Dana White Declares War if Liddell Does Not Retire
“Chuck Liddell is stupid rich. Chuck Liddell is done. He’s got nothing left to prove. He’s the most famous guy on Earth. I love him like a fucking brother and I don’t want to see him get hurt. There is no reason for it. He’s fucking 40 years old man. These guys that are fighting now are young, explosive, fast fucking kids who are well rounded mixed martial artists. There’s no fucking reason for Chuck Liddell to be out there at 40 years old still fighting. I don’t want to make a fucking nickel off that ever. Believe me, it will be a fucking war if he tries not to retire, believe me. I love him. He helped me build this business. We started when he was making five hundred and five hundred. And we had the dream of him becoming a big star and winning the title and making all kinds of money. We did it all man. We fucking did it all. We did it. We did it. It’s fucking over. He’s 40 years old, it is over. It was amazing that he was able to fight until he was 40. That’s what a bad motherfucker he was. He has nothing to prove to anybody, period. It’s over. We did everything that we set out to do. It has been an amazing run, its been fun. We did it together, we stayed loyal to each other the whole time and we did everything that we hoped to do and now its over. He can do it financially. And plus, I’m going to bring him into the organization in some other way and he’s still going to make money. He’s been loyal to me and I’ve been loyal to him and that’s not going to change now that he’s retiring. He’ll always be a part of the organization. He’ll take on another role, he’ll still make money and he’ll be with me until the day we die…. I always say is that I’ve built this business using the blueprint of boxing, what not to do. We know that you shouldn’t be fighting past your prime, you know?”
Chuck Liddell, as of right now, has not officially announced his retirement from fighting. It seems as though Dana White won’t take no for an answer though. White has offered Liddell a job in a suit with nice pay in order to keep him off of the canvas.
Over his many years fighting Chuck Liddell has been one of the greatest but that has all slipped from under him with two losses by KO in his last two fights. Liddell is one of the great legends of this sport and I fell he should retire without trying to look for that final win.
Michael Bispings Thoughts on Silva-Leites Fight
“I think both guys should hang their heads in shame, quite honestly. Leites probably won the first two rounds but nothing happened in the fight. [Canadian fans] deserved a hell of a lot better than they got from these two. I’ve seen more aggression from my fiancé when she hits the January sales. It was very frustrating for me to be sitting on my couch seeing Anderson Silva, who keeps saying how he’s gone through the middleweight division. I would have fought harder than both of them put together, and so would a lot of other middleweights.”
Above is Michael Bisping’s reaction to the main event at UFC 97 between Thales Leites and Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Championship. The bout between the two has received a lot of criticism from main-stream media and MMA blogs around the net for it’s lack of action. During the bout Leites would flop on his back whenever Silva would come close and connect with anything.
Personally I feel that Bisping would provide a great opponent for Silva if he is to fight at middleweight again. Bisping would look to keep the fight standing and he would keep applying pressure to Silva, therefore keeping the fight more interesting for the fans who shell out $40+ to watch the greatest fighters in the world fight.
Dana White ‘embarassed’ About UFC 97 Main Event
“I can honestly tell you that I’ve never put on an event that I was embarrassed to be at until tonight. I want to publicly apologize to all the fans…. I apologize. I personally apologize for what happened tonight. You guys know, this isn’t what the UFC was built on and this isn’t the way the fights usually go. Listen, any night you can have an off-night. When a guy is that talented and can literally end a fight whenever he wants to, wow.”
Dana White let his thoughts know about last nights main event. The bout between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites last night featured very little in the way of action. In fact, I believe it was almost a minute-thirty in before the first strike was thrown. The recent stats published by Fightmetric prove that this fight was not even worthy of an audience. Throughout the whole 25 minutes Leites only landed 17 strikes. 17 strikes landed in 25 minutes??? Hopefully I never have to sit through a fight like this again.
The Anderson Silva Backdoor Leg Kick Thingy
Props: CageToday
UFC 97 Fight Bonuses – Stout, Wiman, Rua and Soszynski each earn $70K
Props: CombatLifestyle
In a night of fighting that was weird to say the least four fighters walked out with an extra $70K in pocket.
The fight of the night bonus went to Sam Stout and Matt Wiman. The bout was originally sceduled for the nights undercard but due to time constraints was moved to prime viewing, right in between the co-main events. The two put on a fast paced 15-minute fight which ended in a unanimous decision. From what I saw of the main card fights they clearly deserved it.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua took away knockout of the night. It was a great knockout of legend Chuck Liddell. Liddell was not immediately out like his previous loss to Evans but his legs went from under him, just a few more shots from Rua was all that was needed.
Soszynski took home an extra $70K with his amazing kimura on former WEC champ Brian Stann. Soszynski applied the kimura while in half-guard but it didn’t seem to work out for him he then released pressure, got the leg out and proceeded to make Stann tap.
UFC 97: Weigh-in Results – Silva Surprisingly Light
Props: CombatLifestyle.com
- Anderson Silva (182) vs. Thales Leites (185)
- Chuck Liddell (206) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (206)
- Krzysztof Soszynski (204) vs. Brian Stann (206)
- Cheick Kongo (232) vs. Antoni Hardonk (249)
- Luis Cane (206) vs. Steve Cantwell (205)
- Vinicius Magalhaes (204) vs. Eliot Marshall (205)
- Xavier Foupa-Pokam (185) vs. Denis Kang (185)
- Jason MacDonald (186) vs. Nate Quarry (186)
- Ed Herman (186) vs. David Loiseau (185)
- David Bielkheden (157) vs. Mark Bocek (154)
- Ryo Chonan (171) vs. T.J. Grant (169)
- Sam Stout (155) vs. Matt Wiman (155)
The weigh-ins for UFC 97: Redemption took place earlier today. Everyone made the weight as expected. Just one thing to point out though, Anderson Silva weighing in 3 pounds under the 185 limit. That is pretty amazing for a fighter that has been to the Light-Heavyweight division and now back down, guess he just over-shot it a bit.
Hopefully the main event doesn’t end like the last Silva title defence, heres hoping for a good fight and… a new champion?
Dana White: UFC 97 Video Blog Part Two
This time he speaks!!!
Dana White: UFC 97 Video Blog
Not what we are used to seeing/hearing on the Dana White video blogs. I guess Dana just couldn’t quit doing them just yet though.