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18/03/10 - Ortiz says fight is on "unless Chuck gets hurt"
Tito Ortiz has refuted the latest round of reports that he is injured and out of his third fight with Chuck Liddell. One report this week claimed Ortiz had suffered a severe shoulder injury, another that he has suffered herniated discs in his neck.
But in a series of text messages to Sports Illustrated writer Josh Gross, Ortiz said the reports are not true and that his match with Liddell is still on. He and Liddell will soon be seen as rival coaches on season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter and are set to fight as a finale to the season, as is TUF tradition.
Asked by Gross if he would still be facing Liddell as planned Ortiz texted back "Yes, I am unless Chuck gets hurt." He similarly denied rumours that he had left season 11 early for any reason. Asked if his time as a coach had been cut short, the former light-heavyweight champion replied "Nope."
The rumours were that Ortiz’s departure was followed by Rich Franklin being brought in to replace him in the fight with Liddell. But when the reports first surfaced UFC president Dana White dropped the hammer on them immediately via his Twitter account, saying they were "not true" and that Franklin will be fight Randy Couture.
Franklin today told the Boston Herald that he is being lined up to face Couture in the summer and is waiting to hear back about a date.
"It’s not signed yet, but we’ve been working Randy now for a while. We’ve talked June, then we talked August and now we’re talking June again. I think we’re having problems with Randy’s scheduling. So I really don’t know what the plan is at this point," he said, adding that he feels he is "at a point now where I’ve fought enough fights and it’s time for me to make a title run again and see where that takes me. That’s where my focus is now".
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