Sunday, July 17, 2011

UFC 133 conference call: Evans was going to fight anyone put in front of him; Even Leben and Sonnen called to fill in

The UFC held an impromptu teleconference this morning to discuss the big change at the top of the UFC 133 card in Philadelphia on Aug. 6. After some headaches, Phil Davis is out, Tito Ortiz is in. Rashad Evans and Ortiz met back in 2007 at UFC 73. The fight ended in a draw.

Cage Potato blogged the call and had these interesting notes:

- The UFC found out last week that Davis' knee was injured, but were awaiting MRI results to see if he could fight.

- Machida agreed to the fight, then his?management later proceeded to ask for "Anderson Silva money," but Dana said when he accomplishes what Anderson has in his career, he'll be paid the same money he is paid.

Note: During a Yahoo! Sports' video discussion of the Ortiz-Davis-Machida-Dana-Evans sage, Kevin Iole said "Silva money" is somewhere in the seven-figure range.

- Tito stepped up and took the fight at the same monetary terms of his contract. Dana says that the UFC signed the deal with Tito a long time ago and that they didn't renegotiate his contract for the last fight because they figured he would lose against Bader and it would be his last fight.

Note: Ortiz made a base salary of $450,000 for his fight at UFC 132.

- Rashad is definitely the next in line, but Dana is still sore over him sitting out waiting for Shogun and if Tito beats Rashad he is in title contention.

- Rashad told them to get any opponent they can and not to bother calling him for approval because he would fight anyone who accepted the bout.

- Machida's relationship with the UFC could be strained because of his contract demands. White pointed out that Lyoto was begging him to get back into the cage to fight and he said "he had his chance."

- Bringing in a 205?er from Strikeforce didn't cross White's mind because in his words "Who would I have brought in?"

- Middleweights Chris Leben and Chael Sonnen both texted Dana to offer to fight Rashad.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-133-conference-call-Evans-was-going-to-figh?urn=mma-wp4668

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