WEC Safe; Additional November UFC Planned; More UFC Notes

Photo by Sherdog.com

Dana White will stop
providing his popular blogs.

• The UFC is planning a third show for November that will not air on pay-per-view or Spike TV. “Wait and see boys if I can f--king pull this one off,” White said. Speculation abounds about a potential network deal, and White’s comments seem to lend credence to the possibility. White, however, stopped short of confirming anything in regards to the potential event.

• White also discussed his reasoning behind pulling the plug on his popular video blogs. He claimed the move was brought about after receiving a number of letters from people suffering in these hard economic times.

“It’s not the right time, for what’s going on in the world, to be doing the blogs,” he said. “Let me put it this way. I’ve been very fortunate, and I have a very fortunate life. My life is pretty crazy, and other people aren’t that fortunate. And you got this video blog of me jumping on airplanes and doing crazy s--t, and I don’t think it’s the right time for me to be doing video blogs and for people to really see the life that I live.”

• Answering a question about Chris Leben’s return from a suspension after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, White elaborated on his longstanding policy of allowing athletic commissions to dole out punishment. White made his case by drawing a comparison to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick.

“I don’t know how you guys feel about this, but I hope Michael Vick wins the Super Bowl, makes $3 billion and is the greatest comeback story in the history of sports. When are they going to stop crucifying this f--king guy? This guy went to jail. He went to jail; he lost all his money. What he did was terrible. The whole dog thing was terrible, but you want to talk about a guy who has paid his dues? Then he comes back and the NFL puts a suspension on him, too?

“The Nevada State Athletic Commission, or all the other commissions -- when guys do something wrong, they come out and hit them with, ‘You’re suspended; this is the amount of money you pay.’ This, that and everything else. What am I going to do to them now? Why would I hurt these guys any more than they’ve already been hurt?” White asked. “When you take the ability to make a living away from somebody, I mean, the way that I look at it is, like, ‘Now, I’m going to kick him in the face when he is down?” In regulated sports or in society, you have to pay your dues. You get in trouble and whatever society says you have to do, you have to do. Once you have paid that debt to society, leave me the f--k alone.”

• White indicated he could not disagree with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s contention that Nate Marquardt should have to face Dan Henderson to earn a crack at the Brazilian’s title, if Marquardt defeats Demian Maia at UFC 102. White said he would wait until after the event to determine who would meet Silva next for the middleweight belt.

• The winner of the Randy Couture-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira main event could face a similar fate. The victor needs to be impressive if he wants a shot at heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. White hinted that Couture may consider a move back to light heavyweight.

• White discussed the decision of longtime friend and UFC hall of famer Chuck Liddell to hit the reality television scene on “Dancing with the Stars.” White believes the show will help the former light heavyweight king get in shape. He joked that Liddell looked huge at UFC 101 in Philadelphia and bet him $10,000 he could not weigh in at 214 pounds on Sept. 15, this before he learned Liddell was set to train for the reality show.

• The UFC President announced the promotion planned to head to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. White insisted the UFC will crack the Toronto market in the near future, as well.

• White’s inclusion of Frank Shamrock in his Top 10 Fighters of All Time list seems to speak to a thaw between the UFC President and one of his favorite targets. Lesnar would not be in his Top 50 at this point, but White believes he has the opportunity to be one of the best -- if not the best -- fighters ever when all is said and done.