MAYHEM AFTER UFC BATTLE: COPS CALLED TO KEEP TITO ORTIZ AND DANA WHITE APART
Former porn-queen Jenna Jameson told her fiancee Tito Ortiz to “stay put” when UFC officials ordered him out of the post press conference of UFC 84-Ill Will at midnight. He had lost his final UFC contract fight inside the Octagon by unanimous judges decision at MGM Grand Garden Arena a little earlier.
Four Vegas Metro police officers were called to keep Tito and UFC president Dana White apart. Tito, Jenna and Dana all live here in Vegas.
The mayhem began when Tito walked into the postfight press room saying he’d been barred from attending by White who is partnered with the Station Casino Fertitta Brothers in owning the mega-bucks big business UFC league which is headquartered here in Vegas. When he started answering questions UFC media executives told him he had to leave. Jenna ordered him to stay. “It was total chaos and bedlam,” said one spywitness.
UFC officials immediately ended the press conference so reporters went up to Tito who began answering their questions one on one. But then four police officers entered the room and another UFC official said that Ortiz could stay. Tito was then allowed to sit with the other fighters at the podium and White said that Tito could remain and would get to answer questions along with the other fighters.
The bad blood between Ortiz and White has viciously escalated in the past months with both men speaking out angrily and obscenely about the other. Tito has bitterly complained that star fighters were poorly compensated and manipulated in the league about fights and purses. This was his last UFC fight under his fional contract with UFC. White, meantime is suing another fighter who simply walked out of his contract, refusing to fight any further for White’s UFC, echoing Tito’s complaints.
At the midnight press conference Tito complained that White had turned the UFC fighters into “slaves” while White retorted that Tito “wanted to be a star and not a fighter.” Eventually the press conference wound down without further problems, but now fans are awaiting the next move by both men. Will Tito join a rival Mixed Martial Arts league or retire and how will White take on his more bitter rivals in the XC Extreme Sports league that starts its CBS TV network coverage next Saturday night from Newark, New Jersey. If a ratings success I am reliably told three further fights would be broadcast live from Vegas. White has tried to blunt the mainstream network coverage by running a UFC and Chuck Liddell 12-hour marathon on Spike TV to counter CBS’ prime-time coverage. Luxe Life will have full details of that corporate rumble and showdown on Friday.
“This was almost a case of a better fight outside the ring than in it,” I was told.
For the record here are the results from UFC 84 -Ill Will:
UFC lightweight championship: B.J. Penn (champion) vs. Sean Sherk won by TKO at 5:00 of Round 3.
Light heavyweights: Wanderlei Silva (32-8-1) def. Keith Jardine (13-4-1) by knockout just 36 seconds into the first round.
Light heavyweights: Goran Reljic (8-0) def. Wilson Gouveia (10-5) by technical knockout at 3:15 of Round 2
Light heavyweights: Lyoto Machida (13-0) def. Tito Ortiz (16-6-1) via unanimous decision of the judges all scoring identically 30-27 in favor of Machida.
In his final statement at the press conference Ortiz praised the fans and then pointedly omitted White when he thanked UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta in his post-fight interview for elevating the UFC league and the MMA sport. He admitted he was “moving onto greener pastures.”