Dana White Says Tito Ortiz UFC Return “a Possibility”, Mum on Affliction But Promises Big Things To Come
After posting “welcome back Tito” earlier today on Twitter, UFC President Dana White was a guest on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas on Friday evening and discussed his relationship with Tito Ortiz and his possible return to the Octagon.
Though White stopped short of announcing that the UFC had re-signed Ortiz, it was clear that the long-time rivals had largely settled their differences, with White saying it was “a possibility” that Ortiz, who is eligible to return to fighting this fall after undergoing major back surgery, could soon be competing in the UFC once again.
While on ESPN Radio, White declined to offer any official details on the promotion’s rumored deal with Affliction, which ceased promoting MMA events on Friday to become a UFC sponsor, but promised big things to come as the promotion is working on several major deals with its sights set on topping its record-setting UFC 100 event, which took place on July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
White also confirmed that UFC 100, which was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir and Georges St-Pierre vs. Thiago Alves, drew more that 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, and said he’s in talks to fulfill his promise of base jumping off of Mandalay Bay if the event exceeded 1.5 million buys.
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Tags: Dana White, Tito Ortiz
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What a day!
Man what is going on for real??
It’s so much misinformation going on and different stories and about this and that, ex KIMO dead, oh no he is not, Barnett is fighting Fedor, oh no he is not, Bisbing is fighting Wandy, oh no he is not, Alliction and Strikeforce are joining together, oh no they are not, Belfort will be signed and fight A. Silva, oh no they are not maybe!!
Overeem is fighting Werdummmmmm oh no they are not!! Too much going on OH Tito is back in the UFC oh no he is not, maybe, welcome back!
Tooo much back and forth now a days soo i’m just gonna sit back and let the smoke clear and see what happens and not try to guess to hard at what is goin’s on’s!!
Hey ya’ll guess what I just heard, Miguel Torres is going to fight Fedor!!!
OT1, my friend….I think this day has been a bit much for you, so I suggest you have some water, take some deep breaths, and go have a bit of a lie down as our UK friends owuld say, end everything will look better in the morning.
Unless Donald Trump announces tomorrow morning that he’s bought the UFC or something like that.
Jchol what up playboy!!!
Yeah man it’s crazy right now with all this back and forth stuff but hey I personally love it to be truthful. MMA is a sport that is all year round unlike baseball or football or Basketball, when it over for the season it’s over leaving you almost empty till the next sport starts up and rolling and if you are like me I only get motivated by my “HOME TEAM” or the PLAYOFF’S in each sport mostly.
Whereas MMA i’m hype all year long DAWG!!
Sooo Save-the ta.tas
Dont worry too much about me running my life I’ll be just fine homie, I will just sit back let the smoke clear or should I put it let, relax like my boyyy JCHOL said pop a cold one and enjoy the ride and see what develops like we all in the end do anyway!!
I’m a laid back fun guy who loves life!! women!!! and party’n!!! whats so wrong with running my life like that shawty???!!
“Tooo much back and forth now a days soo i’m just gonna sit back and let the smoke clear and see what happens and not try to guess to hard at what is goin’s on’s!!”
Sounds like a good way to run your life in general, not just dealing with the news…
The above comment was for you Bsbiz
And a question for ya as well, whats wrong with letting the smoke clear and see’ing what happens.
How is that to be perceived my friend as a bad thing?? Or running my life???
I was joking when I typed that, you know pretending to be overwhelmed with all the back and forth here lately.. Which is why I said Migel Torres is fighting Fedor????
I didn’t say I wouldn’t watch or deal with it I’m simply not going to get to worked up over all this back and forth over what we already {Jchol, dbiz, Justin, Fr702 ex.} posted was going to happen with the Affliction thing folding and Tito coming back!!
Please by all means dont take my joke’s that I post tooooo seriously or you’ll find yourself get angry over nothing..That Or you will see how seriously deep the Rabbit hole really goes!
I was dead serious about what I said. I wish more people would sit back, think, and analyze things before typing something out instead of trying to be the mouth breathing window licker to put up a hair-brained, half-baked sentence of drool-soaked drivel.
I appreciate intelligent debates on here. I appreciate hearing well-thought out opinions, whether I agree with them or not.
OOOOKKKKK
bsbiz
If that is the case my friend why not just reply to the ones with the well thought out opinions verses replying to the “Mouth breathing window lickers half brained drool soaked drivelers”??????
Why not only respond to the ones you deem worthy to reply too??
Why get worked up or angry and feel the need to insult people you dont know, and have never seen and more than likely wouldn’t say the same thing to their face in person, over a comment or post you personaly dont like???
