THIS PAST WEEK perhaps sums up best how crazy and fast moving the world of MMA can be.
Just a couple of weeks ago Tito Ortiz seemed to be 15 minutes away from consigning his UFC career to the scrapheap. Dana White openly admitted that a defeat to Ryan Bader would force him into dropping Ortiz from the organisation.
It looked ominous. He hadn’t won in over five years and faced a well-fancied opponent who was looking to bounce back from the only defeat of his MMA career.
Cue one of the greatest underdog comebacks in recent times as Ortiz choked Bader out in the first round to prolong his career for at least one more fight.
Now, in a turn of events that could not have been scripted by the most imaginative sports writer, Tito could be one fight away from a shot at the title he held back in 2002.
Injury rules out Davis, Tito steps up
Rashad Evans was originally due to fight current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 133 on 6 August. When Jones pulled out, Phil Davis agreed to step in and take on “Suga”. Now, just three weeks before the event, Davis has been forced to pull out due to a knee injury.
It seemed that Lyoto Machida had agreed to fight Evans again until a dispute over money forced Dana White to look elsewhere. He turned to Tito, and despite only fighting fourteen days ago, Ortiz agreed to take the bout.
The two faced each other before back in 2007 when the judges declared the bout a draw with Ortiz being docked a point by the referee for continuously holding the cage.
In a press conference this week Dana White was forced to concede that Ortiz would be once again “in the mix” at the top of the division if he was to beat Evans. The winner of the fight is most likely to face the winner of Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones, signalling a massive turnaround in fortune for Ortiz. Rashad Evans is rightly a strong favourite for the fight and this is why:
A couple of exciting heavyweight fights have been added to the UFC 137 card in October. Mirko Cro-Cop will be looking to emulate what Tito has done recently as he takes on Roy “Big Country” Nelson with both men’s careers at stake.
Two other fighters coming off the back of impressive KO victories, namely Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione, also face off on the main card of the GSP and Nick Diaz event and that is shaping up to be one of the best cards this year.
In other news Nate Marquardt’s suspension has been lifted and he has been cleared to fight again. Marquardt clearly feels this has vindicated himself and has wasted no time in verbally attacking those who doubted him, with BJ Penn his main target.
Penn had made comments in the wake of the controversy via twitter and Nate hit back on Thursday by saying he would go to BJ’s gym to fight him. Unfortunately that could be the only way he could face Penn as it doesn’t look like he will be getting back into the UFC anytime soon.
