Fightsport scoop: REAL REASON UFC SIGNED PENN,TITO

[DUCE]

The following exclusive report was sent to us by our Zuffa informant called 'Coffee Guy':


"Apparently, Lorenzo Fertitta was embarrassed after UFC 55, and according to people close to the situation, he seemed to feel that Dana White was losing the plot and stepped in to fix a few things that were broken.

In order to fix things, he decided that they needed to re-sign B.J. Penn, Tito Ortiz, and Ken Shamrock, regardless of Dana's problems with Penn and Tito.

But an even more then just the ineptness of the former Boxercize-instructor-turned-UFC-president Dana White, Zuffa felt very threatened by the revelation that Don King was getting involved in MMA, and that he was going to be working with the WFA and planned to sign Tito Ortiz as their poster boy.

Supposedly, the way Zuffa sees it, by signing Tito, they can now control him and not allow him to get big under Don King.

It is said that Lorenzo is now more than happy with the outcome of UFC 56 and the response from the fanbase to the signings. As for the office staff at Zuffa, they are supposedly laughing at Dana White behind his back, and continue to feel that the former Boxercize-instructor-turned-UFC-president Dana White is supremely inept."

[Magog1]

It doesn't sound that huge, I heard Pride was scrambeling just a little after one of there more recent ppvs to improve the product (The shamrock, Sak one.) Well if any of this is true three chears for Don king. He got MMA back on track.

[DUCE]

who knows what awful things could happen with king running the show

[habbalah]

duce said:

who knows what awful things could happen with king running the show

Well that's not what I meant. I meant that Tito used the fact that Don king (the rumors that were floating around) was interested in signing him for Don's own mma promotion. You have to realize the part of the reason why this came through is the ufc decided to ante up against potential competition.

And don't start with "with how awful things could happen". I'm tired of hearing the "The sky is falling!" response from many mma fans when some unknown x factor introduces itself to the sport of mixed martial arts.

The sport does not have this glass jaw that's just waiting to be broken by one person. (God at least I hope not).

[Darth Turkish]

King's promotion would probably be similar to the XFL's short run

[DUCE]

(ear biting incident & who is the current heavyweight champion of the world?)