Tito Ortiz, the former Light Heavyweight UFC champion and one of the biggest names in the sport, will go face to face with the undefeated Rashad Evans this Saturday, July 7 at UFC 73: Stacked, in one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year. Ortiz, known for his trash talking antics and colorful personality, is ready to put an end to Rashad’s immaculate MMA record and was generous enough to stop by BuddyTV the other day in between training to talk about the upcoming fight, his career, and his hopes for the future of the UFC and the sport.

Check out the full interview transcript and listen to the mp3 audio after the jump.

BuddyTV: Well it's an honor to have you as an interview guest today on BuddyTV. Tito, you’re truly one of the most exciting and colorful personalities in the sport and definitely a pleasure watch, so welcome.

Tito Ortiz: Thank you much for having me on the show, I appreciate it.

Well, you’re a veteran in the sport and you've been fighting competitively for many, many years, how would you characterize the sport as changing since you first started fighting in the UFC ten years ago?

You know, I guess it pretty much just comes down to, I kind of associate it a little bit with boxing, what we’ve done in the last 15, actually last 14 years now, in UFC I think it took boxing 100 years to do. We've been around a very short amount of time but we’ve really educated the fans of the sport itself and taken this world by storm of the UFC man. Mixed martial arts is probably the fastest growing sport in the world today.

How would say you've changed as a fighter over those last 10 years?

You know, I've really been a person to speak my mind, to bring a lot of smack talk along with some great fights, defended my world title 5 consecutive times, no other Light Heavyweight has ever done that. I’ve done a lot for the sport, but I think the sport has given a lot back to me. Of course if it wasn’t for the fans I wouldn’t be where I am right now, the fans who have been backing me from the very beginning. I’ve been a span of 10 years that I’ve been competing since May 30th, 1997. I’ve been competing for a long time and, it’s just one of those things with the fans, if it wasn’t for them I couldn’t do what I do; I make sure I get in the octagon and I entertain, when it comes to interviews I always speak my mind I don't hold anything back I don’t look to see what happens after an interview to see who I'm going to get yelled at by the UFC. I make sure I speak my mind and make sure I say what the fans want to hear, always. I say it from my heart and I wear my pride on my shoulders really loud.

Do you think there’s been any one single fight that has had the most profound impact on you, both personally and professionally?

Yeah, you know I could look back, for me personally, I guess when I beat Wanderlei Silva and won the Light Heavyweight World Title, I think that was the biggest match for myself, personally. But business side, I guess I have to say when I fought Ken Shamrock, the very first time that we competed, we had the best pay-per-view numbers at that point. We probably did the fastest selling arena at the time, was the MGM, we sold out I think it was 14,852 and I think that’s one of the most memorable fights that I can remember myself, of how good I dominated.

It seems as though we have seen a more mature, if you can characterize it, Tito Ortiz as of late, especially after burying the hatchet with Ken Shamrock and coming to terms with him finally, his last defeat against you. Should your fans get used to a slightly calmer Tito Ortiz or can they still expect the same highly volatile Tito Ortiz they’re accustomed to and have grown to love?

You know I think it may be a mixture of both. I’m still gonna be a bad boy image always, that’s just me when I go in the Octagon, but maybe a little more respectful...a little bit of respectful side to it I guess you could say as I’m older you know, I’m 32 years old. I was 22 when I first started competing. I'm a man now, I’m not a kid anymore, so I got to make sure I watch my steps and don't step too hard, I guess you could say. But I think it would be a mixture of both, I really go in, I try to entertain. I think that’s the biggest thing and I’m going to be disrespectful sometimes. I just try to say what’s on my mind and not try to hold anything back.

Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about your upcoming fight against Rashad Evans. Rashad is currently unbeaten, is there anything special you’re working on right now with your training to prep for Rashad?

With Rashad, and him being undefeated, I think that’s a great goal to have in the UFC, but too bad its not going to last any further than 7/7/07. I've been really getting down to my basics of wrestling, been doing a lot of sparring, been doing the stuff that I used to do when I was a champion, getting back into wrestling. I think that wrestling was the biggest thing that I lacked over the last three years just due to injuries, you have injuries you can't wrestle as much, but now I’ve got some really good guys up here, some college wrestlers from Arizona State, some from Montana State, of course Cal State Bakersfield here in California. I’ve got some former All-Americans up here who are helping me work out and I think that’s the biggest thing behind my career, was being a good wrestler and keeping those wrestling skill, and so that’s what I did. Knowing that Rashad wrestled at Michigan State and he was a great wrestler, I think this fight’s really going to come down to who dominates the takedown position and when fight time comes around, I know I will.

So are you coming into this fight 100 percent healthy?

Yeah, 100 percent healthy. I had a couple injuries during training, but you know, I kind of pushed past them and the injuries are healed now and I feel really, really good. I'm 100 percent for this fight, I just can't wait till fight time, I’m just very, very excited. I know a lot of my fans are excited and just want to get in the Octagon and I’m able to punish Rashad, I’ll be happier with my hands raised and I’ll know the fights over.

Not that you're looking past Rashad, who do you see yourself locking horns with next, post-Rashad? Is there anyone out there who you really want to fight?

