Dana White Scheduled to Meet With Matt Hughes on Possible Retirement

Filed under: UFC, NewsHOUSTON — The fighting future of UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes may be decided by the end of October. The two-time welterweight champ and his wife are scheduled to meet with UFC president Dana White sometime near the end of the mo…

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HOUSTON — The fighting future of UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes may be decided by the end of October. The two-time welterweight champ and his wife are scheduled to meet with UFC president Dana White sometime near the end of the month to his discuss what is next for him after two straight losses.

Likely on the agenda: possible retirement.

Hughes will turn 38 years old on October 13, and he’s struggled in each of his last two fights, getting knocked out in both. Afterward, he said the UFC would put him “on the shelf,” while he debated his options.

For his part, White has his own opinion on what Hughes should do next.

“It doesn’t matter what he says or what he wants to do,” White said. “Hughes is going to be with us forever. Whether he talks me into doing it one more time, which I’d prefer he didn’t. I’d rather see him retire. I get to this point with these guys — him, Chuck Liddell — these guys who dominated all these years and are a big part of growing this sport. What’s next?

“Matt Hughes? Believe me when I tell you, he does not need money,” White continued. “He’s set. He doesn’t ever need to work again. He doesn’t ever need to fight again. He’s got plenty of money. You’re one of the greatest welterweights ever. When Georges St-Pierre is done, it’s arguable. We’ll see how he ends his career. But what’s the point? You’re going to go for another title run? You just lost. You lost by knockout. Let’s hang this thing up and do something else together.”

Hughes first fought for the UFC in 1999, and hasn’t fought anywhere else since November 2001. His nearly 10 years of consecutive service makes him the second-longest tenured fighter on the roster behind Tito Ortiz.

He is 46-9 in his decorated career, first capturing the title at UFC 34 in November 2001 with a knockout of Carlos Newton. He successfully defended the belt five straight times, which at that time, tied a record held by Ortiz. After losing the belt to BJ Penn in January 2004, he won it back just 10 months later, beating Georges St-Pierre. He eventually lost it to St-Pierre in November 2006. Since that time, Hughes has gone 4-4.

White said he didn’t know which way Hughes was leaning, but that he wouldn’t be surprised to be asked for one more bout. White noted that over the years, Hughes has been an aggressive negotiator and if Hughes asks to fight again, he is expecting to hear an impassioned argument for another chance in the octagon.

But even while acknowledging that Hughes looked good for most of the first round of his UFC 135 fight with Josh Koscheck until the fight’s final seconds, it’s clear that for now, White hopes that Hughes goes out with dignity.

“As much as you don’t want to deal with it, this is a young man’s game,” he said.

 

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Wednesday Morning Link Club: Bones Buys a Bentley, Florian’s First Fight, and an Anti-UFC Propaganda Website

Jon Jones Bentley new car 2012
(Jon Jones buys his first new car — a $190,000 2012 Bentley. For more pics of the UFC light-heavyweight champ’s new ride, head to MMAConvert.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. Starting today, we’ll be giving you guys short previews of each article we link to. We vouch for this stuff, so click, okay?

My First Fight: Kenny Florian (MMA Fighting)
“Looking back, it’s crazy. The way that I trained, the way I ate, it was terrible. It was so far from what I do now…Ignorance is bliss, I guess, even when I was fighting on The Ultimate Fighter, weighing in at a chubby 178 pounds for a [185-pound fight], it was all kind of like I was just too dumb to know better.”

– Culinary Workers Union Creates Anti-UFC Website (The Fight Nerd)
“Maintained by the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, the website uses the acronym of UFC to stand for “Unfit For Children” instead of the “Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Dana White’s many rants are listed in detail on this page across a series of sub-categories, including “Obscenities,” “Slurs” which features many of the comments DFW directed at Loretta Hunt among others, “Cheap Shots” which focuses on remarks about random people involved in entertainment and sports, and “Other $#@%!!!” which documents rude comments that UFC fighters have said about others, including Chael Sonnen’s negative thoughts on Brazil.”

