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Tito Ortiz talked with MMABay recently about his surgery, his canceled bout against Chuck Liddell as well as the talk surrounding the “Iceman’s” future, his home situation, and when he’s hoping to return to the octagon.

Here’s a bit of that interview transcribed by MMABay.

“I was really shocked (by the loss to Rich Franklin fight), I saw all my money go out the window. It is what it is, everything in this world happens for a reason and I’ll be back at the end of November. I’d like to [fight] Forrest. If Forrest would like to do a trilogy it’d be awesome. We gave two great fights both times we fought and we’ll get a triple fight more exciting than the last two.”

Press Release

MMA BIG SHOW PRESENTS LOCAL FAVORITES CHRIS BENNETT, MOJO HORNE, AND TJ BALL
AS THEY PUT IT ALL ON THE LINE AT “ALL OR NOTHING”

Event to take place live at Belterra Casino Resort & Spa on July 17th

Indiana (USA): MMA Big Show, one of the top fight promotions in the Midwest, will present its next exciting event, “ALL OR NOTHING,” which will take place on July 17th at Belterra Casino Resort & Spa in Indiana. In the main event, big-time local favorite Mojo Horne (7-2) will face one of his toughest tests to date, as he tangles with extremely experienced American Top Team product Lucas Lopes (19-8, fifteen finishes). Also featured on the card will be rising young local prospect “The Samurai” Chris Bennett (0-1 pro, 18-1 amateur), as he attempts to capture his first pro win from Brad Smith (1-1). Another notable local showcased on the fight card will be T.J. Ball (1-1), who will be looking to increase his pro experience against Danny “The Hammer” Surface (3-2). And making his return to Big Show will be Scott Cornwell (1-1), who made his Big Show debut last fall against UFC veteran Junie “The Lunatic” Browning (4-3). Tickets for “ALL OR NOTHING” are priced at $25, $45, and $75, and are available through Ticketmaster, as well as http://www.mmabigshow.com/. 21 and over only, please.

A training partner of Rich Franklin and a former MMA Big Show Middleweight Champion, Mojo Horne was glad to put 2009 behind him, as he suffered the first losses of his pro career. However, he ended the campaign on a high note, as he submitted Kevin Barkdull in the first round at November’s “ONSLAUGHT” event. Now back to his winning ways, Horne is looking to target his title once again in 2010. Standing in his way will be extremely experienced veteran Lucas Lopes. A veteran of 27 MMA fights, Lopes has
fought well-known competitors Sean Salmon and StrikeForce fighter Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, and has defeated UFC welterweight contender Thiago Alves and former UFC fighter Antonio “Samuray” Mendes. Lopes is on a four-fight winning streak, including two straight wins in StrikeForce. Lucas is coming off a KO victory over Robert “Bubba” McDaniel, who previous defeated Mojo via ref stoppage after Horne’s nose was broken. This is Mojo’s opportunity to, in a way, avenge his loss to McDaniel, and come out ahead of a highly experience ATT fighter. Certainly, this will be a difficult test for Horne, but he’s ready to go out there and prove that not only can he beat a veteran like Lopes, he is deserving of a shot at “his” belt. “I’m hoping that if I win this fight, that I’ll be able to fight for my title again. From there, once I get my title back, Jason says he has some plans for me. So I’m excited about that.” What does he think about facing a competitor like his opponent? “I’ve seen some footage on him. He looks like more of a standup fighter. Don’t know much about his ground. The fight footage on him doesn’t show much about the ground. But I’m a firm believer in fighting the fight, not the fighter. So I’m just gonna go in there and do my thing.” And to the fans, Mojo had this to say: “I’m going to do my best for you guys, as I always do. Hopefully, I get the KO or submission, and everyone get’s their money’s worth.”

“The Samurai” Chris Bennett built a name for himself with MMA Big Show fans with his incredibly exciting fights. A real crowd-pleaser, he turned professional earlier this year after piling up eighteen amateur victories. Bennett, currently a 0-1 as a pro, is looking to rebound after a devastating loss to American Top Team’s Tony Simms and prove that he’s a serious contender against Brad Smith at “ALL OR NOTHING.” Additionally, T.J. Ball will be fighting the very tough Danny “The Hammer” Surface, who will be making his pro debut. Both fighters recently dropped to 185 lbs. from their former heavyweight status. As a result, this is going to be a war between two muscle-packed fighters looking to dominate.

