MMA Rumor Mill 8.9.2011

By Sean McNie, Special to The Open Mat

It’s been an action-packed summer, and this past week has proved no different. With Rashad Evans’ historical display and the showing of Dennis Hallman’s naughty bits, paired with all of the chatter that has been flying around, it’s almost overwhelming how much there is to keep track of. Without further adieu, here are the rumors that have generated the most buzz in the past week.

The Deal Fedor Declined

Dana White gave a rather heated interview with Ariel Helwani after UFC 133 on Saturday. That’s kind of misleading, actually. Dana wasn’t fired up until he got to talking about Fedor Emelianenko.

In the interview, Dana White said that he offered Fedor and M-1 Global a “crazy deal,” and they walked away from the table. White said he offered “The Last Emperor” an extraordinary amount of money because he wanted to test him against the UFC’s best; Fedor’s first fight would have been none other than then-UFC champ Brock Lesnar.

Fedor and M-1 ultimately turned this deal down, which White said proved “[he] did not want to fight here.” DFW wouldn’t disclose how much the deal was actually for.

A source close to the Ferttita brothers (hammers hamill on the UG) claims that this deal was a 6-million dollar deal for 6 fights, plus a 2-million dollar signing bonus and a percentage of the revenue from pay-per-views.
In other Fedor rumors, it’s been said that Zuffa offered “The Last Emperor” a 2-fight $500k deal after his loss to Henderson, which he turned down.

Check out what DFW had to say about Fedor, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiDWtXeXGjw

UFC on Fox?

Back in June, it was reported that the UFC was looking to stray from its current contract with Spike TV. The promotion wanted establish a new all mixed martial arts cable network, and the G4 station was the initial target.
ESPN has reported that deals between the UFC and G4 have fallen through, but a deal with Fox could be in the works. The Fox Broadcasting Company has numerous affiliated networks, and Zuffa could make sports history by hogging an entire channel to itself. It’s rumored that FX or Fuel TV could be the two frontrunners.

It’s likely that the UFC and Fox will come to an agreement of some kind, especially considering the recent 2-year contract made between them to distribute UFC programming on the Fox Sports Latin America network. The Latin America deal is said to showcase all live events in18 different countries. Being an MMA fan is pretty damn good already, but a UFC-Fox merger could bring the sport to a whole new level.

McCorkle Double Dose

The ever-controversial Sean McCorkle has stirred up a few rumors this past week.

First, straight from a source at CageJunkies, McCorkle offered to fight the legendary Butterbean at a Combat Fighting Alliance event in October. “Big Sexy” recently did an interview with Steve Solar on CageJunkies, and his talk of fighting Butterbean was omitted from the final product. Interestingly enough, McCorkle recently started a thread on the UnderGround forum asking fans if they would be interested in this fight.

Another rumor is that McCorkle already has another opponent for the October CFA card. If this is true, could “Big Sexy” vs. Butterbean be next?

The second, and much more controversial rumor involving McCorkle, actually involves the beef between “former” teammates Alexander Emelianenko and Sergei Kharitonov.

If you haven’t been following, Sergei says Alexander is a drug addict and a derelict. Alexander says Sergei lies about his military service and is a closet homosexual. This has culminated in the now-infamous finger bet: Alexander offered to take a Hepatitis C test if Sergei was willing to bet one of his fingers: I’m ready to take the blood test for Hep C in front of any media and internet resources. If the results are negative he should cut his own finger. If the results will turn out positive I will cut my own finger.

Where does Sean McCorkle come into play here? It’s been rumored by an inside source that Alexander and Sergei are as good of friends as they ever were, and all of the trash talk is thanks to a new public relations company owned by McCorkle. Although I couldn’t find any information on if this company actually exists, it’s rumored “Big Sexy” started it up after he was cut from the UFC.

And here’s Fedor vs. Alexander in combat sambo just because: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PudPPYxZzu4

Thanks for reading! See you next week!