Will
07-14-2007, 09:24 PM
On Wednesday morning, UFCjunkie.com passed along news from inside Chute Boxe that a verbal agreement had been reached to have Wanderlei Silva fight Chuck Liddell in a main event at September’s UFC 76 event. And while admitting that terms for the fight had, in fact, been reached, UFC president Dana White recently told Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports that Silva has since backed out of the fight.
According to the report, White was told Wednesday afternoon that — through an intermediary — Silva no longer wanted to fight Liddell.
That claim, of course, is peculiar.
Soon after UFCjunkie.com released its initial report Wednesday morning, fans began to notice a bulletin that was posted on Silva’s official Web site saying his fight with Liddell was set for Sept. 22. If Silva had reservations about fighting Liddell, why announce the fight on his own site?
Additionally, with previous fights against Dan Henderson, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Ricardo Arona and Quinton Jackson, Silva isn’t exactly the type of fighter to duck top competition such as Liddell.
Silva, though, is coming off back-to-back knockout losses to Filipovic (September 2006) and Henderson (February 2007).
Regardless, White told Iole that he had set a Wednesday deadline for the fight to be finalized and that he now considers the fight unlikely to happen — at UFC 76 or anytime in the future.
White also told Iole that he doesn’t know what to do about a main event for UFC 76. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will make his UFC debut against Lyoto Machida, and as UFCjunkie.com first reported, Jon Fitch will fight Diego Sanchez at the event. However, White told Iole that he’s “not sure what we’re going to do” about the night’s headline fight and isn’t certain if he’ll keep Liddell on the card.
According to the report, White was told Wednesday afternoon that — through an intermediary — Silva no longer wanted to fight Liddell.
That claim, of course, is peculiar.
Soon after UFCjunkie.com released its initial report Wednesday morning, fans began to notice a bulletin that was posted on Silva’s official Web site saying his fight with Liddell was set for Sept. 22. If Silva had reservations about fighting Liddell, why announce the fight on his own site?
Additionally, with previous fights against Dan Henderson, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Ricardo Arona and Quinton Jackson, Silva isn’t exactly the type of fighter to duck top competition such as Liddell.
Silva, though, is coming off back-to-back knockout losses to Filipovic (September 2006) and Henderson (February 2007).
Regardless, White told Iole that he had set a Wednesday deadline for the fight to be finalized and that he now considers the fight unlikely to happen — at UFC 76 or anytime in the future.
White also told Iole that he doesn’t know what to do about a main event for UFC 76. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will make his UFC debut against Lyoto Machida, and as UFCjunkie.com first reported, Jon Fitch will fight Diego Sanchez at the event. However, White told Iole that he’s “not sure what we’re going to do” about the night’s headline fight and isn’t certain if he’ll keep Liddell on the card.