Fearsome fighter Scott Cornwell put on a show in the main event of Big Show’s “ONSLAUGHT” in November of 2009. is a Cincinnati native who started learning Tae Kwon Do at the age of three under Master David Huffstutler. As a teenager, Cornwell quickly progressed through the ranks, and currently holds a 3rd degree black belt, winning several local and national tournaments. He also had a very impressive high school wrestling career, where he competed for multiple national teams in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. His amateur mixed martial arts career began in 2007 while training under 4th degree black belt and renowned MMA instructor Rob Gerhardt, and he won his first five amateur fights, amassing an impressive record of 7-2. In preparation for his pro debut, Scott began additional training with Rod Housley at Team Vision while continuing to train and teach at Hamilton-Fairfield Tae Kwon Do. In short, Scott is an excellent striker and wrestler, and is well-versed in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Fans can bet on these fights through the MMA Big Show iPhone Fantasy Better, and can also watch the event LIVE on R&R Channel 354 on DirecTV at 8 PM EST on the 17th.

In addition, the Big Show Gym, a 19,000 square foot MMA & Fitness Facility will be opening on June 27th in Eastgate Mall in Batavia, OH. This new facility will opening softly on the 27th and will host a grand opening event approximately 30 days later, once all of the equipment and build-out has been completed. This gym will feature a full strength and cardio center, full MMA cage (the actual MMA Big Show Cage), BJJ mats, Muay Thai center, and will host a multitude of training and group classes such as Extreme Fitness Boxing, Zumba, yoga, aerobics and much more. Please visit http://www.bigshowgym.com/ for more information.

The MMA Big Show is currently looking for both national sponsors for its live national broadcasts as well as the gym.

The full fight card for “ALL OR NOTHING” includes:

Mojo Horne vs. Lucas Lopes
T.J. Ball vs. Danny Surface
Chris Bennett vs. Brad Smith
Scott Cornwell vs. James Baumgardner
Brendon Hampton vs. Josh Curry
Tyler Riley vs. Shannon Casey
Trevor Riley vs. Chris Anness
Joe Pegg vs. Marcus Lewis
Dave Coghlan vs. Eric Grifford
Jordan Seals vs. Jimmie Allen
Nikolas Hoobler- Scherff vs. Korey Comptan
TJ Wash vs. Dallas Rice
BJ Wulff vs. Justin Bruster
Shannon Powell vs. Phil Colston
Denver Myers vs. John Risley
Kirk Miller vs. Dom Steele
William Kimrey vs. Ryan Holubek
Michael Ormes vs. David Smallwood
Vic Sims vs. Colt Helton

Fight card is subject to change.

It’s been some time since we’ve heard anything from Lyoto Machida’s camp, with Machida taking some time to get things organized after losing his championship to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Now, his manager Ed Soares, recently talked to MMAWeekly about his fighter, and to let people know that not only is Machida training, but that he’s ready.

Machida is no doubt looking at a rematch with Shogun, as the record puts them at one even(though most MMA fans disagree giving it a clean 2-0 sweep to Shogun) but with Rua being out of action until next March it seems that Soares is looking for other options. Two interesting names are Rich “Ace” Franklin and Vitor Belfort:

“That could be a big fight. At the end of the day that’s the first guy who gave Rich Franklin his first loss, maybe Rich Franklin would like to avenge that. That could be a good fight.”

“You know what I think would be interesting is how about a Vitor Belfort? Vitor Belfort/Lyoto Machida? I think Vitor now will get another fight before he fights Anderson Silva. Put it this way, anything can happen, you never know.”

Belfort would certainly seem a much stronger opponent for Machida, but Belfort is looking at taking a run at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva so Franklin could be a very viable opponent. The UFC hasn’t announced anything official, but The MMA News will keep you in the loop.

It’s been some time since we’ve heard anything from Lyoto Machida’s camp, with Machida taking some time to get things organized after losing his championship to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Now, his manager Ed Soares, recently talked to MMAWeekly about his fighter, and to let people know that not only is Machida training, but that he’s ready.

Machida is no doubt looking at a rematch with Shogun, as the record puts them at one even(though most MMA fans disagree giving it a clean 2-0 sweep to Shogun) but with Rua being out of action until next March it seems that Soares is looking for other options. Two interesting names are Rich “Ace” Franklin and Vitor Belfort:

“That could be a big fight. At the end of the day that’s the first guy who gave Rich Franklin his first loss, maybe Rich Franklin would like to avenge that. That could be a good fight.”

