No mixed messages here

Dana White, the energetic president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, didn’t need to know the record-breaking pay-per-view and live gate numbers of boxing’s Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight earlier this month in Las Vegas.

White was ready to make a pronouncement, that mixed martial arts has surpassed boxing -- and the staged outcomes of World Wrestling Entertainment, for that matter -- as the most popular fight sport in the U.S.

“It’s got to the point we can’t be denied anymore,” White said. “We’re beating out boxing, we have the highest-tracking stories on any newspaper website that runs stories about us, and the only sport that competes with us in the 18-34 male demographic is the NFL.”

White’s point is still up for debate, but he decided to strike while the attention being heaped on his emerging organization is more massive than ever.

And it didn’t hurt to be making the bold claim in the weeks before the UFC’s main draw, Chuck Liddell, was going to fight.

Liddell, 37, of San Luis Obispo, will defend his UFC light-heavyweight title tonight against the third and last man to beat him, Irvine’s Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, in front of a sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Not only has Liddell (20-3) avenged previous defeats to Randy Couture and Jeremy Horn, he has won his last seven fights by knockout or technical knockout, and he has emerged as the UFC’s poster boy.

In the last month he has released a greatest-fights DVD, “Ultimate Iceman,” appeared in a cameo role on the HBO series “Entourage,” been featured on the cover of this week’s ESPN the Magazine, showcased on ESPNews’ first broadcast of a UFC weigh-in Friday, and noted both for his fighting prowess and college degree in this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story on the UFC.

“The UFC,” boxing promoter Bob Arum lamented recently, “is cleaning our clocks.”

The mohawk-wearing Liddell, UFC’s light-heavyweight champion since April 2005, has defended his belt four times, including a Dec. 30 technical-knockout victory over his high-profile rival Tito Ortiz of Huntington Beach. That bout drew more than 900,000 pay-per-view buys and generated a North American live-gate record of $5.397 million, according to White.

It couldn’t match the $19-million gate and 2.1 million pay-per-view buys of De La Hoya-Mayweather, but White’s point is that the monthly UFC shows are consistently more entertaining and popular than boxing’s next best monthly cards, such as last weekend’s dull Jermain Taylor-Cory Spinks middleweight title fight or the Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright bout in July that is drawing flat expectations.

Liddell, a 2-1 favorite in Las Vegas sports books to defeat Jackson, has added more drama by making clear in recent weeks that he’s out to accomplish what no other UFC participant has: two simultaneous titles. Beyond trying to beat Jackson, Liddell says he’s interested in pursuing UFC’s heavyweight title.

“I’d like to hold both [belts] at the same time; it’s never been done,” Liddell said. “It depends on the situation of what guys are out there, but especially with the [UFC] takeover of PRIDE [Fighting Championships], there are some good guys out there to fight.”

The UFC’s current heavyweight champion is Couture, 43, whom Liddell (20-3) has knocked out twice in the light-heavyweight division since losing to him in 2003.

Liddell first said earlier this year he wanted to fight the UFC’s recent heavyweight addition from PRIDE, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. But Filipovic, who was positioned to fight Couture for the heavyweight belt in August, suffered a stunning, first-round knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga last month, and Couture-Gonzaga is now set for August.

The attraction of fighting the winner, Liddell said, would mean he’d be poised with a victory to take on the man considered by many the most talented mixed martial arts fighter in the world, PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko of Russia. Emelianenko has held the PRIDE title for four years.

White, in announcing the purchase of PRIDE this year, said he would stage an annual “super bowl,” with the preliminary idea of pitting champions from the two organizations against each other.

Liddell first has to get past the wisecracking Jackson, 28, who scoffs at Liddell’s publicity wave. “Interviews, photo shoots don’t have anything to do with how he throws a punch,” Jackson said.

In 2003, Jackson beat Liddell in a PRIDE Grand Prix middleweight tournament. The PRIDE competition had a 10-minute first round, and Liddell was clearly fatigued after the session with Jackson, a tough brawler who showed he wasn’t fazed by Liddell’s impressive striking. The younger Jackson (26-6) pounced on Liddell in the second round, delivering a round of elbows and punches that achieved a technical-knockout victory.

“Whenever you beat somebody,” Jackson said, “you’re always in their head.”

While Jackson claims he has become more fit since the first Liddell bout, he has suffered three losses since, two to PRIDE’s former middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva.

After being signed by the UFC last year, Jackson fought Marvin Eastman in February and won by second-round technical knockout.

Jackson’s trademark body slam will be difficult to produce against Liddell, and says he thinks a cheering section will be hard to come by as well.

“I wanted to fight Chuck after the UFC fans knew who I was,” Jackson said. “A lot [of them] don’t know our history. They’re wondering, ‘Who’s this chump fighting Chuck?’ I think it would’ve made more money and made more sense for pay-per-view if we took more time. Think of all the new fans I could’ve brought in, fans who didn’t like my jokes and wanted to see me get my [rear] kicked, or those who did and wanted me to kick his.”

Liddell, meanwhile, says his improved training, footwork and punching accuracy since the Jackson loss should lead to a quick victory in a fight scheduled for five five-minute rounds.

“I don’t see it going much longer than one or two rounds,” Liddell said. “It’ll be exciting while it lasts.”

The card also includes a welterweight fight between Karo Parisyan (24-3) of North Hollywood and Josh Burkman (19-3).

lance.pugmire@latimes.com