Today’s UFC press conference, covered today by our partners at DFN Sports answered a few questions and verified a few UFC rumors. Tito Ortiz is back, and his back is nearly healthy. Vitor Belfort is back in the UFC, and he will be facing Rich Franklin in the main event of UFC 103 in the Light Heavyweight division. The UFC and ESPN have indeed reached a deal to broadcast in the U.K. which will begin with a free HD broadcast of UFC 101 on August 8, 2009. And several former Affliction fighters have been signed by the UFC, but Andrei Arlovski & Tim Sylvia are not being considered.
But two major questions remained after today’s media conference. First, what the heck does Fedor Emelianenko think he is doing, or better yet, why does he let these morons continue to represent him and hurt his career? And secondly, what is the big deal that will change the UFC forever that Dana White spoke of weeks ago and could not comment on today?
With Fedor, it seems Dana & Co. have done everything they possibly could including offering Fedor a “F*$%ing assload” of money. Ahh, Dana White has such a lovely way with words… My favorite quote from White today on the topic was “I wasn’t a dick at all, I was the nicest Dana ever.” But it is clear that Dana White made the right decision as splitting half of the promotion just for Fedor Emelianenko would have been a horrendous business decision.
As for the “big news” that was not talked about today, I have to think it is a major network TV deal, likely with ESPN. Considering the ESPN U.K. deal is official and Dana White has made it clear that a network deal is indeed a major goal stating that “we’re putting serious fights on network TV…It’s gonna be so awesome for the fans” and that a network deal would not change the current Pay Per View model that has been so successful for the UFC.
Time will tell where the UFC goes in the future. All I know is that the UFC continues to get bigger and the competition, despite efforts to compete, is being left in the dust.