"I'm a big Bernard Hopkins fan," said Evans, from Niagara Falls, N.Y. "I was asking him about the right hand."
Word in the gym, where the public was invited to see the workouts, is that Ortiz's hand speed has improved since the two men fought to a draw four years ago.
"The draw motivates me. At the same time, I don't think about it," said Ortiz, listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds. "On Saturday night the draw won't matter at all. When I get my hand raised, people will know I won the first one."
The California native, whose record is 17-8-1, last had his hand raised on July 2, when he forced Ryan Bader to submit after 1 minute, 56 seconds by applying a guillotine choke hold. Ortiz, however, had suffered four losses and the draw over the previous 41/2 years.
A back injury, a neck injury, and surgeries kept him from being 100 percent. Now he says he feels healthy and reinvigorated.
Ortiz lost the light-heavyweight title to Randy Couture in 2003, over three years after capturing it.
It marked the longest reign in the division since since the title's inception in 1997. He defended the crown five times.
Evans (20-1-1) said he wasn't impressed. The 5-11, 217-pound trash talker put it this way: "He can say, 'This is my Rocky moment.' But Rocky was a movie, man. There won't be no camera, nobody saying: 'Cut, let's do that scene again so Rocky can win.' Rocky lost."
Note. On Friday morning, UFC fighters will be at the Wilson Park Boys' and Girls' Club.
Watch Tito Ortiz preparing in the ring for Saturday's UFC fight with Rashad Evans. www.philly.com/ufc133
Contact staff writer Bill Iezzi at 856-685-3299 or biezzi@phillynews.com.
