We’ve passed along several reports — even the day after UFC 71 in May — that former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell would face former PRIDE FC middlweight champion Wanderlei Silva sometime this year.
UFC President Dana White has been uncharacteristically careful about confirming the showdown since that time — perhaps because he got burned bad when he publicly announced the fight in front of the world at UFC 61 … and it never happened.
He’s even outright denied in interviews that it will happen as early as September.
Today (Wednesday), however, “The Axe Murderer” posted on his official Web site that the long-awaited clash is indeed booked.
Or is it?
Here’s the full snip (loosely translated from Google):
“The hour arrived!
The date of the fight of Wanderlei Silva is confirmed. It will be day 22 of September, in U.S.A., place and schedule not yet defined.
The confrontation between Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Lidell already had been divulged has about two months, and now it increases the expectation of the fans in following the final preparation.
After many challenges, Lidell will have the chance to face intense Wanderlei, that are in constant preparation, treinos and an infinite will in winning this confrontation.
Also other fights for the UFC are marked: In UFC 74, day 25 of August, they will face Randy Couture and Gabriel Gonzaga and day 09 of Quinton September Jackson face Dan Henderson, for UFC 75.”
Update: Despite this development, Kevin Iole from Yahoo!Sports is now reporting that the deadline to consummate a deal between Liddell and Silva was yesterday (Wednesday) and an agreement was not reached in time.
Iole has, apparently, the latest scoop from White and says the fight is now “dead, probably forever.”
Here’s a snip:
“… White said Wednesday he was told by a member of Silva’s Chute Box team that Silva did not want to fight Liddell. White said the deadline for having the fight made was Wednesday.”
And a snip mash from White:
“This is the worst news I could have possibly gotten. It’s horrendous. I have been trying to make this fight for six years. 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. I just don’t see it happening now. This just happened (Wednesday afternoon) and I’m not sure what we’re going to do. We’re trying to figure it out. It’s not a fun time right now.”
If this latest update does indeed ring true, White is left without a main event for a UFC 76. Even though Liddell-Silva was not a title fight, it would have been a HUGE draw.
White — who clearly wants to see this fight happen more than anyone — mentioned numerous times before these latest negotiations for UFC 76 were revealed that Liddell will most likely fight next in November.
That could be the case now that this deal has been, reportedly, killed.
I’m not sure what to think about this situation — it seems like one big contradiction. White says it’s dead, yet Silva says it’s alive and well on his Web site.
Rest assured that if this does come to fruition, we will hear an official announcement as soon as possible.
It’s too big to keep secret for too long.
But let’s just say at this point the situation doesn’t look nearly as good as it did just 12 hours ago. In fact, the prospect looks bleak.
UFC 76 is scheduled for September 22 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. and will feature the debut of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua” vs. Ryoto Machida.
(Thanks to UFCmania reader “Chris” for the latest update.)
53 Comments »
Thank God, finally a striker than can take out Chuck Liddell, Chuck is going to get a taste of defeat again by somebody by pride. Wandy has been in the octagon before so he is no stranger to it.
Wandy wins via KO due to Knee.
That or he will get DQ’ed for the soccer kicks.
WOW! 76 is gonna be TIGHT! i hope chuck gets his shit together for this fight, he’ll need to bring his A game or he’s in trouble…
wonder if he still wants to f*ck chuck. who wouldnt pay to see that. lol
That’s pretty cool. Another MONSTER fight!!
BTW, you guys need to find a friend that speaks Portuguese, ’cause MAN, that is one tough translation. Then again, maybe Silva and his peeps just aren’t that good at writing. I think that its probably the translation, though.
winner of this should get winner off jackson-henderson (that’s if shogun doesn’t) and the loser should get the loser. any of these 4 guys vs eachother would be great. silva vs henderson 3? jackson vs silva 3? liddell vs jackson 3? liddell vs henderson.. all sound good to me!
Cool. Both are coming off losses, both have tons to prove.
This will be a fist fest.
But fifty bucks says this fight ends up being on the December card.
i think wanderlei will win, but it will be interesting to see him coming off those two knockouts, his chin looked good against hendo, but we’ll see. i just hope it goes long enough for chuck to be able to really test it and not get knocked out so quickly.
I got Wandi in this one. I know Chuck has been dominant, but so has Wandi. I watched that Wandi fight against Henderson and he just didnt look like himself. He was flat footed and didnt have the same bounce to his step that he usually does. I’m looking forward to him coming back in full force and someone else becoming the face of the UFC.
