TNA Star Throws Slavery Charge At UFC President, Dana White Fires Back

UFC President Dana White and Tito Ortiz have always had a rocky relationship. The two almost took their rivalry to the ring for a three-round boxing fight in a special taped for Spike TV (which you can watch above), however Ortiz backed out at the last minute and told White that he was letting him "off the hook." Ortiz would go on to leave the UFC after fulfilling his contract in 2008, only to return a year later in 2009.

While they weren't exactly best friends after Ortiz's latest UFC run, things have gotten downright ugly since Ortiz signed with Bellator MMA and TNA. Ortiz, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last year, has spent much of his time since joining Bellator ripping White for being a bully and mistreating his fighters. He took it a step further in an interview with Sports Illustrated this past Wednesday, comparing his time working for White to "slavery."

"Um, I thought slavery was over a long time ago," Ortiz replied, when asked what it was like to work for White. "It's one of those things where you can't trust a word the man says. And when you can't do that, how can you work for him."

White fired back at Ortiz's comment several times this week, including on Jim Rome's radio show.

"The guy's a moron," White told Rome. "To say he was a slave, does he even know what the word slave means? He's one of the stupidest human beings you will ever meet... Now, he's just showing what a two-faced lying sack he is."

Ortiz apologized for the slavery remark on his Twitter, noting that he gets emotional when he's asked about White, and admitting that his remark was "uncalled for." Since then, Ortiz and White have taken their war of words to Twitter. Ortiz implied that White used PEDs, and posted a photo of White during his days as an aerobics instructor.

"that's me when I was young and skinny and would punch ur head in while sparring cause u were a 'champ' that didn't like getn hit," Dana replied. "I remember punching ur head in and watchin u roll around crying cause Chuck (Liddell) hit us to the body and u quitting like the puss u are. U were winning titles and gettin punched silly by a box aerobic instructor"

Ortiz then wrote that White "got famous by us fighters blood and sweat. Got rich by someone else's money. I did it by fighting and winning titles.#truth I rather die on my feet then live on my knees! Enough said."

When a user noted that Ortiz got rich because of White and the Fertittas, Ortiz replied, "I got it all from the Ferittas. Not dana"

The X2C contributed to this article.