Dana White: Tito Ortiz, Lyoto Machida Fighting For Their Jobs

By Mark Wayne | January 22, 2011 | Comments

UFC president Dana White held a private Q&A session prior to yesterday's UFC Fight for the Troops 2 weigh-ins with servicemen and women stationed at Fort Hood. White touched on a number of subjects and, in addition to revealing that the Anderson Silva-Georges St. Pierre super fight will be scheduled pending the two champions defend their titles successfully in their upcoming bouts, he also revealed that former light heavyweight champions Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida will be facing contract terminations should they lose their next fights. (Props to MMAFighting.com)

"He's had two losses in a row," White said of Machida, who fights Randy Couture this April at UFC 129. "Right after he won the title, (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."

White also confirmed the widely-held belief that Ortiz, who has not won a fight since 2006 (going 0-4-1 in the UFC in his past five bouts), will be cut from the organization should he not be able to defeat Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC Fight Night: Ortiz vs. Nogueira this March.

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

In other light heavyweight news, White assessed the current state of the division and shed light on who will likely be the next top contender.

"(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."

Got your own take on the UFC's 205-pound division, or on Machida and Ortiz's respective places thereof? Sound off in the comments section below.

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