Tito Ortiz is Back in the UFC

It’s official: the Huntington Beach Bad Boy has returned to the UFC. The news was announced at a press conference earlier today by UFC president Dana White. While no date for Tito’s return has been set, White indicated that they plan on getting him back in the cage by the end of the year, possibly against another old school favorite, Mark Coleman.

Tito Ortiz - Image: Zuma Press

Tito’s career with the UFC looked like it was over in May of 2008. He had just finished his UFC contract up with a loss to Lyoto Machida and relations with Dana White were at an all time low. Dana had gotten to the point where he’d regularly call Tito and his wife Jenna Jameson idiots on a regular basis, and Tito Ortiz wore a t-shirt to his final weigh-in that read “Dana White Is My Bitch”.

So what healed the epic rift between the two? No one is sure how it all worked itself out. Some point to the UFC’s other top exec Lorenzo Fertitta, who was also instrumental to bringing Mirko Crocop back to the UFC after Dana White got into a verbal tiff with him in the press. And you can’t ignore the magic a lot of money can weave. Tito Ortiz literally carried the UFC through it’s dark days with his popularity and is one of the company’s all time greatest money makers. Letting him go and potentially breath new life into another promotion would have been insane.

Also announced during the press conference: the return of another old school legend, Vitor Belfort, and a broadcast deal with ESPN’s new UK sports channel. Belfort will be stepping into the cage at UFC 103 to take on Rich Franklin … originally Franklin was set to rematch Dan Henderson, but the fight was scrapped because fans across the internet booed and hissed loudly enough. While I’m not happy that Rich vs Dan was canceled, it’s still pretty cool that the UFC listens to it’s fans like that.