The UFC is holding a media conference call today at 2pm ET / 11am PT to discuss that “latest news within the UFC.”

Speculation has, of course, run rampant all week since the conference call was announced.

MMA HQ will be giving live updates of the phone call as it happens. For those interested, UFC.com will also be streaming the call live.

• Dana White begins by discussing the situation with Fedor
• White says they “tried” everything to get Fedor and that they went “above and beyond” (Interesting he continually used the term “tried” and not “trying”
• White says they were willing to give up “almost anything” except for the co-promotion aspect that M-1 Global wanted
• White says they offered Fedor “an amazing deal” and there is no way anyone can offer them a deal like the UFC did
• White asks for no Fedor questions on the call
• The UFC has signed Vitor Belfort to a contract
• Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin is the new main event for UFC 103 this September
• Dan Henderson is now probably next up for Anderson Silva’s belt
• UK fans will now get UFC for free beginning with UFC 101 on ESPN for free in HD
• Tito Ortiz is on the call and according to Dana he “will retire with the UFC”
• White says the following former Affliction guys now under UFC contract are: Belfort, Rothwell, Lauzon, Gormley, Olivera, Vasquez, Davis, Hominick
• Tito says Dana White apologized and they worked through their issues and White followed through and kept his word
• Ortiz says there were no other promotions that could offer him good opponents to fight. He needed good competition
• Ortiz says he expects to be healthy enough to fight around November to December
• The Belfort vs. Franklin fight will be at light heavyweight
• Dana says Tito will have ring rust but won’t have “an easy road.” White says they are talking about having Tito vs. Mark Coleman for his first fight back
• When asked about a potential ESPN/ABC deal here in the US, White says he is confident they will get a deal at some point “once they get the right offer.” Says they haven’t gotten the right offer yet.
• Tito says the UFC has made right by him hand over fist and that “you will never hear me [Tito] talk about money again”
• White said a mutual friend is who got him back in touch with Tito and helped work things over
• Dana says that Dan Henderson is now “definitely” next in line for a middleweight title shot
• Dana says having Mark Ratner on the UFC staff has been a huge factor in the UFC’s recent success
• White says the UFC is “going all over Canada.” Calls Canada “the Mecca” and says “yes we are coming to Vancouver.”
• White says they have never had more interested television partners than they have now and that he “likes what he is hearing now more than ever before.” Confident they will have a deal done soon (but we have heard that before).
• Fight date between Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson will depend on what happens with Silva vs. Forrest Griffin
• Tito Ortiz says the last time he fought at 100% was the first time he fought Ken Shamrock (at UFC 40). Tito says he injured his back against Randy Couture and the worse it ever felt was when he fought Forrest Griffin.
• Tito says his back soreness is completely gone and he is waking up with smiles on his face every day now
• Dana says they are “ready to make a deal” with Fedor but the ball is in their court. Dana said he was so confident that it was going to get done this time, but didn’t happen. Says a deal would be done immediately if co-promotion was off the table
• When asked, Tito says he would be open to fighting at heavyweight but that light heavyweight is his home. If he dominates at 205 lbs. like he did before, he would consider it
• Dana says Vitor has been on a tear lately and he thinks that Vitor vs. Franklin will be a fun fight
• Tito keeps calling Dana “the man of his word.” I can’t help but chuckle every time he says that
• Dana says he couldn’t be happier to finally be on TV in Mexico and that he always knew Mexico would be huge for them
• Tito says he would love to headline a UFC fight card in Mexico City
• Dana says that Fedor and Vadim are insane for not accepting the offer they made. Everything that was a “sticking point” in the past with negotiations, the UFC “fixed.” The only new thing they didn’t do was the co-promotion, as M-1 admitted themselves during their press conference Wednesday
• Dana says he “was the nicest Dana ever” during the current round of negotiations. The deal didn’t fall through because of White and Lorenzo; it failed because of Vadim and M-1
• Dana says the “best in the world” are the guys who compete three times a year against the top fighters in the world. The GSP’s and Anderson Silva type fighters. Fedor is not that type of fighter anymore.
• Dana says the UFC’s offer to Fedor is still out there and has not been “pulled back.” It’s Dana’s job to make this fight happen and if Fedor wants to make it happen all they have to do is call
• Dana said he is sick of hearing about Fedor now. They offered him a buttload of money and he “could fight in Sambo every Thursday night if he wanted to.” Fedor doesn’t want to fight the best in the world so Dana doesn’t want to talk about him any more
• Tito says he was very close to a deal with Strikeforce. They took a bit too long to get back to him and a deal with the UFC got done. Tito says he wants to fight the best in the world and the UFC could offer that were Strikeforce could only offer a couple top opponents