MMA News (Dana White)

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-Dan Henderson will not be stripped of his titles, but they don't know how they're going to handle him being a champion in two divisions actively, yet.

-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will not be moving over to the UFC side. He will remain a PRIDE fighter.

-There won't be anymore Super Heavyweight matches, freak-show matches or huge mismatches anymore.

-Frank Trigg is gone. He won't be an announcer for PRIDE anymore. They are still looking for a new broadcast team.

-Doesn't know what's going on with Gary (Jerry) Millen or how he will be handled.

-Feels Josh Barnett doesn't like him, as he's alluded to in the media, but still wants him to fight for the new PRIDE.

-UFC and HBO have officially inked a deal and the company will debut on the premium network this summer.

-When asked about the details he skipped around for a while but finally said that HBO will be doing the production. But he also said that he would never have signed a deal that he wasn't comfortable with.

-Dana also Guarantees that Pride will have a huge TV deal for here in the U.S. as well as in Japan.

-Also, the show " Inside the UFC" will be making a return, but it is not known when.

-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was in limbo, so the UFC signed him. Basically he had no existing deal with PRIDE, so they decided to move him over to the UFC during the acquisition of PRIDE. Doesn't know who he will be fighting first in the UFC as he just signed him a week ago, but said Nogueira will be fighting a top draw. The rumors are Brandon Vera.

-PRIDE will follow the unified rules, weight-classes and rounds. Pretty much adopting UFC's style.

-UFC 72 "Victory" will be broadcast free on Spike TV and will feature Rich Franklin vs. Martin Kampmann and Forrest Griffin vs. Hector Ramirez.

-There has been no official decision on the PRIDE LWGP yet. Well, we have that one on the main page already. Dana says rumors of UFC fighters being involved in the tournament (Matt Hughes and Diego Sanchez were rumored via a poster) are false. It will only be PRIDE fighters and there will be no UFC vs. PRIDE fights until they do the big supershow.

-When discussing Vanderlei Silva, Dana again mentions how him fighting Chuck Liddell could have been the biggest fight in MMA history until Silva was knocked out by CroCop and Dan Henderson, consecutively.

-Dana doesn't really have anything official on Fedor yet. His contract with PRIDE is not an exclusive deal and Zuffa does not deal with non-exclusive contracts with fighters. Fedor is not a free agent though and they will be working hard to keep him.

-Dana White is still pissed at Tito Ortiz. He sprinkled several insults and choice words throughout the call about him.

-The New Jersey State Athletic Commission is working hard to allow the use of knee strikes in MMA. Dana said that is one rule he would change and they want it added.

-Puts over UFC securing the future of the sport. They are only expanding it and making it bigger, and aren't a flash-in-the-pan like some predict.

-The HBO deal is signed, sealed and delivered. As mentioned before, Dana announced that HBO gained control of the production - so it will be their announcers. It wasn't mentioned, but as a fan of MMA and someone who's about to take over Larry Merchant's position on the boxing broadcasts this year, Max Kellerman would make sense as one of the announcers for the UFC on HBO.

-ESPN will be covering the weigh-ins regularly from now on, and he expects live fight shows to air on that network at some point in the future as well.

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gzwprez said:

-Dan Henderson will not be stripped of his titles, but they don't know how they're going to handle him being a champion in two divisions actively, yet.

Obviously you don't want to strip Dan of either belt, but one thing that the new Pride needs to improve on is active title defenses. It was a rare occurrence to see the champ defend his title in Pride, hopefully non-title bouts (outside of GP's and possibly joint shows) will be non-existent now. Being the defending champion of two belts means double competition and to justly represent both divisions, it's only fair Dan defends his titles actively in both weight classes. If Dan holding both titles equals lack of title defenses, then maybe finding a new champion isn't the worst thing. All that aside, I would love to see Hendo make this work.

-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will not be moving over to the UFC side. He will remain a PRIDE fighter.

I really hope all the big stars from Pride stay there. One of the big initial concerns I had about the Zuffa purchase was having them rape Pride of their big names, sending them over to the UFC and creating a mega league in the States, leaving Pride as nothing more than a glorified farm system.

-There won't be anymore Super Heavyweight matches, freak-show matches or huge mismatches anymore.

