: After that takes place, I guess it is the winner of Tito and Liddell against the winner of those two? DW: Yes. MMARR: Any Chance that we will see…I know you talked about them not keeping their part of the deal but Vanderlei [Silva] down in the UFC or one of your guys… DW: Absolutely, what I would love to see happen is, whoever comes out the winner of these two fights, fight Vanderlei. MMARR: Would you be willing to do that in Pride? Or would you only be willing to do that in the UFC? DW: I think they owe me. So we probably have to do it in the UFC, but I am open to anything. MMARR: Not many people can get behind the scenes and see what fighters are really like in the UFC and Pride. In your opinion, who are the real fighters of the world of MMA? Who are the guys that don’t back down, who are the guys that fight on short notice, who are the guys that will step up when no one else will? DW: Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture… Phil Baroni will fight anybody anytime. Lee Murray seems to be that way. There are a lot of guys out there that are like that. B.J Penn just moved up in weight and took on you know… the nastiest guy in the sport. There are a lot of guys out there. MMARR: What do you think happened to Matt Hughes? That is not the Matt Hughes that we have grown accustomed to seeing. Do you think that… DW: Very, very weird. He didn’t even fight the choke… MMARR: Do you think it was a matter of burnout? DW: I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him. I have been trying to get a hold of him and I haven’t been able to. MMARR: If you could make any fight happen. Any fight regardless of contracts, financial situations or promotions, what fight would you make. DW: if I could make one fight what would it be? MMARR: Yes. DW: Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. ***We both laugh*** MMARR: Good answer. We have had both UFC 46, and 47 in Vegas, are we going to see 48 in Vegas as well? DW: yup. MMARR: How about 49, do you have any word on Vegas? DW: No. 49 wouldn’t be in Vegas. Ahh… wait a minute. Yeah. 47 is going to be in Vegas which will be in April. June would be 48, and then 49 in September will be in Vegas too. MMARR: Will they all be in the Mandalay Bay? DW: Yeah and that is the way we are looking at it now, and anything can change on any given day. Things can change on any given day, but 8 is definitely in Vegas. MMARR: In your opinion, what is the biggest upset in MMA that you have ever seen? DW: Umm, well I think a lot of people were shocked about BJ [Penn defeating Matt Hughes at UFC 46] but that fight had upset written all over it though. Everybody thought that B.J was such a huge underdog, and Matt was just killing everybody, and the way he went out and beat Frank Trigg… common sense would tell you that Matt Hughes was going to win that fight, but it had upset written all over it. MMARR: Are there any matches for UFC 48 that you can talk about? UFC 47 is pretty much set... DW: UFC 48 we are obviously hoping for a Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort rematch. Ken Shamrock will fight on that card. We have some ideas, but we will have to see how this next show pans out. We have some ideas though for some good fights. MMARR: You mentioned Ken Shamrock. What are the chances of us seeing him fight Tank Abbott? DW: Very good. MMARR: So is that the fight that you are trying to put on for UFC 48? DW: No, not really, we have got a few different options. MMARR: I want to talk about Tank Abbott a little bit. Tank Abbott came back into the UFC, I understand that You were one of the people who wanted to bring him back, what are your thoughts? Do you think the Tank Abbott experiment, or so called experiment, was a failure with his three losses? Do you think that he really helped the UFC? What are your thoughts on Tank Abbott? DW: No, I don’t think it was a failure. Tank Abbott… both fights that he fought, on two of our biggest gates ever on the east coast, were Tank Abbott. We did a million two for our gate at Atlantic City last time we were there at the Convention Centre, and we did a million dollar gate, which was our biggest gate ever at the Mohegan, both with Tank Abbott on the card. MMARR: So you think Tank Abbott had a lot to do with that? DW: Oh definitely…. and as of right now… I mean ticket sales mean a lot to us. MMARR: Tell us about Murilo Bustamante, obviously he is not fighting in the UFC anymore. Is that purely a money issue? DW: Yeah, he decided he wanted to walk away from the title. He figured that he could get more money in Japan. He left, then he never even fought for like 2 years. Then he came back and got two straight losses. MMARR: Do you think that if Murilo Bustamante called you today and said, “Hey I would love to fight for your belt again”, or “I would love to be your champion again.” Would you ever have him back? DW: ... |
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