Tito Ortiz talks about his UFC future

The much awaited third match between Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell was cancelled as Ortiz was forced to pull out ahead of their UFC 115 match due to Ortiz needing neck surgery and also suffering a severe case of the flu (which also forced him out of TUF 11 coaching). Tito is now back in training and is eying a possible november return to the octagon. Here is what he had to say to Sherdog.com:

“I get a little tingling sensation down my arms and the back of my neck but I guess that’s normal because of all the nerves are reconnecting,” he said. “I feel really good, though. The soreness I have now is from lifting weights. I haven’t had this kind of soreness in a while. July will really be the test for me because I’ll be wrestling and stuff and starting to get into it. On July 1, I’ll start doing jiu-jitsu and start drilling. Nothing live — just drilling to get my body back into shape.”

With Chuck dropping a KO loss to Franklin at UFC 115 a third match seems unlikely especially with the rumors of Chuck’s retirement although it may be incentive for Chuck to fight again as the first two matches both went The Iceman’s way by KO/TKO. Ortiz is in need of a win, his last one came in the form of a TKO victory over Ken Shamrock in 2006, since then he has lost to Forrest Griffin, Lyoto Machida, Chuck Liddell and drew against Rashad Evans. So it looks like its last chance saloon whenever Ortiz makes it back to the UFC octagon.