Dana can say whatever he wants. Tito was a cage grab away from beating Rashad Evans, who’s a top 5 light heavyweight. He beat Forrest Griffin, who last I checked is going to fight for the light heavyweight title. He lost to Chuck Liddell, but so did Randy Couture (okay, bad comparison for use with Dana or Dana fans) and virtually all of the UFC’s 205lb weight class up until the losses to Jackson and Jardine. I have a feeling he’s gonna surprise some people and end up showing he has more than a little left against the smaller nonwrestler in Machida too.

Ortiz, like Shamrock has always been a better draw because of his headlines than because of his fighting ability.

That’s my opinion, and it’s not being changed by anything Ortiz has done over the last three years.

1. Marketing their past fights in your library;
2. Generating speculation that they will re-sign with your organization; or,
3. Create headlines using a fabricated controversy over the circumstances under which they left.

Frankly, Ortiz HASN’T been fighting well lately, and he headlines grab is about all you’re going to get. Seems to me like these two guys are both doing their best to resurrect the shattered remnants of Ortiz’s career, a la Cro Cop. Send him somewhere else for a while, hope he gets a few wins, and play the same old headline game that’s been so profitable for both parties in the past.

This is Barnett’s first legitimate competition in a while I guess. The Roger Gracie fight is a joke, I might have been a lot more interested had he been fighting someone like Randleman. It would have given him (Gracie) a lot more credibility in the form of a win over a former UFC HW champ and seasoned vet, but been fairly safe in that the Monster’s sub-defense is horrible and he’s one of the most predictable fighters in MMA today.

Dana White on Tito Ortiz: “”He beat Ken Shamrock three times. He fought Rashad Evans to a draw. He fought Forrest Griffin when Forrest just came out of The Ultimate Fighter and barely beat him. A lot of people think Forrest won that fight. In my opinion, the last significant fight that Tito Ortiz won was when he beat Vitor Belfort. “”

So Dana White is ripping his own #2 PPV of all time as not being a “significant” fight in the match-up that got 95% of the marketing push for that event. I’m assuming that PPV refund checks are on the way to the fans who bought the show to see such an insignificant fight.

I’m also assuming that the UFC is going to agree retro-actively to a much smaller contract with Spike TV based on TUF 3’s ratings never happening, and Ortiz-Shamrock III never happening. The huge ratings for the latter were a primary reason for Zuffa’s renewal with Spike being so lucrative, yet Ortiz and Ken Shamrock are not given any acknowledgment for the role that their huge rating played in the UFC getting a $100,000,000+ renewal (White even said that Shamrock didn’t make the UFC any money). As is often the case, the hypocrisy here is astounding.