Unfortunatley this is an open forum where even the most ill informed or clever but misguided or ROYALTY LIKE YOURSELF or new MMA fan to the causal fan to the most hard core fan or guys that love to talk mma but light heartedly joke and kid can come and express their thoughts and feelings.
But I could be wrong.
Sitting by angrily posting and getting mad at the computer sounds like a good way to run your life in general, not being able to deal with others………
Peace and love bro!!!
…and the UFC will be launching it’s new t-shirt line “Tap-fliction”.
(Afflict-out?)
I agree, get the facts straight, way to much BS here
“way to much BS here” as in at the Frenzy specifically or on the internet in general?
i love this site for the fact we can debate openly, but honestly i see more misinformation here than the other sites who publish a topic once and its correct
be more specific in what you mean please….. Misinformed people HERE more than anywhere else? I can name sites that have more worthless ideas and bs going on there than here..
You trying to get put on moderation weelfire. lol just kiddin.
Three things:
First, do please bear in mind that we strive to be accurate in our representation of stories and information, but we also strive to be timely in our reporting. If we wait two days to post a story to make sure it’s accurate (which would have worked out in the Kimo incident), then everything turns out be exactly as other sites reported early, then we’re late to the party. If we don’t wait and go with the best information we have at the time then we may be among the first handful to post things, but may have to make revisions as new information comes out. It’s a fine line to walk and we make a lot of effort to be accurate.
Second, examples?
Third, the fact that this site is an open forum means that we allow the commentators to keep us in line, and appreciate it when errors are pointed out. At the same time, if there is misinformation among the commentary, it is not our responsibility to edit every comment to ensure it’s accuracy.
ya what Justin said
Wellfire, just as an FYI, this site far exceeds any other I’ve ever visited in terms of journalistic integrity, accuracy in reporting, and fairness to all parties concerned, which is saying something considering I’ve been a fan of this sport since the 1990’s.
Aside from my business and my dog, the only spare downtime I allow myself is MMA, therefore, with my time so limited, I try to make the most out of it. Which is why I hit the frenzy instead of some other sites, because I’ve found they are the best.
If the frenzy REPORTS that someone’s manager is saying that a certain fighter is going to be taking on so and so in January at wherever arena and event, then thats what the frenzy reports to us.
If an hour later it turns out that the manager was blasted on shrooms and iced vodka and thus is talking out of his a$$, and thereby invalidating the original story, the frenzy passes that on to us as well.
It certainly doesn’t tarnish the good reputation of this site when they report on a released statement, after reasonable verification, and then later update or amend that report, as was the case with Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping.
Wellfire, I can appreciate your frustration over the last 72 hours or so, but your ire would be better served directed at those responsible, and not our friends here at the frenzy keeping us in the MMA loop.
Mmmm…. Shrooms and vodka….
Pass the Shrooms and Vodka please, well I have plenty of Vodka, Bourbon, Whisky etc but the shrooms yummers…
O and nicely said jcohl, THANK YOU
Thanks, fr702.
I’m trying to avoid being tagged as one of bsbiz’s “mouth-breathing window lickers”…
It’s as fun as being in a “nut punching ” contest …………
There we go ….. the new fad …….. the Nut Punching Championships
Sign Vitor and Mussaii (Spelling)Daily and that Russian guy Whats his name oh ya Fedor.
hahahaha
Dana posted on Twitter “welcome back Tito”. BTW.
dana white is base jumping off of mandalay bay? hmmm… i think thats awesome, but with as much money he has, and as much responsibility, does anyone else find this to be a tad bit crazy?
JULY 24th 2009
The craziest day that has ever been in Mixed Martial Arts
Just simply WOW
F~WAMMA <—- how fitting?
Definitely a crazy day, too bad I wasn’t around the Frenzy earlier for all this stuff.
What up big Homie Fr
I was just thinking right, with all the MMA organizations folding the way the are, and I read alot about how some feel Boxing is a dying dinosaur sport but with all the major MMA org. failing and not being able to keep up or even put on great fight cards is it possible even though the ufc does a fantastic job so far with how they handle the fights and promotions and events from city to city even to a degree {ofcourse some will argue} their fighters, that the UFC could soon be facing he same problem.
Even though it is unlikely soon but wasn’t it just 2-3 days ago we were (some) posting how they are putting on to many shows and burning out fighters and having rematches to soon due to not having enough big star power and so on and on.
Well as I think about it now having affliction probably just solved some of those problems they may have ran into. Even if they dont get Fedor at this point with as many fighters as they may have with affliction, they don’t need him… It would be a mega fight and mega money and great to see fights between Brock or even Randy maybe or A. Silva maybe but we shall see.
Again all we can do is sit back and wait to the smoke clears.
Migel Torres vs Fedor!!! it can happen!!
