UFC 148 press conference announced for Thurs., July 5, featuring Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been playing around with its pre-fight press conference format, switching from the traditional podium flanked by chairs and emceed by promotion President Dana White to bringing on Jon Anik to mediate a one-on-one between the top two fighters on the card.

It's far more intimate that way.

For the upcoming UFC 148 event, scheduled to take place on Sat., July 7, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, that means Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and title challenger Chael Sonnen will get together on stage for a tense face off and one last opportunity to talk trash before they finally settle their differences.

That goes down on Tue., July 3. However, it was today announced that a second pre-fight press conference will take place on Thurs., July 5, at 11 a.m. PT, which will feature the two stars of the co-main event, Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin, as well as Patrick Cote and Cung Le.

Indeed, Anik broke the news today on Twitter and it seems fitting to give "The People's Champ" one last moment in the spotlight before he sails off into retirement following his third and final fight against Griffin.

As always, MMAmania.com will have complete coverage of both press conferences with all the relevant notes and quotes, not to mention video of the entire proceedings. So stay tuned, Maniacs.

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