11:02 PM EST

The bitter personal war between UFC President Dana White and MMA Legend Tito Ortiz continues as the Ultimate Fight's head honcho got tired of negotiating with Tito over the proposed rematch with Rashad Evans for UFC 78, live on November 17th from Newark, New Jersey, and instead, in a shocking move, signed undefeated UK fighter Michael Bisping as Rashad's opponent for the main event.
 
Tickets for the event go on sale this Saturday, and it's a big deal for UFC, since this will be the first show in the New York media market since 2001, and Ultimate Fight officials decided it was necessary to announce a main event. Tito, who has one fight left on his contract, is in the middle of negotiating a new deal, and has apparently been playing hardball in the negotiations for this specific event.
 
Tito and Rashad fought to a controversial draw on July 7th in Sacramento, and immediately the plans for a rematch were put into place. This latest breakdown in talks is not a good sign for the future relationship between Tito and UFC.
 
The new main event, however, is an interesting battle that will present, for the first time, two winners of The Ultimate Fighter reality show against each other. Rashad is 15-0-1, and won TUF as a heavyweight in the second season, but has since dropped down to fighting in the light heavyweight division. Bisping, 15-0 despite many feeling he didn't deserve the decision in his native UK on September 8th against Mark Hamill.
 
Bisping made public statements this evening about the opportunity to fight in the main event, when he stated, “Joe Silva just called me and he was like ‘are you ready to fight in November?’ and I was like ‘Who Forrest (Griffin)?’ and he was like ‘no, Michael Bisping.’”
 
Rashad also discussed with the media the fact he thought he going to fight Tito, stating “They didn’t really tell me anything, but I’m thinking they probably wanted another match-up that made more sense, with Tito taking so long trying to renegotiate his contract or they’re just trying to find a better fight? I’m kind of disappointed because I wanted a rematch, but everything happens for a reason, so I’ll take this fight.”