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Man this sucks. It’s typical of Pride to pull this kinda shit though. Read it and weep. From the Canadian Press via mmaweekly.com
One month after announcing that Wanderlei Silva had been signed to fight in the UFC and would likely face Chuck Liddell in November, the UFC has backed off of those claims in a Canadian media interview.
Pride has not yet commented on the UFC’s statements. Here is the full article, courtesy of the Canadian Press.
Liddell Silva fight could be off, according to UFC president
by Neil Davidson, Canadian Press (CP)It appears the much anticipated mixed martial arts bout between rival champions Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva scheduled for November might be off.
“I don’t even know if Silva’s going to happen,” Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, told The Canadian Press in an interview.
White cited problems in dealing with the Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships that is home to Silva.
White said UFC 65 will instead probably feature Liddell against Tito Ortiz in a rematch of UFC 47 in 2004 when Liddell battered and bloodied the Huntington Beach Bad Boy.
The Liddell-Silva bout was considered a blockbuster matchup, finally bringing the rival UFC and Pride organizations together
Liddell (18-3-0) is the current UFC light-heavyweight champion at 205 pounds. While the Iceman has been out of commission recently with a toe injury, he remains the face of mixed martial arts in North America for many.
Known as the Axe Murderer, Silva (24-3-1) is a fighting machine who holds the Pride title. He has appeared in the UFC before, losing to Ortiz at UFC 25 in 2000 in his last outing in the Octagon.
The UFC, now looking to expand to Europe, has had the U.S. market largely to itself. Pride dominates Japan, using pay-per-view shows and Fox Sports TV to spread the word.
Complicating matters is the recent announcement that Pride is staging its first ever show in North America, The Real Deal!, in UFC’s backyard of Las Vegas on Oct. 21.
“Obviously there are a lot of things going on,” White said of the Pride situation. “I’ll [tell] you this, the Japanese are very hard to do business with and you never know what’s going to happen.”
The UFC surprised viewers at UFC 61 last month in Las Vegas when Silva and Liddell met in the ring for a stare down as White announced their bout.
The Liddell-Silva fight was contingent on Liddell defeating Brazil’s Renato (Babalu) Sobral at UFC 62 on Aug. 26 and Silva surviving Pride’s Final Conflict Absolute card Sept. 10 in Saitama, Japan.
I love White’s comment—\”The Japanese are very hard to do business with and you never know what’s going to happen\”
Amen–I worked for two Japanese-owned companies and learned something quickly. When they say \”….aahhhh….mmm….that’s very difficult…..\”, you’re screwed. 😀
I just read Tank Sinatra’s post and I had to comment.
The problem here isn’t with Pride, it’s with Dana White and Zuffa.
First off, Dana White announced the fight between Liddell and Silva to save face amidst a slur of boos for what was one of the worst UFC’s ever save for possibly 62 on the weekend. Wanderlei and DSE president Sakibabara were just as surprised at the announcement. Pride has been more than willing on several occassions to offer their fighters on the condition that the UFC pay the fighters salary which has been the problem in the past. This latest \”deal\” was doomed to go bad and Dana knew it would never happen which is why he did it. It was a safe move. Pride commented after the surprise announcement that the fight would happen along with a few others (possibly Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, LOL!), in the UFC, with UFC rules and the UFC would get all the PPV revenue from the event providing they pay the fighters salaries. Continued…Now the average payout from an entire UFC fight card is on average around a measly $230,000 to maybe $500,000-$600,000 for an allstar cast.
Pride pays(as of last contract signings) Wanderlei Silva around $700,000 US a fight, Fedor over $600,000 US and Mirko \”Cro-Cop\” Filipovic a staggering $1.2 MILLION for every fight!
The UFC might be able to afford it even, but if they pay Silva even close to what he wants, they’d have to give Chuck a 200% raise. That would break them.
Remember that in Japan (where Pride is based) MMA and combat sports are like football, basketball or hockey over in North America.
Pride shows regularly sell out 70,000 seat arenas and the joint Pride/K-1 Shockwave show put on in 2002 set the record at 92,000 fans!
Pride’s goal in the USA is to eventually have a joint show with the UFC and break the record with over 100,000 fans! Then on top of this there’s PPV $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Continued…
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