“You know what I think would be interesting is how about a Vitor Belfort? Vitor Belfort/Lyoto Machida? I think Vitor now will get another fight before he fights Anderson Silva. Put it this way, anything can happen, you never know.”

Belfort would certainly seem a much stronger opponent for Machida, but Belfort is looking at taking a run at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva so Franklin could be a very viable opponent. The UFC hasn’t announced anything official, but The MMA News will keep you in the loop.

Want a unique piece of mixed-martial-arts memorabilia?

Rich Franklin's Keep it in the Ring Foundation is raffling off the arm
cast that the fighter currently is wearing after suffering a broken arm
in a UFC 115 main-event win over Chuck Liddell.

The cast will be autographed by both Franklin and Liddell, and proceeds
benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a charity that supports
breast-cancer research.

UFC welterweight Dan Hardy is looking to make his next fight in the Octagon in front of hometown fans at the O2 Arena in London England where he is tentatively scheduled to face Carlos Condit as part of UFC 120 in October, this according to MMAWeekly.

This will be the first match back for Hardy since he badly lost a unanimous decision to Georges “Rush” St. Pierre, the current UFC welterweight champion. That loss was the only blemish on Hardy’s record since arriving in the UFC, as he was riding a four fight win streak prior to that match.

Carlos Condit is coming off a very hard fought decision win over up and coming fighter Rory Macdonald and the two garnered “Fight of the Night” honors at UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin. Condit is 1-1 since his debut having lost to Martin Kampmann at UFC Fight Night 18.

Expect this fight to be very exciting, but keep in mind it’s not announced officially yet. We’ll update this story as the word comes out.

Dave Meltzer is reporting that UFC lightweight fighter Tyson Griffin will replace injured fighter Joe Stevenson to take on Japanese sensation Takanori Gomi as part of the the August 1 card UFC on Versus 2 event. The event takes place from the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California.

Fans of Gomi are hoping to see a much better and more polished fighter than the one that made his debut in the Octagon against Kenny “KenFlo” Florian at UFC Fight Night 21. Not only did Gomi look unfocused and outclassed, his cardio seemed to be very lacking as well.

Griffin is a solid fighter but not necessarily a solid finisher. With a penchance for having fights go to decision(8 of his last nine have gone that way) its easy to see why the ATT fighter hasn’t progressed to the upper levels of the UFC lightweight division. Griffin will be coming off a decision loss to Evan Dunham at UFC 115: Liddell Vs. Franklin and should be more than hungry to take out the former Pride champion Gomi.

There’s not a lot of information on the matches scheduled for UFC on Versus 2, but Jon Jones will take on Vladimir Matyshenko and Yushin Okami will face Mark Munoz. We’ll update the card information as the bouts become official.

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UFC veteran fighter Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell is still mulling over the idea of retirement, though many MMA insiders are certainly looking for him to do so after his KO loss to Rich Franklin at UFC 115. On the other side of the coin Liddell can still sell seats and his conditioning seemed much better; however it seems like his chin is the main issue, and medically is it even safe for Liddell to continue to take the beatings inside the Octagon? Your thoughts?

Here’s the list of rumors, pictures or what not in the world of MMA that didn’t make the individual posts:

There’s rumors circulating that UFC bad boy Josh Koscheck may be seeing super hottie and former playboy bunnie Holly Madison. Sounds like Kos may be moving up in the world.

MMA guru trainer Greg Jackson made an interesting Facebook post prior to Keith Jardine’s fight last saturday at The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale.

UFC heavyweight fighter Patt Barry looks like he’s healing well from his beating at the hands of his idle Mirko Cro Cop.

You knew it wasn’t going to be long before UFC president Dana White had something to say concerning top heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko and his recent comments about the UFC. MMAJunkie recently did a great interview with White, and here’s his take on Fedor as it pertains to being signed:

“I’ve signed Brock Lesnar, who came from the WWE, James Toney from boxing – he’s a nut chasing me all over the place – Tito Ortiz, whom I hated, and he hated me. I signed him twice when we hated each other. I’ve kept Chuck Liddell, kept Matt Hughes, kept Rich Franklin, when they were all champions. Anderson Silva, I’ve dealt with all the crazy [expletive] with him.

“But I can’t sign Fedor? How is this possible that I can’t sign this guy? It’s not possible. These guys don’t want to fight the best in the world.”

The entire interview is quite interesting, epecially where White talks about the amount of tickets sold for the upcoming Fedor vs. Werdum card. Will Fedor ever end up in the UFC, or will he retire before that even becomes an option? Only time will tell.