"I wouldn't have minded seeing Houston Alexander get the shot at Liddell. I told [Dana] White when we spoke on the phone when the Liddell-Jardine match was signed that I didn't like it and didn't think it was an appropriate main event. Even though White and Jardine trainer Greg Jackson point out that Jardine got caught as a way of explaining his quick knockout loss to Alexander on May 26, in my opinion, Jardine wasn't nearly at Liddell's level even had he, as expected, beaten Alexander. No disrespect meant to the "Dean of Mean" here because I like him as a fighter and he's a good guy, but I would rather have seen Liddell fight Shogun Rua on the Sept. 22 show. Rua fought in Pride before coming to the UFC and White wants to expose him to the UFC audience before putting him in a big event like that. But I think enough fans know Rua and would have gotten excited by a Liddell-Rua main event that it could have, and should have, been made."
-- Yahoo!Sports sports writer Kevin Iole -- who recently interviewed UFC President Dana White -- provides some insight into the match up of former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine at UFC 76: "Knockout" on September 22 in Anaheim, Calif., as the main event. PRIDE FC standout, and perhaps the most talented 205-pound mixed martial artist in the world, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is making his UFC debut that same night against Forrest Griffin. Had a Liddell-Shogun fight been booked it would have pitted the two best fighters in the UFC division against one another.
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