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Matt Mitrione would apparently rather pin his hopes to a fight against Quinton Jackson in the UFC than headline a Strikeforce card against Daniel Cormier.
Oh boy.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White never seems to be happy but this time he's got a legitimate reason to be both pissed off and confused.
When Frank Mir went down to injury and left Daniel Cormier without an opponent for the planned Nov. 3, 2012, Strikeforce event in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, it left the powers that be in Zuffa struggling to find a proper opponent to send over. After all, Cormier will be making the jump to the UFC once he finishes his obligations to Strikeforce and that's a delicate matchmaking endeavor.
According to White, speaking at the UFC on FUEL TV 5 post-fight press conference, Matt Mitrione was the heavyweight they settled on offering to go over to fight Cormier.
But he turned it down.
"Yeah, he turned the fight down. It's fucking insane. It makes no sense to me. I'm a little bummed out by it. Listen, you don't want big opportunities, I hear you. I get it, then. All I can say is, I guess he doesn't want big opportunities. I get it. Duly noted."
What makes it even more interesting is Mitrione apparently said no because he's pinning his hopes on the UFC putting together a fight against Quinton Jackson. White doesn't like that either.
"He wants to fight a guy who weighs 205, but doesn't want to fight the guy who's the real heavyweight, the legitimate guy who's ranked. And Mitrione's not getting any younger."
It should be worth noting that Mitrione and "Rampage" verbally agreed to fight each other on a recent episode of the MMA Hour with "Meathead" saying he wants it to happen because there's more money in it.
But the reality of the situation is he's already lined up to fight Philip De Fries at UFC 155 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas. And with Jackson injured, it's highly unlikely White would ever agree to move Mitrione out of that bout in favor of giving him what he wants, especially after he said no to assisting Strikeforce by taking the Cormier fight.
So Cormier still doesn't have an opponent, Jackson is injured, Mitrione will be fighting De Fries, and Dana White is pissed. Who wins here?
No one.


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