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UFC 84 Fighters Fired Up! |
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Written by Beau Dure
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008 |
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The UFC approach of putting more than one marquee bout on one fight card means the subplots can be as tangled as a full season of Lost.
The top fight at UFC 84 Ill Will, broadcast on pay-per-view Saturday, 10 p.m. ET from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is a lightweight title bout between two fighters who have exchanged plenty of words. Former champion Sean Sherk (35-2-1) lost the title last year after a positive test for the banned substance nandrolone, a test current champion BJ Penn (13-4-1) has been more than happy to bring up in the pre-fight media events."Sean Sherk, you're dead," yelled Penn in a postfight interview UFC has worked into its trailer for the fight card.The California State Athletic Commission reduced Sherk's suspension in December from one year to six months, which Sherk said in a recent conference call was evidence of that the test was flawed."I didn't take anything, and the California Commission, I think, knows that I didn't take anything, too," Sherk said. "Sean Sherk has never done steroids in his life."Another UFC feud plays to a dramatic conclusion — for now — when Tito Ortiz (16-5-1), the colorful personality who competed on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice and is known for taunting fallen foes with crude T-shirt slogans, fights unbeaten Brazilian light heavyweight Lyoto Machida (12-0).Ortiz and Machida haven't shown any mutual hatred on the level of Penn and Sherk, but Ortiz is leaving UFC after this fight, and UFC president Dana White doesn't want the Octagon door to hit him on the way out."This guy doesn't want to be a fighter, anyway," White says, referring to Ortiz's celebrity endeavors.Ortiz, in an interview with mixed martial arts site Sherdog, says White is alienating many people in the business world and calls him a "wanna-be gangster."White says Ortiz is a liar, and not much of a fighter."This is Tito's last fight, and a lot is being played up on the beef between Tito and I," White says. "Tito's going to go away because we're really not that interested in Tito any more.…He's not at the UFC level any more."Also on the card is another bout with big-name light heavyweights, with Brazilian and former Pride FC champion Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1) facing Keith Jardine (13-4-1), whose reputation soared with a split-decision win vs. Chuck Liddell in September. He also has beaten contender Forrest Griffin.(USAToday Contributing: Sal Ruibal)
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