Hey, So We Were Kidding About Wandy vs. Chuck
At UFC 61, the UFC had announced a bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva contingent upon Liddell’s victory over Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Now according to a report by the Calgary Sun, the fight may be off. UFC President Dana White claims that this is due to issues in dealing with Pride, Japan’s titan MMA organization.
Some believe that the UFC, finding nothing to gain from this matchup, is backing out. If Wandy wins the fight, it suddenly ranks the skill of UFC fighters as #2. This, in the larger scheme of things, is a good thing for the evolution of MMA, but from the UFC’s business perspective is just plain stupid. Maybe the UFC execs finally saw Wandy’s fight clips.
On the other hand, maybe Dana White does have a high-level plan for the prosperity of MMA and is willing to take a temporary kick in the nuts. I don’t believe that he is the type of man who says things just to say things, and accusing Pride of being difficult to work with doesn’t seem like a very prudent lie.
In any case, if this whole thing falls through it will do a number of things:
- I will be pissed
- Dana White will look like a douchebag
- The UFC will continue to oppress the American TUF audience with second-rate MMA
Of course all of this still hinges on Chuck beating Babalu, which still remains to be seen. Good luck, Chuck, because if he closes that distance and you haven’t hit him in the face really hard, he might rip your arms off.