The UFC and Strikeforce are both on solid business ground because they have very good business people making good business decisions. People like Affliction MMA and ProElite, who 1) don’t have a deep enough stable of quality fighters 2) have at best irresponsible and at worst stupid business plans and 3) little desire to put in the time and effort to build a successful organization will fail every time in going against a well-run established business. Strikeforce has it right: they know what they are, know what they can do, and do it well. Smaller, local organizations may come and go, but the guys at the top of the food chain will be in good shape because of their better business decisions and deeper pockets.
Bsbiz
Thanks makes sense!! At the outset I honestly thought Afflication had a good chance buttttt hey when your head guy is more interested in fighting n in other org. and challanging D. White to a mma match I guess it couldn’t been that stable!!
by the by the Fedor/Torres thing is me joking again!!
Yes no doubt this has been quite the unprecedented day in the world of MMA.
I have had the urge to discuss an issue for quite a while now but since there has never been quite a decent time to talk about it, I think I might as well talk about it now.
For the past few years, Dana and the Fertitas have been pushing the premise that the UFC/MMA will no doubt become the biggest sport in the world. Surely the visionary side of their strategic planning forces them to say such things but I think its important to point out one humungous obstacle in that business plan: charging fans to watch. Now more than ever the financial/corporate side of MMA is rearing its (ugly)head into the grand scheme as we are beginning to digest cancellations/mergers/reconciliations over the past day or so. If MMA, as Dana promises, is ripe to become the biggest sport in the world, then two things are necessary: the financial/corporate side is going to have to painstakingly dominate the entire MMA landscape as it surely has in recent hours, and more importantly, the PPV side of the sport must surely draw to a close. Otherwise MMA is nothing but a newer(better) boxing of the 80’s. Dana and the Fertitas dont want to challenge boxing, though. The have said over and over that they want MMA to rival the NFL/MLB/World Cup as the most popular sport in the country/world. To do so in my opinion means the pay-per-view nature of the sport needs to die. Look, I’m a fan and I will continue to buy each card, but if Dana wants this sport to compete with the mainstream big boys of the other past-times, charging us to be patrons is not the long term answer. I’m not talking about making the two UFC cards in August be free or even any the rest of this year or next year. But eventually, if this sport is going to rival the NFL or world soccer in a popularity contest, a mainstream in the locals is absolutely imperative.
What does that mean? I dont know. But our favorite fighters have to start fighting more than twice per year. And I know they all like to say they need a few months for a good camp, well my response to that is NFL offensive coordinators only get a week to gameplan for the Baltimore Ravens’ 46 zone and that is worlds more complicated than gameplanning for GSP or Forrest Griffin.
I just think it’s the next necessary step for the world of MMA in order to become a mainstream sport that can truly rival the NFL as Dana and the Fertitas promise. I think its an excellent topic and this website is a phenomenal pool of opinions that never fails to create valid thought processes. Not that I think it will reach the inner circles of the UFC being discussed here, but its definatley a phenomenon (non-PPV) that I think is vital sometime down the road in order for MMA to become mainstream.
In leiu of the recent corporate melee, I just thought it was a decent time to present the topic. One way or the other, in order for MMA to become “mainstream,” it needs to be seen more often and more inexpensively to truly become mainstream as Dana promises. Does that mean records start actually equating to rankings? Maybe. Should annual standings be created? I don’t know. Instead on continuous title holders, is there an annual year-end playoff system? Again, I dont know those are very hypothetical questions.
It would seem that North America is the main/only place where they actually put the events on PPV, UFC 100 was broadcast free (or perhaps on a subscription based channel) in the UK, Latin America, Germany, China, and several French speaking countries if I’m not mistaken.
Yes thats all very nice and good that the UFC tosses them a bone every once in a while, but my main point is that in order for this sport to be the biggest in the world, as Dana promises, we are going to have to see something more than just once a Saturday night per month at a cost of $50 depending on where you live. Again, this is all under the assumption that Dana wants to challenge all the other proven sports, which he is constantly saying he does.
The UFC had been shown on Setanta since January, 2008 in the UK. Setanta was available for ten pounds a month in Britain and Ireland. It is available in Japan on WOWOW as a monthly subscription channel. They also signed a deal with Grupo Televisa in Mexico at least. In China, fights will be seen on Inner Mongolia Television with a large viewership there to say the least. They have a deal with RTL9 which reaches French speaking areas in Europe and Africa. Also in that article is a mention of a German-speaking channel. I also found stuff for Portugal, and I would be surprised if there weren’t Russian deals, Australian, and others.
(Edited a typo for informational accuracy – Justin)
Us Canadians get it for free to actually.
