Fighter: Tito Ortiz Record: 15-5-0 Division: UFC Light Heavyweight (205) Age: 31 Hometown: Huntington Beach, California
Tito Ortiz is known for his ground-and-pound ability, as well as his extremely solid conditioning.
Wikipedia Information Ortiz began his martial arts career as a wrestler in his sophomore year of high school. Under coach Paul Herrera, Ortiz would place 4th in the state high school championships as a senior. Following high school, Ortiz continued his wrestling career winning a California state junior college title for Golden West College. Following his stint at Golden West, Ortiz wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield. While never a full-time starter, Ortiz did gain significant experience training with future NCAA and world champion Stephen Neal.
His mixed martial arts debut was at UFC 13 in 1997. He beat Wes Albittron on the tournament's first round by referee stoppage due to a barrage of punches, but lost in the next round to Guy Mezger in a bout that he was dominating early on. The Mezger match showed the potential Ortiz had for dominating his opponents with control and hard, sharp elbows (ground and pound).
After returning with two victories, including one against Jerry Bohlander, Ortiz dominated a rematch with Mezger. This time, the game but much smaller Mezger was out-wrestled, with Ortiz winning by TKO due to strikes. After winning the fight, Ortiz put on a t-shirt that read "Gay Mezger Is My Bitch" and gave the assembled Lion's Den, with whom Mezger trained, the finger. Thus began both his rivalry with the Lion's Den and his custom of wearing t-shirts that belittled his opponent after victories.
In 1999 Ortiz fought Frank Shamrock for the UFC Middleweight (200 pound) title at UFC 22, losing via submission due to strikes. Following the victory, Shamrock retired and vacated the championship. The Middleweight title was renamed the Light Heavyweight title and Ortiz was chosen along with Wanderlei Silva as the top contenders. Their title fight at UFC 25 left Ortiz the champion via unanimous decision. Ortiz would successfully defend the belt five times in the following three years, defeating Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Elvis Sinosic, Vladimir Matyushenko and Lion's Den head Ken Shamrock, who had held a grudge with Ortiz since the Mezger incident.
When it was time for Chuck Liddell, a rising Light Heavyweight star in the UFC and seemingly perennial #1 contender, to get his title shot, Ortiz began a hiatus from defenses. Ortiz had previously publicly challenged Liddell but now remarked that he and Liddell were friends and claimed a pact was made stating that they would never fight one another. Ortiz also expressed dissatisfaction with his contract with the UFC and they could not come to terms. An exasperated UFC management created an Interim Light Heavyweight Title to finally coax Ortiz to a fight. Ortiz finally agreed to fight with new Interim Light Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who had defeated Liddell for the interim title, at UFC 44 in September 2003. Couture, who many felt was near retirement, won via unanimous decision.
Ortiz afterwards finally faced Chuck Liddell atUFC 47 and lost by second round knockout. After a split decision over Vitor Belfort at UFC 51 in February 2005, contract issues left Ortiz on bad terms with the UFC and its president Dana White, (who incidentally was his former business manager).
During this time away from the UFC, Ortiz was offered deals with several promotions, including PRIDE Fighting Championships and the Don King-backed World Fighting Alliance, but none came to fruition. Ortiz dabbled in professional wrestling with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for a time (see below).
Surprisingly, in November 2005, Dana White announced that Ortiz and his still-bitter rival Ken Shamrock would be coaches for the next The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series, which premiered in April 2006. Ortiz also publicly confirmed he had signed a three-fight deal with the UFC which included a three-round boxing sparring session with Dana White. Ortiz's first fight under the new deal occurred at UFC 59 on April 15, 2006 against previous The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin, which Tito won by split decision. The second fight will be against Ken Shamrock at UFC 61 on July 8, 2006. If Ortiz wins both fights, he will get a shot at a UFC title, presumably the Light Heavyweight title currently held by Chuck Liddell.
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