ormer longtime UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz has not competed since the last fight on his UFC contract, which was against Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 last May. Since then he’s hinted at new deals with EliteXC, Affliction, and Strikeforce. Now the rumor mill is running rampant with the possibility that Ortiz may in fact be returning to the company where he spent most of his career. Ortiz was a guest on Tapout Radio recently, and he had this to say:

“UFC is not out of the picture…. There’s a possibility – I don’t know. I had a conversation with Dana last week, me and him spoke … we were really, really good friends at a point, best friends at a point, and everything got mucked up because of the fight game…. I wanted to be a man and squash things between me and him and wish him luck in his journeys and he did the same to me. So we kind of amended and squashed things, which is great. Dana showed the kind of person he is by apologizing to me and vice versa…. I’m very thankful for Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta from the UFC and I’m glad that me and Dana (White) kind of got to brush each other off. We may not still like each other or whatever but we came to amends – which is awesome. I gotta thank Strikeforce for giving me an opportunity and I want to thank Affliction for giving me an opportunity.”

Ortiz has always had a good relationship with UFC co-owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. It’s possible that Lorenzo negotiated a new deal for Ortiz, much as he did recently with Mirko Cro Cop.