UFC 84 weigh-ins just ended, with all fighters making weight. Best reaction of the night was for Wanderlei Silva, who was treated like a rock star. Other superstar reactions were for Keith Jardine, BJ Penn and somewhat surprisingly Sokoudju. “The African Assassin” has all of the makings of a superstar–a good “look”, tons of charisma, a genuinely pleasant disposition and a ton of talent. Still, he’s a very unimpressive 0-1 in his UFC career–such a good reaction indicates that there were a lot more knowledgeable fans in the weigh in audience than you often get since they were obviously familiar with his impressive tenure in PRIDE. Surprised at how much “heel heat” Sean Sherk received.

Tito Ortiz got a decent, though not overwhelming, reaction when introduced. When he got on the scale he peeled off his sweatshirt to reveal a t-shirt with “Dana is my bitch” in huge lettering. Interesting to see if they somehow edit this out in the weigh in replay. Obviously the war of words between Dana and Tito has gotten pretty insane. Dana went off on Tito in a recent press conference:

“Tito is a f*****g idiot,� fumed White. “He’s one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever met.

“Everything that comes out of his mouth makes no sense. And I just have no interest in being in the Tito Ortiz business anymore.

“Listen, I put up with his s**t when he was a good fighter, you know. He’s not anymore and I’m just done.�

What really doesn’t make sense is Tito’s girlfriend, adult video auteur Jenna Jamison who’s compared herself and Mr. Ortiz to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. With all due respect to Tito as a fighter and all due respect to Jenna as a…uh….’businesswoman’ they’re no Brad and Angelina. Jenna’s also expressed her desire to ‘make babies’ with “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy”. Hopefully they won’t be rolling any video when this occurs….those aren’t even the best Jenna Jamison quotes of the fortnight. The best Jenna ruminations of late would be her head scratching over the failures of her first two marriages–to a porn star (’Brad Armstrong’, surprisingly not his real name) and a guy who’s sort of a porno Orson Welles–he directs/produces and ‘acts’ (Jay Grdina aka ‘Justin Sterling’). She’s also dated Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson. She might as well roll around with Geddy Lee from RUSH for awhile since you’d then be able to put together a very impressive band using nothing but former Jenna Jamison boyfriends….what’s sad about Jenna’s personal resume is that Tito Ortiz is by far the most respectable name on the list. He’s Ron Howard compared to the rock musicians and male porn skanks she’s dated in the past.

But let’s get back to Tito v. Dana, shall we? Of course Tito wouldn’t let those nasty comments just roll off his back–he responded by calling Dana a “wanna-be gangster”. He also took a swipe at Chuck Liddell:

Ortiz also said that UFC’s most popular fighter doesn’t step up and demand the money that he’s worth: “Chuck Liddell’s a puppet,” Ortiz said. “And I like Chuck, but he did the hard work for no money.”

Our buddy Michael David Smith over at AOL Fanhouse has the video of the interview posted, plus a dreamy ‘Tito and Jenna’ picture taken at a fashion show at no additional charge…

FWIW, neither Dana or Tito have ever been particularly diplomatic in how they conduct their business. Tito has made Dana a ton of money, Dana made Tito a star. Dana’s ability to let his personal grudges get in the way of what’s best for the sport or even the UFC specifically (Josh Barnett, Matt Lindland, Randy Couture, et. al.) is well known but its not like Tito hasn’t antagonized him the whole way. On the other hand, this could all be a “work” where Tito is leaving amicably for more money elsewhere, and the whole ‘feud’ with Dana is mutually beneficial. They really seem to dislike each other, but its never outside the realm of possibility that their disdain is just part of the ’storyline’. Think about it–we have a matchup between Ortiz in his last fight in the promotion and Lyoto Machida, a very talented fighter with a style that makes drying paint and growing grass look like Shinya Aoki or Wanderlei Silva by comparison. The low key and businesslike Machida isn’t a guy to run his mouth to promote a fight, so maybe Dana did it for him? Whether a “work” or a “shoot” the match is now essentially between the ‘Outlaw’ Ortiz and Dana White and the UFC corporation, with Lyoto Machida serving as the corporate surrogate. Basically the same dynamic as the initial Vince McMahon/”Stone Cold” Steve Austin feud that changed the fortunes of the WWE and put WCW in the ground for good.

Don’t forget we’ll have live round by round coverage of UFC 84 on Saturday night. It all gets started at 7 PM Pacific/10 PM Eastern here on the Savage Science blog.

NOTE: Some porno degenerate just emailed to inform me that Jenna’s last name is spelled ‘Jameson’. THE SAVAGE SCIENCE regrets the error. Sure we do…