The UFC is taking their vow of global dominance seriously. After announcing the opening of a Canadian branch, UFC President, Dana White, has his sights set on something bigger. A lot bigger.

“Right now, what we’ve used to go into Europe and even Australia is our U.K. office. But we’re looking right now, and here I go jumping ahead of myself and saying stuff before we do it, but we’re going to open an office in China.”

Home to over 1 billion people, China represents the largest market of potential customers in the world. While communist rule dictates practically every facet of their citizen’s lives, the UFC believes that mixed martial arts has a place in Chinese culture.

“The hardest part in launching this sport and launching the UFC was getting the U.S. done. We’ve got everybody done now except for New York, and we’re on the budget in June. The rest of the world – in Asia, Asia understands martial arts. They’ve been practicing martial arts for thousands of years. It’s going to be a lot easier. We’re there now. Lorenzo has been in China for the last 10 days, and we’re going to make it happen.”

Having established broadcasting deals with Inner Mongolia Television and Sohu.com, the UFC has already introduced their product to the Asian country; however, White has plans to vastly expand that coverage. In addition to hosting live shows in China, a future version of The Ultimate Fighter is on the horizon.

“‘The Ultimate Fighter’ is what really kicks it off, and you build stars in all these different regions. We’re working right now on ‘The Ultimate Fighter Middle East’ and ‘The Ultimate Fighter Canada’ that will be first. Then either before one of those or right at the same time will be ‘The Ultimate Fighter China.’”

After China, the UFC hopes to venture into India.

“In India, there’s 300 million males aged 18-24. That’s more people than are actually in the U.S.”

As White continues to expand the UFC’s empire, the logistics of hosting events in a timely fashion has yet to be vetted.

“This is is a work in progress. We bought this company, and we were doing five fights a year. If you would have told me six or seven years ago that we’d be doing 34 fights a year, I would have said, ‘That’s impossible. It’ll never happen. That’s crazy.’ We’re probably going to end up doing 100 fights a year. We could have a show [in the U.S.] on Saturday night and five more going on in five other countries. That’s what’s going to eventually happen. It’s figuring this thing out, putting the pieces together, and like I said, it’s a work in progress. But I’m telling you guys, I said it years ago, and I’ve been saying it – how big this thing is going to be. I think people are now really starting to realize how big this thing is really going to be.”

With such ambitious plans in the works, it appears that the UFC is determined to become the number one sport around the world. While it may take some time, the organization is working hard to make it an actuality.

“The NBA is over in China right now, and there’s a lot of people that are in to the NBA, but here in the U.S., in my opinion, there’s nothing bigger than the NFL. People that don’t even watch football watch the Super Bowl at the end of the season. I’ve been saying for years that we’re going to be bigger than the NFL, and people were laughing at me. Well, it’s starting to look like a reality now.”

(Source: MMA Junkie)

MMA fans watching last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter finally saw footage confirming rumors that Tito Ortiz had dropped out of his upcoming bout with nemesis, Chuck Liddell. Several weeks before the show aired, rumors swirled online that Ortiz was replaced by Rich Franklin. While the former middleweight champion wasn’t shown, previews of next week’s episode allude to the change. Further proof comes from the scheduled Liddell vs. Franklin bout at UFC 115 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Ortiz has since undergone successful surgery to repair damage to his neck. While he tried to work through the pain, it simply became too much. While he still seeks revenge against Liddell, Ortiz has decided to put his health first.

“I can’t fight hurt anymore. I can’t fight injured and look for excuses. I’ll get fusion C-5, C-6 in my neck. I’m scared but Dr. Smith is a great doctor. My lower back was hard but I got through it. He said that this is 10%-15% easier so I don’t know how much more that is. I was having problems wrestling, hitting mitts and getting punched in the head from The Ultimate Fighter. That’s why they pretty much fired me the last 5 days before the Ultimate Fighter was over.”

(Source: Bloody Elbow)

Two days before the most highly publicized fight of his career, “Sugar” Rashad Evans won’t allow fickle MMA fans to interfere with his mindset. Standing across the cage from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Evans knows that he must focus squarely upon his opponent, not the opinions of others.

“I’m never gonna please the haters, and I’m not gonna try to. At one point earlier in my career, I did wish it wasn’t like that because I’m a likeable person. But I realized people are gonna hate me no matter what. My momma told me a long time ago, ‘not everybody has to like you.’ And it’s very true. I’m ok with that. I just gottta get back to doing me. Part of the reason I started standing up (and) banging so much was because everyone said all I do is lay and pray and I’m boring. So I said, alright, I’m gonna develop my standup, and then I started knocking people out, and it was all good. But then I get knocked out in one fight, and all of a sudden I suck. Then I go back to my wrestling and win, and everybody is like, ‘oh my God, all he does is lay and pray.’ I can’t win with these people. But you know what? If they’re gonna hate me, let ‘em hate me.”

“Sugar” will have the chance to win over his detractors this Saturday night at UFC 114 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(Source: MMA Mania)