"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy," Tito Ortiz, competed only one time in 2007 in a draw against The Ultimate Fighter season 2 winner Rashad Evans at UFC 73 in July. After some time away from fighting healing injuries and filming The Apprentice, Ortiz expects to return to the octagon in May.
"My last fight, before I fought Rashad (Evans), I wasn't 100%, and I just wanted to make sure if I ever fight again I'm going to be 100%," Ortiz told MMAWeekly. "The back injury that I sustained kind of hindered me for fight time. Now it's a lot better, and May will be my next fight."
"I spoke to Lorenzo (Fertitta), and it looks like in May," said the former UFC light heavyweight champion . "They're going to wait until May, so the next Cinco de Mayo weekend will be Tito Ortiz' next fight."
Ortiz' career has been plagued with injuries. He needed surgery to repair torn ligaments in his knee prior to his UFC 40 bout with Ken Shamrock in 2002. A nagging back injury has been a torn in his side suffered in training for his UFC 44 match with Randy "The Natural" Couture in 2003. He entered the octagon with a heavily wrapped knee against Forrest Griffin at UFC 59 in 2006.
Ortiz said, "I really want to fight at 100%. I'm making these guys look good when I'm not 100%. When I had the draw with Rashad, I should have never did that. I should have beat him, but it's all right. We'll do it again. I just want to make sure I'm 100% before all of my fights so I don't let any of my fans down when I lose or if I get a draw or something like that because I felt like I let my fans down and myself down, and I don't want to let that happen."
By the time May 2008 rolls around, ten months will have passed since the draw with Evans. With his opponent not yet named, Ortiz is focused on training and coming in 100% healthy.
