Wrestling Observer: What is the situation as far as Pride on TV in the US and in Japan? Is there anything that you’re close to working on as far as that goes and what is the status of the FNS contract with Pride?
Dana: I’m working on those deals right now, and I’m going to go out on a limb and guarantee that we are going to have a huge TV deal here in the US for Pride and a good one in Japan too. I’m feeling very confident.
Wrestling Observer: Markets, whether it be Dallas, TX or East Rutherford or Montreal I know you’ve talked about all those cities, but any kind of firm dates or cities that your that your marketing shows in by the end of the year? In the US or Canada
Dana: In the UFC?
Wrestling Observer: Yes.
Dana: We are talking about, Chicago, Washington DC, Boston, Albuquerque.
Wrestling Observer: Ok, is there any thought or any future of “Inside the UFC” or a time frame that, that might be brought back? Or is that a dead issue?
Dana: No, it’s not a dead issue, it is coming back, I don’t know when though. We are working that out right now too.
Wrestling Observer: How did the tryouts for the next season of TUF?
Dana: It went great, it went good. You know, we do those things, but we pretty much know who we are looking for but we like to do the casting calls because we find some people, every time we have done it we have found somebody that we have used and it turned out to be great. So it went well.
Wrestling Observer: Is it going to be a US/Canada theme or is it just going to be a similar thing to what there doing this season?
Dana: Well Canada the US and the UK are all part of the try outs for TUF.
NBC Sports: (To Dana) I was wondering if you could comment on Roger Huerta on a next possible fight, how far do you thing he is from possible title contention and how important it is for the UFC to have a Latino fighter with his appeal as the organization expands to new markets.
Dana: Mirko you can go ahead a drop of the line, I know you have some training to do buddy. Thanks for coming on today, see you in the UK.
Mirko: Thanks.
Dana: Roger Huerta is an amazing fighter, he is a very marketable fighter for us, we couldn’t be happier as far as his title show, that is a rough division, we are going to take our time with him and keep building him up and giving him good fights. I mean that kid he fought last time, he had a war with that kid and those are the type of fights that will take him to the next level. But as far as going out and looking for a Hispanic fighter that kid is a dream come true.
NBC Sports: Is there any kind of time frame you are looking for his next fight?
Dana: He will probably fight within the next 3 months, no names though; I don’t have anybody off the top of my head.
Orange County Register: As far as the live gate for the show this weekend, is it being affected at all by Rage Cage’s event that is going on at the same time this weekend?
Dana: We are sold out. [laughs]
OCR: Guess that answers that question.
Dana: Yea, we are sold out, there has been this whole battle thing built up between us and Cage Rage, but listen, at the end of the day the companies like the Cage Rages’ of the world and companies like that, the UFC and Pride, needs those type of organizations, they build the up and coming talent that is going to end up in the UFC. In no way shape or form do I think that Cage Rage or any of these other companies are going head to head with us, but they are necessary, we need them we are not trying to stomp them out or put them out of business or we are trying to take the same gate as they do and all this crazy conspiracy shit. We need the Cage Rages’ of the world to bring up, up and coming talent.
OCR: Did you guys expand the arena to accommodate more people or what is the size configuration.
Dana: Yea, the way that the layout works, when we get the octagon in there and set up the floor seating, and we got a bunch of kills for the screen, so now when we get there we will adjust the screens so that we can open up more seats and selling some obstructed views too. So once we get there and start looking at it, we will try to do everything that we can to open up more seats and sell more.
Sportsline: I have a question about Fedor, you guys claim that you sort of have a contract with him, but it is not exclusive. If he were to go and sign with another promotion would you somehow seek an injunction to keep him from fighting for another promotion or is he technically a free agent at this point?
Dana: He is not a free agent and absolutely I would slap an injunction on it.
Canadian Press: You’ve had some incidents recently with some high profile fighters and some high profile bouts testing positive for drugs, Sanchez and Gillard. Now I know a lot of other test have come back negative but are you concerned that some of these so called social drugs, cocaine and Marijuana, would you, if you haven’t done so already, think about introducing random test to your fighters as an organization?
