Jon Fitch spoke with Lorenzo Fertitta today and agreed to sign the merchandising contract. He is back in UFC and will fight Jan. 31 against Akihiro Gono as scheduled.
Christian Wellisch has also been reinstated. He had agreed to sign the merchandising contract but was fired as part of the blow-up between Dana White and Zinkin Entertainment, his management company. Right now things are being negotiated regarding the other fighters affected but those aren’t settled yet.
Also on the site, Dave Meltzer said that it wasn’t only the video game issue, but more so an issue between DeWayne Zinkin and Dana White.
The videogame issue was part of it, but these have been problems simmering for many years, long before most of the fighters in question were even in the UFC.
Jon Fitch has been cut
According to Dave Meltzer, Jon Fitch and Christian Wellisch were cut today for not signing UFC’s merchandising agreement. Both fighters were advised not to sign the agreement by Duane Zinkin and Bob Cook of Zinkin Entertainment. Zinkin Entertainment also represents Cain Velasquez and Josh Koschek, who also haven’t signed the agreement according to the article. Mike Swick reportedly signed the agreement and is not in danger.
In smaller news, though Fedor’s people probably want you to think it’s big news.
Fedor welcomes “superfight” with Brock Lesnar
It’s a fight that will never happen as long as UFC is the big game in town, but Fedor’s people have called out Brock Lesnar even though they don’t think that at this point, Lesnar could get out of the first round against Fedor. It’s not really news because the UFC would never agree to M-1’s demands, which include co-promotion between the UFC, M-1, and Affliction according to MMA Junkie.
The bargaining power is completely with the UFC and not with Fedor and M-1. They are the number one MMA company even without Fedor. Fedor’s people seem to be trying to bait the UFC by stating that he’s still the number one pound for pound, even though the UFC claims that Anderson Silva is. At the end of the day, unless Fedor is a free agent and can negotiate with the UFC again, this is a fight that won’t happen.
Though a couple weeks ago, I posted a “finalized” card, here’s another fight that has just been added.
Terry Martin is going to face Scott Smith in what is going to be a slobber knocker.
Smith thinks the fight will be exciting.
This is one of the those match ups where there’s no chance it won’t be a great fight.
Martin was quoted to say that fighting is simply in his blood.
Fighting has always been a part of me. I come from a fightin’ family. You have to be aggressive to make it in MMA. I’m aggressive and agile and I think I have a very entertaining style.
Unless there are more matches being added between now and Friday, that should round out the card. Cactus Jim and I will be there and I’ll have a full report on Friday evening/Saturday morning.
Brock Lesnar talks with ESPN about his fight with Frank Mir standing to his right.
Dave Meltzer says it’s a changing of the guard.
Meltzer says that when Royce Gracie won the first UFC, it showed that size didn’t matter. Fifteen years later, Brock Lesnar shows that it does.
UFC gives out fight bonuses for UFC 91.
Knockout of the Night — Jeremy Stephens
Submission of the Night – Dustin Hazelett
Fight of the Night — Aaron Riley vs. Jorge Gurgel
This is the biggest UFC show of the year, and if you believe Dana White, the biggest UFC show of all time. I’m not so sure about that, but this is definitely the most interest I’ve had in a big time main event since probably Chuck Liddell vs. Rampage Jackson. And I might be more excited for this one.
Brock Lesnar punches Heath Herring
1. Demian Maia vs. Nate Quarry
It didn’t take long for Maia to get Quarry down. He got his back, put on a body triangle and eventually got the choke. Quarry never had a chance.
Winner: Demian Maia by way of 1st round submission
2. Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Josh Hendricks
Gonzaga just overpowered Hendricks in the clinch and was hitting him with knees. He knocked Hendricks down with a right hand and Hendricks just laid on the ground waiting for it to be stopped.
Ryan Thomas (170) vs. Matt Brown (171)
Alvin Robinson (155) vs. Mark Bocek (155)
Jeremy Stephens (155) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (155)
Jorge Gurgel (155) vs. Aaron Riley (156)
Live matches
Dustin Hazelett (170) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170)
Demian Maia (185) vs. Nate Quarry (185)
Gabriel Gonzaga (256) vs. Josh Hendricks (238)
Kenny Florian (156) vs. Joe Stevenson (156)
Randy Couture (220) vs. Brock Lesnar (265)
I polled my friends and family who are either very casual UFC fans or die hard fans like myself.
I simply asked them who they thought would win tomorrow’s super fight, and how.
Ten people responded to the poll and out of those ten, seven said Brock would win to only three for Randy.
Out of those seven, four thought Brock would by KO, while three thought he’d win by decision.
As for those who chose Randy, two thought he’d win the fight by submission in the second round, while one saw him winning a decision.
It definitely seems that the casual fans see Brock as a monster and Randy as an aging legend and that’s very true and also how the UFC is trying to position this fight. But it was interesting to me that of the three people who thought Randy was going to win, two thought that he’d submit Lesnar and very early. I’d be very surprised if Brock put himself in that position early in the fight. If Randy wins by submission, I think it’d be much later in the fight.
I wrote a preview yesterday where the writers of this blog and two guests made predictions and out of the six of us, four thought Randy would win. And that’s very different from the poll of my friends and family.
I wrote a piece on Hard For The Yard today about the upcoming UFC Heavyweight Tournament which starts this Saturday with the Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture fight. The second match up is scheduled to be Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria vs. Frank Mir at UFC 92 with the winners of each match unifying the UFC heavyweight title.
MMA Mania reported earlier today that Fabricio Werdum is no longer with UFC.
Fabricio Werdum was unable to come to terms with UFC officials on a new contract after his surprising 81-second knockout loss to Octagon newcomer Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos at UFC 90: “Silva vs. Cote” on October 15, forcing the Brazilian and the promotion to go their separate ways.
Werdum leaves the UFC with a 2-2 record, losing to Andrei Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos while beating Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera. It seemed like he was going to get a title fight after beating Vera, but with Randy Couture’s comeback, he was placed on the on the back burner. And his lack of being a name draw obviously hurt him. Had he faced either current champion (Couture or Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera), those fights wouldn’t really have done great business. Add that to the fact that Brock Lesnar is a great draw already and Frank Mir, who they’ve already given weeks and weeks of TV exposure to, is being built for Nogueira, Werdum was lost in the shuffle.
This is not a great market for fighters right now as Affliction would seem to be the main possible US destination for Werdum. But there’s also the possibility of fighting in Japan again, but it’s not like the Japanese MMA market is full of luxuries.
