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Multiple reports came out last week stating that Tito Ortiz had not finished out the filming of The Ultimate Fighter and that Rich Franklin had been brought in and would face Chuck Liddell this June when the season was finished.
Shortly thereafter, UFC President Dana White posted a Tweet saying that the Franklin-Liddell talk was not true as they were planning a bout between Franklin and Randy Couture. Now, Ortiz has chimed in denying both rumors himself.
In text messages to Josh Gross at SI.com, Ortiz stated that he is still fighting Liddell "Unless Chuck gets hurt." Also, when asked if he left the filming of the show early, he answered with a simple "nope."
Ortiz did confirm that he had been hospitalized last week due to what has been said was a bad flu, and he was released this Tuesday after reportedly losing 15 lbs. On top of that, his girlfriend Jenna Jameson had been hospitalized with pregnancy issues, and Ortiz said that she's alright now and that it had been a rough week for the two of them.
So it appears Liddell-Ortiz III is still on following this season of TUF; and unless Ortiz and White are flat out lying, and it can't be put past either of them, that's where things stand.
Penick's Analysis: Now I'm just curious to see if the other shoe drops, and as the TUF season unfolds it comes out that something had taken him out of the season and he wasn't fighting Liddell. I'll take him at his word here, but it would just be funny if they're trying to conceal something they didn't want coming out yet that could spoil TUF and thus they're covering for it. If this is legit then it has been much ado about nothing in regards to everything else surrounding this fight over the last week.
[Tito Ortiz photo by Wade Keller (c) MMATorch.com]
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