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August 1st, 2009 | by Rea Frey
In a conference call today, UFC president Dana White discussed the direction of the UFC and the latest news about attempting to make a deal with Fedor Emelianenko after Affliction’s recent demise. Joining him on the call today was recently signed UFC fighter Tito Ortiz, after he and Dana finally squashed their longstanding feud. Ortiz, who is coming off of back surgery, has taken the last year off.
“Good morning everybody,” Dana began. “Thanks for calling in. I’m sure everybody wants to hear about the Fedor deal. My job as a promoter and as the president of this company is to bring the fights the fans want to see. I wanted to make this thing happen – I’m also a big fight fan. We’ve tried everything we could possibly do to get Fedor in the UFC. We went above and beyond. I have been able to sign the best fighters of the world in the UFC. Even Tito Ortiz, who I’ve had a lot of conflict with, we’ve been able to sign Tito back. We came to the table willing to give up just about anything but the co-promotion. We offered Fedor the most amazing deal – he will not be offered another deal like this. The heavyweight division is the best it’s ever been. There’s never been a better time. I don’t want to say anything bad about this guy. I tried everything. They did not want to do it. They didn’t want to sign anything. I don’t want to answer any Fedor questions. I guarantee nobody offered him a deal like we did. We just signed Vitor Belfort. He’s now fighting Rich Franklin in Dallas in September. Dan is next in line for Anderson Silva.
“In other news, we signed a deal with ESPN in the UK,” he continued. “It launches August 13. It’s going to start with UFC 101. Free for English and Irish fans. ESPN will be in high definition too, since the fans were bitching about no high definition. On the phone is Tito Ortiz. Tito and I have history, which everybody knows. He’s coming off of back surgery, and he’s ready to compete in the 205 division. One way or another, people give a shit about him. He’s ready to move forward. He will retire in the UFC.”
The call opened up for questions and Dana addressed the other Affliction fighters the UFC signed, which included Ben Rothwell, Chase Gromley, Dan Lauzon, Rafaello Oliveria and Vitor Belfort. Javier Vazques and L.C. Davis signed with WEC. Though he said he did not want to talk about Fedor, he alluded to the issues with co-promoting. “Let’s be honest here. These guys are going to co-promote? How are they going to co-promote anything? UFC has built this entire industry. It’s basically them coming in and saying, ‘We’ve got this guy. He may be the best heavyweight in the world. We want half your business.’ That shit probably works in Russia. Not here.”
Tito discussed his return to the UFC and putting things to rest with Dana. “It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’m happy. I’m satisfied. You’ll never hear anything about money out of my mouth ever again. I’m ready to kick some of these guys’ asses at 205. I’m back. I think time really cures everything. Dana came to me. He’s a man of his word. We’re like boyfriend and girlfriend,” he said sarcastically. “Of course, him being the girlfriend. For me, it was about competition. Financially, I was okay. Dana stuck by his word. Competition was my biggest factor. If I fought for Strikeforce, who would I fight for? I think my fans are the ones who deserve to see Tito Ortiz fighting the best. The hell with all the money, with all the fame. It’s about competition. Forrest, I beat. Evans, I thought I beat, though they called it draw. Machida, I almost submitted him. I want to get that world title around my waist. I put a poll on Twitter and MySpace to see where the fans wanted to see me fight, and every one of my fans said UFC. The best fighters are in the UFC. It’s the best promotion in the world today. Let’s make this business bigger than ever. I’m going to be a part of it. I’m going to be a part of it until the end. I expected to fight in December. Now that we’ve talked to my doctor, I just started doing bag work. Since the back surgery, I have no more pain going down my legs, no more numbness. I see Freddie Roach on Monday. I’m only 34 years old, and I still have a bright future. I’m going to get my world title again.”
“Ring rust is a real thing,” Dana said when addressing Tito’s return to the ring. “Shogun came back after two knee surgeries and he was rusty. Ring rust is real. Tito’s going to have it. We’re talking about him fighting Mark Coleman. We’ve got to sit down and talk to Coleman. I don’t think Coleman turns down fights, man. Everybody was counting him out in the Shogun and Bonnar fight, and let me tell you, he comes to fight.”
