MMA Update for Wednesday June 6th, 2007
Written by Chris Howie
Intro
Remember last week in the first edition when I said this would be daily as long as nothing came up? Well, something came up yesterday so I didn't have time to get it out. I got busy writing out my Rory Singer interview and ended up running late doing that and by the time I finished up it was too late in the day to bother. So with that mishap aside I'm back today. Hope I wasn't missed too-too much. Let's see whats going on in the world of MMA …
Main PPV Card For UFC 72 Announced
-Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami
-Forrest Griffin vs. Hector Ramirez
-Jason MacDonald vs. Rory Singer
-Tyson Griffin vs. Clay Guida
Now this isn't a totally shitty card but I figure they could have made it a little bit better. No belts on the line at this one either which kind of takes away from it a bit but I'm sure we'll all live. The thing that bothers me about this is that it's on PPV which means it technically won't be live if you're watching it in the evening at the usual time of 10:00PM EST. They should have just put this one on Spike like they did for UFC 70 when they were overseas. We'll have coverage for this all next week so make sure to check back. In the mean time you can check out interviews that I did recently with two fighters on the card – Tyson Griffin and Rory Singer. Enjoy!
https://www.mmanews.com/ufc/Exclusive-Interview-w-TUF-3–UFC-Star-Rory-Singer.html
https://www.mmanews.com/ufc/Exclusive-Interview-w-UFC-Fighter-Tyson-Griffin.html
Jens Pulver To Drop To 145? Moving To WEC?
That appears to be the rumor floating around. After his bout with Penn on the TUF 5 finale, Pulver plans on dropping to the featherweight division and going to the WEC to make a run at 145 lb. king Urijah Faber. It would make sense for Pulver to make the drop. With guys like Sean Sherk running the 155 division now Pulver has a distinct size disadvantage.
Japanese Fighter Auctioning Off His Winner's Trophy
Zach Arnold over at fightopinion.com reported on his blog that a Pride fighting winner's trophy is being auctioned on the internet. I found it interesting that one of the fighters would be doing this, especially a fighter from Japan as his story claims. I could see it coming from a North American fighter but I thought the Japanese cared more about things like that. In the long run it's all about the benjamins though, or in this case, the Yen. lol editor's note: A fan emailed the site claiming on the auction page it's written in Japanese that a fighter gave that trophy to a fan, and it's the fan selling it not a fighter.
It's Letter Time, It's Letter Time
Well I got a few emails over the last few days with questions but one of the people that sent in questions in particular had some really good questions so I'm going to take a look at those today and I'll cover the rest tomorrow.
Dan from … I have no idea because he didn't tell me writes:
Hey Chris,
What is the latest on the Shogun move accross the Pacific? A couple weeks ago it was being talked on all the sites and forums. This is starting to slow down, and I wonder if it is because there is no new news, or is it because it was all B.S. to begin with? Will we be seing Rua in the Octagon?
Also, when do you think we will be seing the next Pride show? Will they have anyone left in their talent pool when Dana White gets done signing them up for UFC contracts?
Last question, do you think Hendo's Pride belt will be on the line when he faces Rampage in the Octagon? Do you think it should be? I personally think that the UFC belt should be on the line in the Octagon only, and the Pride belt should be on the line in the ring only. They could also come up with a new Unified Pride/UFC belt that would change hands with inter-organizational title fights like this. That belt could go home to the organization of the winner until the next inter-organization match up. What do you think about this?
Whoa buddy Dan you have some good questions here. I'll answer them in order:
1. I can't see why we won't see Shogun in the Octagon. I think we haven't heard much about it recently because the UFC is waiting for the right time to announce it. The UFC will have Shogun. Dana White has said it in a previous interview and on the Chute Boxe website they made mention of Shogun fighting in the UFC. It is just a matter of time before it is announced and he is wrecking havoc in the Light Heavyweight division.
2. When do I think we'll see the next Pride show? Well to be honest I'm one of those people out there that truly believe we have seen the last of Pride. I see Dana White taking all the the best fighters out of the Pride talent pool and bringing them into the UFC and the WEC. It's unfortunate for the Japanese fans that this will happen because they loved Pride but I truly believe we'll see a UFC Japan show again before we'll see another Pride show.
3. I like your idea but with no sign of a return of Pride in sight for the near future I don't think it would work right now. Hendo's belt is on the line in this fight as it will be a unification fight. Someone is walking away as the Pride and UFC LHW champ.
Anyone that has some questions can send them in to [email protected] and I'll be sure to get them out into the daily update when I can. Thanks!
Outro
Well that's it for today folks. Make sure to check out the our new interviews as they are really good reads. Check back later in the week as the interview with Cung Le is still to come and also I just hooked up an interview with the “New York Bad Ass” Phil Baroni so you'll definitely want to be checking MMANews.com for that one. I'll c-ya back here tomorrow for the Update.
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