UFC 92: Post-fight chatter
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The new champion of the UFC’s most popular division is Rashad Evans, a black man, and his likely next challenger is Irvine’s Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, another black man, who knocked out the respected former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva in the first round Saturday in Las Vegas.
Is the UFC, which overwhelmingly draws a demographic of young, white males, ready for this diversity?
‘We’ll transcend that,’ Evans told me after showing up at his post-fight news conference in a suit, wearing large sunglasses. ‘The fans love to see a great fight, to see a guy lay it on the line. As long as you have that, I don’t care who’s in there fighting, the sport will be a success.’
UFC President Dana White agreed. He said there’s promotion opportunities with Evans, based on his 18-0-1 record, the loyal MMA followers and the chance to expand the audience.
‘We have so much room to grow from the demographic we’re at now -- to the urban market, Hispanic,’ White said. ‘Rashad is a good person to do that. He’s a very smart, classy fighter, and one of the things I see happening with him that’s happened to other guys, like [Chuck] Liddell or Forrest [Griffin], is that once they feel comfortable in the octagon, they feel it’s their house and they become involved in more exciting fights.’
After the fights, White revealed Silva was OK after being knocked unconscious in the first round by Jackson, but it was learned that Griffin broke his right hand in his light-heavyweight title loss to Evans.
One of the most animated scenes from the loaded fight card came when Frank Mir, more than four years removed from a motorcycle accident that nearly ended his career, became the first man to knock out interim heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He then wiped sweat from his brow, and walked toward the ringside seat of his next opponent, heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Mir beat Lesnar in the former pro wrestler’s UFC debut early this year by first-round submission. Lesnar said upon beating Randy Couture in November that he wanted a rematch with Mir. Ringside, Mir barked to Lesnar, ‘Be careful what you wish for!’
A Mir-Lesnar bout will likely be staged in April or May, White said.
White also said he believes Jackson deserves a title shot against Evans, and that Victorville’s Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson will fight Diego Sanchez in the main event of a London card in February.
Nogueira said he’s intrigued by the idea of a future fight against Couture, and White said he might stage another Silva-Liddell fight in 2009 after their thrilling slugfest at the end of last year.
-- Lance Pugmire
