Despite a report that stated otherwise prior to UFC 73, UFC President Dana White confirmed after the event that the showdown between UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (27-6) and PRIDE FC Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson (22-5) at UFC 75 will be a unification bout.
Seems like there was miscommunication or human error that caused all the confusion.
There was also an incorrect report that surfaced recently, indicating just Rampage’s title would be at stake since the fight was taking place inside the Octagon.
Not the case, according to White, who says that the 205-pound fight at the 02 Arena in London, England, on September 8 is designed to declare an undisputed world champion.
For Henderson, it is the opportunity to become the most decorated mixed martial arts champion in the history of the sport. With a win, he’d hold a gaudy three titles in two different divisions in two separate promotions.
“Hollywood” Henderson also holds the PRIDE FC welterweight belt — the equivalent of the UFC middleweight title (185-pound limit).
Rampage will finally get the opportunity to fight for the Japanese title, an organization for which he fought in from 2001-2006 and racked up nearly 20 appearances.
Without question now that it is confirmed from White that this will be a unification bout it appears that the UFC 75 main event will indeed be an historic event.
For the first time ever a sole champion will be recognized as the best in the world at a respective weight class — something that seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago.
And Henderson is on the verge of becoming a very, very busy man.
48 Comments »
yes, I mean no… I MEAN YES!!
[quote comment="101356"]yes, I mean no… I MEAN YES!![/quote]
Ain’t that the truth. Dana seems to be out of the loop. PRIDE is still alive. NO she’s going down. Hilarious
Making championship matches is going to be a logistical nightmare. If he’s defending at Welterweight it will be quite a while till he’ll defend in that weight class again. That is if he alternates weight classes AND organizations.
hey guys, i know its early, but who do you think has the edge in this fight?
[quote comment="101365"]Making championship matches is going to be a logistical nightmare. If he’s defending at Welterweight it will be quite a while till he’ll defend in that weight class again. That is if he alternates weight classes AND organizations.[/quote]
welterweight is 185,n lightweight was 160 soo he would fight anderson slva that would be awesome!!hendo by GnP!!
[quote comment="101382"]hey guys, i know its early, but who do you think has the edge in this fight?[/quote]
Hendo in 3 rounds tops!
I don’t get why Henderson is coming back at 205. He should come back at 185 which is a much weaker weight division than 205.
I dont think people give Henderson the respect he deserves, I think he is the man to beat. Jackson better be somewhat concerned.
DONT GET IT. what is the point of PRIDE now? if your not going to fight in the PRIDE… ring then why should the title be on the line. i honestly think this is a slot to just get rid of pride.
I’m getting tired of Dana going back and forth on stuff. He should just not comment on an issue until he’s sure about the answer.
i dont like a Pride title being on the line in an Octagon…
UFC and Pride always were, and are different. rules, ring format, I just dont see how a Pride title can be defended with different rules in different surroundings…
I hope rampage gets the W tho, itd be interesting to see him stick around on top for awhile…
Ecspecially when my long time favorite in tito is comin to an end of his career…Ive always liked rampage, hope he stays on top for a good amount of time
This could just be the next step of absorbing Pride into the UFC. If rampage wins he’s already the UFC champ, if Hendo wins he’s in the ufc and it will just become the UFC belt altogether
Ortiz, Dana said from the start that Pride’s rules would eventually go by the wayside. But then, Dana’s said a lot of things that he’s already backtracked on.
Realistically speaking, Pride is in its last days.
Even if the rules were going to be the same, the octagon and the traditional ring is different.
Looks more and more like they are totally dismantling Pride. Since Zuffa bought pride they have done nothing but signing the talent in Pride to UFC.
Personally I think they should do something of a Grand Prix tournament that Pride used to do but with the combination of maybe the top 5 in each organization and winner of that tournament would get a title shot.
This whole wave of Pride fighters is good for UFC, but not good for Pride. What is the point of them keeping Pride around? Just throw all the fighters into UFC and have a PPV event every 2 weeks…..I am sure greedy Dana would love that….hell why not have Monday Night KO’s nights on Spike and follow WWE.
Just my 2 cents…….
