The UFC 75 main event between UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson (27-6 MMA, 2-0 UFC) and PRIDE welterweight and middleweight champion Dan Henderson (22-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) will, in fact, be a title fight.
Today on The Stephen Quadros Show, Quadros and and co-host Aaron Crecy passed along a report -- citing Zuffa LLC (parent company of the UFC) sources -- that the fight would be for the UFC light heavyweight championship.
Earlier today, we passed along a report from the Orange County Register in which UFC president Dana White was quoted as saying that the fighters' belts would not be on the line. With the update from Quadros, though, yesterday's report now seems erroneous -- possibly the result of a simple misunderstanding.
And now, even though the fight appears it won't unify the titles as White first mentioned, the bout reportedly will have the UFC's 205-pound title on the line.
Henderson, it seems, will retain the PRIDE belt regardless of the fight's outcome.
Jackson, a former PRIDE fighter who transitioned into the UFC earlier this year, picked up the light-heavyweight belt by defeating longtime champ Chuck Liddell at UFC 71.
Henderson, a U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler, won the UFC 17 tournament in 1998 before heading overseas for a successful career in PRIDE. After winning the organization's welterweight title, he scored an upset of Wanderlei Silva at PRIDE 33 earlier this year to pick up the middleweight belt, as well.
Ever since UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta purchased PRIDE earlier this year, the Japanese-based organization has been in a state of limbo. White even went as far as calling the business "a mess," and with numerous PRIDE fighters being signed to UFC contracts, it's remains unknown if an event will be held under the PRIDE name anytime soon.