In regards to international deals, Dana spoke about Lorenzo Fertitta, the co-owner of UFC. “Since Lorenzo’s come on, that’s all we’re working on. We want the right television deals through all the markets in the world. The UK has taken a while. We just landed ESPN in the UK. We’re going to open all these major markets in the cities and countries in the world, with these television deals. Everywhere. Russia. Japan. We’re coming. It can’t be stopped. We’re coming.”
One reporter asked about the difference between boxing records and MMA records, and why MMA records don’t often reflect a good winning percentage.
“When you really look at the sport and the way the sport is,” Dana said, “there are so many ways to win and so many ways to lose. Look at guys like Lyota Machida – guys who can go undefeated – and then look at guys like Tito. To go for long periods of time without losing a fight, that’s very tough to do in this sport. That’s one of the things people started getting sick of in boxing. You can have a record of 42-0 in boxing but, they’ve only fought three or four top guys.”
“Every single fight is an action packed fight,” Tito said, in relation to MMA. “Every one of these fighters is competing against the best guys in the world. They’re not 42-0. Boxers aren’t competing at the same level as MMA guys are. We can win by knockouts, submission, a referee stoppage or a decision – there’s so many ways to win or lose. If boxing is checkers, then MMA is chess. There are so many moves you can do.”
When asked if boxing was attempting to answer a call in relation to the popularity of the UFC, making moves they should have done a long time ago, Dana concurred.
“No doubt about it,” he said. “The things that I say about boxing are 100% true about how screwed up that sport is. They have taken and taken and taken and never given back. Both of these sports can exist. The problem with boxing is they’re doing it again. Look at this upcoming fight with Floyd – fans don’t want to see that fight. But they’re going to get people to try and pay for it. Fans want to see the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. I like boxing. It’s good. It’s good we’re forcing them to make that sport better.”
When asked if Dan Henderson would fight Anderson Silva, Dana said it depends on what happens with Silva next week, and barring any serious injuries, that fight could happen soon. When asked if he had interest in taking on Arlovski or Tim Sylvia into the UFC, Dana said no. “I have no interest in either one of those guys right now.”
Tito was questioned about his back surgery and when was the last time he felt 100% going into a fight. “Probably the first Ken Shamrock fight. I was able to wrestle. I was able to do legs two times a week. I could run three miles seven days a week. I was able to train like a champion. Every fight after that, it got worse and worse and worse. The worst I ever felt was when I fought Forrest Griffin. I would do 3-4 days of training and then I would take 3-4 days off. Now that I got the surgery done, I have no more back soreness, no more numbness going down my legs, and I’m waking up with a smile on my face for the first time. I was in serious pain after the surgery. One month turned into two months, two months turned into four months and then six months and now there’s no more soreness. I started doing rehab. We’re back to square one when I didn’t have back problems. It’s been positive reinforcement. I’m excited to be back 100%. For the first time in a long time, I’m at peace. The last time I’ve had peace like this was back when I was champion. I’m very, very thankful. I’m thankful for the people around me, my girlfriend, Jenna, my kids, and the fans. I’m back home where I need to be.”
When asked if he’d move up to heavyweight to fight Lesnar, he said that Lesnar walks around at 275, but if he dominates the light heavyweight division, he’d think about moving up if people wanted to see a blockbuster. And fighting at the Staples Center in October? He said it was a little soon. “Fighting is very, very important to me. I come out 100%. It’s aggression, ferocity. I took a huge risk doing back surgery. If I could hold out one more month, I could have four more years of competition. For me, personally, I have to wait and take this comeback. Not take chances.”
