# Ortiz vs Liddell is official



## Andrew Green (Sep 23, 2006)

During a meet-and-greet autograph session prior to the UFC 63 weigh-ins on Friday afternoon in Anaheim, California, Tito Ortiz made an appearance in front of everyone in attendance and had an announcement to make.

Ortiz said that he had just been approached by someone from the UFC and had been told, "We know you have a fight coming up in a couple of weeks [against Ken Shamrock on October 10th], but I wanted to give you this now." Ortiz said that he was given a contract to fight Chuck Liddell on December 30th at UFC 66.

At that point, Ortiz flashed the contract to the crowd, with his signature already on it. The rematch between Liddell and Ortiz is now officially signed for December 30th, apparently regardless of the outcome of Ortiz' upcoming fight against Ken Shamrock on Spike TV on October 10th.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2667&zoneid=13


Ortiz has got to be the best contract negitiator in the business...


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## Cruentus (Sep 23, 2006)

Good. I always like watching these two fight.


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## Kenpojujitsu3 (Sep 24, 2006)

Hopefully Ortiz isn't as tentative in this fight.  Their last encounter was kind of dull from a technical and entertainment standpoint.


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## AceHBK (Sep 26, 2006)

I look fwd to this.


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## trevorama (Sep 26, 2006)

Alas, the dream of Liddell fighting Silva is truly dead for this year. [Sigh]


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## Shogun (Sep 26, 2006)

I never did think we'd see Silva Liddell getting in on. Pride and UFC just can't work together. I think Dana said about 2 weeks after they announced it that he didn't think it would happen.
I loved Sobral/liddell for the fact it wasn't the same 3 or 4 UFC posterboys getting in there. I'd like to see more talent like that. actually, what I want to see most is Rampage in the UFC....


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## barriecusvein (Sep 28, 2006)

how did tito get this shot? he scraped a decision against forrest and beat ken who is way past it now. andrew geen is right, he must be an awesome contract negotiator.

as for chuck vs silva, i heard some radio show with dana white from ufc and someone called jerry from pride (dunno who he is, but my knowledge of pride beyond a few of its fighters is non existant). the whole thing basically consisted of the pride guy saying 'dana why won't you put up your fighters?' and dana sidestepping and avoiding the issue. i think dana is against a match like chuck v silva because if silva wins, which is very possible, it would give pride a great gateway into the US where they don't have a huge following yet.

aah, found that show


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## Andrew Green (Sep 28, 2006)

It was in his contract, if he came back and won his two fights he would get a title shot.  Those two where Forrest and Ken.

I think this extra Ken rematch is just another paycheck to him as the UFC promised him a title shot after the first two.  But better safe then sorry, even though it is most likely a easy fight for him, I bet he made it part of the deal that regardless of outcome he would still get his promised title shot as a condition of agreeing to the fight.

Liddell vs Silva is a big thing for either side.  But I think Pride gets the better of it.  If Silva wins, he walks back to Pride with a UFC title belt around his waiste, that would be a huge boast for Pride.  And the UFC would be left with it's title belt in the hands of a fighter working for the competition.  So I can see why they wouldn't want to do it.

Pride has a big loss in there two if Silva loses.  He's coming off a loss as it is, and to go to the UFC and loss again would damage his "godlike" reputation in Pride, and he would be a 2nd rate champion.

Both have some good reasons not to want the fight, as a loss would be bad on either side.  And IMO it's a fight that could definately go either way.  UFC has more to lose, and less to gain though.  Had SIlva won the OWGP they would have had more to gain as Liddell would have been fighting there best in all weight classes.  Which could explain some of Dana's comments about how Silva coming off a loss made him "unworthy" to fight for the UFC belt against Liddell.


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## Odin (Sep 28, 2006)

trevorama said:


> Alas, the dream of Liddell fighting Silva is truly dead for this year. [Sigh]


 
Yep thats what I was thining exactly, Dana tried to say it was because Wanderlie is too injured after his fight with cro cop to train for the liddel fight...yeah right, he messed up by announcing the fight before getting everything down on paper.


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## Odin (Sep 28, 2006)

Andrew Green said:


> . Which could explain some of Dana's comments about how Silva coming off a loss made him "unworthy" to fight for the UFC belt against Liddell.


 

That statment really annoyed me, its the open weight tournment for gods sake, I dont think any of the UFC fighter could survive, just to be a light heavyweight in the comptition at the stage where wandi left is saying something about his abilty....lol I would love to see his tim slyvia fight Mirko!lol


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## Andrew Green (Sep 28, 2006)

Odin said:


> That statment really annoyed me, its the open weight tournment for gods sake, I dont think any of the UFC fighter could survive, just to be a light heavyweight in the comptition at the stage where wandi left is saying something about his abilty....lol I would love to see his tim slyvia fight Mirko!lol



I agree, Odds where well against Silva. WHich was kinda my point, If Silva had won, despite being LWH, and then Chuck defeated Silva, that would go a long way to push the UFC above Pride in terms of peoples view on skill levels between the two.  Since Silva didn't win, the UFC has less to gain be putting there belt on the line against a Pride fighter.


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