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MMA Junkie is reporting that UFC handed out $55,000 dollar bonuses for Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night, and Knockout of the Night. Fight of the Night went to both Thiago Alves and Chris Lytle for their back and forth undercard fight. Submission of the Night went to Akihiro Gono for his arm bar submission of Tamden McCrory in the nights first fight. The Knockout of the Night bonus went to Ed Herman for KOing Joe Doerksen in one of the undercard fights. At UFC 77, $40,000 bonuses were handed out after the fight. The bonuses have recently started increasing. They started at $10,000 dollars a year ago and have jumped to $55,000 at UFC 78.
The Junkie is also reporting that they sold out the event with 14,071 people in attendance. The crowd produced a live gate of $2.1 million.
I will post the post fight press conference when it becomes available...
11.13.2007 - 8:54:00 PM -
Hendo won't move to middleweight
Despite rumors that mentioned Dan Henderson moving to middleweight to unify the 185 lb. belts at UFC 81 it appears that Dan won't be cutting to 185 anytime soon. The Fight Network had the scoop from the UFC 78 Press Conference:
White conceded he had no idea who would be next to challenge Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight championship. He said he had continued attempts to coax former Olympian Dan Henderson into a title fight with Silva. Henderson remains resistant to the move.
- 7:13:00 PM -
Sherk could be stripped of the title; Couture offered fight against Big Nog
The UFC held a press conference on monday promoting UFC 78: Validation. I didn't hear much in the way of UFC 78 but there was some interesting news to come out of the press conference. Dana White had originally said that Sean Sherk wouldn't be stripped of the title but later back tracked on those statments according to MMA Weekly:
In announcing the interim title fight, White stated, "The belt can't be in limbo for this long. I've said since the beginning that I believe in Sean Sherk, but we have to support the athletic commission in whatever decision they make."
He added to that during Mondays conference call.
"B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson are going to fight for the interim title. We'll see what happens with Sherk. If Sherk is found guilty, we'll support the (California) State Athletic Commission and he'll probably be stripped of his title. If not, then he'll keep his title and it will be champion vs. champion."
Here's the info on the Randy Couture situation:
If that weren't enough, the UFC has also had to deal with the discord with its heavyweight champion, Randy Couture, who suddenly "resigned" from the promotion in early October.
Following several public statements and presentations from both sides expressing disappointment over the situation, recent speculation is that Mark Cuban's new fight promotion, HDNet Fights, has offered Couture a position within the company and that he is close to, if not already, accepting the offer.
White however, indicated that the UFC has offered its champion a title defense and is awaiting a response.
"We officially offered it to him and we haven't heard back yet. We should know this week. He (sent me a text message) yesterday and said he wants to sit down and talk." Asked if there would possibly be an interim belt issued for the heavyweight division as well, White was emphatic that would not happen.
"No. Randy's going to make a decision one-way or the other. We're going to get together next week, I think, and talk and see where we're at."
11.04.2007 - 1:18:00 AM -
David Terrell scratched from UFC 78 due to injury
David Terrell was forced to withdraw from UFC 78 due to an ankle injury. This was to be his first fight in about a year and a half. He's been rumored to fight on a couple different occassions but I really thought that he would fight this time. Honestly, injuries suck and everything but I don't really give a shit if he fights again. The UFC should just let him go because its not worth having someone under contract that can't ever fucking fight for you. The bad thing is that the middleweight division could use someone with the talent that The Soul Assassin has but he never makes it into the god damned octagon. Before I go off on a tirade about this atleast Ed Herman has someone to fight. Here's what UFC.com had to say about Terrell being scratched from the card:
After David Terrell was forced to withdraw from his UFC 78 bout against Ed Herman due to an ankle injury, veteran middleweight contender Joe Doerksen has decided to step up to face the Ultimate Fighter 3 finalist on November 17th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
10.21.2007 - 12:58:00 AM -
Bisping vs Evans winner at UFC 78 gets a title shot
UFC Mania got word that the winner of the UFC 78 Main Event will get a title shot. How likely this is I don't know. I do know that either of these fighters deserve to get a title shot. Honestly, I don't even believe they deserve to be headlining a UFC PPV. The news comes from the Telegraph, a british newspaper. Here's the quote:
"Dana White, the UFC President, says that the winner [of the fight between Michael Bisping and Rashad Evans] will gain an automatic world light-heavweight title shot."
You can read the rest of the article at the Telegraph.
The UFC 78 card has gone through a lot of changes. Originally, Sean Sherk was supposed to fight BJ Penn for the Lightweight title. After Sean Sherk failed his drug test after UFC 73's win over Hermes Franca he appealed the Suspension. He has stated that he has never knowingly taken Steroids and is going to do everything he can to get of the suspension. He even took and passed a lie detector test to prove he didn't knowingly take steroids. With Sherk's appeal not coming until Oct. 31st therees no way that fight could happen. Especially if Sherk's appeal doesn't go through.
Needless to say theres been tons of changes and rumors about the main event we'll see at UFC 78. It was originally thought that Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz would be the main event but that fight failed to materialize. Tito only has one fight left on his UFC contract and is in negotiations with the UFC owners for a contract extension. It was also even rumored that Tito could fight Dan Henderson. Although an intriguing match up it looks like we won't see Tito until early 2008. So while the main event has been in limbo, a few weeks ago I got a newsletter from the UFC stating the Main Event of UFC 78 would be none other than Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Michael Bisping vs Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Rashad Evans. This came as quite a surprise considering most fans thought Bisping's fight would be a rematch with Matt Hammil because of a largely controversial win at UFC 75. Rashad Evans was set to fight Tito again after their draw at UFC 73. This main event came as a surprise to me to say the least.
This hasn't been the only problem with UFC 78. Hector Lombard was set to Face Karo Parisyan, two very experienced and very skilled Judokas, at UFC 78. Lombard was unable to secure a work visa to enter the US. Lombard is a citizen of Cuba, that is currently living in Australia. 5oz. got word today that Lombard was officially off the card. PRIDE veteran Ryo Chonan, who holds a slick heel hook victory over current UFC middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, is set to replace Lomard against Karo Parisyan. Chonan was originally set to take on Thiago Alves. Chris Lytle has stepped up to fill the void. As of now, the UFC 78 fight cards looks like this:
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