Add UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell to the growing list of UFC superstars — Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre — who are considering fights in other divisions.
UFC President Dana White revealed last night on MMAWeekly radio that the "Iceman" is willing to eventually move up to heavyweight and face superstar Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, according to FightReport.com.
In addition, White wants former UFC middleweight Phil Baroni to knockout Frank Shamrock and if he does he'll bring "The New York Badass" back to the UFC in two seconds.
Baroni was released from the UFC on 2005 after four consecutive losses to Matt Lindland, Evan Tanner (twice) and Pete Sell. Fortunately, he rebounded in PRIDE and is still one of the most talented, entertaining and funniest fighters in mixed martial arts.
I was unable to listen to the segment, but FightReport.com has a nice summary of the discussion.
Here are some of the other nuggets from last night:
- The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 will be the best season yet
- We might see a Hermes Franca-Sean Sherk fight
- Brandon Vera has one more fight and is currently negotiating with him — Vera is insane if he leaves the UFC
- If Zuffa purchases PRIDE FC, he would try and run it as a separate promotion in Asia
- He does not ‘get' the IFL at all ... MMA is not a team sport and it never will be
- Evan Tanner, Stephan Bonnar and Paul Buentello are welcome back to the UFC
- He will not rule out the return of Matt Lindland to the UFC
- Expect the UFC to bring in more international talent
- Cro Cop gets winner of Sylvia-Couture in the summer if he gets past Gonzaga
- Chuck and Rampage get one more fight each before facing each other
- He was half-ass joking when he had the exchange with Rashad about him fighting his friend Keith Jardine. However, at the end of the day these guys will fight their mother for the right amount of money.
- We might see champions from the WEC and UFC one day fight one another
- The HBO deal is still a work in progress, including who will announce
- He and Tito will box on April 24 possibly for charity on the Internet
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