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With all the pesky rumors about Rich Franklin replacing Tito Ortiz on TUF 11 and UFC 115, Rich makes absolutely zero mention of it in an interview with the Boston Herald. In fact, he confirmed he’s been in talks to fight Randy Couture just as Dana White said.

“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,” Franklin said. “I think we’re having problems with Randy’s scheduling. So I really don’t know what the plan is at this point.”

Franklin also said he’s finally ready to make one more title run before he hangs up the gloves for good in 2-3 years.

“I’m 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,’‘ said Franklin, who has five fights left on his contract. “It depends on the speed of things. I would imagine I’ll probably end up negotiating one more contract before I retire. I’m looking at another two or three years of fighting.”

It looks like that run will start with Randy Couture, not Chuck Liddell, but I’m sure another report will surface before the week’s out saying otherwise.

We’re back in business. Sorry for the late start today, but our flight was delayed several hours last night and I didn’t get home until 5 o’clock in the morning.

Round 5 has unveiled series 2 of their UFC Ultimate Collector figurines. This batch includes BJ Penn, Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Randy Couture and Kimbo Slice. They hit retail stores in April.

Here’s a teaser for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter featuring Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.

Josh Koscheck is sick and tired of Tito Ortiz opening his mouth and “embarrassing himself.” He’s so sick of it in fact, he wants to fight Tito and he’s willing to bet $100,000 that would he would win. That fight will never happen for a million reasons but Koscheck does have a fight lined up with Paul Daley at UFC 113. As he tells Cagewriter, he’s not afraid to stand with Daley and plans to put his foot down Daley’s throat, rearrange his teeth and shut his mouth.

If Tito Ortiz was trying to press Chuck Liddell’s buttons with his alcoholism remarks, it worked. Liddell is not happy, and as he tells Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani his third fight with Tito was supposed to be a “tune-up” fight, but now he wants to “kill” him. He has no idea why Tito would say what he did, but it lit a fire under his ass and he’s ready to knock Tito out once again.

It all started last fall when Tito Ortiz called Mark Coleman a sissy for pulling out of their scheduled fight at UFC 106. Mark Coleman’s manager retaliated by getting a little too personal and taking shots at Tito’s girlfriend, ex-porn queen Jenna Jameson.

Mark Coleman does not like Tito Ortiz. Coleman shrugged it off when Tito called him a sissy after he withdrew from UFC 106, but now Tito’s comments are starting to get under his skin. After calling Tito a “douchebag,” Coleman tells RawVegas.tv’s Dave Farra he would fight him when he’s 60-years old anywhere Tito wants.

It’s official. For better or worse, the WEC will be holding their first ever pay-per-view event in May. The card will be headlined by a featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber.

WEC President Reed Harris confirmed the news on the Dave and Mahoney X107.5 radio show. Harris said they’re still discussing the price point for the pay-per-view, but if he has his way it will be the same price as the UFC, $44.95. He tried to justify the price by saying they’re basically the UFC with lighter weight fighters and feels it’s only a matter of time before the WEC is as popular as the UFC is now. I can’t remember if it was Harris or not, but one WEC/UFC official said in the past the price point would be lower than the standard UFC price. Sounds like they’re reconsidering. Will you buy it at $44.95?

Harris also mentioned that Chuck Liddell is/was not an alcoholic and Tito Ortiz was “full of shit” in making such accusations. Apparently, Chuck is really pissed off about it.

HT: BE