Tito Ortiz v Chuck Lidell

Vince135792003

charlie mchugh wrote:

Suprised to see Griffin receive so little. I know that Liddell, Ortiz and Arlovski were the big names on that card but, Forrest seems to be a big fan favourite and I am sure his fight was one which made it easier for people to shell out the $39.95 for the main event. Just my opinion though.

He may still be on his contract from winning the first series of the Ultimate fighter. I can't remember the specifics but the winners usually receive lengthy contracts. It also kind of explains how bad he took the loss. If he had won, he was most likely the number one contendor and would have made alot of money on his next fight. That was a really bad fight for him to lose.

As for Tito, the guy was very busy in 2006 and does need a break. But UFC have Lidell and GSP injured at the moment, so keeping him out for 9 months might be a stretch.

You could have him on the April/May ppv face Jardine with the winner meeting Lidell in June/July.

It gives Tito time to rest up, time for Lidell to get his injury sorted and once that programme is finished, Griffin could be back on track or Jackson might be next in line for a shot around November/December.

Fozzy

woooo232 wrote:

That is a bit harsh! UFC would be insane to call him anything else... While they have a fair chance of casual fan's knowing who Mirko Cro Cop was, hardly anyone but die-hard's would know who Mirko Filipovic is! That would be like bringing in Fedor and announcing him as Mr. Emelianenko!!

Still, using his actual name would make more sense. Mirko "Crocop" Filipovic. On that Fedor note, did anyone see his fight from he weekend? It blew away everything from UFC 66! I don't know how he does it! I'm not messing here, you should watch the fight and see for yourself, but Fedor dodged a punch that was thrown at the back of his head. He had no way of seeing it and it looked completely intentional. He's the calmest man in the world, they showed him playing poker in the build up to his match instead of training like you always see everyone else doing!

I agree about Arlovski being stopped sooner, you can see that after a few punches Cruz's legs drop down, so he was obviously out, but the ref allowed another 4 or 5 punches. Probably the last we'll see of him in UFC, they obviously don't like him too much. Kinda the same with Anderson Silva, I can see them throwing a load of Americans at him til someone eventually wins

Franklin should be back from injury soon, won't he? If he wins his next match then he'll be seen as a serious contender again

Can't wait to see Matt Serra back either! If GSP is injured for long, hopefully we can get a Serra/Hughes match, as Serra said he wanted to fight him for the title rather than GSP cos he hates Hughes. As do I!

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

Still, using his actual name would make more sense. Mirko "Crocop" Filipovic. On that Fedor note, did anyone see his fight from he weekend? It blew away everything from UFC 66!!

It was a great show. It was so great the Fedor fight was probably only the 3rd best fight on the card.

Unfortunately Pride are in trouble after losing tv.


I think they want to do Serra GSP as soon as possible because that was the point of the reality show last year. You win the show, you get the title shot. If Serra fought Hughes and he got dominated it would make his title shot lok meaningless and do the buy rate for the Serra GSP fight no favours.

Plus although I like Serra, the 3 marquee names in the division are Hughes, GSP and Sanchez and thats where the business is, particuliarly in a Hughes v GSP re-match.

On Cro-Cop, I think you should call him whatever people recognise him by the most. Plus there's something about the name Cro-Cop, that really works I think.

Fozzy

I haven't watched the whole show yet, just saw the Fedor match. That's true about Serra and Hughes. Still, if they can manage to build up the debuts of Crocop and Rampage then the ppv should do alright for them. Serra vs Hughes has to happen though, it's the type of match up that UFC loves

The Sparrow

I thought the UFC 66 show was very good, but I watched Pride's New Year Eve show last night and it blew me away. I`d never watched a Pride show before so I didn`t know what to expect, but on this occasion at least, it was way better then UFC. I don`t know if this is a feature of all Pride show's, but the action seemed to be pushed much more and the fights were fought at a higher tempo then most fights in UFC.

The Fedor fight was indeed great, but match of the night imo was Gilbert Melendez v Tatsuya Kawajiri. If anyone wants to see an awesome fight, make sure you find it somewhere! Melendez may be the next big star if he keeps going like that.

As for GSP's injury, Meltzer is reporting that he might be back for the April PPV. They would be mad to put Serra near Hughes until either Serra has fought GSP or Hughes has had his rematch with GSP. Best thing to do would be to feed someone to Hughes and then do Serra v GSP and have the winner fight Hughes. If Serra was to beat GSP, it would set up a great fight between between Hughes and Serra for the title and no matter what way that goes either guy would be set up perfectly for a GSP rematch thus providing more big money fights. And if (as expected) GSP was to beat Serra and then fight and beat Hughes again you can build up Hughes v Serra because they don`t like each other at all and then put Diego Sanchez against GSP for another mega fight. Whatever they do, they must keep Diego out of the picture until this triangle between Serra, GSP and Hughes has run its course...

2007 is looking awfully nice for UFC! But I hope Pride can survive, I`m already looking forward to their show in Febuary in Vegas.

