Dana White then goes behind the scenes at UFC 148.
Tito Ortiz reveals he had 50% of his mensicus removed eight weeks previously, and added “it sucks, when I f—— can’t do cardio… this whole camp, I couldn’t.”
Dana White also chews out Forrest and discusses the Anderson Silva knee with Bisping.
UFC 66 Weigh In Photos – Chuck Liddell Tito Ortiz
Ultimate Fighting Championship
December 30, 2006
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Dec 27th, 2006 This is my first column examining gambling on MMA match-ups. These fights offer excellent opportunities to make some money on your “freakishly strong” (thanks Rogan) knowledge of these fighters. I’m not going to analyze who will win or how Tito will try to “take it to the ground… [MORE]
August 22nd, 2006 Tito Ortiz Signs Contract to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 66 on December 30th.September 9th 2006 Right before the weigh-ins for UFC 63 Tito Ortiz announced that he has signed the contract to fight UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Chuck Liddell. Within ear shot of Liddell who was signing autographs Ortiz stated that he isn’t scared of Liddell and will once again wear the belt. No word on weather Liddell has signed the contract. [Photos]
Legends MMA Training Facility Los Angeles, CA – In an effort to promote the most star-filled MMA card in California, WFA held a press day inviting the usual MMA media and even local News media including the Channel 9 News.
MMA-Fighter.com got a chance to talk to the always gregarious Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Jackson headlines the event taking on top five 185er Matt “the Law” Lindland. Jackson is happy about his training, “Best I’ve felt in a long time,” but not that excited about his opponent. He thinks Matt is a “boring fighter” and would rather “fight a fighter that would stand up with me not hug me the whole time.”
Although he is not a part of Team Punishment Quinton enjoys training in Big Bear with fellow 205er Tito Ortiz but would he fight him? “If we were getting paid a couple million dollars each and we could sit back and laugh about it later I wouldn’t be his friend if I wouldn’t fight him… If we can both make 5 to 6 million dollars each who wouldn’t?”
Rampage is happy about being the headliner of the WFA and has no regrets about leaving Pride but I was surprised when he told me he had never talked with the UFC. “UFC didn’t offer me anything that I’m aware of.” And when I asked about UFC’s possible match up of Liddell and Silva he felt that Liddell had the advantage due to his wrestling but “Vanderlei hits harder…”. Would he fight Vanderlei again? “Yeah hell yeah I want to DESTROY that guy… I Must Break You….”
Also on the Card is the match up of second best self promoting MMA fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs The Ultimate Fighter Reality star and WEC 205 Champion Lodune “the Vanilla Gorilla” Sincaid. Miller feels that he is a bad match up for Sincaid. “I can out-grapple him and out-strike him and on top of that I think I can out-wrestle him.”
Although Mayhem is fighting Lodune at 205, he doesn’t feel that his future is at this weight. “I normally walk around at 204 when I eat normally… My future is at 185.” Although his first fight in the UFC was at 170 he feels that he has out grown that weight class. “170 was like I was a teenage girl who wasn’t a hot chick yet… I still had my braces on… I was going thru my mixed martial arts puberty.”
Although Mayhem has been training with the best camps that the west coast has to offer including Team Punishment with Tito Ortiz and Team Quest with Dan Henderson, Jason’s training partners haven’t always been this good. “I was watching tapes and wrestling my friends in the garage… I probably knew like 4 moves back then but I still do them today”
Tito Ortiz was also at the event doing interviews for anyone that would ask him a question. He was particularly fired up when asked about the early stoppage in his fight with Ken Shamrock at UFC 61. “I thought he was out. I think Herb Dean saved his life. He was like 3 elbows away from dying possibly. The first shot I hit him with he was out. His legs were open, his eyes were closed, and he wasn’t trying to clinch when the fight was stopped… I was gonna try to hurt him really really bad, like I said in my interview after the fight, I wanted to be the first person in the UFC to hurt someone really, really bad, I want to put him the hospital for a really, really long time. I was gonna do that to Shamrock that night… Shamrock is History to me”
He thinks his next opponent is going to be Forrest Griffin but he wouldn’t’ mind taking on Vanderlie Silva again. “I sent his ass to Japan once I’ll do it again.”
