During Friday’s Q&A session for the military personnel of Fort Hood, UFC President Dana White told the crowd that both former light-heavyweight champions Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz, were in must win situations.
White is in Fort Hood, Texas as part of tonight’s UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 event on the base to help benefit the Intrepid Heroes Fund.
Machida has lost two straight and will face UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture on April 30th at UFC 129. “The Dragon” lost a controversial split decision to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his last octagon appearance in November at UFC 123. Also losing to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua by knockout in their title rematch at UFC 113.
“He’s had two losses in a row. Right after he won the title, (UFC on-air analyst Joe) Rogan said this is ‘The Machida Era,’ and I thought so too. Then Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage. Now he’s fighting Randy Couture in Toronto – and this is a must-win for him.”
Ortiz has also lost three straight and is 0-4-1 in his last five fights. He faces Antônio Rogério “Lil’Nog” Nogueira next in the headliner for the promotions first visit to Seattle as part of UFC Fight Night: Ortiz vs. Nogueira. “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” lost a unanimous decision to Matt Hamill in his last fight as part of UFC 121 in October. He lost a split decision to Forrest Griffin at UFC 106, a unanimous decision to Machida at UFC 84, fought Rashad Evans to a draw at UFC 74, and was TKO’d by CHuck Liddell in a title fight at UFC 66.
“Tito’s got to win this fight to stay in the UFC. If he loses this fight, he’ll probably retire… (The light heavyweight) division is interesting,” White said. “There’s so many guys at 205, (but) Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. You’ve got Jon Jones fighting Bader, which is going to be a great fight that catapults one of those guys into the top five. The big problem with the 205-pound division has been, Shogun’s injury has been clogging up the division. So now he’s healthy and gonna fight, and we’re getting everything rolling here.”
HT: MMAFighting.com