Rumour has it...

Rumours are a funny thing. In life, and in the life of the sports reporter. This being an MMA blog I'd like to look at some rumours specific to the Vancouver UFC card and just how credible they might be.

At times, I've found all sports rumours are only that--baseless, inaccurate stories that someone not too close to the situation has dreamed up. But at other times, exactly the opposite. Someone close to the situation has leaked the story, and it's made it's rounds. For those of us on the outside looking in, it's a case of "where there's smoke there's fire".

In MMA I've found the smoke and fire situation is often the case. I'm guessing it's because most of the rumours are coming from credible sources--those inside the promotions themselves. There doesn't seem to be a big gag order handed down from on high either. Case in point--the Vancouver UFC date of June 12th. We've known the date for months even though it's still not official. And the UFC doesn't care about the leak. Why would they? If anything it's a lot of extra promotion for them.

So with that in mind lets try and make sense of the past week or so of UFC rumours regarding the main event card for June 12th in Vancouver.

For a while now it's been held that the Vancouver main event would be Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. Both are coaches in season 11 of the Ultimate Figther. But a few "tweets" this past week from Ortiz has opened Pandora's Box of speculation. Ortiz has kept going on about how difficult taping of the show has been. About how challenges have kept coming up. It led to the suggestion that Ortiz was unable to finish taping the show due to injury or behavior. That while it seemed the UFC was looking for a dance partner for Rich Franklin. Some websites were reporting that now Franklin and Liddell had agreed to fight each other. And that Franklin stepped in and finished Ortiz's coaching gig on the show. At the writing of the post, some websites still have Liddell and Franklin headlining the Vancouver card. And they may be right.

But I'm not so sure. UFC President Dana White has denied it on Twitter:

"Nothing happened to Tito. Tito and I are cool". He added "we're doing Couture vs Franklin not Chuck".

Ortiz also tweeted a denial asking those doubters to look at White's words. And really, why would White lie? What has he got to lose? Even if Ortiz didn't finish the show, why respond at all?

But the rumours of Franklin-Liddell persist. In part because of a hospital stay for Ortiz. He apparently caught a very bad flu--and claims to have lost 15 pounds. But he's back home now and seems to be recovering well if you believe his tweets.

So is it Liddell-Franklin or Liddell-Ortiz? Well, here's the nugget that I believe points in the direction of Liddell-Ortiz and something even more exciting.

A couple of paragraphs ago I quoted a Dana White tweet which referred to an upcoming battle between Franklin and the ageless wonder, Randy Couture. It would seem the UFC is trying to get that fight signed and not only that, they're targeting Vancouver for that fight as well.

An article on the Boston Herald's website from last Thursday supports this. Franklin has been training in the Boston area recently and shared what could be next for him: "

“It’s not signed yet, but we’ve been working Randy now for a while. We’ve talked June, then we talked August and now we’re talking June again,” Franklin said. “I think we’re having problems with Randy’s scheduling. So I really don’t know what the plan is at this point.”

But if Couture can work out his schedule--apparently his acting commitments are the issue--June 12th is the target though we haven't heard from Couture on the matter. But remember White's tweet--and White usually gets what he wants.

A few posts ago I was a little nervous if there would be any big names left for the Vancouver card. But if all works out as it seems the UFC wants, we could be getting a hell of an event. Imagine, Rich Franklin and Randy Couture as the main event. Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz as the co main event. Also we'd be seeing the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Yoshohiro Akiyama, and Mirko Cro Cop along with plenty of other exciting up and comers and a couple of Canadians.

But again, be careful about getting your hopes up. These are all just rumours Sure, often where there's smoke there's fire. But remember, sports reporters have been fired over reporting rumours.

Enjoy the next crazy week of UFC events! And come see me at the Forum Sports Bar on the 27th. I'll be hosting the pay per view and giving away some MMA stuff provided by my friends from Spartan Fighter Wear.