According to mmajunkie.com, Lyoto Machida initially accepted the fight against Rashad Evans before it was given to Tito Ortiz.
White said "Machida accepted the fight...We knew for a couple days this was going down, and Machida accepted the fight. Then when we called back and said, 'OK, we're going to make this fight,' Machida's people came back and said, 'We'll tell you what. You pay us what you pay Anderson Silva, and we'll take the fight.' This was after they had already agreed to take the fight."
Dana went on, "I said, 'Are you [expletive] kidding me? I'll tell you what. You tell Machida he achieves what [expletive] Anderson Silva has achieved, then maybe he'll make Anderson Silva money. Have a nice day.'"
This must be a strange turn of events for Dana White, as Machida, who has never posed a problem before, suddenly is looking for more money and causing issues, while Tito, who has posed many problems for Dana stepped up for the company, the fans, and for White.
Dana said "Tito stepped up to the plate. It's [expletive] weird here. It's like I'm dealing with a new person. I like it. I like the new Tito."
In addition, Dana also said that Tito's job would not be on the line, and with a win, he would be "back in the mix."
The UFC 133 fight card now looks like this.
- Light Heavyweight Fight: Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz
- Light Heavyweight Fight: Rich Franklin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
- Light Heavyweight Fight: Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
- Middleweight Fight: Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara
- Welterweight Fight: Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Pyle
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