Quick Hits: White on Liddell, Fedor to Grapple Aoki, + More

(When he told her it was time to retire and give up the game for good, a tearful Paris Hilton told Dana: “But I am the game!” Only then did he fully understand the devils of fame and the ransom they demand. True story.)

– UFC president Dana White talked with Inside Fighting about the disappointing main event at UFC 97, and he also reiterated his commitment to keeping Chuck Liddell firmly in retirement, saying, “Believe me, it will be a f**king war if he tries not to retire, believe me.”  When pressed on other rapidly aging fighters who might need to be nudged into retirement, White admitted that Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira “are right there too and yes, I will pull the trigger on them too.”  Dear God, he’s not going to kill them, is he?!

– A crazy rumor on the information superhighway says that Fedor Emelianenko and Shinya Aoki will square off against each other in a special grappling match at the “Deep M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition” in Japan on April 29th.  I’ll pause a moment and let that one sink in.  If true this would be completely insane, but to deny that we would totally want to see it would be to deny the very curiosity of the spirit that makes us human, and we aren’t about to do that.

– After submitting David Bielkheden with a rear naked choke on the undercard of UFC 97, Canadian fighter Mark Bocek is going to be out six weeks with a torn ligament.  He says he won’t need surgery, just some rehab time, but he tore it a week before the fight and still went out there and achieved anyway.  That’s a man for you, right there.

– The UFC heated up the nascent rivalry between Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson by scheduling the two of them for a photo shoot on the same day.  Once they were in the same room tensions flared, according to Evans’ retelling of the event:

“I looked at him and I was like, what, man? He was like, ‘Rashad don’t talk to me, man! Don’t talk to me! Don’t say nothin’ to me! You don’t know me! You don’t know me!’ The (expletive) I need to know you for?”

Presumably that’s when the bell rang and they both had to get to class, but you best believe this is going to get settled at the park across the street after school.  Do not say anything to your homeroom teacher and blow this thing.