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Lorenzo Fertitta says Mir vs Velasquez, Ortiz vs Griffin in the works

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UFC Co-Owner Lorenzo Fertitta announced over Twitter last night two bouts that are currently in the works. According to Fertitta, Frank Mir (16-5) and Cain Velasquez (9-1) are on course to meet one another in the Octagon, while rivals Tito Ortiz (16-10) and Forrest Griffin (18-7) could be heading for their 3rd fight to round out the trilogy.

While Fertitta announced the planned match-ups via Twitter, no dates were given for when they could actually take place.

Frank Mir is currently riding a three fight win streak inside the UFC, recently defeating Antonio Rodrgio Nogueira for the second time at UFC 140 via submission, becoming the only man to finish Big Nog via TKO and submission. The submission victory earned Mir Submission of the Night honors along with winning Sherdog’s Submission of the Year honors. Mir also defeated Roy Nelson by decision at UFC 130 and at UFC 119 knocked out Mirko Cro Cop.

Frank Mir won the UFC Heavyweight champions in 2004 before a brutal Motorcycle accident sidelined him for over a year, forcing him to vacate the championship. Mir came back to become the interim UFC Heavyweight champion in 2008 by defeating Nog via TKO at UFC 92, becoming the only man, at the time, to stop Nog.

On the other side, Cain Velasquez will look to come back from his only loss in MMA when he dropped the UFC Heavyweight championship to Junior dos Santos on the first ever UFC televised event on FOX. The loss stopped Cain’s perfect streak to open his MMA career, which included winning his first seven fights inside the cage, featuring wins over the aforementioned Nog, becoming the 2nd man to stop him and winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar.

With Ortiz on the brink of retirement, the People’s Champ called out Forrest Griffin to complete their trilogy of fights, which would mark the 2nd trilogy for Ortiz, the other being his fights against Ken Shamrock. Ortiz currently is one of the longest tenured fighters inside the UFC, having fought for the promotion 28 times and holding the current record for most Light Heavyweight title defenses with five.

Since returning to the UFC after over a year-long layoff, Ortiz is just 1-4, including losing to Griffin in a rematch of their UFC 59 bout in his return. Ortiz’s only win in his last 8 fights came at UFC 132 when he submitted Ryan Bader earning submission of the night honors and a short resurgence in his career.

Griffin is coming off a loss to Mauricio Rua at UFC 134 in Brazil. Prior to the fight, Griffin learned that his wife had gone into labor with the couples first child, but Griffin offered no excuses for the loss to Rua, whom he defeated in Rua’s UFC debut via submission. Griffin verbally excepted Ortiz’s challenge on a recent airing of HDNet’s Inside MMA.

 


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