A recent post by Sam Caplan on his personal blog, Five Ounces of Pain, throws Tito Ortiz’s oppent at UFC 71 into doubt. Originally it was reported Ortiz would be facing Keith Jardine at the May event based on rumors from MMAWeekly but in his recent interview with UFC Prez Dana White, Caplan seems to point towards Ortiz’s oppenet being Rashad Evans (10-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC).

The complete interview with White is set to be added to CBS Sportsline in the coming days but it looks for all intents and purposes that it will be Ortiz (15-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) taking on Evans.

Evans was the winner of the second season of The Ultimate Fighter and has since gone undefeated in the UFC while rising in the light heavyweight rankings. He posted wins over Brad Imes, Sam Hoger, Stephan Bonnar, Jason Lambert, and most recently over Sean Salmon at UFC Fight Night 8 in January. You can check out his full resume at Sherdog.

Here is the latest rumored card for UFC 71 on May 26th:

Chuck Liddell vs. TBD
Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans
Karo Parisyan vs. Josh Burkman
Eric Schafer vs. Sean Salmon
Chris Leben vs. Kalib Starnes

(via UFCJunkie.com)

Technorati Tags: ufc, mma, UFC 71

Tags: Chris Leben, Chuck Liddell, Eric Schafer, Josh Burkman, Kalib Starnes, Karo Parisyan, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Sean Salmon, Tito Ortiz