SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun

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Previously, Ortiz has even antagonized UFC President Dana White, although White said their personality differences have not interfered with the promotion of Ortiz's fights.

"It's one of those things where Tito and I don't ever see eye to eye," White said on a conference call. "We've been fighting for a long time with each other. But at the end of the day it's business ...

"Tito is a good fighter. He comes in to fight. He does his promotions. Tito does his job and I do mine , and it works out for everybody."

In Saturday's title fights, Anderson Silva (minus-180) takes on Nate Marquardt (oh, excuse me, Nate "the Great" Marquardt) for the middleweight championship and Sean Sherk (minus-360) meets Hermes Franca for the lightweight championship.

Silva was better than a 4-1 favorite in his most recent fight, a victory by submission against Travis Lutter, and was a plus-150 underdog in his previous bout, a technical knockout of Rich Franklin.

Sherk was a 3-1 favorite when he beat Kenny Florian for the belt last time out, and a minus-160 choice in his previous fight against Nick Diaz. He lost to Georges St. Pierre as a small underdog of plus-105 in November 2005.

Hyping Ortiz as opposed to the two title matches was just another example of the UFC's vaunted marketing acumen, White said.

"It depends on the market," he said. "We did billboards with Tito and Rashad, and in other markets we did them with Sean and Hermes and others with Anderson and Nate. But obviously, Tito Ortiz is a very popular fighter. In some of the markets where a lot of people know Tito, him and Rashad would have been on the billboards as opposed to one of the title fights.

"We're very tricky guys. We know how to market this."

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