Bader interview: TUF 8 champ not about to fall for Tito?s pity party

Tito Ortiz was in passive-aggressive mode today during the official UFC 132 prefight press conference. Tito claims that he begged for his job earlier this year and said repeatedly during the press conference that no one is picking him to win and because of that he has nothing to lose. This talk started last week when Ortiz started to accuse Ryan Bader of disrespecting him by calling him a stepping stone.

"But Bader made a mistake saying I am a stepping stone back to Jon Jones. I understand why he said it. When I was 28 I felt indestructible too and I was saying a lot of things about what I was going to do too. But I'm not a stepping stone to anyone," Ortiz wrote in a blog for ESPN.com. "No one has ever had an easy fight against me and he made a mistake in saying that I am a stepping stone. Maybe it was a figure of speech, but even if it was it was a little disrespectful to a former world champion."

When we spoke to Bader yesterday, the champ from Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter" reacted strongly, saying he would never look past someone like Ortiz.

"I never said that one time. All I said was I wanted to get back to the top and that startsd with Tito here, and that's all I said," Bader said on ESPNRadio1100 (4:45 mark). "He got that from, who knows where? I'm treating not this fight like that at all. This is a a fight I'm taking very seriously and I want to get back to my winning ways."

Ortiz is 0-4-1 in his last five fights. He's without a win since 2006. Dana White made it clear today that a good performance alone would NOT allow Ortiz to keep his gig with the UFC. Tito needs to win this or he's gone. Bader is a massive minus-500 favorite on the Las Vegas odds boards.

The 28-year-old former wrestler at Arizona State had his hand on his chin and smirked for much of the press conference as Tito talked about "hoping" to go out and put on a good performance.

You can watch UFC 132 right here on Yahoo! Sports

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Tito?s career is on the line, who?s giving him a shot against Bader?

The chips are stacked against Tito Ortiz. Last week, the 36-year-old former UFC light heavyweight champ revealed that he had to beg Zuffa management for one more shot after his loss to Matt Hamill at UFC 121 in October.

The UFC relented but didn't give him an easy mark. Up next is 28-year-old, top 10 light heavyweight Ryan Bader. Essentially a younger, more complete version of Tito.

On this week's MMA Insiders show, HDNet analyst Frank Trigg and Yahoo! Sports' Kevin joined ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas to talk about Ortiz's chances in the fight and what he'll do if he loses.

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Garner, Guseinov, Taisumov Score Knockout Wins at M-1 Global on Showtime

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Showtime viewers were treated to an entertaining night of MMA from M-1 Global on Friday night, with five fights that all contained their share of fireworks.

In the main event, heavyweight Kenny Garner landed a hard left hook standing and another left hand on the ground to knock out Pat Bennett in the second round. Garner said afterward that he wants to get a shot at M-1's heavyweight champion, Guram Gugenishvili.

"I forgot your name -- Guram or whatever it is," he said. "I'm coming. ... I'm going to beat your brains out like a professional."

Arthur Guseinov delivered the highlight of the night with a spinning back fist knockout of Tyson Jeffries in the co-main event. Guseinov spun quickly and connected his right hand to Jeffries' chin before Jeffries saw anything coming, and Jeffries was out cold before he even hit the ground. It was a very impressive finishing move from Guseinov, who snapped a two-fight losing streak with the victory.

Mairbek Taisumov knocked out Josh Bacallao in the first round, using a straight right hand to knock Bacallo down and finishing him off with a couple more punches on the ground.

Daniel Weichel beat Beau Baker by unanimous decision in a one-sided stand-up beating. All three judges gave all three rounds to Weichel, and one judge, Larry Landless, even scored two rounds 10-8, for an unusual scorecard of 30-25. The other two judges scored it 30-27 for Weichel, who improved his professional MMA record to 27-7.

In a finish that got the Showtime broadcast started with a bang, Eddie Arizmendi knocked out Jason Norwood in the second round. Although Norwood had been controlling most of the fight with his superior wrestling, he wasn't doing much with his top control, and Arizmendi took advantage of referee Big John McCarthy standing the fighters up late in the second round: Once he got back to his feet, Arizmendi landed a head kick, a straight right hand and a left hook to knock Norwood cold.

 

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