Thank God. As fun as they might seem to outsiders who look at it and say, "hey, two abnormally big, goofy lookin' dudes are fighting!" the quality of freak show fights are horrendous. I love Giant Silva as much as the next guy, but the last place I want to see him is in a Pride ring. Actually, the last place I want to see him is in my shower, but you know what I mean.

-Frank Trigg is gone. He won't be an announcer for PRIDE anymore. They are still looking for a new broadcast team.

Trigg wasn't bad, but he was hardly great. I have no clue who they plan to replace him, though. I actually went back and watched some Pride DVDs and really started to warm up to Mauro. I'm not sure if he signed for multiple events with Showtime or what, but I'd love to see him back. Quadros and Bas are tied to IFL. I don't know who is going to fill the role. I'll tell you one thing, if Randy Couture ever retires, he is one hell of a color commentator and would be perfect for a permanent job. Who knows when Randy will retire for good, though.

-Feels Josh Barnett doesn't like him, as he's alluded to in the media, but still wants him to fight for the new PRIDE.

I'm a big Josh Barnett fan (I used him for a brief moment for Eddie Fever character base), I can only hope he stays in Pride and continues his quest for the Heavyweight title. If Josh has a problem with Dana, he shouldn't worry about it, since Dana has nothing to do with it besides informing the North American fans about it's happens. At least that's what he wants us to think.

-Dana also guarantees that Pride will have a huge TV deal for here in the U.S. as well as in Japan.

Great news that Pride is getting back on national television in Japan. That was going to be what made them or broke them. Though I assume that they wouldn't have purchased the company without knowing they could get on television in Japan first.

I'm interested to see Pride on television in the States with the same type of exposure that the UFC gets, if they plan on giving it that much. This is something I'd like to know 10 times more about. So many questions.

-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was in limbo, so the UFC signed him. Basically he had no existing deal with PRIDE, so they decided to move him over to the UFC during the acquisition of PRIDE. Doesn't know who he will be fighting first in the UFC as he just signed him a week ago, but said Nogueira will be fighting a top draw. The rumors are Brandon Vera.

Vera vs. Nog... Very sexy. But that's quite the big dog to conquer after sitting out for so long. Either way, it'll be great to see Vera back and Nog FINALLY against some fresh competition, whether it's against each other or different opponents.

-PRIDE will follow the unified rules, weight-classes and rounds. Pretty much adopting UFC's style.

I like the idea of changing the weight classes to fit the UFC's, but I'm not too happy about the unified rules, since knees to the head on the ground have been such a huge part of Pride in the past. The lack of stomps to the head of a downed opponent I can live with, never been fond of that in the first place.

-There has been no official decision on the PRIDE LWGP yet. Well, we have that one on the main page already. Dana says rumors of UFC fighters being involved in the tournament (Matt Hughes and Diego Sanchez were rumored via a poster) are false. It will only be PRIDE fighters and there will be no UFC vs. PRIDE fights until they do the big supershow.

I was excited to see at least 2 or 3 UFC reps in the LWGP, but they can already put together one hell of a group with what they have. I really hope Aoki can cut from 170 and make it into this.

-When discussing Vanderlei Silva, Dana again mentions how him fighting Chuck Liddell could have been the biggest fight in MMA history until Silva was knocked out by CroCop and Dan Henderson, consecutively.

It still would be one of the biggest fights in MMA history, but Shogun vs. Liddell is the dream match right now. As much as I don't want to admit that Dana is right, that Wandy KO'd twice in row doesn't make Chuck/Silva any less enticing... he is right. I'd still cream my pants if Wandy vs. Chuck happened. Anybody would and should.

-Dana doesn't really have anything official on Fedor yet. His contract with PRIDE is not an exclusive deal and Zuffa does not deal with non-exclusive contracts with fighters. Fedor is not a free agent though and they will be working hard to keep him.

They better keep on working to get him. He's got the damn belt! Literally. He had it in his corner at the bodog show on the weekend. It would be hard not to admit your heavyweight division isn't complete without the current champion on the roster. Plus, Barnett vs. Fedor HAS to happen soon. And it HAS to be a title fight. No exceptions.


Elijah