http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/OtherS...85972-sun.html
"By JOSE RODRIGUEZ, MANAGING EDITOR
Stop with the F words. They're insulting. In the fallout of the worst Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view I've ever seen -- and I've seen a few -- friends and foes of mixed-martial arts are throwing out F-bombs like bullets at an Afghan wedding.
Fixed. Fake. Fraud.
Now, I'm no UFC apologist but what we witnessed last Saturday was, quite simply, some bad fights.
Did referee Herb Dean stop the Ken Shamrock/Tito Ortiz bout too fast after only one minute and eight seconds? I don't know. I saw Shamrock eat no less than five wicked elbows. But was he in a position where he could no longer intelligently defend himself? I don't know.
What I do know, is that UFC 61 was flat.
I also know that any continuing rhetoric over whether the fight was fixed, or fake or fraudulent will only serve the bevy of naysayers who would love nothing more than to see mixed martial arts discredited. They already see it as being in the same league as WWE. They don't need any help.
So, let me set the record straight.
UFC 61 was boring. It was not worth the price of pay-per-view and, outside of the two Joshes and Yves Edward's bleeding skull, it will go down in the history books as a most-forgettable event.
But if it was fixed, I'll volunteer to go three rounds with Chuck Liddell -- sans gloves.
Surely, if UFC president Dana White wanted to go the way of pro-wrestling, he could have scripted a far better ending than the one disheartened UFC fans witnessed with the Ortiz/Shamrock bout.
Sometimes, when things aren't scripted, the door is left open for the unexpected. That can be a good thing -- Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar -- or a bad thing like the Ortiz/Shamrock shamble.
But I would much rather deal with a crappy card every now and again than a pre-determined soap opera.
So please, stop with the F words.
FIGHT NOTES: The best news out of UFC 61 came when UFC prez Dana White reconfirmed Canadian welterweight Georges St. Pierre will fight Matt Hughes for the title later in the year -- Sept. 28 is a likely date. He also announced the pride of PRIDE, Wanderlei Silva, will take on Chuck Liddell after Liddell defends his light-heavyweight title against Renato (Babalu) Sobral at UFC 62 in August ... The last man to beat Liddell was Quinton Jackson in 2003. Silva has beaten Jackson twice ... There are more rumblings the UFC and PRIDE, Japan's biggest fight company, will band together on cards. Ex-UFC middleweight Phil Baroni, who is now a PRIDE fighter, is scheduled to fight in the UFC in November ... Two high-profile young welterweights will take to the Octagon Aug. 17. Karo Parisyan will battle Diego Sanchez will fight in the main event of Spike TV's UFC Fight Night. Immediately following the card will be the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback. "
