UFC Press Conference Live Blog

After the collapse of Affliction Entertainment and the announcement that Affliction would reenter the UFC as a sponsor UFC President, Dana White, teased a "major announcement" for Friday, July 31st. WKR will be live blogging the press conference which starts in 15 minutes. 

- Things that we know going into the press conference: Zuffa has begun signing Affliction fighters, as of this moment we know of six. ESPN U.K. will broadcast UFC events. Tito Ortiz thinks today is a new beginning. 

- Starts out with Fedor talk and it appears that the UFC may be washing their hands of Fedor, "we tried everything we could possibly do to get Fedor into the UFC. We went above and beyond." White goes on to say that the UFC offered Fedor an "amazing" deal. 

- White says that M-1 can call him right now if they want to make a deal. Dana has now firmly punted the negotiations over to M-1. If Fedor ever comes to the UFC it will have to be through his and M-1's desire now. 

- That major deal we are still waiting to hear about is "very close." Speculate away!

- Vitor Belfort has signed with the UFC will fight Rich Franklin as the main event for UFC 103. 

- Dan Henderson next in line for title shot against Anderson Silva. Not Demian Maia next in line, real next in line. 

- The UFC has signed a three year deal with ESPN U.K. UFC events will be broadcast for free and in HD. 

- Tito Ortiz is coming back to the UFC and will retire with the promotion. 

- White confirms the other signings of former Affliction fighters. Full list here. White says they are in talks with 10 more fighters. 

- Mousasi is on White's radar though it was reported that he has signed a contract with Strikeforce. 

- Tito Ortiz acts like Tito Ortiz. Describes White as his "girlfriend." They fought and made up after Dana apologized. Ortiz was worried about competition in Strikeforce. Says that if he fought Frank Shamrock again it would be the first death in MMA history. Tito assures us that his finances are fine. 

- Ortiz expects to be back at the end of the year and is working with Freddie Roach. Someone needs to tell him that hasn't worked out so well for other MMA fighters. 

- Potential fight for Tito Ortiz would be a bout with Mark Coleman. 

- "You'll never hear anything about money out of my mouth again." ~ Tito Ortiz. Who wants to start taking bets on this one?

- White assures us that the UFC will go to Japan. 

- Dana implies M-1 wanted a 50-50 split in any event featuring Fedor. 

- From Michael David Smith, "Dana White: Everyone wants to see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, boxing promoters won't give them that fight. UFC gives fans fights they want." Except Fedor vs. Brock....

- White says that creative control is not an issue any more with the networks, though I think this means that the networks don't have a problem ceding production to Zuffa. 

- No interest in Andrei Arlovski or Tim Sylvia. Amazing how the times change.

- People seem to think Dana White will base jump off Mandalay Bay. As someone who has gone sky diving I highly doubt the Bay will let him base jump as that require a lot more training than simply going tandem with a professional. WKR foresees skydiving into Mandalay Bay as more likely.  

- According to White, UFC 100 did very well in Mexico with 25 million viewers. 

- Tito wants to fight in Mexico City. If this does happen Ortiz will have a built in excuse for losing because the air is so thin and polluted. 

- White thought they had ironed out all the previous issues. Thinks the sticking point is co-promotion. 

- "I was the nicest Dana ever in these negotiations." ~ Dana White describing himself during negotiations.     

- Dana goes off about the M-1 deal and starts yelling. So much for the whole not acting like dick now. 

- A lot of expletives that don't really solve anything but it shows that White is passionate!

- From Michael David Smith: "Tito Ortiz says he decided to fight in the UFC because he put a poll on his web site and his fans wanted to see him back in the Octagon." Ortiz is just a common man fulfilling the will of the people. 

- Call ends with White saying that while he and Tito may disagree in the future they will not be going to war again. Reconciliation is a beautiful thing.