After the reported sale of the UFC, Sean Wheelock believes there will be a “seismic shift, not just in the UFC, but in all of MMA.” Wheelock believes the UFC will officially sell after UFC 200. “It’s really lining up for that,” he remarks. “There’s something with humanity where we like round numbers. I think it will, for whatever reason, make the Fertitta brothers happy.”
Ben Askren believes that after UFC is sold, “Dana White is going,” but Joe Warren disagrees. “He’s going to be there for six months” and then he will be out, says Warren. Wheelock is not convinced White will be there for the long term either. Askren believes “Dana is a part of what the UFC is” and that is why it will be so hard to move him.
Wheelock asks, “Who could step in and run the UFC” if Dana White left the organization? Warren immediately goes to the current Bellator president Scott Coker. Warren calls the sale “ a scary situation for UFC fighters.”
Josh Gross talks his new book Ali vs. Inoki
Josh Gross, author of Ali vs. Inoki, joins the program to talk about his new book. Gross explains the fight “was a shoot in the end. It was initially supposed to be a work with a script and an outcome.” Gross says, “You could say this was not a legitimate contest because of the rules and how handcuffed Inoki was because of the rules.
Askren recalls seeing clips of this fight where “Inoki spent most of the time on his back, boot scooting” and asks Gross, “What was the pre-discussed rule set?” “There were a lot of rules,” says Inoki, “Inoki could not stand and kick” and “All Ali had to do was touch a rope and they would be separated.”
Warren believes this could be considered “one of the first mixed martial arts fights ever.” Gross calls the bout “a mixed rules contest” and adds, “there were a lot of things that Inoki couldn’t do that he really complained about.”
Fedor Emelianeko wins in St. Petersburg
Fedor Emelianenko’s fight did not interest Askren or Warren. Askren remarked, “Who cares?” when asked how he felt about the fight. Warren says, “The fight was terrible, period.”
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