Silva-Liddell NOT happening

[jas123]

UFC president Dana White said Wednesday that Chuck Liddell (Pictures) would not fight Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) Sept. 22 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Moreover, White told Yahoo!'s Kevin Iole the fight between former UFC and PRIDE 205-pound champions would now likely never happen after a Wednesday deadline to finalize the deal passed.

"I have done everything in my power I could do over the last six years to make this fight and it's still not happening," White told Iole. "I just don't see it happening now."

White said he was informed by someone representing Silva that the "Axe Murderer" declined a fight with Liddell.

The Liddell-Silva clash has been long considered a mixed martial arts dream fight. In 2003 Liddell joined the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix field with a chance to fight Silva. They were paired on opposite side of the brackets and Quinton Jackson (Pictures) stopped Liddell. "Rampage" met Silva in the finals, losing to the Brazilian by TKO.

In 2006, the UFC brought Silva, still PRIDE champion, into the octagon to hype a bout between the light heavyweights "at one of our biggest pay-per-views, at a time when [PRIDE] were really in a lot of trouble, because I wanted to make that fight," White told Yahoo!. "It shows you how incredibly stupid those people were, because they took what could have been the biggest fight in this sport's history and blew it up." A deal with Dream Stage Entertainment never materialized, and Zuffa eventually purchased the Japanese MMA brand from DSE.

Liddell's spot in the main event is tenuous. Silva's teammate Mauricio Rua (Pictures) will remain on the card to fight Ryoto Machida (Pictures), and White said he had not considered putting "Shogun" in Silva's place. Also, White said Diego Sanchez (Pictures) would fight Jon Fitch (Pictures) in a welterweight clash.

 

[Rogue Drone]

Here we go again.

Wandy's official website announces that the fight is on; UFC Junkie, who has been very reliable in breaking news before official announcements, said it was verbally agreed on, and now Dana says not.

I'm thinking that Wandy and Company are asking for more money than Zuffa thinks this fight is worth to them.

I would really like to see some recent , < 6 week, video interview footage of Wanderlei to get a sense of how well or not he's functioning, anyone seen any?

 

[UNCfan1]

This is bull****! I am so tried of this stuff. They will prob never fight!

 

[Sir Savage]

Course, Dana has been known to be full of stuff before.

 

[UNCfan1]

This is getting real stupid real fast. I just read an interview that Silva signed to fight Chuck in Nov. Guess who is headlining UFC 76?

Chuck Liddell vs Keith Jardine. UFC junkie stated this.

WHAT GIVES? I don't know if its Chuck, Dana or what but something isn't right. Everyone knows Silva wants Chuck and has wanted to fight him for awhile.

I want to see Silva fight Ortiz, Belfort and Liddell. I want him to avenge those loses and kill Liddell and then take the belt from Hendo after he beats rampage and then take on Hendo and avenge that lose. Sorry for the run-on's it kinda pisses me off.

 

[Beowulf]

Apparently Wandy's site has a response that claims he was offered to fight Chuck in Sept. or Nov. He chose Nov. b/c he is in the middle of moving to the US. He said the fight should still be on.

I just read a transcript.

 

[stxnas]

I'll believe it when I see it...

^^^I gave up on this a long time ago...

It would be great if that's the situation though Beo!

 

[Rodja]

Why must I be continuously teased about this fight. I almost **** myself last year when Wand and Chuck were eye to eye, but here we are a year later and still nothing.