New Look World Fighting Alliance Unveiled
Greg Savage May 16, 2006
LOS ANGELES, May 15 — Matt
Lindland (Pictures) and Quinton Jackson (Pictures) along with World Fighting
Alliance brass met with the media to announce the return of the
WFA.
The fight will take place along with a full slate of mixed martial arts bouts on July 22 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and will also be available on Pay-Per-View.
WFA CEO Jeremy Lappen announced the July card would be entitled
“King of the Streets” and in addition to the Lindland-Jackson bout
it would feature fights between Ryoto Machida (Pictures) and Vernon White (Pictures); Ivan Salaverry (Pictures) and Art Santore (Pictures); and Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) and Ron Waterman (Pictures).
There has been speculation that Lappen’s WFA may not be on the best of terms with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the company’s CEO did nothing to dispel that talk, emphatically reminding everyone in attendance that “Rampage” was the man who “destroyed” current UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and that Machida was the only man ever to defeat UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (Pictures), as well as beat another high-profile UFC fighter, B.J. Penn (Pictures).
“The whole reason I signed with the WFA was to fight quality opponents,” Lindland told those assembled.
“[The WFA is] a fighter first organization and they’re going to take care of the fighters,” he said.
Jackson’s concerns centered on his treatment by PRIDE FC and his desire for much better compensation.
“All the years I’ve been fighting in these other shows and they been pretending they been treating me good,” Jackson said. “You know what I am saying? But all behind the stage they been dogging me to my face. You guys don’t even want to hear the horror stories.”
“It’s all about money. I am tired of fighting for chump change,” he continued.
The move up in weight for Lindland from 185 to 205 was also discussed, with differing opinions between the soon-to-be combatants as one might imagine.
“I whooped all the guys at 185 so I gotta move up!” Lindland proudly stated.
Answering critics who feel a move up in weight may be detrimental to the former UFC number-one contender at middleweight, Lindland responded: “I am definitely big enough to fight at this weight class and I am going to get out there and fight against the top guys and see where I am at.”
Jackson playfully retorted, “I think July 23rd he’s going to be going back to ‘85. When he sees a real, real 205, somebody who cut down from 230.”
The fight will take place along with a full slate of mixed martial arts bouts on July 22 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and will also be available on Pay-Per-View.
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There has been speculation that Lappen’s WFA may not be on the best of terms with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the company’s CEO did nothing to dispel that talk, emphatically reminding everyone in attendance that “Rampage” was the man who “destroyed” current UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and that Machida was the only man ever to defeat UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (Pictures), as well as beat another high-profile UFC fighter, B.J. Penn (Pictures).
When asked why the WFA was the right choice for them, Lindland and
Jackson’s responses gave a small glimpse into the thought making
process.
“The whole reason I signed with the WFA was to fight quality opponents,” Lindland told those assembled.
“[The WFA is] a fighter first organization and they’re going to take care of the fighters,” he said.
Jackson’s concerns centered on his treatment by PRIDE FC and his desire for much better compensation.
“All the years I’ve been fighting in these other shows and they been pretending they been treating me good,” Jackson said. “You know what I am saying? But all behind the stage they been dogging me to my face. You guys don’t even want to hear the horror stories.”
“It’s all about money. I am tired of fighting for chump change,” he continued.
The move up in weight for Lindland from 185 to 205 was also discussed, with differing opinions between the soon-to-be combatants as one might imagine.
“I whooped all the guys at 185 so I gotta move up!” Lindland proudly stated.
Answering critics who feel a move up in weight may be detrimental to the former UFC number-one contender at middleweight, Lindland responded: “I am definitely big enough to fight at this weight class and I am going to get out there and fight against the top guys and see where I am at.”
Jackson playfully retorted, “I think July 23rd he’s going to be going back to ‘85. When he sees a real, real 205, somebody who cut down from 230.”