What do you guys think will happen with Wanderlei when he gets knocked out for the third time in a row?
i think the winner of this fight will fight the loser of the hendo-rampage,and shogun will get the winner.all in december thats why both ufc 75 and 76 are in sep 3 months to dec perfect time to fight again
Whoever wins will be by KO or TKO in first round. Both guys are going to come out swinging. It’s anyone’s fight really. I just give a slight edge to Chuck only because he seems angry inside about his loss to Jackson.
Poor Iceman, really the beginning of the end
UFC 76 wil be awsome with – Brandon Vera(says he will be back september)
– Wanderlai- Chuck Lidell
-Mauricio Shogun-Manchida
Sounds very good for a card with no Title on the line as of now
and a possible rematch with chris leben vs mike swick
chuck tko rd 1. period. REACH makes the difference. To get the thai clinch and throw those dominating knees, he must close inside, where chuck has made a iving as a backing up counterpuncher.
[quote comment="102847"]UFC 76 wil be awsome with – Brandon Vera(says he will be back september)
- Wanderlai- Chuck Lidell
-Mauricio Shogun-Manchida
Sounds very good for a card with no Title on the line as of now[/quote]
and diego and fitch
[quote comment="102802"]WOW! 76 is gonna be TIGHT! i hope chuck gets his shit together for this fight, he’ll need to bring his A game or he’s in trouble…[/quote]
76 is going to be off the hook bro and I cant wait
[quote comment="102855"][quote comment="102847"]UFC 76 wil be awsome with – Brandon Vera(says he will be back september)
- Wanderlai- Chuck Lidell
-Mauricio Shogun-Manchida
Sounds very good for a card with no Title on the line as of now[/quote]
and diego and fitch[/quote]
Fedor/Vera I hope but Ill settle for Arlovski/Vera.
And you cant forget Swick/Leben at 170
[quote comment="102807"]winner of this should get winner off jackson-henderson (that’s if shogun doesn’t) and the loser should get the loser. any of these 4 guys vs eachother would be great. silva vs henderson 3? jackson vs silva 3? liddell vs jackson 3? liddell vs henderson.. all sound good to me![/quote]
hey why don’t we just put all 4 guys in the octagon at once.. and see who comes out on top?
I hope that Liddell vs Wandy isn’t the main event. Nothing against those two but that would mean that their’s an even bigger fight on the card.
Has anyone seen this link about Silva not wanting to fight Liddell and the fight won’t happen?
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AnqMUUvzBeoMpD3i5ymV_yiUxLYF?slug=ki-liddell071107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
lol, Fedor and Vera?
[quote comment="102862"][quote comment="102802"]WOW! 76 is gonna be TIGHT! i hope chuck gets his shit together for this fight, he’ll need to bring his A game or he’s in trouble…[/quote]
76 is going to be off the hook bro and I cant wait[/quote]
I hear you stafo, i can’t wait for that shit, that will be the best card the ufc has ever put on, hands down, especially if vera is fighting too
[quote comment="102880"]I hope that Liddell vs Wandy isn’t the main event. Nothing against those two but that would mean that their’s an even bigger fight on the card.[/quote]
that will definitely be the main event bro, people have been waiting for that fight for years, it might not mean as much now, but people still drool over that fight…
[quote comment="102887"]Has anyone seen this link about Silva not wanting to fight Liddell and the fight won’t happen?
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AnqMUUvzBeoMpD3i5ymV_yiUxLYF?slug=ki-liddell071107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns/quote
wow, thats a shame if this article is true and it sounds like it is…
Something smells fishy in Danaland. I’ve heard from a source at Chute Boxe that they infact had a verbal agreement and that everything was settled for UFC76, even the numbers seemed to be finalized.
Something is going on here and I don’t know yet what it is, but I’ll find out. I don’t understand how Dana thinks this fight is off, because a deadline HE SET has not been met – probably the contract is not signed yet, even thou a verbal agreement exists.
I’ll call BS on this one Dana – we’ll see what the fallout will be.
this is completely irrelevent but can some one please tell me why the hell there is almost 2 months between ufc 73 and 74? they should be working their way down to less than a month between and now they jump back to this crap
liddell is goin down,aint no doubt in the chute boxe boys…lol
[quote comment="102931"]Something smells fishy in Danaland. I’ve heard from a source at Chute Boxe that they infact had a verbal agreement and that everything was settled for UFC76, even the numbers seemed to be finalized.
