EliteXC Press Conference Recap: New Weight Classes, New Opponent for Kimbo

EliteXC held a conference call for the media yesterday to promote their November 10 card. Here are some highlights, courtesy of Sam Caplan:

- EliteXC has made official its weight classes: 140 lbs, 150 lbs, 160 lbs (LW), 170 lbs 9 (WW), 185 lbs (MW), 186-205 lbs (LHW), 206-265 lbs (HW), and 265+ lbs (SHW).

- A broken left clavicle will keep Mike Bourke from fighting Kimbo Slice on November 10. Bo Cantrell has been signed as a replacement.

- President Gary Shaw said that he'd welcome Randy Couture with open arms into EliteXC in virtually any capacity.

- Jake Shields and Mike Pyle will not be fighting for the welterweight title. Apparently, Pyle is unhappy with EliteXC and that his fight against Shields on November 10 will be his last with the promotion.

- Shaw said that he’s trying to get Antonio "Giant" Silva cleared for the card and that Yves Edwards is also a possibility for November 10.

- Shaw said he is open to using the tournament concept, not that it’s been reinstated in California.

- Kimbo has been training hard with Bas Rutten and has put smoking, drinking, and sex on the shelf for the time being. He noted that although he used to get high before some of his street fights, he'd never do that in MMA.

- Shaw said he'd like talk to Kimbo about getting him involved in pro boxing.

- Kimbo said he'd fight Tank Abbott "anywhere."

- Shaw said that EliteXC hosted Josh Barnett as a guest during their September Hawaii show and that he definitely has interest in Barnett.

- Shields said that a match with Paul Daley would be an easy fight for him (Shields) and one that he’d finish in the first round.

CBS Sports Interview with Dana White

Sam Caplan recently interviewed Dana White as part of a CBS Sports interview. Here are my favorite parts:

Babalu Sobral being released from the UFC: "Babalu is showing a bad track record lately. I don't like the direction he's been going in, and he needs to straighten his life out if he wants to continue to be a professional athlete."

I agree. Babalu was arrested in Miami a few weeks back, and his UFC 74 post-fight commentary and overall attitude was Bush League, especially for a fighter of Babalu's status.

A UFC return for Babalu?: "Absolutely. I like Babalu. He's a good guy and a good fighter."

That's what I like to hear.

Georges St-Pierre’s next fight: "He'll fight the winner of Hughes/Serra. And yeah, we're trying to do a fight up in Canada, so that one would make a lot of sense."

This will make for a great headliner, but I feel bad for guys like Karo Parisyan, Jon Fitch, and Diego Sanchez who are still waiting in line for their shot. Oh well...

A title shot for Roger Huerta?: "I think he's probably a good year away."

Thank you. I've been saying for a while now that Huerta is not yet championship material. Plus, the more he fights (and wins), the brighter his star will shine. That was fruity...

Fedor Emelianenko’s management team: "I don't like to talk about contract negotiations with the public but it didn't go well. These guys are crazy."

Dana, watch your mouth.

Liddell vs. Wanderlei on December 29?: "It's possible. Liddell would have to win. Liddell would have to come out injury free. There's a lot of ifs."

Keith Jardine is quite possible my single least favorite UFC fighter.

Josh Barnett: "He's just a punk. You know what? The thing is I don't want to even talk about Josh Barnett. Nobody even cares about Josh Barnett. I got Mirko Cro Cop, the guy that just beat the s**t out of him (Barnett). I'm not interested in Josh Barnett at all as far as who he is as a person or as a fighter or how he represents the sport. I don't like anything about him."

And Cro Cop just got his head kicked in by the guy Couture just embarrassed. Barnett is worth signing.

Denis Kang: "Denis Kang was supposed to be on Season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter but he ended up getting a good deal over in Korea. This is a guy we were looking at to be on season one of The Ultimate Fighter, I wouldn't call him one of the major superstars in MMA or one of the major superstars from Pride."

Kang on TUF? I never knew that had been in the works. I'm a Kang fan, but I agree with Dana; Kang is not a major superstar. He's close, but there are certainly bigger names out there.

Gilbert Melendez: "I'm very interested in him. He's under contract with someone else right now. But yeah, I'm very interested in him."

I'm glad Capalan asked about the undefeated Melendez, who's one of the most under appreciated fighters out there.

For the rest of the interview, click here.

Josh Barnett: Still UFC Heavyweight Champ?

The following was taken from Josh Barnett's official MySpace profile:

Let's get straight to it and say that Randy did a phenomenal job at UFC 74 in defending his title. As a fan and a fellow Washingtonian I was happy to see him win. But as for the title itself -- it still sits in my house. No one in UFC ever beat me for it, and as far as I am concerned, no one in the UFC can be the heavyweight champion until they take that belt off of me in the cage.

At the post fight press conference, Dana White said "there isn't anyone in the world that can beat this guy" in reference to Randy. All this because Randy beat a guy that had less than ten fights and only one noteworthy win? That's not even a world championship level fight, let alone reason to proclaim the winner as "unbeatable". This comment was made even more ridiculous by the fact that I was standing right there, living proof that Randy Couture is definitely beatable.

"Unbeatable", Dana says. If he actually believes that, I'm more than willing to step into the cage and prove him wrong. It wouldn't even have to be for the belt. I already got the real belt. They can keep their pile of brass they purport as the UFC Heavyweight Title and put it on their next paper champ.

- Josh

Straight Talk

"That’s the biggest pool at this moment but the best guy is not there and that would be Fedor. All those guys, the best they can do is [be] #2 in my opinion. I’m looking to fight with Fedor if possible. There’s enough guys floating around out there right now that could certainly make a good fight for me. I’ve fought many of the people there already and I certainly wouldn’t mind fighting Nogueira again or Randy. It would be a decent place for me to be. I have absolutely no problem with the cage. In fact, elbows are one of my best weapons.”

- Josh Barnett talks UFC heavyweights

Morning Droppings

- Top-notch heavyweight free agent and former UFC champ Josh Barnett says that he has spoken with UFC president Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta recently, that the UFC is well aware that he has "no beef with them," and that there are no personal issues keeping Barnett from signing with the UFC. "I just have not received any offers from them yet," he explained. Get on it, Dana!

- Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic told Dana White that if he beats Chiek Kongo at UFC 75 in London, he wants a shot at Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

- UFC officials confirmed this weekend that UFC 77 will be held on October 20 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, where hometown product Rich "Ace" Franklin will get a chance to reclaim his middleweight title in a rematch with Anderson Silva.

- First Sakurai, then BJ Penn, now Jon Fitch? A fight between welterweights Jon Fitch and Diego Sanchez is supposedly in the works for UFC 76 on September 22. I wrote a while back that a Fitch-Karo Parisyan fight would make perfect sense for the division, but what do I know.

- Also rumored is a welterweight fight between Anthony Johnson and Jess Liaudin at UFC 75, MMAWeekly reports.

- On Saturday night at the Arco Arena, 26-year-old Eraldo Cano reportedly fell 30 feet from the second level of the arena, and Sacramento County Sheriff's officials have confirmed Cano's death. There's no word so far as to whether alcohol played a role in this tragic death, and all signs seem to indicate that this was an accident.