Dana: Yea, I’m never excited when guys test positive for anything, whether it is casual drugs or social drugs or steroids, it is one of those things, as the sports gets bigger and more and more people get into the sport things happen, I can’t be with these guys 24 hours a day and as far as testing guys, all the guys who come in through TUF are drug tested and steroid tested. I don’t know what else to do, it is a problem, and I’m sure it will be a problem for a long time.
Direct.net: I was wondering if Andre Arlovski was offered the fight with Cro Cop or was approached about fighting Cro Cop, I know Arlovski has fought for the title in the past, had that terrible fight with Sylvia at UFC 61, but on the same token Gonzaga didn’t have too good of a showing at UFC 56 I believe it was, so was AA approached for this fight or not.
Dana: No, AA was set to fight Werdum and you know if Arlovski wins that fight, he will probably face the winner of Cro Cop and Randy Couture.
Wrestling Observer: Do you have an update as far as when Sean Sherk would be available to fight.
Dana: Yea, I think we have a plan for Sean Sherk to fight in July 7th.
Wrestling Observer: And this is the fight with Hermes Franca?
Dana: Yea, That is the Ortiz/Evans fight.
Wrestling Observer: And is Anderson/Nate fight also on that Card?
Dana: Yea they are, it’s a good card, really good card.
Wrestling Observer: Is it official Sacramento at this point or not?
Dana: Yea it is pretty much official at this point. We were trying to do Atlanta and it didn’t work out.
Wrestling Observer: Are you going to try to get a date in Atlanta by the end of the year?
Dana: Yea, we are.
MMANews.com: I was just wondering what the Dan Henderson situation is? Will he keep both belts, or will he be striped of one?
Dana: No, we wouldn’t strip him of one, but I have no idea of how that whole thing is going to play out.
MMANews.com: What about guys like Shogun, will he be showing up in the UFC or will be staying with Pride?
Dana: He will be staying with Pride. All the guys that are in Pride will stay with Pride.
Long Beach Press Telegram: Follow up to the HBO question, are the announcers going to be HBO announcers or are they going to be Mike and Joe? What is the situation with that?
Dana: HBO
LBPT: So does that man Jim Lampley or
Dana: Hell No, Hell No.
LBPT: So, you don’t know who the announcers will be from HBO?
Dana: No, It won’t be Lampley or Merchant, I guarantee you.
LBPT: There have been a lot of upsets so far this year, you know, Couture, Matt Serra defeating GSP was a shocker, how difficult does that make you job, like, planning ahead and then trying to eyeball fights down the road.
Dana: It’s hard, you know, I never really can plan ahead, this isn’t the WWE, we can only go so far because you never know what is going to happen. It is part of what makes the sport so exciting. Everybody went in to that fight knowing that GSP was going to beat Matt Serra. And when that doesn’t happen it is amazing it is increasable it is very exciting. So you know, it is a great part of the sport, but it is tough being a promoter and trying to plan ahead.
Question (don’t know who it is): I’m interested in the future, if your going to have fights between Pride and the UFC champs what rules will you have, UFC rules or Pride Rules?
Dana: It’s not UFC rules, it is the Unified MMA Rules, Which was put in place by the athletic commissions here in the US, those would be the rules that we would follow.
Fight Network: GSP has went on record stating that he has requested a fight on the July 7th card, If you guys can accommodate him, although, he said you guys said that August is more likely.
Dana: Yea that is probably true, we’ve got that July 7th card stacked already.
Fight Network: At this point do you have any idea who you put against GSP in August?
Dana: No, we don’t know yet.
Fight Network: Shoguns representation recently went on the record, and stated that Shogun said that he signed a contract for 2 UFC fights and then 2 Pride fights, but you just stated that all the Pride guys will stay in Pride, so what does Shogun mean that he signed a contact for 2 UFC fights.
Dana: I have no Idea, it is not true.
