Tito Ortiz vs. "Babalu" Sobral, Pedro Rizzo vs. Paul Buentello Possible for Affliction 2

Credit bloodyelbow.com


Sources have told Yahoo! Sports that free agent Tito Ortiz will fight Renato "Babalu" Sobral in the co-main event at Affliction's next fight card, on Oct. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. The main event will feature a heavyweight bout between WAMMA champion Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski.

Affliction vice president Tom Atencio would not confirm the Ortiz-Babalu fight. He said details for the fight card will be released during an Aug. 6 news conference that most likely will be held in Las Vegas.

Atencio also indicated that he didn't think Affliction could speak with Ortiz until Aug. 4 because of a 60-day non-compete clause in Ortiz's UFC contract. Ortiz's last fight for UFC was on May 24 at UFC 84. If the 60-day clause is accurate, the deal ended last weekend. Atencio said the biggest stumbling block for an Ortiz deal would be the financial terms.

Over in the FanPosts, reader smoogy notes the potential PPV boon that could come along with the Ortiz signing, with figures for Tito's last five UFC fights courtesy of MMAPayout and Dave Meltzer:

UFC 59 - Ortiz v. Griffin - 425,000
UFC 61 - Ortiz v. Shamrock II - 775,000
UFC 66 - Liddell v. Ortiz - 1,050,000
UFC 73 - Ortiz v. Evans - 425,000
UFC 84 - Ortiz v. Machida - 475,000-525,000

Average: 635,000

Meanwhile, Brazilian heavyweight Pedro Rizzo spoke to Tatame.com about his knockout loss at the hands of Josh Barnett on the first Affliction bill, and stated that he expects to be back in action for the October 11th show:


Pedro Rizzo’s debute on Affliction wasn’t the way he was expecting. After ten months away from fighting, the Brazilian fighter felt a little the time but didn’t searched for excuses to explain the loss. "It was my fault. I did everything right, trained hard, but didn’t used it on the fight, I got stucked on the ring. I believe it’s because of the ten months without fighting, but I don’t have excuses. I was trained, ready, but didn’t fought well", said Rizzo, that will fight again at Affliction’s second show. "I’ll fight at October 11th, but I don’t know whom yet. They (Affliction) talked about Paul Buentello, but there’s nothing right yet", finished the athlete, that is back on trainings for his next fight.

Ortiz tried to hire Belfort for his trainer to face Lyoto

Source Tatame.com
By Guilherme Cruz


Carlson Gracie’s black belt, Vitor Belfort, that is training at Minotauro team and at Nova Geração, bet at Lyoto Machida, his ex-train mate, in his next bout at UFC 84 in May, against Tito Ortiz. “Lyoto has the skills to win, but is a tough fight. Two famous athletes, but I believe that Lyoto has more chances, he is at fight rhythm and Tito is star”, tell Belfort that reveal that Toto Ortiz tried to hire him to help at train to the fight.

“Tito wanted to hire me with a lot of money, but I said no. I said that money can’t buy everything. I respect Lyoto a lot, we trained together and he is Brazilian. I thank and said that maybe in another opportunity, but not now. Lyoto is Brazilian and that is his time”, said the ex-UFC champion, that commented about the Brazilians that went abroad to train.

I am very satisfied here at , with my coaches, my family, everything is nice here. I think people kid yourselves with going to . Each one has to look for their goals and by happy. I think this is nice because its shows that the sport is growing, increasing the value of the athlete”, said Belfort , that now is a presenter at a the Brazilian cable TV Premiere Combate, exclusive about fights.

Joe Silva: Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida is on, Ortiz's last UFC fight

Much thanks to MMAFightline for the following:

"Despite rumors to the contrary, fueled in large part by comments made in a recent interview by former UFC fighter Babalu Sobral Tito Ortiz will face Lyoto Machida at UFC 84.
Sources close to Machida have confirmed that Joe Silva has a contract signed by both fighters and that the fight is a "go" for May 24 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Big thanks to Tagg Radio's The Lights Out Show for breaking the information.

Tito Ortiz is coming off of a controversial draw against Rashad Evens in which he was deducted a point for holding the fence. The point deduction likely cost him the victory.

Machida last fought at UFC 79; coming away with a huge victory against Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. He is undefeated in twelve professional contests including a notable list of wins over Stephan Bonnar, Rich Franklin, B.J. Penn, Kazuhiro Nakamura."

Tito says there is 0% chance of fighting in the UFC after this fight