(At that moment, Bader’s whole life flashed before his eyes, and the part about fighting Tito Ortiz at UFC 132 made him say, “No way, you gotta be shittin’ me!”)

Guess you have to give Ryan Bader partial credit for admitting to MMA Weekly on Friday that one of the reasons he wanted to fight Tito Ortiz was to erase from his mind the nightmarish memories of his UFC 126 fight with Jon Jones. On the other hand, we have to kinda call disingenuousness (aka bullshit) on the way Bader sort of tries to make it sound like this bout just fell into his lap (as we recall, he specifically called Ortiz out) and saying that he took the fight because he’s “an MMA fan” who just wanted to take on a legend. Check it out:

“Although it’s a step down in competition from Jon Jones and (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira, I got a chance fight a guy like Tito, a legend of the sport, and we took it,” Bader said. “It’s almost like a novelty fight for me going in there and (fighting) a guy I grew up watching. I’m a fan and a fighter. I want to be a part of his legacy and vice versa. I want to have Tito Ortiz in my win column.”

With the announcement yesterday that BJ Penn had to pull out of UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber, the leading candidate to fill in against “The Prodigy,” Carlos Condit (26-5) has now been matched up with durable South Korean fighter Dong Hyun Kim (14-0-1 1NC).

The UFC announced the pairing today.

(Hurt? Nah, I just wanted to have some time to surf.)

A week after news broke that Jon Fitch had pulled out of UFC 132 due to a shoulder injury, the American Kickboxing Academy fighter’s opponent for the event had reportedly been removed from the July 2 card as well.

Dave Meltzer reported earlier today via his Wrestling Observer subscription newsletter that Penn had apparently sustained an injury this week while training for the event in anticipation of the UFC finding him a viable replacement opponent.

Now MMAJunkie is saying that Penn has opted out of the event for undisclosed reasons and will instead look at a future card for his next bout.

(You should have seen Tito driving this thing with his head out the window like Ace Ventura. It looked like a bobblehead in a HotWheels car. Photo credit: TMZ)

You would think that the UFC would have a clause in the contract of its fighters that restricts them from partaking in any dangerous activities like skydiving, attending a barbecue thrown by Mike Whitehead or living with Kim Couture. Apparently Zuffa is too busy writing up their new journalism policies to worry about fighters like Tito Ortiz wrecking race cars when they should be concerned with training for upcoming bouts.

(When Carlos Condit asked how bad you wanted to see him fight BJ Penn, he meant that shit rhetorically. Pic: Sherdog)

This week’s revelation that Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber will headline July’s UFC 132 with their bantamweight title scrap (and for some reason, apparently not coach “TUF 14″) doesn’t necessarily mean bad things for those of us who still want to see BJ Penn included in some way. It just means that – in the wake of Jon Fitch tearing up his shoulder during training – the UFC doesn’t know who to match him up against yet. As we told you last week, former WEC champ Carlos Condit has been publicly campaigning to fight Penn, but the UFC has so far been mum about that idea. At this point, it sounds like Condit is going a little OCD on it.

“I’m not really sure what’s holding it up right now,” Condit manager Malki Kawa told MMA Weekly. “Hopefully Condit’s the guy they call to do it. I don’t know if there’s a better fight than Condit for him, but we’re excited about the opportunity and hopefully, if Joe Silva, B.J. Penn, and the UFC feel like it’s something they want to do, Carlos is itching. He texts me every day, ‘Any word on B.J.?’ I’m hoping that’s what happens for him.”

(Wandy’s been waiting for this moment ever since his son told him he wants to be the Cat Smasher when he grows up.)

UFC.com confirmed last night that middleweight veterans Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben will be meeting at UFC 132 (July 2nd, Las Vegas). It’s a matchup that’s been a year in the making. Following his upset submission victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116 last July, Leben called out Akiyama’s original opponent for the fight, Wanderlei Silva. Silva liked the sound of it, and has been mentioning Leben’s name ever since.

Unfortunately, with Silva recuperating from knee surgery, Leben was forced to take another fight in the meantime, and wound up getting KO’d by Brian Stann. But although Silva has been tied to everyone from Stann to Chael Sonnen to Vitor Belfort for his return bout, it seems that the Axe Murderer is getting his wish to fight the Crippler, in a match that’s as close to a guaranteed slugfest as you can get in this kooky sport. Silva expressed his joy via Twitter:

(Come on, Jon. A real man takes “prohibited injections” and fights through that shit. Photo courtesy of Zimbio)

Bad news for fans of immediate rematches and mouthpiece-chewers. As first reported by MMAWeekly, Jon Fitch has withdrawn from his upcoming fight with BJ Penn at UFC 132 (July 2nd, Las Vegas) due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training; according to ESPN, it’s shoulder-related. A replacement opponent for Penn has not yet been named.

Fitch and Penn met in the main event of UFC 127 last month and fought to a majority draw, in a match that saw Penn take a slight edge in the first two rounds before getting clobbered in round three. UFC 132 is currently slated to feature the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.

(Well now I want to see Dominick Cruz as Backin’ Up Lady. Props: twitter.com/UrijahFaber)

The UFC announced on Saturday that the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber will go down at UFC 132, July 2nd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Since taping for TUF 14 is expected to take place sometime this summer, it seems unlikely that Cruz and Faber will be tapped as coaches for The Ultimate Fighter‘s first bantamweight/featherweight season.

The two former WEC stars have shared some bad blood since the lead-up to their first fight at WEC 26 in March 2007. Upset that he wasn’t featured on the event poster, Cruz signed his name over Faber’s face — which the California Kid perceived as a sign of disrespect. Faber went on to score a guillotine choke victory in just 98 seconds, retaining his featherweight title.

(“Is ‘March’ with one ‘e’ or two?”)

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz posted a video of himself signing his contract to face Ryan Bader at UFC 132 July 2 at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.

The fight will likely be Ortiz’s last chance to prove the UFC that they should hold on to him in spite of the fact that he has not won a fight in the past five years or in any of his past five fights. UFC president Dana White has said recently that he thought about letting “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” go after his loss to Matt Hamill in October at UFC 121, but decided to give Ortiz, who still has some drawing power, one more kick at the cat.

When Tito Ortiz tweeted the message above Wednesday night rumors began swirling that the injury-plagued former UFC light heavyweight champion may be walking away from the sport of MMA in spite of an impending UFC 132 bout with Ryan Bader.

It now looks like “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was referring to his relationship with former adult film actress Jenna Jameson and not his mixed martial arts career when he said he was out.

When asked last night about what Ortiz meant by his cryptic message, the mother of his twin two-year-old sons, Journey and Jette, played coy.

(“FINISH HIM!” shouted the spooky narrator from Mortal Kombat, who had clearly never seen Jon Fitch fight before. Props: MMAConvert)

After their UFC 127 main event ended in a frustrating majority draw, BJ Penn and Jon Fitch have been re-booked for an immediate rematch at UFC 132 (July 2, Las Vegas). The UFC confirmed the news late last night. Both fighters were initially disappointed in their performance, but have since come around to the idea that they both should have won and a rematch is the only logical option. The fight will lead off the live Facebook-stream portion of the evening. (Kidding. It’ll probably be on the main card somewhere.) Maybe this match is a good time to test out the UFC’s proposed use of five-round fights for non-title features. No? Terrible idea?