Strictly Business With UFC and Tito Ortiz

We’ve all questioned Dana’s business tactics but the fact remains that he has some method to his madness.  He helped bring back the UFC from nothing to the most well known MMA event organizer.  While his personailty and methods are unliked by many, there is no doubt that he gets results.  Take the numbers that the UFC PPV events put up.  It’s uncanny and almost impossible to replicate.

Why the big build up?  Well Dana was recently interviewed by Sergio Non of USA Today.  The interview touched on the idea of MMA in the Olympics but also asked Dana his position on Tito Ortiz fighting for the UFC again:

I read recently that Tito supposedly is negotiating with UFC again. If that’s the case, how did that come about?

As part of his contract, he goes out and … I don’t know, something to do with his contract, but he’s still got his foot in the door with his contract. As part of our business practice in this crazy world these days, we — let me think how I can word this to you.

Take your time.

Yeah, probably going to have to.

I always say, we make this thing look a lot easier than it really is, and we’re definitely not going to make it easy for anybody else. We’re going to make things tough for other people.

It sounds like you’re saying basically you have certain negotiation rights with Tito.

Yup, and I’m going take them.

Given what you guys said about each in the months leading up to his last fight, how realistic is to expect Tito to ever fight in UFC again?

Listen, me and Tito didn’t say anything worse than what we said before he came back and became a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. Tito and I do not like each other. We do not. It’s 100% real, we don’t like each other at all, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t done business together before.

So you have no problem putting aside personal feelings for business?

Sometimes. We did for a lot of years.

So as we all know, Tito and Dana have had their fair share of words at each other and openly admitted they hate each other.  While I’m not sure how to intepret Dana’s response, it sounds to me that he doesn’t plan on signing Tito but will make it as hard as possible for him to fight elsewhere due to some of the terminology in his contract.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it but it look fairly obvious this is what’s going on.

I just can’t see Dana White signing Tito after everything that’s happened and Dana (as well as a lot of MMA Analysts) claim Tito just doesn’t have his head in fighting any more.  Tito Ortiz is like a foreclosure on a mansion.  If Dana signs Tito, it will be for pennies on the dollar.

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