Dana White Challenged To A Fight By Oscar De La Hoya, Ben Askren's UFC Debut Moved, Chuck Liddell

By Dana Becker

- Former UFC champion Chuck Liddell is the latest to be featured on the UFC 25 Years in Short documentary series. The episode, entitled "THE ICE AGE: The Story of Chuck Liddell," is available on UFC Fight Pass.

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Liddell, who rose to fame in the UFC with his knockout power, recently ended a long retirement by facing Tito Ortiz under the Golden Boy MMA banner. He lost via knockout.

- Former boxing world champion Oscar De La Hoya, who recently entered into the MMA promotional business with the likes of Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, has laid down a challenge to UFC president Dana White.

"Let's get in the ring," De La Hoya said during an interview with Luke Thomas on MMA on SiriusXM (thanks to MMA Fighting for the quotes). "Yeah, why not? Let's get in the ring. Three rounds, let's do this. Let's do this under Canelo Cinco de Mayo. I'll even give you five months so you can get off the juice and then we can, you know, get in great shape and then we go three rounds, and then, 'm going to give you what, a 50-pound advantage? That's okay, I can take you on. Let's do it."

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White, who has become engaged in a verbal battle with De La Hoya over money paid towards MMA fighters, responded via ESPN's First Take.

"It's one thing to sit around with your friends and lie. It's another thing to go on ESPN and lie," White said. "So here are the facts. I have paid Chuck Liddell more money over the years not to fight in the last seven years than he paid him to fight Tito Ortiz. That's a fact, number one. From 2011 to 2017, when I asked him to retire, we paid him around $400,000 a year to not fight."

- Ben Askren's long-awaited UFC debut has a new date, as the former Bellator and ONE champion meets ex-UFC titleholder Robbie Lawler at UFC 235. The event takes place on March 2 from Las Vegas.

Askren and Lawler were set for the January UFC 233 event that has since been cancelled. Bouts planned for that card are being moved to other ones, including a flyweight title contest between Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw.

UFC 235 does not currently have a main event scheduled.

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