Just hours before the media e-mail about the call I was telling people that I expected the UFC to announce that they had signed Alistair Overeem before the holiday weekend. I still expect that announcement today, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong if they do not.
Even if they do announce Overeem, I have a hard time believing that they'd put him vs. Frank Mir in the main event slot of the first Fox show. Overeem is not a big name in America and he also isn't a "UFC guy" yet. Not as in, he hasn't been signed by the UFC, but in that he isn't a guy that Dana White and Co. can claim to have "made." It's a perfectly acceptable and understandable case of ego to want to feature one of "your guys" the first time you hit network TV. Mir vs. Overeem makes sense as a support fight, but I'd be shocked if it's a main event.
Another rumored fight that I don't see happening is Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua. Unless the UFC has managed to keep things very hush-hush Hendo is not yet under contract. Add that to the fact that Rua doesn't speak great English and I think you can rule that out. The first guys to headline a Fox event are going to have to do a lot of work on the media circuit, hitting up a variety of talk shows and likely programming on Fox News. I have a hard time seeing them putting anything that doesn't involve two solid English speaking fighters in the main event.
Unfortunately, talk of Tito Ortiz vs. Rich Franklin continues to pick up steam. It's a fight with two very guys who are very well established as UFC fixtures and two guys who are more than capable of talking up a fight in the media. It's just such a pointless fight in the long term that it almost feels like a waste.
The rush to get this show put on led to limited options for headliners though and it seems like the UFC may choose to go with Tito vs. Rich over putting together a fight like Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida as the opening and bumping B.J. Penn vs. Carlos Condit a week to the main event slot. To me, that maximizes excitement, personalities that are easy to sell and fighters with long-term upside.
We'll see what they end up announcing, but I know I'll be disappointed if it turns out to be Franklin vs. Ortiz.
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