Tito Ortiz Returns to UFC: Breaking News
By Sean Farrell
Former UFC poster boy and light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz was forced to pull out of his scheduled UFC: Fight Night 24 main event bout against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira after suffering a massive cut in training which required 22 stitches. The often injured Ortiz has no shortage of opponents to choose from for his return bout and possibly final as UFC President Dana White has stated one more loss from Ortiz will be his last fight in the UFC. Several fighters have called Ortiz out and he has even started a feud with former opponent Forrest Griffin. Ortiz discussed his timetable for return and picked an opponent from his growing list of challengers that he would most like to face in a recent interview.
“Hopefully in May or June,” Ortiz said about his return “It’s up to Dana and the UFC to let the fight happen. I know people want to see me fight again, so let’s do a Forrest-Ortiz 3. He’s a former world champion, our last two fights have been awesome – so let’s just put on a 3.”
Griffin and Ortiz engaged in a Twitter war recently, which seemingly failed getting too many people excited to see a rubber match. Griffin and Ortiz have fought twice, splitting the outcomes but only because of the judges’ scorecards in the first bout. Griffin is easily 2-0 against Ortiz and a third fight is honestly irrelevant, except for personally retiring Ortiz himself Griffin has nothing to gain from it, Ortiz believes the bout carries intrigue and hopes that the fans will clamor to see that fight when he said “Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise – maybe he’s just looking for a ass whooping, Our last two fights were great fights. They were close. The last one I thought I won, but they gave it to him. So let’s just make the third time better than the last two. I guess the fans will speak loudest, so let’s make the fans make some noise.” Hate to break it to you Tito but nobody wants to see you fight they just want to see you retired.
As for the growing list of fighters who have called Ortiz out, Igor Pokrajac and Ryan Bader top that list and Ortiz said that Griffin resides at the top of his list and that everyone else can wait in line. “Take a ticket and wait in line,” Ortiz said. “I don’t know – they want to have their name associated with me? No one else is worthwhile? I don’t know why people do it. They want to be famous? I guess me being as infamous as I am, these guys can get on me and the only way for them to be recognized is to fight a big name like me. I think it’s cool. I think it’s funny. Take your ticket and wait in line, and Forrest – I’ll give you the No. 1 ticket.”
Ortiz can still talk a good game and talk up a good fight , but he still can’t provide one. Bader and Prokrajac are in their primes and can run through Ortiz with minimal resistance, everyone knows it even Ortiz, and why else would you try and take a fight with someone you are so familiar with? Ortiz seems to be trying to hang on to his UFC life as long as possible, but he is on life support so to speak since he hasn’t won a fight since 2006 going 0-4-1 and his release would highlight 2011 so MMA can move on and progress. Ortiz has become the Eveander Holyfield of MMA and the UFC needs to stop wasting coveted spots on fight cards for guys like Jacob Christopher Ortiz.