The first shot was fired when ESPN decided to do a documentary-style piece for investigative news-show Outside The Lines on the monopoly that many believe the UFC is creating in the MMA world. Included was a focus on fighter pay ultimately sending UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta over the edge.

White then claimed he would release the UFC’s own video of the interview process with ESPN and now a clipof Fertitta talking about payments ESPN made to boxers for its Friday Night Fights series has been made public.

“There was a guy who walked away with $275 for a four-round fight (on ESPN),” explained Fertitta to the ESPN reporter interviewing him. “Our fights that we put on cable, we paid 10 times what the fighters (were) paid by ESPN.”

It remains to be seen what kind of coverage ESPN will give the UFC in the future, or if the fight promotion even has any care to be covered by the sports programming giant.

Check out the video of Fertitta below:

It has been said before by UFC President Dana White, and echoed more recently by UFC Chairman Lorenzo Fertitta; It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose in the UFC, leave nothing in the octagon and your spot is safe with the promotion.

While that may be the case with fighters such as Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell and Stephan Bonnar, dare I ask the question; What about Jorge?

Let me just issue this disclaimer: This is not a fluff piece on Jorge Gurgel although it may seem like it from the initial glance. The truth of the matter is that I’ve never been a humongous Gurgel fan. Not that I didn’t respect the man, I do, he’s just kind of flown under the radar for me until recently.

I’m a big fan of exciting fights. Who isn’t right? With that being said, I’m the type of guy that pays close attention to which two fighters are awarded “Fight of the Night” bonuses after every UFC.

That’s why it struck me as odd when it was announced that Jorge Gurgel was released from the UFC following his FOTN performance against Aaron Riley. Gurgel lost a close decision, but he fought his heart out and put his health on the line for us, the fans.

I couldn’t imagine how the UFC would release a fighter after such an exhilarating performance, especially since the fighter in question had a track record for bringing the crowd to it’s feet time and time again.

Let us not forget that Gurgel had previously been awarded FOTN honors with the UFC when he edged out a hard fought decision against Diego Saraiva at UFC 73.

How many other UFC fighters have earned two, or even one FOTN bonus while competing on the undercard?

According to Gurgel himself in an interview with MMAJunkie.com following his release from the UFC , the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt admitted that it was a habit of his to abandon his strong grappling background in favor of striking to insure an exciting performance for the UFC salary paying fans.

“(UFC announcer) Joe Rogan, everybody asks me. ‘Why don’t you do jiu-jitsu? You’d be in the top of the guys in the weight class if you would do jiu-jitsu.’ But I always get caught up in not being boring” confessed Gurgel.

“I have so much fun striking, and I love it so much,” continued the current Strikeforce lightweight. “And the high that I get that I look for when I train is to be in the octagon in heated exchanges. And we’re just going crazy punching each other, moving from a head kick or something. And the crowd goes from watching the fight to, ‘Wow.’ That’s what I feed on.”

This is why it struck me as extremely odd when I heard Lorenzo Fertitta quoted as saying that laying it all on the line basically insures your spot with the UFC during a Q&A session at the recent UFC Fan Expo.

“I don’t care if you win or lose. I don’t care about your record. I want you to come and fight,”said Fertitta. “If you come and fight and you lay it all on the line, then you will have a spot in the UFC.

“Perfect example. Look at Wanderlei Silva. Does anybody care that he lost his last fight? No, he is a bad dude and I would want to watch him fight every single time.”

But what about Jorge?

Well according to recent comments made by UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta during a Q & A session with fans at the UFC Fan Expo, match-ups between teammates are not an option.

“At the end of the day, we are here to see fighters and we are here to see fights,” Fertitta said when asked about the potential of teammate vs. teammate match-ups.

“If teammates don’t want to fight, then they are just going to have to go somewhere else,” he continued. “We don’t put up with that stuff.

“That’s just the way it is. You step up. You’re a UFC fighter and I don’t care who it is, you have to fight.”

It appears as though Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic may very well be making his return to the UFC after all.

Shockwaves were sent through the MMA community after it was reported that the feared Croatian knockout artist had plans of signing with the DREAM promotion in Japan following his recent stoppage of Mustapha al Turk at UFC 99. UFC president Dana White had reportedly done a verbal agreement for three fights with Cro Cop prior to his return to the UFC.

It has been reported on the Croatian website Index.hr that UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta flew out to Croatia this morning on a private jet to have a two hour conversation with Filipovic on his own turf.

The article goes on to state that both Mirko and Lorenzo were all smiles following the meeting and it is reported that Cro Cop was made an offer that would be difficult to refuse.

DREAM has yet to announce a bout for Filipovic, and it now appears very likely that Mirko will pick up where he left off in the UFC.

Credit to Fighters Only Magazine for the find