– Hired Hero: An Interview Exclusive With UFC 136 Fighter Brian Stann, Part Two (MMA Mania)
“The fact of the matter is, I don’t care who you are. If I hit you on the chin, there’s a good chance you’re going out. Anderson possesses that same ability. He’s only a man. I don’t put any fighter on a pedestal of being unbeatable. I train with guys like Jon Jones every day who is every bit as devastating.”

Jon Jones Bentley new car 2012
(Jon Jones buys his first new car — a $190,000 2012 Bentley. For more pics of the UFC light-heavyweight champ’s new ride, head to MMAConvert.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. Starting today, we’ll be giving you guys short previews of each article we link to. We vouch for this stuff, so click, okay?

My First Fight: Kenny Florian (MMA Fighting)
“Looking back, it’s crazy. The way that I trained, the way I ate, it was terrible. It was so far from what I do now…Ignorance is bliss, I guess, even when I was fighting on The Ultimate Fighter, weighing in at a chubby 178 pounds for a [185-pound fight], it was all kind of like I was just too dumb to know better.”

– Culinary Workers Union Creates Anti-UFC Website (The Fight Nerd)
“Maintained by the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, the website uses the acronym of UFC to stand for “Unfit For Children” instead of the “Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Dana White’s many rants are listed in detail on this page across a series of sub-categories, including “Obscenities,” “Slurs” which features many of the comments DFW directed at Loretta Hunt among others, “Cheap Shots” which focuses on remarks about random people involved in entertainment and sports, and “Other $#@%!!!” which documents rude comments that UFC fighters have said about others, including Chael Sonnen’s negative thoughts on Brazil.”

– Hired Hero: An Interview Exclusive With UFC 136 Fighter Brian Stann, Part Two (MMA Mania)
“The fact of the matter is, I don’t care who you are. If I hit you on the chin, there’s a good chance you’re going out. Anderson possesses that same ability. He’s only a man. I don’t put any fighter on a pedestal of being unbeatable. I train with guys like Jon Jones every day who is every bit as devastating.”

– Dana White’s Hate List: 50 People Who Have Enraged the UFC Chief (BleacherReport/MMA)
39. Cage Potato (Ben Goldstein)
Certain MMA websites and publications have angered Dana White in the past, but perhaps none made him more angry than when CagePotato.com’s Ben Goldstein linked to leaked photos of UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste’s Playboy magazine photos.

According to Goldstein, he later received a phone call from the UFC President himself.

“What kind of scumbag are you?” Goldstein recalls White opening the call with. He then went on a verbal tirade, ripping Goldstein for releasing the pictures early and ended the call with a promise to “F— you up worse than you’ve ever been f—ed before,” and hung up.

To this day, Cage Potato and the UFC remain on shaky ground.”

The Top Ten Alterations to MMA History That 100% Occurred in a Parallel Universe (MiddleEasy)
“Bas gets drunk one night and stumbles into a Swedish night club. Nothing about that sentence should surprise you. Rutten is known to occasionally get down in random countries. The story goes Bas was restrained by security guards and was told to leave the club because he was entirely too boisterous. Bas agreed, but wanted to find his friend who was still inside in the place. Apparently the bouncers were in the mood to pick a fight with El Guapo and begin to shove him around the hallway. Within seconds, Bas was throwing enough hooks to level all security personnel within the vicinity. After Rutten knocked out essentially everyone in the hallway he was trapped in, he realized that eventually the same guys he KOd would gain consciousness and continue to pursue him.”

All Kinds of Messages Sent by UFC With Second Show on Same Day as Japan Event (Fight Opinion)
“There’s a reason every other major sport in the world has off-seasons. Fans need breaks and the product right now does not need diluting. However, Zuffa has so many guys under contract and in order to keep guys from floating away to promoters like Bellator, you have to run a lot of shows. So, UFC had a decision to make — contract the schedule and run less shows in hopes of making them more special or run every week ala WWE and just grind things out. We’ve seen how well (not) it’s worked out for WWE. I give Zuffa credit for going all-in and sticking their necks out on the line but I don’t think it’s a very good move in terms of eliminating the ’specialness’ of their product.

The immediate impact of this decision to run multiple shows in different locations on the same night is the amount of stress it will put on the UFC production teams. They are already overworked and stretched to capacity. The more workload you place on them, the less variety there will be in the way the shows are produced. Just like WWE shows today largely look the same as they did a decade ago, UFC could fall right into that same trap. This opens the door up for mistakes being made.”

