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By Anthony De Franco  March 13, 2010, at 12:45 pm  Is the Iceman coming back sooner than we thought?
According to Fighters only, his return may be roughly a month away. Chuck would forgo his UFC 115 fight with Tito Ortiz to take on former middleweight champion Rich Franklin on April 15th. This, of course, is the same day that Strikeforce will be on CBS, with the main event being Dan Henderson v. Jake Shields.
Chuck Liddell will be fighting Rich Franklin in his next bout and not rival TUF 11 coach Tito Ortiz, Fighters Only has heard from a reliable source. The switch was initially reported to us just under two weeks ago but was only a rumour at that time.
However, the rumour hit message boards late last night and an industry source confirmed that Liddell will indeed be facing former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. The fight is to headline an April 17th Fight Night event which will counter Strikeforce’s show on the same date.
Bloody Elbow (which is just an awesome site) is quick to point out that Fighters only is credentialed by the UFC, which means that this claim probably has some legitimacy to it.
Let’s look at what this does for the UFC. First off, they will lose the UFC 115 main event between Ortiz and Liddell. This fight had a chance to be a big PPV moneymaker, so there are some who will question Zuffa’s logic. Instead, they will put the Iceman on free cable, and some that he draws some eyes over from CBS.
Inside the cage, this should be an interesting fight, and it’s a win-win for Dana White. If Liddell loses, he will likely retire, which Dana publicly said that he would like Chuck to. That would mean that Franklin is back on the map in the light heavyweight division with a win over someone who, at the very least, is still a name.
If Liddell wins, then Chuck will likely be given another fight, and that one would not be free. Even if Liddell isn’t a championship caliber fighter anymore, he is still a name that can make money.
It’s also an interesting test of Liddell’s drawing power. Can Chuck still draw like The Iceman could a couple of years ago or are people going to think of him like they do LaDanian Tomlinson nowadays and react with general apathy?
If this fight goes off, there are a lot of interesting dynamics involved
[Update: (1:37 PM) Okay, maybe not. MMA Junkie is now reporting that Liddell and Franklin will take place as the main event of UFC 115, not on a new card scheduled for April. They also are reporting some other strange news...]
By Anthony De Franco March 13, 2010, at 1:14 am Time is getting short. We aren’t that far away from the games May 25th release date. THQ just released yet another trailer for UFC 2010: Undisputed, this time featuring B.J. Penn. It also reveals that we will be treated to a full trailer on Monday, March 15th, courtesy of the wonderful people of IGN.com.
By Anthony De Franco March 12, 2010, at 4:04 pm It was Late July last year when Josh Barnett single-handedly sunk the Affliction promotion by peeing in a cup. When he tested positive for a third time, he ruined a potential bout with the world’s best heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko and forced the card to be canceled and the the promotion to be shut down. Since then, Barnett has not sniffed a fight.
As usual, here come the Japanese to welcome another substance abuser into the fold. At a DREAM press conference, the Japanese promotion announced that Barnett would be on their 13th card.
He doesn’t have an opponent yet, but SI’s Josh Gross reported a possible matchup with “Mighty Mo” Siliga.
The question is, how relevant is Barnett at this point? Does America really care about Josh Barnett at this point? Is anyone going to rush to the TV to watch Barnett fight? The answer to that question is likely no. However, Barnett may have his own version of a saving grace. Fedor’s management has decreed that they would like to fight him at some point, and it isn’t impossible to think that Strikeforce would allow Fedor to fight in DREAM so that Barnett wouldn’t have to pass a steroid test. Remember, DREAM and Strikeforce have a co-promotional deal where they share fighters. That’s how we ended up with Nick Diaz pummeling Marius Zaromskis.
You’ll have to excuse me if I remain somewhat apathetic to Barnett until he fights in the states, or fights Fedor.
By Anthony De Franco March 10, 2010, at 10:35 pm With Dominick Cruz winning the Bantamweight title, I beleive that the 135 pound division in the WEC has officially entered the transitional period that the light heavyweight division did when Forrest Griffin defeated Rampage Jackson. There are a few guys who are capable of holding the belt, and I’m not sure that any of them can hold it.
