Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz were on their best behaviour Thursday as they met the media in advance of their UFC title bout Saturday night at the MGM Grand.
Sitting on opposite sides of the podium, the rival mixed martial arts fighters pretty much ignored each other during their pre-fight news conference. But they took part in a fierce stare down for photographers, with the two fighters' noses almost coming into contact.
There's no love lost between the two rivals, but they shook hands after a news conference that saw both men express their satisfaction that fight night was finally here.
"I'm excited. It's going to be fun. I can't wait to hit Tito again," said Liddell, the reigning UFC light-heavyweight champion.
The Iceman knocked out Ortiz in the second round in April 2004 the first time they met. The man with the shaved mohawk and tattooed skull went on to win his next five fights, picking up the UFC's 205-pound title along the way and today is arguably the most famous MMA fighter on the planet.
Unlike the loquacious Ortiz, Liddell lets his fists and feet do most of his talking — and usually the conversations are short.
"The Iceman has been knocking everybody out," UFC president Dana White said.
Ortiz is also on a roll, having won his last five fights since the Liddell loss.
"What I want is that belt back," said Ortiz. who defended the title five times when he was light-heavyweight champion before a contract dispute with the UFC and loss to Randy Couture knocked him back down the 205-pound mountain.
UFC officials expect the Liddell-Ortiz rematch to be the most lucrative in mixed martial arts history, with an anticipated record pay per view audience of 1.2 million. At C$39.99 a shot, that translates into some $48 million revenue plus a live gate that should push the night's total past $50 million — more than 20 times what the current owners paid for the UFC.
"It's huge . . . the biggest gate, the biggest pay per view," said White.
Asked if that extended to the UFC's biggest ever purse for Liddell and Ortiz, the UFC president — who does not like to talk fighter pay — said "no doubt about it," when pressed on the issue. The Las Vegas Review-Journal pegs the champion's paycheque as more than US$1 million for this fight.
Still, Liddell looked anything but excited as he sat on the podium, absently playing with his Sidekick cellphone.
"If you hadn't noticed, I get a little bored at these things," said Liddell, who is more interested in putting opponents to sleep that swapping tales with reporters. In contrast, Ortiz welcomes any chance to talk Tito.
"If you hadn't noticed, I get a little bored at these things," said Liddell, who is more interested in putting opponents to sleep that swapping tales with reporters. In contrast, Ortiz welcomes any chance to talk Tito.
The fight offers other interesting matchups in style.
The 36-year-old Liddell (whose record is 19-3 compared to Ortiz's 15-4) can knock opponents out with one punch or kick, from almost any angle or distance.
"Everybody knows what the Iceman does," said White, who once managed both Liddell and Ortiz. "There's no secret on what he's going to try to do on Saturday night.
"He's going to try to keep the fight standing and knock him out."
The 31-year-old Ortiz's forte is driving fighters into the canvas, then using fists and elbows to carve them up.
"There's nobody in this business. nobody in this business that stops people like Tito Ortiz does once he gets them down on the ground," said White. "You're in big trouble if you're on your back and up against the cage."
In the first fight, Liddell stuffed both of Ortiz's attempts to take him down in an uneventful first round that the Iceman won with a couple of telling blows late in the round. Ortiz was jarred by an unintentional thumb to the eye early in the second round and Liddell swarmed him, rocking him with a brutal barrage of blows to the head.
Ortiz finally went down, his face busted up and bleeding.
The question remains can Ortiz get find a way to take Liddell down to the canvas where he can do his worst? The champion, whose takedown defence is arguably the best in the UFC, says the challenger will have to get past his firsts first.
"He knows he's got to strike with me to get close enough to take me down. You have to."
Ortiz insists he can topple Liddell.
"I can take down anybody in the UFC . . . we're going to see Saturday night whether I can take him down. You ask me if I can? I guarantee you I can," said Ortiz, his jeans, T-shirt and backwards baseball cap accompanied by Prada sunglasses. "Just give me the chance to do it."
The back story between Ortiz and Liddell is one of betrayal, if you listen to Ortiz. The way he tells it, the two California fighters were friends and training partners who agreed never to meet in the ring unless the money was good enough to warrant it. According to Ortiz, Liddell reneged on that promise.
Liddell tells a different story, saying the two were never that close and that Ortiz used the friendship angle as an excuse to duck him.
The blood has been bad ever since.
When Liddell entered the ring after Ortiz's win over Vitor Belfort in February 2005 to talk some smack, accusing Ortiz of being afraid to fight him again, Ortiz dismissed him by saying "We can go again. You will be the last of the Mohicans."
The dislike even trickles down to the fighters' fans.
"My fans just don't like him," Liddell said Thursday. "They don't like he runs his mouth, the way he talks, the way he seems to show no one any respect."
The champion hopes a second win over Ortiz will rid him of the problem.
"I plan on getting rid of him," he said. "So I don't have to listen to his mouth any more."
Middleweight Jason MacDonald of Red Deer, Alta., looks to make it two UFC wins in a row Saturday when he takes on Chris Leben on the undercard. MacDonald, a prison guard, scored a convincing submission win over Ed Herman in his UFC debut in October.