News from Dana White’s conference call

Or, more accurately, not much news:

The UFC has signed Affliction fighter Vitor Belfort and he’ll face Rich Franklin at 205 pounds at UFC 103, replacing Dan Henderson, who will have the next crack at middleweight champ Anderson Silva. The winner of UFC 101’s Nate Marquardt vs Demian Maia is also “in the mix.”

Tito Ortiz is officially back in the fold after receiving an offer he couldn’t refuse. While most speculated he’d face Franklin at UFC 103 it looks like his post-back surgery tune-up will likely come at the fists of Mark Coleman (exactly as I predicted here last night) sometime in November or December. Ortiz, who was also on the line, says he’s willing to move up to heavyweight and fight Brock Lesnar if he can dominate at light heavyweight first.

White says they offered Fedor Emelianenko everything except the co-promotion deal with M-1 Global: “These guys are going to come in and co-promote? How are they gonna co-promote anything? I’m going to give them 50 percent of my business? For what?”

White is also still talking a network TV deal, saying he’s “confident” it’ll happen. But when is White not confident about anything, like signing Fedor?

And yes, because UFC 100 had more than 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, White is going to make good on his promise to base jump off the top of the Mandalay Bay. “I’m gonna jump off that fucker. And I’m not looking forward to it.”