Fozzy

Pride is generally very good, its heavyweight division blows UFC's away though. Although they have lost a big chunk of talent in Crocop

I haven't been following much Pride news recently, but did a load of their fighters get done for steroids after their last American event?

The Sparrow

Fozzy wrote:

Pride is generally very good, its heavyweight division blows UFC's away though. Although they have lost a big chunk of talent in Crocop

I haven't been following much Pride news recently, but did a load of their fighters get done for steroids after their last American event?

I think two of them did yeah, Vitor Belfort being one as far as I can remember.

I would expect most of Pride's top fighters to sign for UFC during the year. So I hope Tim Sylvia has enjoyed his time with the belt... Fedor or CroCop v Sylvia?? Sounds like another Anderson Silva v Franklin match to me!

Vince135792003

A few more UFC updates from the observer site:

--Matt Serra officially turned down fighting on the 2/3 UFC PPV show because he didn't want to risk his guaranteed title shot. We don't have an update on the severity of Georges St. Pierre's injuries or a date for the St. Pierre vs. Serra match. Serra was given the impression it could be on the 4/7 show. The funny thing about that is they canceled Montreal for 4/7 because they wanted to debut with St. Pierre on top, but felt it was too much of a risk coming so soon after 2/3.

--UFC 68 tickets for 3/3 in Columbus, OH go on sale with an internet presale at 10 a.m. Saturday and Ticketmaster's general public sales open on Tuesday. Tickets are priced from $400 down to $50. You can go to www.tickemaster.com for more details. No matches for the show are finalized but plans are for Tim Sylvia to defend the heavyweight title, plus matches with Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes.

Dragan

woooo232 wrote:

I think two of them did yeah, Vitor Belfort being one as far as I can remember.

Vitor was not done for steroids, he was done for a pro-hormone, and there is a difference. His defence was based around having bought a test boosting supplement in a supplement store in Florida, and one of the key ingredients was actually a banned Pro Hormone in Las Vegas, where the fights were I believe.

With regards to the Fedor Hunt fight it was an excellent scrap, so go here to watch it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3360316506732502520&q=fedor+hunt

For me, Hunt does extremely well in this fight and deserves a lot of respect for it.

With regard to Griffin being paid so little, the poster who answered was spot on. He would have signed a 3 year contract upon winning TUF, so that is what he gets paid. I imagine however that he does get a considerable amount more from his sponsors etc, which is why he would have taken the loss so badly.

Vince135792003

One small thing I didn't like about the Pride show was the announcer along with Trigg. He obviously knew pretty much nothing and was a really big step down from Mauro Ranallo.


Speaking of positive drug tests, from the observer site:

Thiago Alves, who defeated Tony DeSouza on Saturday's UFC PPV show in Las Vegas, tested positive for the diuretic Spironolactone in random testing.

His "B" sample will now be tested and if it also tests positive, he would be expected to face a suspension and possible fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Dragan

Vince135792003 wrote:

Speaking of positive drug tests, from the observer site:

Thiago Alves, who defeated Tony DeSouza on Saturday's UFC PPV show in Las Vegas, tested positive for the diuretic Spironolactone in random testing.

His "B" sample will now be tested and if it also tests positive, he would be expected to face a suspension and possible fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Thats harsh! The diuretic would have no way helped his performance, it would have just aided him in cutting water weight to make the fight!!! Thats a real shame that he needed to do that to make his weight class as his win was decisive! It does show up a LOT in a lot of medications though, so i wonder if he was on anything leading into the fight that would have contained it?

It's pretty slow acting, and most fighters only break out the diuretics if cutting weight becomes a problem....given that Spironolactone would take a few days to have an effect i actually wouldn't be suprised if there was an honest reason for it being there.

The Sparrow

Vince135792003 wrote:

One small thing I didn't like about the Pride show was the announcer along with Trigg. He obviously knew pretty much nothing and was a really big step down from Mauro Ranallo.

Yeah I would agree with that. The guy was obviously a sportscaster calling one of his first MMA events, and I cut him some slack for that reason... Plus I felt that he was trying hard and I thought that he actually got better as the show progressed. It says more about Pride putting someone so green out there, but if they didn't constantly fall out with every announcer that they hire it would be better. I thought Trigg was pretty good.

Dragan wrote:

With regard to Griffin being paid so little, the poster who answered was spot on. He would have signed a 3 year contract upon winning TUF, so that is what he gets paid. I imagine however that he does get a considerable amount more from his sponsors etc, which is why he would have taken the loss so badly.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't part of winning the Ultimate Fighter show a six figure fight deal? If Forest Griffin is only getting pair 16 grand, it would take him a lot of fights to reach six figures!! I woudl be shocked if that was all he was on... However I do know that UFC have form in this kind of area, I know that at least until recently Rich Franklin was on a very low fighting amount because he signed a small contract before he became so succesful. But I would have thought Forest would have been getting a lot more.

Now I`m off to watch Cro Cop in Pride Final Conflict!