What’s Next for UFC on Versus 6′s Winners and Losers? (NBC Sports MMA)
Stefan Struve: Shane Carwin
Carwin needs to work his way back up the heavyweight ladder, and a fight against Struve would be a good test for him. Struve has been adding muscle to frame, so I would be curious to see how he would fare against a strong wrestler like Carwin.”

Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson: Lighter Weight Divisions Struggle With Fans (LowKick)
“Dominick Cruz and Demetrious Johnson both delivered solid performances on Saturday night during their main event, a fight that saw Cruz defend his bantamweight title for a fourth consecutive time. Cruz and Johnson, two of the fastest fighters in the UFC put forth a sustained pace that few fighters competing in the heavier weight classes could even dream about. Yet for some, the matchup between Johnson’s striking and Cruz’s wrestling, strength and tenacity wasn’t enough.

Are the more technical aspects of a fight such as Saturday’s main event lost on some fans or is it simply a matter of wanting to see two behemoths stand in the center of the cage and swing until one gets knocked out? Yes, this is an oversimplification of the issue, but when it’s all boiled down, there is a huge disconnect in fan appreciation between the heavier and lighter fighters.”

– Top 2011 MMA Television Ratings (So Far) (MMA Payout)
“On November 12th, the UFC’s debut on FOX will no doubt break the television ratings record for 2011, and quite possibly the all-time record of 4.3 million viewers held by Elite XC on CBS, which is to-date the most watched MMA event in history. So far in 2011 (as of October 4th), the UFC’s March 26th Fight Night 24 broadcast on Spike TV featuring Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Phil Davis is the ratings leader with 2.2 million viewers. It was the highest rated event since the September 2009 broadcast of UFC Fight Night 19: Diaz vs. Guillard, which had 2.5 million viewers.”

– Dana White: “Melvin Guillard Was the Biggest Waste of Talent” (5th Round)
“I like Melvin and I like how he’s training hard. I always thought he was the biggest waste of talent and he really turned that around and I’m happy to see it…I’m excited to see him in there with Lauzon. If he beats Lauzon, it’s gonna be interesting to see who we end up pitting together to fight for the title next.”

– Phil Davis Caught Off-Guard by Mistaken Announcement of Match-Up With Machida (Five Ounces of Pain)
“All of this is news to me. I’m still recovering and training. That’s pretty much the story. I guess the boss must have looked to book me…I’m just not a go yet. I would love to be in there putting on a good show and fighting, but my leg just does not agree with that. You put a timetable on it, it just may not work. You’ve just got to play it by ear. I don’t want to tell the fans I’m going to be back next week, and then that turns into two weeks from now or two months from now.”

UFC 136 Press Conference Video

Filed under: UFCA star-studded UFC 136 press conference on Wednesday will feature lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and No. 1 contender Gray Maynard, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 contender Kenny Florian, and middleweights Chael Sonnen an…

Filed under:

Dana White and the topUFC 136 stars will answer questions from the media Wednesday afternoon. A star-studded UFC 136 press conference on Wednesday will feature lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and No. 1 contender Gray Maynard, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 contender Kenny Florian, and middleweights Chael Sonnen and Brian Stann. We’ll have them all live right here at MMAFighting.com.

The press conference will also feature UFC President Dana White, who will preside over the festivities at the Toyota Center in Houston.

The UFC 136 pre-fight press conference begins at 12 p.m. ET and the video is below.

 

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Dana White: Power Ranking His 10 Greatest Achievements for the UFC and MMA

UFC President Dana White is one of the most controversial figures not just in the sport of MMA, but in all of sports. His up-front personality and often times foul language isn’t exactly what we see from other executives in the major sports.But s…

UFC President Dana White is one of the most controversial figures not just in the sport of MMA, but in all of sports. His up-front personality and often times foul language isn’t exactly what we see from other executives in the major sports.

But somehow, this strong-headed businessman from Boston has turned himself into a household name while helping to make the MMA promotion the fastest growing sports organization in the world.

