| Date: 07/12 | 10:47 PM |
| Views: 1,716 | |
It looks as if a dream fight between Wanderlei Silva and Chuck 'The Iceman' Liddell is now off the table. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the proposed fight, which would have taken place on September 22nd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California passed a key deadline yesterday for both fight camps to agree on the match. The sticking point appears to be that Wanderlei Silva told UFC president Dana White through an intermediary that he did not want to fight Chuck Liddell. This contradicts previous statements by Silva at a PRIDE event in the UFC that he wanted to fight Chuck, and also thwarts what would have potentially been a huge comeback fight for Liddell in his quest to regain the UFC Light Heavyweight title. White was reportedly very upset on learning this news. "I have been trying to make this fight for six years. I have done everything in my power I could do over the last six years to make this fight and it's still not happening. I just don't see it happening now." Never say never in the world of MMA, but it's a safe bet you won't see the fight any time this year.
Frank Shamrock and EliteXC may be looking to launch their own clone of the popular "Ultimate Fighter" reality series. MMACalifornia.net reposted an opening casting call from Shamrock's MySpace page stating that they are "looking for 150 lb. males with a checkered past who have an interest in MMA fighting." In other words they want colorful characters who would make for an exciting and possibly controversial dynamic. With a target weight of 150 they could go either do a lightweight (146-155) show or a featherweight (136-145) show, and one would suspect with weight cutting that the latter is more likely especially given the former would be seen as an almost direct rip-off of Ultimate Fighter 5.
Speaking of the Ultimate Fighter, casting details are already starting to come out for the 6th season, which will feature teams coached by Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. According to UFC Junkie one such fighter is Paul Georgieff, who began his career with 7 straight victories before ultimately losing to Justin Wieman. Georgieff joins a list of already revealed names including Mac Danzig (16-4-1). Matt Arroyo (2-1), Ben Saunders (4-0-2), Richie Hightower (7-1), Jon Koppenhaver (4-1), Billy Miles (2-1 MMA), Joe Scarola (3-0) and Blake Bowman (no professional record). We'll keep you posted as more names for this show are revealed.
Last but not least it looks like IFL style team MMA is making it's way to Brazil. Sherdog.com reports that ReUnion, a management company heavily involved in Brazilian Stock Car racing, has formed the MO Team League. MTL features four squads of five fighters ranging from lightweight to heavyweight. Captains for the teams are among the biggest names in mixed martial arts. Wanderlei Silva leads the Hurricane team, Murilo Bustamante leads the WildFire squad, Pedro Rizzo captains the Tsunami and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will helm the Avalanche. Obviously directly airing any shows in the U.S. would be difficult due to the language barrier but if PRIDE could field a U.S. broadcast team perhaps ReUnion will too. We'll keep you informed on future developments.