“We’re still trying to figure out this whole Pride and UFC thing. The deal is done. We acquired the company yesterday or the day before…. Talking about all the Pride stuff, we’re going to work on that stuff over the next [weeks] now that the deal is officially closed. You can’t start running a business when you don’t own it yet. We’ve owned it for two days. I know we made the big announcement [on March 27], but it might have been a little premature. The deal wasn’t done yet. The deal was pending, but we were far enough along where we felt comfortable announcing the deal. Now that it’s closed two days ago, we’ll get that straightened out.”

Following Quinton "Rampage" Jackson’s stunning defeat of Chuck Liddell Saturday night in Las Vegas, UFC organizers have announced that Dan Henderson will take on Rampage Jackson on a date to be determined.

Henderson is no stranger to the Octagon, as the 36-year-old defeated Allan Goes (Pictures) and Carlos Newton (Pictures) to claim the UFC 17 middleweight tournament crown 9 years ago in Mobile, Alabama.

The 36-year old American-born mixed martial artist fighter is also the current welterweight and middleweight champion of the PRIDE Fighting Championship.

Henderson’s MMA record stands at 22-5-0.

His most recent fight was at PRIDE 33 in Las Vegas on February 24, 2007, where Henderson scored an upset by defeating Wanderlei Silva via KO to become the new Middleweight Champion.

Henderson is only the second fighter in MMA history to win two world titles in two different weight classes in a major organization (along with former Team Quest stablemate Randy Couture) and is the first fighter to ever hold them simultaneously.

They say  – In a new interview on his homepage (http://fedor.bel.ru) Pride FC heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko has stated that he currently has no standing contract with any fight organization, including the UFC and Bodog Fight organizations.

You say  – Ok so Fedor says he’s a free agent. Dana has said that he is under contract with Pride. I know Fedor loves fighting in Russia, Bodog may be able to sway him on that fact alone. I think he could do more for Russia by fighting outside Russia. I’m sure the boys at Zuffa will make him an offer to fight that he can’t say no to. Fedor will fight for Pride. Zuffa will make Fedor happy to stay. He won’t fight in or for the UFC until after the MMA ‘superbowl’. – Beatts35, forums.mmanews.com

I love the fact that the ball is in Fedor’s corner, he’s got all the cards….he can ask for as much money as he wants and either Bodog or UFC/Pride will have to pay it. Hope he makes at least a mill per fight. – KaroThrow101, Sherdog.net

We say

Damian: I wouldn’t say the ball is entirely in Fedor’s court. It takes two fighters to have a truly great fight, and while Bodog may be able to lure Fedor in, the same can’t be said for every other top fighter. The reality is that Zuffa Inc. is holding some major cards right now, but Fedor has also cemented his own demand as the #1 fighter in the world. Yet both sides are bound by a simple business need that makes them bedfellows whether they like it or not: Zuffa needs the best fighters, which is Fedor, and Fedor himself needs the best competition which Zuffa has. So in the end, I think both sides will negotiate strongly but there is no reason an agreement can’t be reached.

Jose: I don’t know what Bodog could do long term for Fedor, but the man has really done it all in this sport. If he wanted to take a couple of multimillion dollar fights a year, who’s to say he’s wrong about that? The fans would miss out on some potentially great fights for however long Fedor chooses to stay out of the Zuffa picture (and who says that has to be permanent?) but lets be honest, for five years Fedor has destroyed all top contenders to his throne. If he’s got something good going with Bodog for a while, I don’t see how that should shed a negative light on him. I do think we will see him eventually make a deal with Zuffa, I just hope the interim isn’t long enough that he would be stripped of the Heavyweight title. But Fedor is such a bad man; it probably wouldn’t be too much trouble to get his property back.

Fedor Emelianko has pretty much declared himself a free agent.  Mixed Martial Arts number two organization, Bodog Fight, wants him.  Dana White and the UFC, which now owns PRIDE, claims Emelianko is theirs and they are willing to ensure the reigning Heavyweight champion stays with PRIDE.