Vince135792003

woooo232 wrote:

.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't part of winning the Ultimate Fighter show a six figure fight deal? If Forest Griffin is only getting pair 16 grand, it would take him a lot of fights to reach six figures!! I woudl be shocked if that was all he was on... However I do know that UFC have form in this kind of area, I know that at least until recently Rich Franklin was on a very low fighting amount because he signed a small contract before he became so succesful. But I would have thought Forest would have been getting a lot more.

Now I`m off to watch Cro Cop in Pride Final Conflict!

Its a 6 figure deal alright. But its spread over 9-12 fights (can't remember the specifics).

It is a small amount when you consider his popularity. But at the same time, he'll get a much bigger deal once his contract is up, he probably is getting alot of sponsorship from companys and I imagine he would have got a percentage of the buy rate for his fight with Tito in April seeing it was the match which sold the majority of the buys and not Arlovski and Silvia.

In regards Franklin, he was just unlucky. He signed the long term deal before UFC took off. In saying that every show he main events he would get a percentage of the buy rate and plus he's getting sponsored by Xience.

Right now, none of the top guys are poor.

Fozzy

I watched Pride's new year's eve show first thing this morning, and I was very impressed. I've never watched a full Pride event before, but all in all it was one of the best mma shows I've ever seen. I didn't really pay attention to that commentator to be honest, but I remember most of what Trigg was saying. He's good, better than Couture anyway

And for anyone else who watched the full event, apparently Wanderlei Silva is coming to America next month! Haha

Dragan

woooo232 wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't part of winning the Ultimate Fighter show a six figure fight deal? If Forest Griffin is only getting pair 16 grand, it would take him a lot of fights to reach six figures!!

So prepare to be shocked, because that’s all he is on with regard to standard pay for a fight. Don't forget there will be a win bonus ( normally the same amount again as the fighters purse ) and depending on where the fight falls on the card there would be a percentage of the buys as well. Just because you sign onto a "six figure" deal does not mean you will get "six figures"….remember that it is a three year contract as well, most than likely stepped based on performance and as time goes on, should you keep winning, you move up steps. I can pretty much guarantee that by losing to Jardine, Griffin missed a step and that is why he was so upset.

Vince135792003

Apparently Griffin got a percentage of the buy rate according to the latest observer. So he's not going poor but obviously losing to Jardine was a step in the wrong direction for his bank balance.

Also some good news on Lidell. It was his MCL not his ACL that he tore. From MMA weekly:



Amid much speculation, Chuck Liddell cleared the air last night on MMAWeekly Radio with Damon Martin & Jeff Cain, admitting that he did indeed injure his knee prior to his fight with Tito Ortiz and that he also did injure his finger. He also cleared up some of the misinformation that has spread.

The initial reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Wrestling Observer were that Liddell had suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in training and that it would require surgery to repair, leaving the Ultimate Fighting Championship Light Heavyweight Champion out of action for the better part of 2007.

Liddell seemed unclear as to how the nature of his injury became so distorted. In fact, according to him, the knee injury wasn’t anywhere near as serious as a torn ACL. “It didn’t affect my training… I don’t know who said that. I mean, I told Dana afterwards, but he was one of the few people outside of my camp and my camp won’t talk about it. Someone said it was an ACL. No, no, no, no. I tore an MCL,” stated the champ. “It happens to wrestlers all the time. It’s painful, but there were no stability problems… It changed very little in my game and I don’t think it really had any effect on the fight.”

Liddell also confirmed the finger injury, as he said, “It’s just a tendon popped out. Other than it looking really ugly if you don’t get it fixed, it doesn’t do much. It stops you from extending your finger. It doesn’t hurt me from grabbing or making a fist for punching. I have a splint on it and they say that if I keep that on it for 4 to 6 weeks it should [heal without surgery]. Hopefully that works.”

If it had been an ACL injury, it is likely that Liddell would be facing a best-case scenario of being out of action for at least 6 months. But with the knee injury being a tear to his MCL and given that he doesn't need surgery on his finger, he doesn’t expect to be out of action any longer than his typical post-fight recovery. “I’m doing some gym work [now]. I’ll probably start running and other things next week. I’ll probably take the 4 to 6 weeks it takes for my hand to heal before I start to spar and doing that stuff.”

Liddell continued, “Typically after fights, with all the PR stuff I’m doing, that’s usually the amount of time I’m taking off after fights anyway. What the doctor said was that if you take a week to four weeks off, [the knee] will be 100 percent. Now I have four weeks to do stuff on it lightly and it should be 100 percent.”

The misunderstanding of the injury being a torn ACL, which typically does require surgical repair, could stem from the conversation in the Octagon in which Liddell told UFC president Dana White about the injury. “I said [to Dana], ‘Oh, by the way, I tore my MCL before this fight.’ Anytime I’ve been injured going into a fight, I’ll never tell. I tell him afterwards, and he said, ‘You f**king a**hole.’ He was just laughing at me, pretty much [in the manner he said it]. It’s what you’d say to a friend.”