Personally I think they should do something of a Grand Prix tournament that Pride used to do but with the combination of maybe the top 5 in each organization and winner of that tournament would get a title shot…..IN EACH WEIGHT CLASS
I agree With everyone, You can’t fight for the Pride Belt in an Octagon. You need to have the Pride rules, for the pride belt. You would think that Zuffa would think of things like this, Guess not!!! I would like to see them in both promotions, once in the octagon then in the ring to see who really is the true light heavyweight champ.
After the belts are unified, Pride guys wont be able to get title shots because the UFC will control who gets the shots, and they will be biased and only let their own guys fight for the spot. Until they get in a spot where they dont have any more contenders (like they almost did with Chuck) and then they will tap someone like Soko…
[quote comment="101386"]I don’t get why Henderson is coming back at 205. He should come back at 185 which is a much weaker weight division than 205.[/quote]
Who cares? Maybe he doesn’t wanna take the easier road. He should be commended for it not questioned.
I can’t wait for UFC 75!
Go Henderson!
After this, I really wish for UFC to have this flash challengers and go with rankings instead. Or go with the legitimate tournament style of Pride to determine the no. 1 contender for the division. Its great that champions get to fight 3 or 4 times a year, but pit them against laddered opponents, not the one who makes the noise.
But still, go Henderson!
War Rampage; no, War Henderson ! Can’t wait!!!
When Quinton Jackson wins, it will have no bearing on anything. Dana knows Rampage will win and when that does happen, they will retire the Pride championship belts as the UFC plans to fully disolve the Pride name, and slowly integrate those fighters who matter in to the mack daddy of all MMA organizations.
This “Unification” thing is just a nice term coined to get you to buy the PPV.
Do you think they’ll create a new belt or will the winning fighter get to choose which belt he defends next or will he lose both if lose’s a fight.
[quote comment="101437"]Looks more and more like they are totally dismantling Pride. Since Zuffa bought pride they have done nothing but signing the talent in Pride to UFC.
Personally I think they should do something of a Grand Prix tournament that Pride used to do but with the combination of maybe the top 5 in each organization and winner of that tournament would get a title shot.
This whole wave of Pride fighters is good for UFC, but not good for Pride. What is the point of them keeping Pride around? Just throw all the fighters into UFC and have a PPV event every 2 weeks…..I am sure greedy Dana would love that….hell why not have Monday Night KO’s nights on Spike and follow WWE.
Just my 2 cents…….[/quote]
Well the reason a lot of Pride fighters were fighting UFC was to stay active till PRide got restructured, or so I read had somehwere. These guys can not go a year without fighting and most of them have contracts with fights left on them. So they can get the work in fighting UFC till Pride is ready to go. If they open it back up.
Thank you. I was really dissapointed when I had heard a couple weeks ago that this would be an exhibition match with no title on the line. Dana really needs to stop opening his mouth on particular topics where a definitive answer has not yet been made. He has done crap like this several times this year. Its almost like he does it on purpose just to see what the fan reaction is, and if its a negative response, he can just go back on his decsion and say that it was just a rumor. CRAP.
Now, this is going to be a fight that most fans, including myself would pay a lot of money to see. Even if it was the only fight on the card, I’d gladly pay $50 to see it. It will be history before our eyes – an UNDISPUTED WORLD Champion. If Henderson wins, I would like to see him next fight at his natural weight and fight Anderson Silva. Then Hendo would be the undisputed king of mma, and no one could say otherwise. The only bad thing about Rampage/Henderson is that it is my 2 favorite fighters at 205, with Henderson being my #1.
Im sure this was their plan the entire time. I doubt Dana White was “left out of the loop” Obviously they were planning it from day one. All signs pointed to the destruction of Pride and the only thing that kept us from 100% believing this was Dana saying “no no no you got it all wrong, they are all gonna remain seperate” with his fingers crossed behind his back. It was obviously a stunt to just keep everyone at bay instead of just coming out and saying “sucks for pride” haha. Oh well. Down with the ring, up with octogon! haha
..Hendo being a great fighter of our time I don’t see him beating the Rampage of the now..