Given his success as the man in charge of the UFC, White’s list of accomplishments seems to grow on almost a weekly basis. At times, it’s almost as if we get a new piece of huge breaking news every morning.

He may not be the traditional suit-and-tie businessman that you would get from someone like Bud Selig from the MLB or Roger Goodell from the NFL, but White’s success in promoting his sport has to make him a strong candidate for being the best executive in all of sports.

So as we inch closer to the very important inaugural UFC on FOX event, let’s take a look back at the 10 biggest moments of Dana White’s career as UFC President.

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UFC News: Ron Artest and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson Want to Box for Charity

Lakers forward Metta World Peace, aka Ron Artest, is one of the most controversial characters on the court. Seemingly out of nowhere, fellow colorful personality UFC light heavyweight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson tweeted the following to Artest aroun…

Lakers forward Metta World Peace, aka Ron Artest, is one of the most controversial characters on the court. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, fellow colorful personality UFC light heavyweight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson tweeted the following to Artest around 2 a.m. on Monday:

“Hey you a beast on the court… we can box a few rounds for charity.”

Artest, who recently was eliminated on the ABC show Dancing with the Stars, expressed no problem with now taking his talents to the ring when he tweeted back

“Rampage gonna test my chin for charity!! This will be the biggest heavyweight fight outside klits and haye!! (sic)” is what Artest tweeted around 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. 

Rampage is fresh off of a submission loss to light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 135, so the charity boxing match seems at least somewhat plausible in the sense that it will be a while before Jackson is back in the Octagon. 

Meanwhile, Artest is dealing with the NBA lockout, so it makes sense that he would have time to train for an extracurricular activity like a boxing match. 

Of course, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that Artest has no prior fight experience and Rampage is one of the most recognizable veteran faces in MMA today, charity fight or not.

While it would probably not make much of a difference, Artest would have the height, weight and reach advantage in this fight, with his official profile at NBA.com listing him as standing 6’7″ and 260 pounds. 

Sherdog.com lists Rampage at 6’1″, 204 lbs., although many fans and fighters alike have been told that Jackson can weigh as much as 250 lbs. between fights.

Additionally, neither the NBA nor the UFC has confirmed or denied that this fight will take place, while both Artest and Jackson have yet to mention which charities are in the running to sponsor such a contest. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White: Gilbert Melendez Signing with UFC, Immediate Title Contender?

Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez could be coming to the UFC sooner than expected.According to UFC President Dana White, the UFC is currently working on a deal to bring the Cesar Gracie student over to the big show “right now.”This puts…

Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez could be coming to the UFC sooner than expected.

According to UFC President Dana White, the UFC is currently working on a deal to bring the Cesar Gracie student over to the big show “right now.”

This puts Melendez’s upcoming December 17 Strikeforce title bout with Jorge Masvidal in question.

“We’re looking to bring Gilbert Melendez over ASAP,” White told MMAWeekly.

Melendez has long been considered one of the premier lightweights in the sport. Most MMA rankings have him placed at third behind Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

He is coming off dominant wins over tough opposition in Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Josh Thomson and Mitsuhiro Ishida.

With his position in the lightweight division, the question on most people’s minds is whether or not Melendez will receive an immediate title shot upon entry into the UFC.

Ben Henderson, Clay Guida and Melvin Guillard are all potential title contenders. If these guys win in their next outings, could Melendez still leap frog them in the UFC title picture?

“It’s a possibility [Melendez gets the shot],” said White. “The thing is with that division, it’s so stacked, there’s a lot of possibilities. Do you take a kid, depending on what happens, like a guy like Melvin Guillard and throw him right into the title?

“I don’t know. We gotta see, and usually, timing has a lot to do with that. We’ll see what happens with the timing. They have this title fight between Edgar and Maynard and praise the Lord nobody gets hurt, broken hand, or this and that, or all these other things. It can happen, so, we’ll see. We’ll go with the flow.”

Guillard is slated to face Joe Lauzon on Saturday at UFC 136. Henderson and Guida will do battle on the historic UFC on Fox 1 card slated for November 12.

Melendez will surely be watching the coming UFC bouts with much interest. Only time will tell how this situation plays out.

In any case, a storm is brewing, and “El Nino” is looking to bring the thunder to the UFC lightweight division.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com