[bears9]

"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy," Tito Ortiz, completes his contractual obligation with the Ultimate Fighting Championship when he steps in the octagon at UFC 84 against Lyoto Machida. Ortiz spoke with MMAWeekly about his training, his focus and his match up with the undefeated Brazilian.

"I'm really healthy. I feel great. I feel really, really good," said Ortiz. "I'm excited about this fight. I'm very focused. This fight means the world to me. I'm not just fighting myself. I'm fighting for every one of those fans, the Tito Ortiz fans that support me."

As excited as Ortiz is for his showdown with Machida, it wasn't the fight he wanted for his final bout in the UFC. "It doesn't matter who I fight to me. In the beginning I thought the Rashad Evans deal was supposed to happen," said the former UFC light heavyweight champion. "They built it, it was going to happen, and that's what I expected. And I know a lot of fans expected that."

"The UFC has their own game plan. They have their own ideas of how they want to run things, and I turned it down at first, saying why would I want to fight Lyoto? There's no reason to. But then I just started going on, and I was like, I don't really care. Whoever you want me to fight, I'll fight. That's really what it came down to. No diss toward Lyoto. He's a great fighter, undefeated, but I thought they were building the Rashad Evans fight. I wanted to fight Rashad again because I thought I beat him the first time."

- ORTIZ PREDICTS VICTORY OVER MACHIDA - MMA WEEKLY - Mixed Martial Arts & UFC News, Photos, Rankings & more