UFC 61: Post Event Press Conference

At the UFC 61 post-event press conference Saturday night President Dana White fielded questions about his big announcement that Wanderlei Silva would fight Chuck Liddell in November if Liddell can successfully defend his light heavyweight title in August against Renato "Babalu" Sobral.

In the press conferences, a couple of important clarifications and specifications were given by White regarding the situation.

"It will be for the title, yes" said White responding to a reporter's question as to if a November Silva/Liddell fight would be for the UFC 205lbs belt. White also said that Wanderlei would be around for more than one fight.

"It's for three fights" White said.

These specifications add a whole lot of intrigue to that possible match-up and had some reporters wondering if the Silva announcement was a sign of things to come. Was this the start of a fire sale for a troubled Pride organization who recently lost their long-time television partner and deal in Japan, and would there be many more Pride fighters coming to the UFC soon?

"Maybe" said White, grinning slyly.

No doubt the details of whatever Pride and the UFC's agreement may be are very complicated with many questions left to be answered. How, exactly, did this arrangement between Pride and the UFC come about? Will Wanderlei’s contract be exclusive to the UFC for a period? Will the UFC be picking up the tab for Silva’s new contract with Pride when he’s fighting in the Octagon? What happens with Silva if Liddell loses or gets injured, or if Silva gets injured in the next round of Pride’s open weight tournament, in which he is a finalist?

Mr. White promised that he would have more information for reporters this week regarding this exciting situation.

Tito Ortiz and Tim Sylvia also attended the press conference immediately after the event and held court with reporters.

Ortiz, first up on stage, began bantering with reporters before the presser could be officially be started by Dana White.

“I wish it would have gone a lot longer” said Ortiz, of his quick stoppage win over Ken Shamrock due to elbows to the head from inside of Shamrock’s guard.

I grabbed a hold of him and I was like ‘you’re in trouble’. He really felt light, he felt weak to me. I hit him with some really good shots. (Referee)Herb Dean did his job, I did my job. That was my job, to finish him” said Ortiz.

Ortiz also addressed his antics last Friday at the weigh-ins. After Shamrock weighed in at an allowable 206lbs, Ortiz exploded and began protesting the acceptance of Shamrock’s weight. Then, Ortiz himself, weighed in even heavier, at 206 and 1/2lbs, a weight not allowable for a light heavyweight bout. He tried to make weight again shortly after and was successful.

“Right before the weigh-in I was doing a seminar over at the MGM, something that I’ll never do again, but I thought I lost more weight than I did because I was sweating so much when I was drilling and so forth. I came back and drank a whole bottle of water.

“In my mind we signed a contract for 205, he weighed in at 206 and I said, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Dana, stop, stop, it’s supposed to be 205’” said Ortiz, at which point Dana White, at the podium interjected.

“That’s not really the way you said it, but it was something like that” White said to laughter from those gathered.

Ortiz then admitted that he had “kind of put my own foot in my mouth when I stepped on the scales and he said ‘206 and a half’”, laughing and hanging his head momentarily in jest.

“But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if it was 205 or 206 man, I was just trying to get in his head. It was one of those psychological games I love to play” said Ortiz.

Despite talking extensively about his injuries going into the fight, Ortiz said that his training camp for the second fight against Shamrock was turned out to be excellent and unhampered by nagging injuries.

“I trained everyday. 6 days a week, 3-4 days a week. It was the first fight since the Belfort fight (February of 2005) that I’ve been able to train full time” said Ortiz.

Tim Sylvia, sporting a nasty black eye, but with the heavyweight belt still in his possession, was introduced next by Dana White.

“I have a lot of respect for Tim Sylvia” said White.

“Tim’s gone through a lot of adversity the last couple of years and he fought his way back. There was a lot of booing tonight, you have one show where the guys are not getting crushed and knocked out, but you know these guys are both the two best heavyweights in the world, that’s why they are fighting for the third time.

They are not trying to run over each other. They are taking their time, picking their shots. Andrei had to go the hospital, Tim’s having trouble walking. These guys fought 5 hard rounds. If you’ve ever been punched with mma gloves then you know how bad it hurts” said White.

Sylvia himself then interjected.

“Especially when you are getting hit by Andrei Arlovski, shit. That guy hits hard man” the champion said applying his trademark phrase to his opponent.

Sylvia continued the newfound respect that the two showed each other in their third fight, slugging each other then touching gloves to begin rounds, in the press conference.

“I don’t know what he did in between his last fight, but he took care of that chin” said a surprised Sylvia, who cut Arlovski in a couple places throughout the fight with punches but could not put the former champ down as he did in his last fight. Throughout the fight Sylvia showed improved defensive skills on his feet. During the press conference, Sylvia said defense was a focus in his training camp.

“We worked on countering a lot, but also on fading after his threw his punches” said Sylvia.

The heavyweight champion also addressed the man who should be his next challenger, Jeff Monson.

“Jeff’s a light heavyweight fighting in the heavyweight division” said Sylvia speaking of the 5’9, 240lb Monson.

“My hat’s off to Jeff, he’s a tough guy” Sylvia continued glancing over in the direction that Monson and teammate Rhadi Ferguson where standing in the room, “but he’s too small for the heavyweight division and I will prove that to him and to the world. I will knock his ass out” Sylvia concluded with a grin.

Source: InsideFighting.com