Newswrap: Tito Ortiz Teasing UFC Return, WEC Payouts, ProElite Vs. Showtime

Tito Ortiz continues to be a thorn in some MMA fans' sides. While at Fresno, CA, event Rumble In The Park, the former UFC superstar said that he guaranteed he would fight in July 2009, either with Affliction or...gasp...the UFC?

"It's either going to be with the UFC or it's going to be with Affliction, but guaranteed, you guys will see me fight—no matter what—by July," Ortiz said. So the same guy that repeatedly bashed UFC President and longtime rival Dana White and is friends with Affliction investor Donald Trump is now open to returning to the organization he made his name in?

Sounds like he is looking for bidders and creating a story that might not actually be there. Regardless, it worked. He's leading off this column, isn't he?

Dana, I'd love to hear your thoughts in a video blog. Do it up!

In case you missed it, here's the RRC recap of last night's Joe Calzaghe/Roy Jones Jr. fight. Truth be told, I'm not a huge boxing fan but do like to catch the big fights in some form or fashion when they're on. In watching last night though, I cemented two reasons in my head I feel MMA is so superior to boxing: better undercards and character development.

Other than Zab Judah, I didn't know any of the other fighters on the undercard, so I have no idea if these were highly-anticipated fights or not. I'm not going to pile dirt on the overfilled grave of boxing, but seriously, how many boxers can the average sports fan name? Five or six?

Here's a final thought before we get to the news: shorten the non-title undercard fights to six rounds. Purists are probably shaking their head at this thought, but if you can get more fights on a card and better quality fights at that, isn't that a win-win?

These lower weight class fights always seem to go the distance and sometimes, those last rounds can be kinda boring and slow. Reduce the amount of time they have to fight, let your top fights carry the card and get to that main event quicker.

As a ramp-up to this Saturday's immense Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar UFC card, we'll be doing previews of the various fights every single day here on the site. A big point of discussion in the fight community the past two weeks has been the lack of promotion thus far with advertising and buzz. I've noticed a change since Friday and this week, I expect the sports world to be inundated with hype. Be careful what you wish for!

This ProElite story just keeps getting worse and worse. Earlier this week, the news broke that ProElite may now go to court to prevent Showtime's public auction of the company's assets in an attempt for the latter to help recoup some of the money they are owed.

Initially scheduled for auction in Los Angeles later this month, there are questions of whether Showtime has the legal right to auction off fighter contracts which might be considered "personal services" contracts and therefore unable to be transferred via sale.

I think the Fight Network's Mauro Ranallo put it best last week when he pleaded with both parties to "set them free" and allow the fighters to earn a living, not be pawns in a meaningless game of chess.

After getting defeated by Jens Pulver in December 2007, Cub Swanson (12-2) returns to the WEC on 12/3 to battle Hiroyuki Takaya (9-5-1) in featherweight action. The fight will be aired live on Versus.

The payouts and bonuses for last Wednesday's WEC card have been released. Certainly a lot lower than your typical UFC/Affliction event, but keep in mind that the total gate was 5,227 fans for $563,578. UFC, for example, typically does numbers in the millions in much larger locations.

Thanks to Paulo Filho not making weight and having to surrender part of his purse, Chael Sonnen (seen left) was the big winner, taking home a nightly-high of $48,250. Jens Pulver was second with $33k, Filho third with $30,750 and Jake Rosholt fourth at $22k. $7500 bonuses were earned by Donald Cerrone/Rob McCullough (Fight of Night), Mike Brown (Knockout of Night) and Rani Yahya (Submission of Night).

Notice anything strange? How about where main eventers Urijah Faber and Mike Brown are? Faber officially earned $14k, while Brown took home $18k. For the organization's figurehead in Faber, that seems bizarre but Dave Meltzer of WrestlingObserver.com mused earlier this week that Zuffa probably paid him some bonuses to boost that up quite a bit, something that doesn't need to be reported.

As always, thanks to great sites like Five Ounces of Pain, MMA Weekly, MMA Junkie and others for their reporting.

Josh Nason has written and maintained Ropes, Ring and Cage since 2007 and can be reached at [e-mail]. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com. Thank you for your support!