MMA Roundup: 5 Round Non-Title Fights, Dana White

Tomorrow will be all about UFC 129, with previews of each of the preliminary and main card bouts coming to you before the fights begin. In the meantime, there are some other things worth talking about, including one very welcome change that I have personally wanted to see for some time now.

Five round non-title fights are on their way

During the Fan Expo Q&A that was a part of the UFC 129 weekend in Toronto, Dana White gave very welcome news by saying that the UFC is “very close” to implementing five round non-title fights.

Now, this wouldn’t be for all fights, of course, but instead for “big fights”, with White’s example being Brock Lesnar’s upcoming heavyweight title eliminator versus Junior dos Santos. In other words, it sounds like many of the fights that I wished had been given five rounds in the past- Liddell-Wanderlei, Couture-Vera, and most recently Penn-Fitch being examples that come to mind- may be the kind of fights he is talking about.

There are still a lot of questions, for instance: would a big name non-title fight like Penn-Fitch 2 be a five-rounder if there was also a title fight on the card, or will this only be implemented when a non-title fight is the main event? But still, this is a step in the right direction. I may be in the minority on this one, but I wouldn’t mind seeing all main card fights being five rounds. Some would say they’d rather watch the prelims, but in most cases, the main card fights are the ones you most want to see; why not give them more time on the telecast? For every three-round stinker that you wouldn’t want to see two more rounds of, there are great three-round fights that would be even more epic if they had ten more minutes of time.

Besides, since we basically get to see nearly all preliminary bouts on most cards these days between Spike TV, ION and Facebook, what’s the difference? Let’s see some more of these big non-title bouts get decided by the fighters and not by the judges. Lastly, having five rounds to judge gives the judges themselves two more chances to get it right. Of course, it’s also two more chances to fuck it up. Let’s just move on.

Dana White has a lot to say

What else is new though, right? The always-entertaining (and always controversial) UFC president has weighed in on a lot of topics recently. Like what, you ask? Well, how about that he thinks Lyoto Machida’s recent string of bad luck has to do with money (he thinks Machida’s success made him change his style), and that Royce Gracie wants Matt Hughes again, but he’s reluctant to make that fight (or any other fight for Gracie) happen?

He’s also had time to get into a brief Twitter battle with Jenna Jameson, who took exception to jokes about Tito Ortiz not being liked by fans in the recent “Executive Iceman” video White posted (which depicted Chuck Liddell going about the duties of his new job in humorous fashion). Jameson pointed out that White pays Ortiz “a ton of money”, which makes little sense as an argument against Ortiz being disliked by fans (bad guys sell tickets, too), and White told her to kindly “shut the fuck up”, advising Ortiz to “put her on a leash”. White did say that the skit was nothing personal and that the Ortiz portion was just to play up the rivalry between Ortiz and Liddell, to which Ortiz said “thanks”.

Most interestingly, White has indicated that he’s going to talk to Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz about all of his recent boxing talk. “I know for a fact that boxing isn’t for him, because I’ve been in boxing for years. All of the boxers wish they were involved with us.” He added that he’ll be flying out to see Diaz and discuss the issue as soon as UFC 129 is over. On that note, I say good for Dana, as I’m similarly unconvinced about the notion that boxing has greener pastures for MMA fighters than mixed martial arts does. Diaz would not be a big name in boxing, and to depend on MMA fans to support his boxing endeavors is an iffy proposition, as well. He’d have to essentially start all over, and only the big names in boxing are doing extremely well financially, anyway.

Quick Shots

–Randy Couture had some interesting comments for MMAFighting.com recently, telling them that one of his main reasons for wanting to retire while he’s still near the top of his game is to avoid the awkwardness that Chuck Liddell had to deal with at the end of his career. “But I don’t want to stick around too long and have everybody talking behind my back like that and forcing me to make a decision that I really don’t want to make. I want to go out on my terms.” Of course, it would have been easier for Liddell to do so if Dana White would have kept his advice between them and not been preemptively announcing the Iceman’s retirement for him at press conferences and during interviews, right?

–Strikeforce may not be mixing with the UFC completely at this point, but it’s also far from “business as usual”, as Lorenzo Fertitta is assisting in the negotiations with Fedor Emelianenko’s constantly frustrating management team for a possible fight with Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Dan Henderson. It’s a fight both fighters seem to want, but the key here, as always, is whether M-1 Global can feel that they’re leeching off of Fedor enough. After all, Fedor’s only got so many fights left in him, and then M-1 will have to do what every other promotion in the world has had to do and try to make it on their own steam, instead of financing their shitty promotion with money earned by Fedor’s own greatness.

–In a fight that I really like, Matt Hughes will be returning to take on Diego Sanchez at a UFC event this upcoming fall, according to UFC officials. The fight has been verbally agreed to at this point, and should be a good test for both men. I’m excited to see what Hughes has left in the tank against a fighter who fights a somewhat similar style. I thought this fight would eventually happen back when Sanchez had first won “The Ultimate Fighter”, but a lot has changed since that point. Still should be a fun bout.

–Another fun bout that will actually be taking place outside of Planet Zuffa is the one this weekend between longtime MMA standout Jeremy Horn and former UFC middleweight contender Thales Leites. People hate on Leites for the Anderson Silva fight, but this matchup could make for some great jiu-jitsu. Also of note on the Superior Challenge card is a title fight between UFC veteran Rich Clementi and Swedish bad boy Reza Madadi, which should be a furious one if the near-altercation at the weigh-ins is any indication.

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Tags: Chuck Liddell, Dana White, Diego Sanchez, Jeremy Horn, Lyoto Machida, Matt Hughes, Randy Couture, Reza Madadi, Rich Clementi, Royce Gracie, Superior Challenge, Thales Leites, Tito Ortiz, UFC