FightOpinion  reports that Zuffa (UFC parent company) lawyers are looking at PRIDE’s financial records and contracts right now in Tokyo. Therefore, due diligence is supposedly taking place as we speak (the asset transfer is/was supposed to happen on May 1st).

From FightOpinion:

If the PRIDE fighter contracts are personal service contracts, they likely could/would not be transferrable to third parties in an asset sale deal. In other words, fighters could possibly choose to be free agents if they wanted to be (or if they wanted to expose any loopholes in the deals).

Then we had these three questions to Dana White from FightOpinion:

If you say that guys are locked up to PRIDE contracts (exclusive or non-exclusive), then why are you trying to negotiate new deals?

What’s the point of buying the PRIDE assets from DSE if the contracts are worthless or of little value?

If the PRIDE contracts are personal service deals, how could you possibly get an injunction against a fighter in a court.

White is also said to be unhappy with Fedor Emelianko’s appearance last week in Russia for Bodog Fight.  Bodog Fight’s "Clash of Nations" received overwhelmingly positive reviews and helped the up-and-coming MMA organization secure a massive television deal in Russia.

Emelianko told Sports911.com days before that fight when asked about current negotiations:

"I am in negotiations with both Pride and Bodog but that is a question for my manager."

Bodog Fight founder Calvin Ayre expressed to Sports911.com this past week:

"We are happy to entertain any ideas he (Fedor Emelianko) may have working with Bodog in the future," said Ayre, who had nothing but kind things to say about Emelianko.  "(Fedor) is an unbelievably classy guy.  He doesn’t seem to have any type of weakness.  He is a complete fighter.  Unbelievable!"

But Emelianko fighting for Bodog again won’t happen if White has his way.

“He’s not a free agent and absolutely we’d slap an injunction on him,” White said.

Bodog Fight is preparing to shoot Series 5 of its reality fight show in Whistler, British Columbia this June.  Ayre announced to Sports911.com that a major television deal was in the works in Europe and sources close to the company also claim that Bodog Fight could be looking for added television coverage in the States as well.  The show is currently showcased on ION (formerly PAX), a troubled infomercial-filled cable network in the process of redefining itself.  UFC, meanwhile, is broadcast on the popular and established SPIKE TV.

Still, ION does have extensive coverage throughout the US and this has helped to garner viewers for Bodog Fight.

This past year The NFL’s Monday Night Football joined in matrimony with ESPN severing ties with ABC. Looks like there’s a new marriage in the sports world between UFC and PRIDE fighting.

UFC President, Dana White compares MMA events on TV to football games stating “As long as there is entertaining action, there can’t be too much exposure.” Time will tell if this statement holds true, personally I think it’s a little far fetched, but then again I just started liking football about two years ago! We don’t know what the future holds with the marriage of PRIDE fighting with the UFC but were at least guaranteed some big marquee fights in the next few months.

 According to a poll on www.fightopinion.com  66% of voters thought that PRIDE fighting would be the league to survive the longest. Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta are hoping that the public proves right. It was just six years ago that the Fertitta brothers bought highly criticized UFC. Once the sport was moved to Sin City, the Fertitta brothers began transforming the sport once called "human cockfighting" into a sport with rapid global success not to mention major moneymaking power. Many question why the brothers purchased a rival ultimate fighting-type series when they already have one…especially with a reported $65 million price tag. Lorenzo Fertitta was quoted as saying:

“The reason for acquiring Pride is that while there are a lot of other (mixed martial arts companies) out there at the end of the day, the ones that matter are UFC and Pride. Pride has some fighters under contract that our fan base wants to see fight against some of our champions and by acquiring Pride, that gives us the flexibility to put on some of these megabouts.”