Something is going on here and I don’t know yet what it is, but I’ll find out. I don’t understand how Dana thinks this fight is off, because a deadline HE SET has not been met – probably the contract is not signed yet, even thou a verbal agreement exists.
I’ll call BS on this one Dana – we’ll see what the fallout will be.[/quote]
It’s one of three options.
A) Dana is trying to stifle the hype a bit so that people aren’t looking past the current UFC events. They do that alot.
B) Wanderlei was entertaining offers to fight Chuck, but ultimately decided he’d take the year off like he had already said he was going to do. Plus he’s coaching that Brazilian IFL-type league. Maybe he thought he didn’t have enough time to train for what would probably be the biggest matchup of the year.
C) Mis-communication between Chute Box and Dana.
Why does Dana bother talking at all? He should just keep his mouth shut and just make announcements when they are official. How many times did he go back and forth about combining the Pride & UFC belts for the fight against Rampage and Hendo?
This fight is perfect for Chuck,the reason Chuck has always wanted to fight Wandy is because of his style,he likes to exchange,Chuck has the better chin,Chuck has more KO power,it will be wild as long as it lasts but I can see Chuck win by KO before the end of the second round.
Wandy thinks coz he has beat Rampage twice and Rampage has beat Chuck twice that hes gonna walk through Chuck,if both fighters train right and prepare properly Chuck wins every time.
I think this is Chucks Kind of Fight as a counter puncher. WAndy has those crazy uncontrolled punches, with no real motive other than to create confusion it seems. As long as Chuck doesn’t gget sucked into his (Wamdy) Kinda fight, i think he should win this.
they should change UFC 75 to “stacked” lol. Redic!
I read on Sherdog it wasnt gonna happen
[quote comment="102911"][quote comment="102887"]Has anyone seen this link about Silva not wanting to fight Liddell and the fight won’t happen?
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AnqMUUvzBeoMpD3i5ymV_yiUxLYF?slug=ki-liddell071107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns/quote
wow, thats a shame if this article is true and it sounds like it is…[/quote]
Unfortunatly this is true,Ive just heard this on the sports news over here in England,I dont know what Manias doing putting this up on here getting all our hopes up,this has realy anoyed me this morning.
Wandy will not fight Chuck,the way they are talking about it sounds like hes doing a Tito.He is scared of Chuck.
[quote post="2719"]I dont know what Manias doing putting this up on here getting all our hopes up,this has realy anoyed me this morning.[/quote]
Did you see the big “?” in the title? It was taken from Silva’s site — I didn’t make it up. This fight was apparently close to being reached … and it would have been one of the biggest in the history of the sport. Don’t shoot the messenger.
One word. “Finally ?”
Man, I hope this fight happens…everyone’s been waiting too long for this one…
Anyone can translate this article for me ? Does this article says the fight will or will not happend at UFC 76, from what I have read Dana said the fight will not happen and this fight is dead ??? Anyone got this ?
These…. are the days of our lives!!
[quote comment="103096"]Anyone can translate this article for me ? Does this article says the fight will or will not happend at UFC 76, from what I have read Dana said the fight will not happen and this fight is dead ??? Anyone got this ?[/quote]
Wandi’s Web site says yes, Dana says no.
This is just starting to become a joke. If he truely wants to f*ck Chuck, like he said himself in the octagon, then fight him already. Wandy is really making himself look like a bitch by not getting the deal done. By what I can tell, the UFC has done a lot to get the fight to go down. Having Wandy announce that he wants to sleep with Chuck during a PPV event, bringing Chuck to fight in the Grand Prix in PRIDE, and the purchase of PRIDE who owns Wandy’s contract. He always had the fact that he belonged to PRIDE as an excuse, but now that the UFC owns PRIDE, there are no more excuses. Shut up, sign the deal, and throw down. The Chute Box camp doesn’t look like a group of guys that back down when the opportunity to fight arises.
Of course another falter.
