The UFC 133 drama looks to have come to a close amid news that Tito Ortiz has stepped up to face Rashad Evans in the revamped main-event.
Evans was left without an opponent when Phil Davis pulled out due to a knee injury, and with reports suggesting that top substitution candidates Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida both rejected the offer to step-in, the August 6 pay-per-view appeared to be in jeopardy.
But Ortiz apparently had a change of heart, and the UFC has confirmed Evans vs. Ortiz as the new main event.
The fight, coming on the heels of Ortiz’ shock win over Ryan Bader at UFC 132, represents a rematch of the Ortiz-Evans draw at UFC 73.
Held as part of the “Stacked” card in 2007, the match technically ended with the judges’ cards in favor of Ortiz, but with Ortiz penalized a point for grabbing the cage, the ultimate result was a draw. Of course, had Ortiz not been grabbing the cage, one could argue that Evans’ wrestling would have been more effective, so it is not exactly fair to say Ortiz would have won the fight if not for the penalty point.
UFC President Dana White confirmed that Ortiz’ career is not in jeopardy with a loss. More importantly, Ortiz would be “back in the mix” for a title shot with a win over Evans.
— Perhaps more interesting than the confirmation of Ortiz vs. Evans, however, is White’s candid condemnation of how Lyoto Machida handled the situation. “Machida accepted the fight,” White said to media outlets, including MMAJunkie.com. “We knew for a couple days this was going down, and Machida accepted the fight. Then when we called back and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to make this fight,’ Machida’s people came back and said, ‘We’ll tell you what. You pay us what you pay Anderson Silva, and we’ll take the fight.’ This was after they had already agreed to take the fight.”
He added that Machida would have to achieve what Silva has achieved before justifying such a salary demand.