However, if there was a gun to my head, I would say that Joseph Benavidez would be the guy to do it.
Let’s take a look at the two fights from last Saturday that contained the four best fighters in the division.
When Dominick Cruz won his belt, he did so by TKO because of Injury. It wasn’t an injury that Cruz cause by doing an immense about of damage in the cage. Hell, it wasn’t even a freak injury like Patrick Cote suffered against Anderson Silva. It was a pre-existing injury that snuck up on Brian Bowles and bit him in the proverbial ass. He broke his hand knocking out Miguel Torres, and took seven months to heal up. Then, he throws and lands one punch on Cruz and breaks it again. So, are we really going to pretend that Cruz’s victory isn’t somewhat tainted? Yes, he was winning the first two rounds, but he was doing so with a jumpy, twitchy style that just screamed “Punch me in face!” Bowles continued to rush Cruz, and just seemed a second late at all times. If Bowles had connected, you might not be reading this right now.
Now, look at Joseph Benavidez’s fight against Miguel Torres. Look at the way that he snuffed out almost all offense from a guy who was at one time considered the best fighters on the planet. He continually moved forward, landed his offense and put Torres is tough positions. Most importantly, he finished the fight. He pushed Torres up against the cage, pounded him, and opened up a cut that I’m pretty sure that he used a samurai sword to create. Once the cut was open and Torres was off-kilter, Benavidez finished the job with a guillotine. Done. Fight over, all doubts alleviated.
Can you say that about Cruz?
Yes, Cruz does have a victory over Benavidez. However, as everyone always says, fighters change from fight to fight. I beleive that Benavidez is a better fighter than he was WEC 42, and with him training at Team Alpha Male with WEC godfather Urijah Faber, There is no doubt that he is. As for Cruz, he showed us jab-leg kick-escape over and over again. The best thing he did was gameplan for a fighter who wasn’t as athletic as he was.
This is a prediction and like all predictions has a chance of going terribly awry. However, if you told me that Cruz and Benavidez’s rematch was tomorrow, I’d take Benavidez every single time.
By Anthony De Franco March 10, 2010, at 4:20 pm I wrote before the event that was a very important card in the history of the WEC. They needed to put up a strong number to show that there was interest in the pay-per-view that they are putting on next month.
Yea…not so much. According to MMAJunkie, this was the second-worst rating that the promotion has done on Versus in nearly two full years.
WEC 47 (Bowles vs. Cruz): 373,000 viewers
WEC 46 (Varner vs. Henderson): 640,000
WEC 45 (Cerrone vs. Ratciff): 330,000
WEC 44 (Brown vs. Aldo): 414,000
WEC 43 (Cerrone vs. Henderson): 419,000 (first event after loss of DirecTV viewers)
Why did this happen? Well, the event did certainly lack some pop. The only real star on the card was Miguel Torres, and he was coming off a pretty embarrassing knockout loss. The main event was between two bantamweights that only the real MMA fan would know. Bowles was coming off a win, but hadn’t fought in more than six months. Cruz has only one loss, but doesn’t have a resume that screams superstar.
However, I bring you another possibility. This card was on a Saturday night. While me and you may block some prime weekend time for the WEC, Joe Average is out at the bar getting crunk at that time. He might stop for a UFC, but not for it’s awkward little brother.
Well, can the WEC draw on a PPV if they can’t draw on cable on a Saturday night? We’ll see. This next card coming up has a TON of star power on it. The featherweight triumvirate of Urijah Faber, Mike Brown and Jose Aldo are all in action. Donald Cerrone and Ben “Pootie Tang” Henderson go at it in a repeat of WEC’s 2009 fight of the year. Not to mention the possible inclusion of hot prospect Chan Sung Jung, who is best known as “The Korean Zombie. Mmmm…Brains.
Should we assume that the WEC is screwed next month? No, not quite. However, this can’t be good news for Reed Harris and the boys.
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