LA Times: When would a Cro Cop/Couture fight take place?
Dana: August
LA Times: Can you give anymore details on the HBO deal? How many fights are you planning a year and how many years is this deal, and specifically when would the first date be?
Dana; No, we haven’t signed or announced anything yet, I’m just being cocky and telling you that we will be defiantly be putting on a show this summer.
LA Times: Do you have a month?
Dana: Nope.
Ringside Mag: How did you guys arrive at Belfast of all cities for the next Europe show?
Dana: We will have 4 to 5 fights this year in the UK, so we did London in 03, we just did the M.E.N., so we figured that we would go over there and do an event.
Ringside Mag: Do you have any security concerns regarding Belfast?
Dana: No, we don’t. It’s changed over there a lot, when you thing of Belfast you think back to the crazy days, it’s changed a lot over there. Not as scary as it used to be.
CBS: Before Sak left Pride he apparently went down to Brazil and signed Shogun to a 4 fight deal and attempted to sign Wandy to a deal as well, apparently that wasn’t successful. Is Silva still contracted to Pride or is he a free agent?
Dana: No, Wandy signed a 6 fight deal with Pride not too long ago, and I think he has only fought twice; he has 4 fights left with Pride.
CBS: Can you sort of Clarify the kind of fighters that we will be seeing on HBO?
Dana: All of our top guys, you will see all of our top guys on HBO, you will see Big Nog you will see guys that win TUF, you will see guys that have been fighting on Spike for a long time and are making there way up the ladder. There will be great fights.
CBS: Now with all of the HBO shows, the Pride PPV’s and the UFC PPV’s is there still going to be room for the UFC Fight Nights?
Dana: Yes, there will still be UFC fight nights. And the WEC starts live on Versus this summer too, so. A lot of MMA.
Post Bulletin: You mention Pride contracts a little bit, there are a lot of guys Like Nick Diaz and Travis that have just signed contracts right before you guys took over, are you going to honor all Pride contracts?
Dana: Of Course, we have never not honored a contract, ever. There is a lot of talk about this guy said he signed for two of this, this guy says he is a free agent, this guy said that, It is a crook of shit. The same thing happened when we bought the UFC, everybody started scrambling to renegotiate there contracts, it is a shitty part of the business, but we will get it all figured out. We will get this whole thing on track. I mean this is just a fraction of what we have to deal with coming in and doing an acquisition like the Pride one, Pride is a major organization, you know, they put on big events in Japan and here in the US, you know there is a lot of things that they did great and a lot of things that I think will be done better now. They will get more exposure here in the US. Like I said, I’m confident that we will end up with a major TV deal in the US for Pride. A Major TV deal for Pride in Japan, and a lot of good things are going to happen so, we just have to get our arms around this thing and get it rolling.
Post Bulletin: So how do you deal with these non-exclusive contracts that Pride has?
Dana: That is a good question because I’ve never been in this position before; we are still trying to figure that out.
Post Bulletin: Like a guy like Travis Wiuff who just fought in Texas, well he has a 3 fight deal with Pride.
Dana: Trust me when I tell you I’ll Fix it.
Real Fighter Mag: Most fans seem to think it is unfair to classify Marijuana as a performance enhancer, do you think that Nick Diaz was recently given a fairly harsh sentence from the NSAC?
Dana: The day they legalize weed, and then you might have that argument. Until then, how are you going to argue that weed isn’t an illegal drug, or it’s not this or it is not that? It is an illegal substance, you can’t smoke weed whether you’re fighting or not fighting unless you have a doctor’s prescription.
Real Fighter Mag: If they had a prescription would that be different?
Dana: I don’t know I guess so, that would be up to the NSAC.
Real Fighter Mag: Mirko Cro Cop had a relative easy first fight in the UFC; Do you see that same thing for Big Nog?
Dana: No, I don’t. I think Nog is going to fight one of the top guys right off of the bat.
Real Fighter Mag: Why does he get a tougher draw than Mirko?
Dana: I don’t know the answer to that question.
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