Now Dana needs to make up to us the fans and give us a Fedor/Andrei showdown
mr nc17 , i couldnt agree more
After reading a bit into this, I noticed something … Wandy’s website quote doesn’t say anything about him fighting Liddell. It just mentions that he is fighting in September and that his confrontation with Chuck is coming in the future. I mean, this is my take on it, it might be wrong but its a shot
[quote comment="103063"][quote post="2719"]I dont know what Manias doing putting this up on here getting all our hopes up,this has realy anoyed me this morning.[/quote]
Did you see the big “?” in the title? It was taken from Silva’s site — I didn’t make it up. This fight was apparently close to being reached … and it would have been one of the biggest in the history of the sport. Don’t shoot the messenger.[/quote]
Yeah I know ive been looking through this stuff all day now and it is all very confusing.If I was Wandy I wouldnt wanna fight Chuck after coming off two losses,its anoying coz its a fight that I realy want to see but thats coz Im a Chuck fan and I am not worried about him fighting Wandy at all,I think its a great match up for him to come back on.I dont think Wandy is scared of Chuck I just think he is playing safe and dosntwant to risk 3 straight KOs.He will want an easier fight to come back on.
The stuff on his web site is probably to stop people from thinking hes a pussy,which I dont think he is for not taking the fight.Im sure his trainers dont want him coming off of two straight KO losses to fight Chuck Liddell coz that is crazy.
Vanderlei want’s this more than everything. I’m sure that the issue here is the money. If there’s someone who dos not want this fight is Chuck. And Dan Henderson got lucky against Vanderlei, because he is far away from being the number one in the category, the same for Jackson who got his ass whooped by Vanderley abd by Shogun. UFC is far from having the best MMA fighter of the world.
yo mcanema, chuck is the most overated fighter ever. he cant wrestle or do any ground game. and who the fuck told u that he hits harder than wadalei. wandalei is the most hardest puncher and knee crusher in the business. obviously u know nothing about wandalei. chucks days are over. i dont believe the hype. its all about money. why should chuck get more than wanda its not a title fight. i guess u didnt know that. dana white is the biggest pussy around. thats why frank shamrock wouldnt come back to ufc. anyway wanda will take chucks head off. wanda has everything ground game and power. chuck only relies on his counter punching. but wanda knows the drill. chuck could stay in pride, cus he got whooped..
chuck liddell is fighting keith jardine at ufc 76 go on the website were ufc 75 is free click on full story Dana says chuck and keith will be going at it so you guys dont get your pantires tied up in a knot
mcenena THE SAME COULD BE SAID ABOUT CHUCK. HE GOT HIS ASS KICKED LIKE A JELLY BY RAMPAGE IN PRIDE, RAMPAGE TREATED CHUCK LIKE A BITCH FROM HELL. GOT HIM ON THE GROUND AND KICKED HIS ASS. THEN CHUCK DIDNT STAY AT PRIDE CUS HE KNEW THEY GOT THE BEST FIGHTERS. SO HE COMES TO UFC AND KO’S ORTIZ AND A OLD WASHED OUT RANDY COUTURE. LETS SEE IF HE CAN DO THE SAME TO HENDERSON AND OH MY GOD IF IT WILL EVER HAPPEN WANDALEI SILVA. CHUCK GOT KO’D BY JACKSON AND NOW THATS 2 DEFEATS. SO DONT KNOCK OFF SILVA. WANDALEI HAS FACED BETTER OPPOSITION THAN CHUCK, HE FOUGHT A GUY HE SHOULDNT OFF CROCOP. HE WAS 45 LBS HEAVIER THAN HIM.HE GOT UNLUCKY AND WALKED INTO HENDERSONS PUCH A FIGHT THAT WANDA WAS WINNING. ANYWAY MY PREDICTIONS WANDA WILL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF CHUCK IN 1ST ROUND AND THEN KO OR KNEE HIM TO DEATH IN THE SECOND. THEY DONT CALL HIM AXE MURDERER FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!CHUCKS FINISHED RAMPAGE MADE THAT HAPPEN….
hey c’mon……wat a waste of time…after reading lots of articles about this much anticipated fight between the worlds no. 1 mma fighter,the iceman, and the most feared kitten in pride, silva, it’ll not gonna happen? c’mon wandy, wats wrong with you? dont get scared man….show ur guts….
but wait theres more.. wanderlai has signed with ufc!! axe murderer gonna whoop some ufc ass.. also watch mauricio rua tear it up there too.. pride has always probably had some of the bigger names in mma. mostly because they were known around the world.now if ufc can pick up fedor then well have some more heavyweight fights.. although the return of the natural has got me interested in heavyweights again..