Dana White: Lyoto Machida, Tito Ortiz in 'Must-Win' Fights

The UFC's light heavyweight division has long been considered by many to be the promotion's most competitive. And Dana White believes that is the case – and that some of his most notable fighters at 205 have crucial bouts coming up.

The UFC president, speaking Friday at a Q&A session for enlisted military personnel on the Fort Hood base, noted that former champions Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz are both in must-win situations in their next fights.

Machida beat Rashad Evans to win the light heavyweight title at UFC 98. He defended the belt with a controversial decision win over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 104, but lost it to him in their rematch at UFC 113 last May – his first career loss. Machida followed up that knockout setback with a split decision loss to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at UFC 123 in November.

Machida will fight UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, a former two-division champion, at UFC 129 in Toronto in April. A loss to Couture would be three straight for the Brazilian – which often signals a quick release from the UFC.

"He's had two losses in a row," White told the troops. "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."

In addition, White said Ortiz, once one of the most dominant champions in UFC history, could be reaching the end of his career. Ortiz is scheduled for a main event fight on the UFC's Fight Night 24 card in Seattle in March against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

"Tito's got to win this fight to stay in the UFC," White said. "If he loses this fight, he'll probably retire."

Ortiz has not won a fight since 2006, when he won a split decision over Forrest Griffin. Earlier that year, he had a pair of TKOs against Ken Shamrock. At UFC 66, Ortiz lost to Chuck Liddell in an attempt to reclaim the light heavyweight title he held and defended five times in the early 2000s. A draw against Evans followed, his only fight in 2007. Then came a loss to Machida, his only fight in 2008. That fight was thought to be his last in the UFC courtesy of a highly public feud with White.

But Ortiz returned at UFC 106 after he and White settled their differences. He lost a split decision, though, to Griffin, his only fight in 2009. And in his only fight in 2010, Ortiz lost to his former pupil on "The Ultimate Fighter," Matt Hamill, at UFC 121. He has been plagued by back injuries, including surgeries in an attempt to alleviate the problems.

White also said the injury to current light heavyweight champion Rua has helped create a bit of a cluster in the division. Rua defends his title for the first time when he takes on Evans at UFC 128 in Newark, N.J., on March 19.

But White said it may be one of his former champions who is next up, despite many who believe a UFC 126 fight between Jon Jones and Ryan Bader will determine the top contender. Bader is unbeaten; Jones' only loss was a disqualification against Hamill for illegal elbows, a fight he was dominating.

"(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."

Jackson is scheduled to meet Thiago Silva at UFC 130 in May. Silva beat Brandon Vera in a unanimous decision at UFC 125 earlier this month, chasing him from the UFC in the process.

In another potentially important fight in the UFC's light heavyweight division, Griffin and former middleweight champion Rich Franklin fight as the co-main event at UFC 126.

On Nate Diaz, (who White confirmed will take on Rory MacDonald in Toronto) and his brother, Nick:
"Nate Diaz is on the Toronto card, too. I'm a big Nate Diaz fan. I like him a lot – him and his brother. The problem with Nick Diaz is Nick won't play the game even [a little]. You can't [flip off] the athletic commission. You can't tell people – you have to play the game a little bit. When Nick Diaz wants to play just a little bit – and nobody's telling him not to be who he is and not to act the way he wants, but you've got to play a little – when he does, we'd love to have him back in the UFC."

On Wanderlei Silva's next opponent:
"We were actually trying to hook [Silva] up with Brian Stann. He doesn't want to fight Brian Stann. He's like, 'Fuck that; everybody is going to hate me if I fight Brian Stann. Everybody loves Brian Stann.' But that's the fight we're trying to make right now."

On The Huntington Beach Badboy's future in the Octagon:
"Tito's got to win this fight to stay in the UFC. If he loses this fight, he'll probably retire."

On TUF moving down to the smaller weight classes in the near future:
"It's going to happen. We do two of these things a year. We'll end up having those guys in one of these seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. We just added the weightclasses from the WEC. [Flyweight] will be the next one. The reason we didn't have it before was that we didn't have enough fights. We weren't putting on enough fights to get all these fights on in these different weightclasses. Now that we're going all over the world, it's going to happen – next year."

On the likelihood that the UFC will do an outdoor show down the road:
"We've talked about it a few times. To be honest, it scares me to death, doing it outdoors. Look how beautiful it is today. Yesterday was freezing cold with wind. You never know. This is a tough sport to do outside. You can play a football game in this kind of weather, but fighting is a whole different ballgame. I guess if we really decided to do it, Hawaii would probably be the best place to do it. We'd do it in the Aloha Bowl."

On the possibility that we might see Royce Gracie compete at UFC Rio:
"We went down there to [Rio de Janeiro] to do a big press conference. [Royce] came with us and was part of the press conference. He's still very close to the UFC, and we talk to him all the time. He still wants to fight one more time. He's retired right now. He's a good guy, though. We look at him as the father of this whole thing. We've got nothing but respect for him, and he's still very much involved with us.

On Roy Nelson's next opponent:
"We've also got [Roy] 'Big Country' [Nelson] fighting Frank Mir. That fight's going to happen, too. That's a fun one."

Moose Stuff For Money... wrote:
On The Huntington Beach Badboy's future in the Octagon:
"Tito's got to win this fight to stay in the UFC. If he loses this fight, he'll probably retire."

the_king wrote:why wont wrandi fight stann?

A lot guys talk about brian but this guy is american hero, and I respect so much then army guys, I don't wants fight with him.

Moose Stuff For Money... wrote:

the_king wrote:why wont wrandi fight stann?

A lot guys talk about brian but this guy is american hero, and I respect so much then army guys, I don't wants fight with him.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/582734-wanderlei-axe-murderer-silva-does-not-want-to-fight-brian-all-american-stann

Moose Stuff For Money... wrote:Tito says he has no plans to retire...

"You guys have got to give me a chance, man. Look at my last fights. I fought Forrest Griffin last year with a ruptured disk in my neck, and I still fought to a split decision. I come back a year later after neck surgery, and I fight a guy who's on a five-fight win streak, and I lost a couple of takedowns. You guys think I should retire? It's just crazy."

http://mmajunkie.com/news/22214/regardless-of-ufc-fight-night-24-outcome-tito-ortiz-not-ready-to-retire.mma