Brad Doerges
brad@mma-fighter.com
Jason “Mayhem” Miller
http://mma-fighter.com/downloads/interviews/audio/Mayhem.mp3
Tito Ortiz
http://mma-fighter.com/downloads/interviews/audio/Tito_Ortiz.mp3
It’s time once again, the TUF fans have been waiting for what seemed like an eternity after hearing who the new coaches were going to be, and now it’s finally time. Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz are the coaches for the third installment of The Ultimate Fighter. I have a feeling Ortiz will be the best coach yet on the show and Shamrock the worst, only time will prove me right (or wrong).
First off the bat, I notice this time the show’s production looks a lot better and this time the first episode was in a 90-minute format. The bad camera work, sound problems, and incoherent editing have now been replaced with an A&E documentarian look and feel. This season I think will be most effected by the editing monster that has made heroes and villains out of fighters in past shows.
The show starts with Dana White as always giving us a run down about this season and what makes it special. Leading up to the first episode, Dana promised this season would be the best season of all, this time I believe him. There are no more challenges, no more fighters getting to go without fighting until the semifinals, no more joint evaluations, and no more UFC picked assistant coaches. This all means that this season is all about the fights and the best fighters winning. This seasons crop of fighters are more international, and seem to be overall a lot better than past seasons, case in point, no one has puked yet.
Dana had a “time out” with both Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock before they met the fighters to let them know it’s about the fighters, not about their beef. Leave the beef for the PPV. This strikes me as funny because the whole reason they were picked was because of their beef. For the sake of the show though, both parties agreed to play nice for the time being. There hasn’t been a feud like this between Ken Shamrock and someone else since The Rock took Ken’s Intercontinental Championship, now that was tension. In the end, both these controversial stars just wanted some respect.
The first episode led you to believe Ken and Tito spent a whole hour in the training room alone without saying a word. I don’t believe they were in there more than fifteen minutes before the fighters arrived, I think its just the editing monster again trying to build the drama and the tension, this time its working well, thanks in part to having two larger than life characters in Tito and Ken.
After meeting the fighters, they had separate evaluations for obvious reasons; Ken had the light heavyweights first while Tito got the middleweights. Ken’s training seemed unorganized with a lot of sparring; it finally ended with a sandbag test to basically test the strength and the heart of the fighters. They had to lift progressively heavier sandbags onto progressively higher platforms; I don’t think anyone succeeded in this task. It was obvious what Ken wanted; he wants someone like him, strong with heart. We get it Ken, we get it.
First time on TUF, the coaches picked their assistant coaches as well. Ken brought in his bodybuilder friend Dan Freeman and his boxing coach Roman. Freeman gave a little talk to the fighters about healthy eating and recommended they eat chicken and steak. Everyone questioned what a bodybuilder knew about fighters, especially fighters who needed to cut weight. Herman question Dan’s suggestions about the steak eating, and the editing monster kind of made Dan look like an idiot to the fighters. Ken also looked like he has never coached anyone in his life, maybe he’s coached little league at best.
Next up, Tito and his coaches Saul Soliz and Dean Lister. Anyone who knows MMA knows these three guys are the MMA dream team as far as coaching goes. Tito’s training was a lot more organized and stressed a lot more on cardiovascular conditioning. In the evaluations of the middleweights and the light heavyweights, Tito seemed most impressed with Matt Hamill who is the first deaf Ultimate Fighter. He had a ton of heart and wanted to learn more and more, especially being the least experienced fighter (though he may be the best wrestler on TUF next to Josh Koscheck).
