Ennis' Take
ENNIS: Tito Ortiz win at UFC 132 highlights the difficulty in finding the right time to step away
Jul 8, 2011 - 6:25:33 PM ENNIS: Tito Ortiz win at UFC 132 highlights the difficulty in finding the right time to step away

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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

Last Saturday night, we saw Tito Ortiz shake off the baggage of age (36), inevitable self-doubt, and a losing streak (no wins since 2006; 0-4-1 in that span) to pick up his first relevant win since he beat Forrest Griffin in April of 2006, and his first relevant non-split decision win since he beat Patrick Cote in 2004. But what's the story here? Is it Ortiz's return to relevance for the first time in at least six years? Or is it something else?

Whenever an aging athlete gets to the pinnacle of his or her sport, the inevitable question is whether they'll continue to play, or if they'll "go out on top." Michael Jordan won his last NBA title in 1998 when he was 35 years old. He actually did retire, but that only lasted for three years before he came back to an ultimately unsuccessful stint with the Washington Wizards. Tiger Woods hasn't won a tournament since 2009, when he was 33. Of course, that could also be attributed to personal issues, but Woods's knees haven't been right since his last win. George Foreman, even at age 45, didn't retire after he improbably won the heavyweight title from Michael Moorer in 1994. Just last year, San Francisco Giants shortstop Edgar Renteria contemplated retirement during the regular season. After the Giants won the World Series and Renteria was named World Series MVP, the 35-year-old decided to play another season. And this was a guy who isn't exactly a superstar on the level of Jordan or Wood (In what could be seen as a big hint, the Giants didn't even re-sign him, and he wound up in a utility role with the Reds).

In MMA, as we come to the close of the first big boom period, many of that era's most successful fighters are finding themselves on the downside of their career and are either unable or unwilling to accept it. Randy Couture could have gone out with a three-fight win streak at age 47. Does it matter that the last guy he would have beaten was James Toney? It was a feel-good story for the MMA fan, and it was an invasion angle straight out of the professional wrestling playbook. "This guy thinks he's gonna come into our arena and take out our guy?" So Randy chokes him out in the first round and everyone goes home happy.

When Couture won that fight, we knew he wasn't going to contend for any title in any division. It may not have been going out with a belt around his waist, but considering the circumstances, you couldn't ask for a much better ending. But he had won three straight fights, right? He's the master of gameplans! Who's going to tell him he can't figure out Lyoto Machida? So instead of walking away at the right time, he's got to come back and take a fight against one of the most dangerous light heavyweight fighters in the world and get his tooth kicked out in one of the most spectacular knockouts of 2011. That may not be his lasting legacy, but the fact remains that the last time we saw him in the Octagon, it wasn't with his hand raised. It could have been.

Chuck Liddell presents another interesting scenario. As Light Heavyweight Champion for two years, Liddell struck fear into the hearts of his opponents. In order to go out on top, Liddell would have had to retire as champion. Of course, that didn't happen and Rampage Jackson showed how fast the speed advantage can dissipate when Father Time takes his toll on a fighter.

The interesting question surfaces with Liddell's subsequent decision loss to Keith Jardine. If you get in the wayback machine, you'll see that at this point it could have been said that Jardine's loss to Houston Alexander was an aberration. This was before Jardine lost six of seven fights. It seemed like Jardine was on his way up and Liddell was on his way down. Then came the fight with Wanderlei Silva. It was the fight we had waited years to see. Keep in mind, now, Silva was on the receiving end of two brutal knockouts in his past two fights. Looking back, this fight was tailor-made for a Liddell knockout win. Silva's wild style and Liddell's pinpoint accuracy combined with the fact that Silva had been made mortal over the past year should have played right into Liddell's hands. Liddell went on to win the fight, but never caught Silva hard enough to knock him out. And had anyone thought objectively at the time, we might have seen that this was the perfect time to hang up the gloves. Liddell wasn't going to regain his Light Heavyweight Title. He had bested what was at one point considered to be his only equal. He had nothing to prove to anyone. But Liddell couldn't see any of that. All he knew was that he had won, and he felt like he could do it again. Three knockout losses later, anyone that cares for Liddell's long-term health is begging him not to fight again, and he's been made a UFC executive to get him off the fighter roster.

Couture and Liddell are hardly the only examples in MMA, let alone combat sports as a whole, who have tried hanging on too long to an athletic prime that has passed them by. So why does this happen? Why don't these great athletes just go out when it makes sense to do so?

To begin to answer this, think about the most competitive person you know. Everyone knows this guy. Maybe he's even you. He's the guy that no one wants to play board games with. He fights with the umpires during softball games at the company picnic. He's got to win at everything or it's a travesty of the highest order. Now imagine that guy actually is the best in the world at something. In order to be the best, you've got to have a competitive nature, or else you simply wouldn't care enough to push yourself the way elite athletes have to in order to excel in his or her arena. Being competitive doesn't mean that you just don't like to lose. It means you think you never should lose. Losing doesn't make sense to you. So as long as you're winning, you're still the best! Why should you stop?

There are exceptions that prove the rule. Bas Rutten rode a four-year, 21-fight unbeaten streak into retirement and went out as UFC Heavyweight Champion. He knew he couldn't do it anymore and called it a day (though even Bas came back for a one-off seven years later, which he also won). In boxing, Rocky Marciano went 49-0 and retired as heavyweight champion. Lennox Lewis retired a champion as well. John Elway retired after winning two straight Super Bowls. But it's telling that the ones who "go out on top" come to mind so easily. That's no accident; there aren't many of them.

The impossibility of going out on top is magnified when one examines the current crop of UFC champions. Anderson Silva is getting up there in years, and hasn't shown any real signs of decline yet, but they'll come. And when the champion falls because of age, he falls hard and fast. But right now, who's going to tell one of the two greatest MMA fighters alive and one of the best ever that he should call it a day? He's still dominant. He's still the best. And what about GSP? He's not exactly an elder statesman yet, but when should the time come for him to hang them up?

There are very few opportunities for a fighter to know when it's time to go while living in the moment. Hindsight is often the only way to know when the best time was to call it quits. Would Mirko Cro Cop have been more satisfied with his career if he had ended it after winning the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix? If that's the case, he couldn't have known at the time. At that moment, he felt like he was the best. And the best have to keep going until it's proven to them (sometimes more than once) that they're no longer the best.

So back to Tito Ortiz. He said after UFC 132 that he made a "stepping stone" out of Ryan Bader. History will ultimately tell the tale, but look at it this way: if they were to fight again, would you bet on Ortiz? Is he really the better fighter, or was it his time to go out a winner on Saturday? If the past is an indicator of the future, I know where I'm leaning. And if Tito Ortiz, who was once the best in the world, thinks he's still the best, I know where he's leaning too.