Though he tried to shy away from questions about the Fedor deal, Dana spoke about it a final time. “Listen, I want to make a deal. If they are ready to make a deal, they can call me right now. The only one who could explain how bad I wanted this thing was Lorenzo. I was so confident we were going to make this deal. I was so confident this was going to happen. I went in this thing with the attitude that we’re going to make this thing happen. It didn’t happen. But if they want to make a deal, they can call me right now. If co-promotion was off the table, we’d be done. We’d be announcing a fight right now. Trust me when I tell you, we did everything to make this deal happen. Everything. For them to turn this down is insanity. There is no compromise on co-promotion. Why would I let anyone come in and co-promote with us? We started this. We’ve busted our asses. These guys are going to walk in and say they’re going to promote with us? But, the deal’s not dead. They can call me right now. To try and explain how bad I wanted to do this deal, I was fucking miserable the entire day. I was so confident because we were willing to do it at almost any cost. These guys don’t want to make a deal. I am willing and ready and able to do it. Everything that was a sticking point – we fixed everything. The only sticking point is the co-promotion as far as I know. Otherwise, we gave them everything. Do you remember M1 Global and they hired Monte Cox? They went out of business before they had one fight! And they want to co-promote with us? I mean come on. Come on!
“I wasn’t a dick at all,” he continued. “I was the nicest Dana ever in these negotiations. We walked into that deal ready to make it happen. There was nothing that was going to stop this deal other than them saying ‘We’re your partners or it’s a no go.’ We went in there to make this deal. I walked into Tito’s front door to make a deal. Things were really bad with me and Tito. We hated each other. We sat down like men and worked it out. I wasn’t going to leave that house without making a deal with Tito. We gave on everything to make this fight happen. And to me, the best in the world are the ones who compete three times a year with the best in the world! The George St. Pierre’s, the B.J. Penns, the Brock Lesnars. How anybody could deny these guys as the best in the world and deny these guys? No matter what I’ve said about Tito over the last several yeas, he’s going to fight the best in the world. He’s not fighting with Affliction and fighting a lesser opponent. Tito’s going to prove it himself with the best in the world.
“So, we haven’t pulled anything back,” he concluded. “We have an offer out to Fedor. They can call me tomorrow, they can call me next month. The fans want to see this fight. It’s my job – it’s my job to make this happen. I don’t know what the reasoning is. I’ve heard lots of different reasons. I’ve heard he doesn’t like fighting with elbows. I’ve heard this, I’ve heard that. I think the fans and the media to call him the best in the world is fucking insanity when he doesn’t fight the best in the world and doesn’t want the fights the fans want to see. There’s absolutely no reason why Fedor shouldn’t be fighting in the UFC. I don’t want to talk about him anymore. I literally did everything. He got offered a fucking ass load of money. He could go fight every Thursday night if he wanted. We showed him nothing but respect – I put my money where my mouth was, and they’re coming up with unrealistic shit. I don’t even want to talk about him. I want to talk about the best in the world. A guy who doesn’t want to fight? Fuck him. I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
When asked how close Tito was to making a deal with Strikeforce, he said he was very close. “They took longer to get back to me. The biggest thing was competition. Scott. Who do I fight over there? Cung Le is a 185 pounder. I want to fight the best guys in the world. The fans deserve the best in the world. I want a light heavyweight around my waist again. People forget I was the longest reigning light heavyweight champion in the UFC. Forget about the past, focus on the future. I fight with lower competition and people don’t care about it. I fight with UFC, people care about it. When I fight in the UFC octagon, there’s nothing like it. I fought with the UFC for 12 years. It looks like I’ll be fighting for another 10 years since I got my new back. I’m a different species in the sport. I’m going to fight for as long as I possibly can. I want to give my fans the best fights possible. One match at a time. Coleman would be a big test for me. I want to bring the excitement. As long as I can possibly do it. Once I get my light switch hit a few times, I’m going to hang them up. I’m only 34 years old. Randy Couture started his career at 34 years old.”
“We’ll see you at UFC 101 in Philly,” Dana said. “Thanks.”
Watch Friday, August 8 on Pay-Per-View, as UFC 101 Declaration puts on a great show with BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, Anderson Silva, Forrest Griffin and many more UFC fighters.
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 3:55 PM.
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