When the fighters get to the house, we see more of the characters. A lot of attention was spent on the British contingency of TUF. I believe mainly because they have funny accents and have a willingness to get drunk, if you know what I mean. This season’s party animal is Kendall Grove, who reminds me of every guy I’ve ever gone to college with. He egged everyone on to drink and of course was the first one to pass out. The joke was on him because Mike Nickels (the tattoo guy) decide it would be funny to shave one of his eyebrows off. In the end he only succeeded in cutting Kendall’s eyelid open. Luckily Kendall didn’t Leben out and went back to sleep.
Then it was time to pick teams:
Ortiz:
Matt Hamill.
Rory Singer
Michael Bisping
Kendall Grove
Noah Inhofer
Mike Stine
Josh Haynes
Danny Abbadi
Shamrock:
Jessie Forbes
Kalib Starnes
Kristian Rothaermel
Solomon Hutcherson
Mike Nickels
Ed Herman
Ross Pointon
Tait Fletcher
Fletcher vowed to be the dark horse much like Luke Cummo did. Off topic, Fletcher to me looks like a deranged bobble head character.
Some surprises. Ortiz picked the deaf wrestler Matt Hamill first and Rory Singer second and did not pick Ed Herman at all who is a Team Quest standout that was favored to win the whole show and instead picked Mike Stine. This infuriated Herman. If Ken’s weakness were basing fighters on heart and toughness, Tito’s weakness would be picking fighters with the best conditioning and cardio.
Ken’s way of picking was based on who he thought could beat Tito’s choices, not the wisest of methods but maybe Ken has a method to his madness. Another surprise was Ken picked Kristian Rothaermel third when he was by far the least conditioned athlete on the show. Kristian is the fighter from New Orleans who lost everything in hurricane Katrina. Maybe Ken saw a fire in him.
Dana then revealed the Ortiz/Shamrock coin, which I think will become synonymous with this show in the future. The coin determines who gets to pick the first fight, after which, the winning team of the fight keeps controls.
Team Shamrock picked Mike Stines (trains out of Tiger Schulman Karate in Long Island and is a Golden Gloves boxer) to fight Kalib Starnes (a middleweight from Canada who has been fighting since 1996). Obvious mismatch and Stines knew it and was overcome with fear as soon as the announcement was made. Ortiz did his job as a coach and let him know that feeling was natural and they will go away. Team Punishment’s plan was simple, keep it standing, do not drop to guard, and knock his head off. Starnes plan was simple, take him down and unleash hell.
When the fight started, Starnes looked confident whereas Stine looked nervous. Stine got some good shots off but once in the clinch, Stine did everything opposite of what Tito had instructed. Starnes takedown attempt was far from perfect yet instead of fighting to stay standing, Stine immediately pulled guard. It eventually led to a scramble and Starnes got the takedown again, this time he passed to mount and we all know what happens then. Tito gave some great directions during the fight, never sounding panicked, letting his fighter know everything was all right and to listen to his instructions. Stine did not listen, turned and gave up his back. Tito told him to turn back into mount but Stine seemed worried about getting hit more in the process or taking direct shots to his face. The referee had seen enough and called an end to the bout inside the first round and Starnes takes home $5,000 and a place in the semifinals, where as an emotional Stine goes home to lick his wounds. Even in defeat though Team Punishment stayed together and let Stine know he was still part of the team even in defeat (maybe Hughes needs sensitivity lessons from Tito, go figure). Tito then vowed next time they will win. Ken to his team gave some wise yoda like words, “the more we win, the more they are going to wonder what is it.” Then he said, “we kept the hammer.” Shamrock has a way with words; it’s almost like listening to a mystical Greek poet.
What did we learn from this season? That unlike in the past, it is no longer wise to fight last, but fight first to secure your spot in the semifinals and heal up any injuries. As far as respect of the two coaches go, it reminds me of a famous quote, “Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.”