You know, I haven't really paid too much attention, I think everything’s been surrounded by Rashad, and getting it done with him. After this, possibly someone like Shogun (Mauricio Rua), I know Shogun is coming to the UFC and he's a great fighter. Wanderlei Silva is another person who’s coming over. Also, Ricardo Arona. I mean there’s so many guys from PRIDE that are coming over now that, I have two more fights left on my contract, this one with Rashad I get done, one after that. I want to fight someone in the top five in the world, I think that’s the biggest thing that I need to do that I think my fans deserve. I don’t really want to take steps back in fighting guys who aren't ranked or guys who are ranked under 10 in the world, I really want to fight the guys who are ranked top five.

There was a lot of talk recently about the death of boxing, the resurgence of boxing with the recent Mayweather/De La Hoya fight, what do you think would happen if you were to fight a boxer like Mike Tyson in his prime?

You know, if I boxed a boxer like Mike Tyson in his prime, I probably wouldn't last a round. If he came in and did mixed martial arts, he wouldn't last a round himself. Its two different sports man, it's like trying to do chess versus checkers, totally, totally different. There’s so many different ways to win a match in mixed martial arts and with boxing all they get to use is their two hands. With us we use two hands, two knees, two elbows, two kicks, or two feet excuse me, and submission moves, takedowns. It's just one of those things where it’s a different sport it’s a totally different sport, you can't compare boxing to mixed martial arts.

What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't fighting?

If I wasn't fighting then I'd actually probably be a high school wrestling coach. I'd be a special education teacher, that’s what I went to college for, that’s what I wanted to be, was a teacher. Just to give back to kids, I’ve always wanted to help with kids, when I was coaching kids in high school, when I was in junior college, I had a really good time with it. I know a lot of people got to see me on The Ultimate Fighter, that I was a fairly decent coach. I love that coaching side of me, I love helping kids and I love giving back to the youth who are going to take care of us when were old men.

It does seem like UFC fans either love you are hate you Tito, why do you think there’s no middle ground when it comes to Tito Ortiz and your fan base?

You know, there’s the guys who love me, who know what I’m about who know what type of person I am, and who always support me. Then there’s guys who hate me because of the smack talk, the little antics I do, or I don’t give into the company like the rest of the fighters. That’s just me man, that’s just the way I am, either you like me or you hate me. There’s really no middle step for both of us, or for both of them. I just really think that I speak my mind, if a guys going to like me they’re going to like me because I’m a real person and I’m not a fake person, and if you don’t like me then that’s fine too, either way I’m not going anywhere.

If you could change one thing about the UFC or the sport in general, what would you change?

If I could change one thing I would say give a fair share to the fighters and stop keeping all the money for themselves, and then I'll refer to the company.

It is public knowledge that you're dating Jenna Jameson. Did Jenna know much about ultimate fighting before you two started dating, was she a fan of yours for awhile?

Yea she was actually a fan of mine for awhile. I guess she's been a fan, probably before the Randy Couture fight, she always came to the UFC’s, either they showed her or they didn't but she was always there. I guess she was at the Forrest Griffin fight, she came to a lot of them and she’s always been a huge fan, it was kind of really funny. It was cool, I met her, and I met her and I found a girl who’s a wonderful woman, she’s very smart, a very beautiful girl of course, very articulate, and a very business savvy woman who helps me out on a lot of business ventures that I’m attacking myself, and it’s one of those things where everything happens for a reason.

Any wedding bells in the future Tito and Jenna?

No, no wedding bells anytime soon. It seems like whenever someone that are in the celebrity status that get married, their marriages usually don’t last long. I think we’re just going to be really, really good friends and just stay together and be very happy that way, without really putting so much pressure on us by trying to be a married couple, and just be a couple in general.

The UFC was recently featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, clearly as you indicated earlier, it’s gaining massive popularity and a lot of that is definitely attributed to stars like yourself, what do you think the future has in store for the UFC?

I think the UFC has the world at its feet right now, it’s just one of those things that the fans are getting educated on the sport that’s taking the world by storm. It’s just one of those things that you look at, that the UFC is here to stay, a lot of fans love the sport because of how great the athletes are and we do a good job entertaining I think. At least I try my hardest out there to entertain fans as much as I possibly can, and I just see the sport growing faster and faster and I’m glad that we’re getting the recognition that we are finally getting. We’re noticed as true athletes now, not the bar brawlers, you know, human cockfighting that they were when it first began. And the sport goes through an evolution and gets better and better and our sport has gone through an evolution that we've gotten so good now that we're taking every single sport by storm, were surpassing boxing, surpassing professional wrestling, NASCAR. I mean there’s so much stuff that we’re getting better ratings on televisions so it really shows that the demographics for 18 to 36 is very, very high in ultimate fighting.

The world and your fan base certainly can't wait to see what Tito has in store for the UFC. Hey Tito, I just want to thank you for your time today from all of us at BuddyTV we certainly wish you good luck and much success on July 7 and beyond.

Yeah thank you very much man. All my fans, I thank you for support and of course check my clothing company Punishment Athletics and punishment.com. Gear for the whole family, got girls clothing, guys clothing, kids clothing. Stuff I’ll be wearing before my fight, we got some gear got to be sold man, thanks for all your support. Check it out 7-7-07 on Pay-Per-View...the destruction of Rashad Evans.



(Interview conducted by Tom Michel)

Be sure to check out our upcoming interview with Anderson Silva and our other recent UFC 73 Interviews with Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, Kenny Florian.