UFC President Dana White yesterday said that he "would keep" a Ronda Rousey-Miesha Tate fight on Dec. 28 and that a rematch between Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva "will take place at a date to be determined," according to Lance Pugmire of the L.A. TIMES. White said earlier yesterday that he "didn’t want the possible 'biggest fight in UFC history'" in Weidman-Silva II "to contend for a sports audience on Super Bowl weekend, with the game being televised next year" by Fox. White said that he was "'tempted' to shift Rousey’s originally scheduled Dec. 28 bout against Tate to February, in order to pursue" the Weidman-Silva rematch on that date (LATIMES.com, 7/8). White said, "I'm thinking, why have a card that conflicts with the Super Bowl on Fox? We want our own date for this massive fight with no conflicts." Fox has been UFC's official broadcast partner since early '12 (ESPN.com, 7/8). Meanwhile, Pugmire cited a source as saying that UFC 162 on Saturday featuring Weidman-Silva "generated somewhere between 625,000 and 650,000" PPV buys (LATIMES.com, 7/8).
ALL BUT THE FINISH: ESPN's Michael Wilbon noted the net "can't actually show" Weidman's knockout of Silva due to UFC's rights policy. Wilbon: "The UFC people now are nearly as stupid as the boxing people, who said, 'Oh, pay for it, pay for it. We're going to treat this like it's so exclusive.'" But ESPN's Tony Kornheiser said the "demographics in this sport are young people who are Internet savvy, and they can find this if they want to see it" ("PTI," ESPN, 7/8).