Sam “The Professor” Yang
http://mma-fighter.com/forum/threads/13534-TUF-3-Episode-1-Review-Hated-By-Many-Respected-by-All
UFC 51 Fight Photos by Dave Mandel - Nick Diaz, Drew Fickett, Karo Parisyan, Chris Lytle, David Loiseau, Gideon Ray, Mike Kyle, James Irvin, Paul Buentello, Justin Eilers, Evan Tanner, David Terrell, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Pete Sell, Phil Baroni, Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort
UFC 51 – Super Saturday Fight Photos
Ultimate Fighting Championship
February 5, 2005
Mandalay Bay Events Center,
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
WOW. That’s all I can think of. What a show. This UFC was one of the best ever. What a show and with 2 major changes, they pulled it off. After arriving in Las Vegas I heard quickly that Tim Sylvia was rumored to be out. At the weigh-in it was confirmed, he still had residual amounts of steroids in his blood. At least that’s what we heard. So the big news was now instead of fighting Mike Kyle, they brought in Cabbage to fill Tim’s place and fight Arlovski. In one day Wes Simms accepted to fight Kyle, and now it was really on. Tito did finally fight Chuck Liddell and he did bringing in the big audience he usually does. Despite what I previously thought, there seemed to be nothing that could outshine the main event, even the spectacular other fights that occurred.
Genki Sudo vs Mike Brown went basically exactly the way I expected. Genki came out in his usual style wearing a mask and doing a fantastic walk to the Octagon. Once he entered the cage he was all business and went after Brown. Mike did a good job of landing some good shots in the standup, but eventually he got tangled up with Sudo in a triangle. While mike tried to turn out of it, and land some punches in the process, it was not enough to put Sudo out, and he finished the triangle/armbar viciously. Personally I would be surprised if Mike’s arm wasn’t hurt in the process, it looked painful.
Wade Shipp vs Johnathan Wiezorek turned out to be a fair fight at best. Both guys came out burning gas and it seemed Wade was going to win as he was getting the better of the clinch, but he was landing shots that didn’t have enough on them to put Johnathan down. Eventually, Shipp gassed out and ended up getting put on the mat and TKO’ed.
Mike Kyle vs Cabbage had become Mike Kyle vs Wes Simms, and for me it seemed obvious what would end up happening. I picked Kyle by KO, and sure enough that’s what happened, but the big story is the alleged bite during the fight. As the fight started Kyle ended up trying to take Wes down almost instantly, but Wes worked up against the cage and seemed to have got his arms inside for a guillotine. While standing, it looked close to being over, but as they fell to the ground, Kyle’s head popped out. The story being told by Wes is that he had that choke sunk, and Kyle bit him to get out of it. Sure enough, when the ref stood them up after a period of inactivity, the mark on Simms chest could be seen. After being stood up, it appeared that Wes was going to his corner, but the fight had been re-started and Wes was eating punches before he could get fully turned around. After a couple good knees Wes was waving his hands around as if to signal someone, or maybe this was more of his tough guy antics, we don’t know. What I did see was Mike Kyle come in and land a series of punches that put Wes down and out. After the fight Kyle said he didn’t bite Wes, he said his mouth was open in the choke, but he didn’t bite him. At the post fight press conference, during Kyle’s explanation, Ricco Rodriguez was talking through Kyle’s speech and making comments. When his chance came Ricco addressed Kyle directly, he said, “If we fought and you tried to bite me during the fight, I would kick your ass”. Kyle then responded by saying “You talk a lot of shit for a guy with a glass jaw”. It seemed like we may see these two fight soon.
Nick Diaz vs Robbie Lawler was the fight of the night. No doubt Robbie had everyone’s vote as the better striker, but we were all wrong. While Robbie does have power, he didn’t have the skills to compete with Nick. Diaz used simple boxing technique to tag Lawler at will with jabs and hooks. He even was taunting Lawler, something I never expected. Eventually, Lawler was caught with a combo that sent him to the ground, and I do have to give it to him, he tried to fight, but he was stumbling all over the octagon, and the fight was stopped.
