Dana White may have been furious with “truck man” for pushing Joe Rogan to ask Ronda Rousey about the potential of headlining UFC 176, after her 15 second defeat of Alexis Davis, but the guy in the truck may have been operating under the guidance of a higher power. Namely, the rest of the UFC executives, which Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports reveals, had been discussing the potential of putting Ronda Rousey in the UFC 176 main event slot following her UFC 175 title defense. Apparently they had yet to share the idea with Rousey, or anyone in her camp, which quickly became apparent in the post fight interview, but the notion was being kicked around.
Another piece of news came out of the postponement. Fertitta said UFC officials had talked amongst each other about potentially putting Ronda Rousey in a title fight in place of Aldo-Mendes, though he said it never progressed as far as talking to Rousey or her team about it. Fertitta revealed that Rousey also broke her right hand in her successful title defense Saturday at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas against Alexis Davis.
There have been times when it feels like the UFC’s left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing, lately. As when Dana White recently shouted down Ariel Helwani for Asking Chuck Liddell about how he’d fare against Jon Jones, only to be told minutes later that the production staff had specifically requested that Helwani ask that question. These kinds of mis-communications are hardly anything new, but the increased schedule the UFC is operating on does mean that they seem to be happening more often and with more lasting impact than ever before.
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