I believe that this union will live happily ever after; the Fertitta brothers along with UFC Prez Dana White are doing everything in their power to NOT follow along in the footsteps of boxing. They hope to keep Pride fighting and UFC, keeping all the fights competitive, there will be no fighters with padded records, and although some of the fighters are 14-5, its only because its going to be all Top 10 UFC fighters battling it out. The crew is doing their best to make sure promoters don’t get their greedy paws on their new baby and they hope to market their fighters through free television graduating them into the Pay-Per-View world once they have a fan base.

And although ultimate fighting is often deemed as the “new boxing” the Fertitta brothers hope to turn this into a worldwide phenomenon, a sport that’s popular in all countries. They started off with a fight in the U.K. and they plan to expand to Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany. Vegas will always be the entertainment capitol, especially when it comes to “new boxing” but the whole idea is to move the show around challenging themselves to grow the sport globally. The NFL and NASCAR cant get any bigger in the U.S., if they tried to sell their product to Asia, to Europe, to Mexico, people couldn’t care less. MMA crosses all cultural boundaries, ethnicities and languages. You put two guys in the octagon using any type of martial arts to fight; everybody around the world gets it.

UFC is the largest pay-per-view provider in the world in 2006, it generated more tax revenue for the state of Nevada than any boxing promoter, had a bigger economic impact on the state of Nevada than any boxing promoter and now that this is a global expansion, you can only imagine how padded the Fertitta’s pockets are going to be!

On Saturday night, The UFC was coming off probably the biggest two weeks in their short history. The parent company of the UFC, Zuffa purchased the rival PRIDE Fighting Championships promotion out of Japan which completed UFC’s unbelievable journey to become the number one MMA promotion in the world. UFC 69 was supposed to be a transitional show to showcase the two most marketable welterweights against quality opponents.

Oh, what 18 minutes and 25 seconds can do.

Diego Sanchez was in position to capitalize on the most desired demographic that any promotion would love to get. The Hispanic demographic has shown time and time again to bring in huge revenues for WWE as well as boxing. Diego Sanchez since winning the Ultimate Fighter Season One competition has been rolling with wins over such fighters as Karo Parysian and Joe Riggs. On this night, he was facing fellow TUF alumni Josh Koscheck. Koscheck, who Sanchez defeated on the first season, has improved on every part of his game since entering the sport as a pure wrestler with very little striking training. Koscheck out struck Sanchez for a unanimous decision in this heated grudge match that didn’t live up to the hype. Sanchez seemed tentative and Koscheck played the safe route to the win.

For the past five months, George St. Pierre has been promoted at the best pound for pound fighter in the world since his destruction of Matt Hughes in November. Matt Serra won the lowest rated Ultimate Fighter, "The Comeback" season, with a boring three round decision of Chris Lytle. Serra, a Gracie Ju-Jitsu Black Belt out of Long Island was only getting this shot due to winning a tournament with fighters who basically were on the verge of retiring or fighting for the smaller MMA promotions around the world. The fight only took 3:25. Everything you would expect if your name is Matt Serra. Serra knocked out St.Pierre after dominating him standing and finishing him on the ground. The UFC was treating this fight as a mismatch to the point where Dana White and Joe Rogan both stated that the only way Serra would have a shot was to land a lucky punch. They were half right; Serra landed about 15 lucky punches.

The UFC was planning on the big St. Pierre vs. Hughes 3, which was going to take place in Montreal, which would be reminiscent of the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels (without the screw job) level heat with Diego Sanchez waiting in the wings as the undefeated Latino star. Instead we have Josh Koscheck who is a very good wrestler who 95% of the fan base does not like to the point where he is actually embracing it with a promo after his fight against Sanchez that every heel in wrestling should study for the way to get heat. We also have the flagship of the UFC Welterweight division who was winding down his career until entering a reality contest.

This is the perfect example of how MMA and professional wrestling are so alike. They can take a money making angle and totally kill it. Only the UFC is a shoot and can probably rise above and make this into a positive. At least, no one is related Dana White.

I hope you enjoyed my first article and I will be planning on more