White, Headliners Offer ‘Validation’ for UFC 78

Absent from the East Coast since a Connecticut card in October 2005, Ultimate Fighting Championship's head office drummed up interest during a media conference call Monday for UFC 78: Validation, to be held Saturday inside the newly constructed Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

In the main event, "Ultimate Fighter" season winners Michael Bisping (Pictures) and Rashad Evans (Pictures) will put their matching 15-0 records on the line. The dynamic Houston Alexander (Pictures) is part of an eight-bout undercard.

All three athletes, along with UFC President Dana White, spoke to journalists Monday afternoon. While Evans and Bisping trumpeted their duel, an equal number of questions were directed at White, who addressed some of the more colorful rumors to make the Web rounds in the past week.

Contributing to the latest chapter in the Randy Couture (Pictures) debacle, White surprised listeners by saying that Couture had messaged him recently and the two are likely headed for a face-to-face meeting next week. The encounter would presumably be their first since Couture expressed his displeasure in his pay scale before submitting a faxed resignation in October.

"He ‘texted' me yesterday and said he wants to sit down and talk with me," White said, adding with a note of sarcasm that it made him feel "warm and fuzzy."

Couture has officially been offered a title defense, White said, presumably against top contender Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures), and Couture will "make a decision one way or the other." No interim heavyweight title is planned.

That's not the case for the UFC's lightweight division, which remains in flux after the California State Athletic Commission postponed their mediation on champion Sean Sherk (Pictures)'s positive test for an anabolic substance in July 2007.

"B.J. Penn (Pictures) and Joe Stevenson are going to fight for the interim title," White said. "We'll see what happens with Sherk. If he's found guilty, we'll support the California commission, and he'll probably be stripped of his title. If not, he'll keep his title, and it'll be champion versus champion."

The Penn-Stevenson bout, which will be held Jan. 19 in Newcastle, England, could either be a pay-per-view attraction or a SpikeTV offering.

White also discussed a fighter's symposium that took place in Las Vegas last week, where the majority of the organization's roster was invited to attend a series of lectures concerning steroids, contracts, taxes and general policy.

"The whole Couture thing happened, and I felt there was a lack of communication that I thought Randy and I had," White said. "The whole thing freaked me out, so I wanted to talk to them about that, too."

White also plans to have conversations with members of the New York State Athletic Commission soon, citing that his promotion had targeted more hospitable locales to hold events during its formative years.

"We haven't had the time to put effort into New York, but we're starting to," he said. "We plan on being in New York in late 2008 or early 2009."

Until then, East Coast fans will have to settle for Saturday's offering in Jersey.

Early talk about the show's main event centered on bouts involving rematches of controversial fights between Rashad Evans (Pictures)-Tito Ortiz (Pictures) and Michael Bisping (Pictures)-Matt Hamill (Pictures). Bisping-Hamill II was vaporized by an undisclosed Hamill injury; the latter was nixed when Ortiz claimed injury, White said: "Tito said he got hurt and couldn't take the fight. Then I found out he was shooting [Donald Trump's reality series] ‘The Apprentice.'"

White is happy with the Bisping-Evans end result. He predicts the winner will be held in high esteem.

"The guy who wins this fight will be top-five in the 205-pound division," White said. "No doubt about it."