Tim Sylvia vs Andrei Arlovski was now a future possibility as now Cabbage was going to take on the Pit Bull. This fight was strange as I watched Arlovski beat Cabbage with a series of well-executed punches, but I was more convinced that Andre would not be able to hang with Tim Sylvia than anything else. Sure Arlovski’s tactical pummeling of Cabbage was impressive, but I think Andre is just too big for Cabbage and who knows; maybe Cabbage was off that night. All I do know, is Andre took a few punches from what seemed to me to be a weakened Cabbage and he didn’t deal with it well at all. Sylvia will be my choice if they ever fight.
Yves Edwards vs Hermes Franca could have been the fight of the night but it wasn’t. It was a good fight, but too even for me and it seemed to be a stalemate except for a few punches landed by Yves. Hermes did fight his heart out, but it wasn’t enough. Yves pulled out the split decision.
Tiki vs Chris Lytle turned out to be a great fight. Tiki was actually doing very well in the standup, but he ended up getting caught with what I like to call the second grade headlock choke, basically the same choke Newton used against Miletich. It was enough to make Tiki tap.
Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell was totally crazy. The arena was so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. Chuck came out with a smile on his face, he truly is the Iceman. Tito came out with Fernando Vargas and his traditional entourage. As the fight started the two came out throwing punches, not wild but calculated. Felling each other out, and soon Tito tried for a takedown. It wasn’t a very serious attempt, and it seemed to me Tito really was going to stand with Chuck. I couldn’t believe it. Near the end of the round the two entered into a small exchange and it seemed like Chuck was about to unleash the furry. He threw a huge high kick to Tito’s head and it was partially blocked but did seem to have the former champ rocked. Just then the round ended and Tito looked like he was furious and he was screaming. Seemed to me the action was so intense that most of the arena had missed the bell indicating the end of the round. Soon everyone was caught up and the two fighters stood again. After some quick punches Chuck caught Tito with a left, possibly to the eye. Tito backed up and looked hurt, Chuck being the animal he is, moved in for the kill. He threw 16 punches or so, and about half of them were somehow finding their target circling around Tito’s hands and arms to find his chin time and time again. After a solid combo Tito went down hard and the crowd went nuts. I can’t even remember what was going on, it was totally crazy. Everyone was screaming and jumping around like maniacs. Incredible.
What a show. In the post fight press conference Tito said he took a thumb to the eye, but also credited Chuck for the great win. Personally, I think Tito took a bullet for the UFC that night. My hat goes off to him for giving the fans what they wanted to see, a standup battle. Not only that, but the first thing Tito said was how he wanted to fight again in the next show. Is this the same Tito I’ve seen on TV talking about how he wanted to do movies? This new Tito seems like a real fighter, maybe not a real good one if you ask me, but damn it I am starting to like the guy. He still has his little excuses and what not, but he gave the UFC a fight that would turn the viewing audience into fans, while it might have been smarter for him to take Chuck down and fight a boring ground and pound victory, he didn’t he stood tow to toe and took his beating like a man. I have nothing but respect for Tito for doing that. With only 2 more events before the UFC’s 50th show, I think this will be the year we see the UFC get the coverage it deserves. Great show.
Jeremy Norrie
Jeremy@mma-fighter.com
Discuss this UFC 47 Review in the Forum
Check out the Weigh In Photos
Light Heavyweight: Tito Ortiz @ 202 pounds vs. Chuck Liddell @ 204 pounds
Heavyweight: Jonathan Wiezorek @ 237 pounds vs. Wade Shipp @ 232 pounds
Heavyweight: Wesley Correira @ 265 pounds vs. Andrei Arlovski @ 241 pounds
Heavyweight: Wes Sims @ 241 pounds vs. Mike Kyle @ 229 pounds
Lightweight: Yves Edwards @ 155 pounds vs. Hermes Franca @ 155 pounds
Welterweight: Robbie Lawler @ 169 pounds vs. Nick Diaz @ 168 pounds
Welterweight: Chris Lytle @ 168 pounds vs. Tiki Ghosen @ 170 pounds
Lightweight: Genki Sudo @ 154.5 pounds vs. Mike Brown @ 154 pounds