If you Canadians get it free… that means only we here in the US are getting it on PPV… so I don’t see how that’s a problem in terms of penetrating the world marketplace. Obviously I would like to see the US get more and more free events, but at the same time if we’re the ones subsidizing world expansion… so be it.
Actually I was joking, just to get you yanks all fired up. Its 55 loonies here. or 27 toonies and and some change.
Jerod
You touched on so many valid points just then I honestly dont know where to start…
The point you made about mma being a newer better boxing, at this time and point is so true. As D. White and comp. have said they want MMA to be the next big sport and while I understand it and wish it to be so like you I dont see how it is possible right now.
How can you compete with soccer? When it’s free? You hit it on the head. And to that point when UFC exploded I mean really exploded to main stream was because of the FREE spike showing of Tuff and Free show Forrest and Bonner put on ..
I totally understand your points.
Plus with UFC being the only clear answer to MMA elite and best its hard to believe that only one Organization will accomplish that
How will they be able to keep all this up and deal with all the politics and finical issues and problems they have yet to face on a global scale under one organization. Albeit true so far they have done a great job.
And as you said not that you or I or anyone have the answers
Here’s another 1 how is it gonna be as big as Basketball or Football or Soccer when these sports are highly viewed and glorified as what you want your children to do and become. Not only cause of the veiw point of the professionalism, but also the respect and dignity given to this athletes, who went through college and paid their {dues} to play such an prestigous sport. Even when it comes to what each person makes. That’s why Floyd Mayweather was talking so much crap cause of the money he makes verses a mma fighter in a single fight.
In some ares MMA is almost looked down upon.
When causal fans watch mma they start boo’ing over two guys grappling for position on the matt.
And in so many people minds MMA is nothing but a violent brutal fight thats it and these organization sells violence… When trying to explain the detail and why that’s not the case at all someone gets busted wide open and bleeds all over the ring/octagon looking like a murder scene and they let the fight continue or some guy flips off the fans when your children or moma is looking at it or some guy continues to hit or punish his opponett clearly after the fight is over. Or when in some of our minds guys are given easy ride the the top for title contentions verses a guys who seem to get screwed over constantly even though they have winning streaks.
So yeah I feel ya.
Bring Tito Back, its a good thing. Tito vs Franklin i think IMO would be a bigger sale than Franklin vs Hendo 2. White needs to open his eyes and bring in some Vets like Vitor, Gilbert, Santiago, Paul B, babalu and more, hell HW Div needs fighters and **** just sign um to a one or two fight contracts at least they draw more attention than a shane carwin not sayin he is not a badass fighter just sayin bigger name Vets darw more Imo, make any sense?
* this might be a bit off topic for this specific thread but well on topic for today*
Well this has been an up and down day for all of MMA… Affliction MMA after only two shows has well giving into world wide demand that they just fold and concentrate on making wonderful shirts out of bamboo threads, ie doing what they do best.
StrikeForce is a power player now the clear cut 3rd best org in NA or perhaps even the entire world, yet I still give the nod to DREAM for that for the time being.. I really thought that StrikeForce and Affliction would merge, helll I’ve thought that was going to happen for months now,but alas Affliction bowed out to ZUFFA and that imo is the proper place for Affliction (to be on the backs of UFC fighters)
Today has proven to me that the brothers Fertitta and Dana White have the pull in the MMA world, this was a really good business deal for the both of them (companies)..
I’m going to keep this short for the most, but please understand that this doesn’t mean that Fedor is coming directly to the UFC.. He was contracted to Affliction MMA and M~1 Global and he still has “1″ fight left on this contract soo I would assume that he will be headlining the M~1 event here in a bit… You might even find him @ StrikeForce v Werdum but I have no legitimate claim to that just kinda just hoping for that one..
Babalu is an interesting situation for he is signed with StrkeForce due to him being their LHW champion and Mousasi was on “loan” from DREAM soo cross your fingers that fight could be pulled off still on the 15th, but I don’t see Babalu going back to the UFC rightnow either..
O and another thing is will Dana stand by his statement that whomever signed with EA sports MMA game won’t be allowed in the UFC from here on out, what exactly does that mean for the possibilites of seeing some of these fighters in the UFC…..Was this just a merchandising deal? We don’t know, what is the possibility of some of these names going to StrikeForce or DREAM….. This is a very interesting time for MMA today has put a smile on my face for the opportunity of the absolute growth of MMA, and definately this is between StrikeForce and the UFC (don’t forget DREAM) but Dana has never had a “beef” with Scott Coker sooo it is possible for some “big” names to still go to StrikeForce… The next few days should be really interesting… Can’t wait to see how this unfolds… July 24, 2009 the craziest day in MMA…
It would be good to see Tito back in the UFC
Check the Forums for a thread on him.
what part of canada do you live in carls?