After teasing fans with the Twitter announcement, “Welcome back, Tito,” UFC President Dana White softened his stance on Tito Ortiz’s comeback in an interview with ESPN.
Though the optimistic tone is a significant departure from the “never again” attitude White publicly expressed towards Ortiz several months ago, White made it clear that no deal has yet been signed.
“Tito and I have been talking, and we’ve been trying to see if we can figure things out,” said White on ESPN 1100 Radiothon.
Regarding the possibility of a comeback, White said, “It’s a possibility.”
The industry belief is that with Ortiz and White both claiming their issues are squashed, the fighter’s return is inevitable.
Tito Ortiz, known as the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, is a former UFC champion and has long been one of the sport’s most vocal and recognizable figures. During UFC’s popularity explosion in 2006, Ortiz set a mixed martial arts pay-per-view buyrate record against Ken Shamrock at UFC 61, set a cable viewership record against Shamrock later that year and then fought Chuck Liddell at UFC 66 in the first UFC fight card that topped one million buys. Until the UFC 100 buyrate figure is officially released (it will reportedly fall between 1.3 and 1.7 million), UFC 66 stands as the most-watched UFC pay-per-view event in history.