For obvious reasons Sam Stout has withdrawn from his fight against Dennis Siver at UFC 137. Donald Cerrone has stepped in as his replacement. Pretty big fight as far as the LW title picture is concerned, both guys are probably a couple big wins away from serious title consideration.
Those poor WEC guys are probably trying to wrap up the fights on their old contracts done as soon as possible.
Maybe it's just because he was at the top of the food chain in the WEC for a long time and he earned a big contract there, but he's already pretty much on par with a lot of UFC lightweights. 18k against Kelly, 20k against Rocha, and 22k against Oliveria. All of those were doubled since he won. Heck, I know they're difference weight classes (not that it should affect fighter salary), Dan Hardy only made 25k on the same card as Cerrone and he's fought for a UFC title and has been one of the co-main events multiple times in his career.
In the post fight press conference Big Nog stated that he wants to fight in Japan when the UFC heads back in early 2012 so I do not know if UFC 140 in Toronto (Dec 2011) would work with his requested schedule.
He mentioned a desire to fight on the "Canada" card also.
“I actually contacted Dana White again after the movie," Angle told MMAWeekly Radio. "I flew out to meet him once and got a great offer. I contacted him again, I was thinking about dropping out of Impact wrestling, and there were some personal problems with my marriage and I just wanted to get away. I contacted Dana White, I flew out, and he had me take the UFC physical. I passed it, thank God, and he gave me the offer."
“The terms weren’t good, I mean not for me, and the terms I gave him weren’t good for him. He wanted me ready in four-and-a-half weeks; I wanted three to six months. So I respect Dana White and I love him to death, very good friend. I knew I was capable of winning in four-and-a-half weeks, but I wanted to be at my best.”
Bisping was great on Inside MMA last week, too. Really funny and came off well.
I just watched it last night, Bisping was good. I thought he might get annoyed when they kept bringing up the spitting but he dealt with it well and just kept making jokes.
* Champ Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz (for UFC welterweight title)
* Carlos Condit vs. B.J. Penn
* Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione
* Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Roy Nelson
* Hatsu Hioki vs. George Roop
PRELIMINARY CARD
* Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver
* Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski
* Tim Credeur vs. Brad Tavares
* Jeff Curran vs. Scott Jorgensen
* Eliot Marshall vs. Brandon Vera
* Danny Downes vs. Ramsey Nijem
That is a stacked card, even the prelim portion is lights' out!
"That's ridiculous," White said incredulously. "It's so far from the truth it's not even funny. The guy's been working up on a farm up in Canada all summer. He's 100-percent. His surgery went great, he's 100-percent, he's getting back into training in the next couple of weeks."
Cerrone/Siver will be the Spike TV hook to get people to order. The potential for fights to be made to finish out this year/start the next one is ridiculous, with some of these guys coming back from injury and guys like Hendo jumping back to the UFC.
Yeah, but they can sell Cerrone/Siver as an awesome Spike main event to lead into the PPV, which they love. Same reason Stephens/Pettis and Maia/Santiago are on the undercard instead of Russow/Herman.
For me I don't really care as long as the 7 fights I want to see are in the 'top 7' fights on the card. I'm guessing Griffin/Bart will be the seventh fight, but they've got a few options there.
Having Hioki/Roop on the PPV broadcast is the way to go, especially since there is a very good chance that Hioki moves right into title contention with a win (he could even get the next title shot).
They are airing 2 spike prelims and you can bet your bottom dollar that Cerrone/Siver will be one of those fights. The fans who want to see Hioki will be the hardcore fans' who are buying the PPV regardless. Cerrone/Siver slugging it out is a much better fight for JoePublic, who will be tuning in on spike and might buy the PPV because of what they see on Spike. It's an excellent business move.
Last edited by Captain_Cunney: 09-02-2011 at 02:37 PM.