With 2 belts on the line does make for history in the making..just what is the meaning of the pride belt if there is no pridefc?? So Zuffa will absorb pride into the ufc..but keep pride belts around?? I don’t grasp the whole concept of yet..if it were 2 seperate events.. 2 organizations..promotions..then yeah wow..watching pride fighting in the ring and UFC in the ocatgon..but this is not the case..everything is under one roof..so I guess we just have wait and see..
RAMPAGE IS GOING TO WHOOP THAT ASS.
WHY DID YOU NOT POST THAT COMMENT?
YOU A RAMPAGE HATER?
[quote comment="101547"]When Quinton Jackson wins, it will have no bearing on anything. Dana knows Rampage will win and when that does happen, they will retire the Pride championship belts as the UFC plans to fully disolve the Pride name, and slowly integrate those fighters who matter in to the mack daddy of all MMA organizations.[/quote]
Then hopefully it means they’ll attempt to unify other titles as well. This might be the lure they need to get Fedor in the UFC.
If Henderson loses, does he still hold onto the MW belt?
TD,
I think you mean WHEN Dan Henderson loses. In any event we all can see that obviously Pride fighters are going to submerge themselves in to the UFC alone. Pride will fizzle away like an Alka Seltzer in water. Henderson will prob hang his belts (which will mean nothing by UFC accounts) above his fire place for sentimental reasons I suppose. He then will drop to the 185 pund division and fight the likes of Yushin Okami, Rich Franklin, Anderson Silva.
Kevin “cuts” Kelly
Ok, first of all Henderson wont beat Rampage at 205. He will be at a great strength disadvantage. Henderson is the best fighter in the world at 185, so he will beat Anderson Silva and hold court over the 185 division.
Secondly, I know everyone is upset at the dismantling of PRIDE but think about it, the UFC now has the most talent of any promotion in the history of MMA! Dont you guys see what is happening…we are going to get to see the fights that all of us have been talking about for years! Chuck vs Page was just the start of things to come! Now we will have fights like Tito vs Rampage and Henderson vs Franklin…the possiblities are endless. If W.Silva ever gets off of his year layoff we will finally get the chance to see him fight Chuck. I know all of the PRIDE fans (I am one) are having a tough time swallowing this but just look at the bright side…at least all of Prides talent didnt scatter the globe and go to all the other promotions. Once UFC gets Fedor,Soko,Gomi and Barrnett ITS OVER!!! The UFC will have something that Boxing had been dreaming of for years. So just relax and let these great fight cards keep coming! Because they WILL!!!
If Henderson wins the the UFC light heavyweight belt whats next the Intercontinental belt on WWE?
When they unify the belts the new belt will be like that spinny one John Cena has lol…But if Rampage wins he’ll cut up the belt and weld it to his chain…like a big medallion it will be….
In the picture ‘Page looks like Danny Williams the British boxer…Accept Danny Williams is crap, as crap as Audley Harrison.
[quote comment="101465"][quote comment="101386"]I don’t get why Henderson is coming back at 205. He should come back at 185 which is a much weaker weight division than 205.[/quote]
Who cares? Maybe he doesn’t wanna take the easier road. He should be commended for it not questioned.[/quote]
Outside of Anderson Silva, 185 might be a bit easier.
[quote comment="101624"]WHY DID YOU NOT POST THAT COMMENT?
YOU A RAMPAGE HATER?[/quote]
THAT LITTLE GREEN LIGHT ON THE KEYBOARD INDICATES CAPS-LOCK!
i think henderson should fight at middleweight not light heavy.
the fight will be huge i stil don’t know who to pick as a winner, but taking all the good fighters of pride into the ufc is great and all but what’s the point of even having pride then?? they would have more than enough fighters for twice as many pay per views but lets be honest i really don’t wanna see 2 ufc cards a month on pay per view. i would rather see the fight cards be added from 8 or 9 fights to maybe 12. ufc is turning into wwe buying wcw and taking good fighters away. look what happen to wwe got smackdown, raw, ecw, they have different belts and stuff but it’s still under one federation being wwe. it became a circus show it took what i loved watching as a kid growing up into something i can’t even watch not alone put a bad taste in my mouth. wwf vs wcw was awesome i loved ufc vs pride. they should have kept it that way anyways i love ufc….. for now
I’m thinking Rampage by TKO in the 4th round.
