by: Jack Bratcher
Tito Ortiz is on the one fight per year plan. He fought Rashad Evans in 2007, Lyoto Machida in 2008, and he promises to be back in the cage or ring with either the UFC or Affliction no later than July 2009.
When Ortiz left the UFC both he and UFC President, Dana White seemed to be saying “good riddance” of one another. However, it now appears that bridge has not entirely been burned.
White recently stated that “Lorenzo still likes Tito” which seems to mean maybe the UFC can still work something out with the Huntington Beach Bad Boy.
If it’s one thing Tito Ortiz still has it is his name. Ortiz still stirs a reaction in people; MMA fans want to either see him win or see him lose but at least for now it seems they still want to see him.
Another loss or two from the Bad Boy and that could change. He’s slowly starting to walk down the road of the Ken Shamrock’s and Tank Abbott’s of the world.
Tito made a special guest appearance last weekend at Fresno, California’s Rumble in the Park where he stepped into the center of the ring with the microphone and said, “It’s either going to be with the UFC or it’s going to be with Affliction, but guaranteed, you guys will see me fight — no matter what — by July.”
Ever the bad boy, the noticeably chunky faced blonde Ortiz then tosses the microphone to the ground and exits the ring in dramatic fashion. The entire scene was shown on this week’s edition of Inside MMA on HDNet.
Ortiz also mentioned he just went through the same back surgery Nate Quarry had. That’s a serious surgery and it’s very questionable if Ortiz could possibly be ready for action by July.
The last we heard from Ortiz he was just about to sign a deal with EliteXC. Now they are gone. His options to sign with a major organization are shrinking and even Affliction’s future is not entirely secure.
There is one good thing if Tito does sign with Affliction. So far they are fitting in perfectly with his one fight a year plan.