Ortiz-Liddell 3: More Information, Less Knowledge

One of the funny things about life in 2010 is that we have more information than ever before at our fingertips, yet we somehow still know very little.  Case in point: the third meeting of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, slated to take place at UFC 115 this June.

Rumors had apparently been swirling for a couple of weeks among industry types, and last Saturday, Fighters Only magazine’s website ran a story claiming that Ortiz was out of his scheduled fight against Liddell.  Of course, the site also stated that according to the “industry source”, a fight between Liddell and replacement selection Rich Franklin would take place not at UFC 115, but on a Spike TV-aired event on April 17.  Supposedly, the impromptu event was being thrown together to piss off compete with Strikeforce’s event on that same day, which is airing on CBS.

However, according to Josh Gross of SportsIllustrated.com, the UFC has until this Thursday to file paperwork to reserve that date in Nashville, TN.  We are three days away from that deadline, and nothing has happened yet.  Furthermore, MMA Weekly and others have run their own versions of the story, stating that the substitution is happening, but that the Liddell-Franklin matchup will take place at UFC 115, not next month.

Then, we have Dana White himself.  White issued a stern denial of any change in plans via his Twitter account, even saying that Franklin would be facing Randy Couture in the near future, not Liddell.  However, despite the fact that White, Liddell, Ortiz and Jenna Jameson all have very active Twitter pages that should give us all the information we could need about the issue, we have gotten nothing but vague information and denials thus far.

Ortiz has posted over the last few weeks about his life getting more difficult, but did not elaborate.  Late on the 13th, he said, “This is all news to me!!!,” presumably speaking about the rumors of his pulling out of the bout.  However, Jameson alluded to Ortiz being in the hospital, which Ortiz appeared to confirm by saying he was having the worst flu of his life, adding, “More IVs please.”  Still, it wouldn’t seem that even a short hospital stint due to a bad flu would jeopardize a fight that is still three months away.

Jameson did post this message today: “I lost my pregnancy today, but I have two little boys to be thankful for.”  Obviously, this indicates that she and Ortiz are going through a very difficult time, but in terms of the rumors related to the fight, could there be a connection?  Again, we don’t know, though any decent human being would clearly feel sympathy for the two.

For Liddell’s part, he has been very quiet on the issue, but did state in a reply to a follower earlier today that he will be fighting Ortiz as planned.  Still, there have been very few words on the issue from him, Ortiz, or White so far, except for short denials and Ortiz’s urges for us to watch “The Ultimate Fighter” and see what happens.  This kind of talk, of course, only leads people to construct conspiracy theories, the most popular of which is that Ortiz has pulled out for some reason or another, and White is trying to hide it so that ratings for “The Ultimate Fighter” won’t take a dive.

Meanwhile, even Sherdog.com, probably the most respected and trustworthy MMA news source, has reported that the fight is off, citing multiple sources.  Even after White’s tweeted denial of the story, Sherdog.com maintained that their sources were sticking to their claims.  However, nothing else has been published on the site to follow up on the situation in the last two days.

The really interesting part of all of this is that even with what seems like 10,000 MMA sites to choose from, instant and unfiltered access to fighters/promoters via Twitter and today’s 24-hour news cycle that never stops working to unearth any secrets that have somehow not yet come to light, we are all still speculating about the fate of the fight.  Nowadays, it’s not just whether a story is denied, but how it is denied, that can lead people to continue believing the story nevertheless.  In this situation, the lack of a specific denial of health issues concerning Ortiz, as well as the many vague messages that Ortiz himself posted weeks ago, leads many to keep right on speculating.

The story so far is rather reminiscent of Brock Lesnar’s lengthy illness, which ended up threatening his ability to even compete again.  During that whole episode, many remarked about how strange it was that in the era of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and MMA news sites that never stop looking for something to report that no one seemed to know what was going on other than that Lesnar was sick and may not have been able to fight again.

So, for now, the fight is still on.  Meanwhile, professional MMA writers and sports reporters are refreshing fighters’ Twitter pages in hopes of getting something definitive to go on, only to get updates about Liddell eating sushi and White’s thoughts on the latest Manny Pacquiao fight.

Yep, we have access to more information than ever, and we still don’t know jack.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Dana White, Jenna Jameson, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, Tito Ortiz, UFC 115