[quote comment="101747"]Ok, first of all Henderson wont beat Rampage at 205. He will be at a great strength disadvantage. Henderson is the best fighter in the world at 185, so he will beat Anderson Silva and hold court over the 185 division.
Secondly, I know everyone is upset at the dismantling of PRIDE but think about it, the UFC now has the most talent of any promotion in the history of MMA! Dont you guys see what is happening…we are going to get to see the fights that all of us have been talking about for years! Chuck vs Page was just the start of things to come! Now we will have fights like Tito vs Rampage and Henderson vs Franklin…the possiblities are endless. If W.Silva ever gets off of his year layoff we will finally get the chance to see him fight Chuck. I know all of the PRIDE fans (I am one) are having a tough time swallowing this but just look at the bright side…at least all of Prides talent didnt scatter the globe and go to all the other promotions. Once UFC gets Fedor,Soko,Gomi and Barrnett ITS OVER!!! The UFC will have something that Boxing had been dreaming of for years. So just relax and let these great fight cards keep coming! Because they WILL!!![/quote]
good stuff…well said.
[quote comment="102544"][quote comment="101747"]Ok, first of all Henderson wont beat Rampage at 205. He will be at a great strength disadvantage. Henderson is the best fighter in the world at 185, so he will beat Anderson Silva and hold court over the 185 division.
Secondly, I know everyone is upset at the dismantling of PRIDE but think about it, the UFC now has the most talent of any promotion in the history of MMA! Dont you guys see what is happening…we are going to get to see the fights that all of us have been talking about for years! Chuck vs Page was just the start of things to come! Now we will have fights like Tito vs Rampage and Henderson vs Franklin…the possiblities are endless. If W.Silva ever gets off of his year layoff we will finally get the chance to see him fight Chuck. I know all of the PRIDE fans (I am one) are having a tough time swallowing this but just look at the bright side…at least all of Prides talent didnt scatter the globe and go to all the other promotions. Once UFC gets Fedor,Soko,Gomi and Barrnett ITS OVER!!! The UFC will have something that Boxing had been dreaming of for years. So just relax and let these great fight cards keep coming! Because they WILL!!![/quote]
good stuff…well said.[/quote]
Agree
hendoism is here to stay long live henodo
[quote post="2690"]After the belts are unified, Pride guys wont be able to get title shots because the UFC will control who gets the shots, and they will be biased and only let their own guys fight for the spot. Until they get in a spot where they dont have any more contenders (like they almost did with Chuck) and then they will tap someone like Soko… [/quote]
WHAT? The Pride guys are getting title shots their 2nd fight (Silva and Rampage) and now their first fight (Hendo and probably Fedor). If anything Dana is not being fair to the guys working their way up the ranks.
Just think about this.This fight is supposed to determine the best fighter in that weight class and unify the belts.The only problem is neither guy has defended their belt yet and the fighters they beat to get the belts dominated their divisions for years.How cool would it have been for a 4 man tournament in one night?That would be a blockbuster event.
Dan Henderson is tough he’s always fought bigger guys in grand prix or events. He fought Nuegeria twice. But
He’s going to get power bombed by Quinton….
[quote comment="101411"]DONT GET IT. what is the point of PRIDE now? if your not going to fight in the PRIDE… ring then why should the title be on the line. i honestly think this is a slot to just get rid of pride.[/quote]
No Shit. That is the whole point. Hence unification fight!
Getting rid of PrideFC would be contrite – just too bad. Having the extra dimension of MMA with different rules and the ring and the Japanese environment makes the sport so much more dynamic as a whole.
I wish this was a super bowl type of event with each UFC title holder facing his PrideFC counterpart – kind of like the old super fights (being seperate from the title holder of the tournament). I guess it’s Zuffa’s intention to absorbe PrideFC as many of you have alluded to.
As for this match between Hendo and Q, I think Hendo has more ways to win. I admit that I have a tough time saying Quinton will lose because he’s just phenominal and appears to be improving.
If I had to bet – Henderson by decision (points due to take downs).