FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Keller's Take KELLER: Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin shouldn't lecture fans when they had a right to be upset and frustrated

Nov 22, 2009 - 2:43:50 AM
By Wade Keller, MMATorch Supervising Editor
About 9:20 p.m. - Mike Goldberg's sales pitch for the UFC PPV on Spike TV: "He says he has never been more healthy as he gets set to enter the Octagon against Forrest Griffin."

About 9:45 p.m. - Mike Goldberg sales pitch for the UFC PPV on Spike TV: "I just talked to a longtime friend and training partner of his, Tiki Ghosn, and Kiki said he has never seen Tito so strong."

12:40ish a.m. - Tito Ortiz in his post-loss interview explaining how he had a back injury and cracked skull going into the fight: "I ain't gonna pull out of a fight, even when I'm injured... I stepped in with a cracked skull. You guys don't like a show, let's see someone else step in and do the same shit."

My problem with Tito Ortiz this weekend is, in part, that he has a streak of talking about injuries after his fights - only hours after he or others pitch how he's at 100 percent so buy the fight because "Tito is back!"

My problem is also with UFC's hype machine and the idea that it's okay to hide from fans that there's a less than good chance that a main event fighter is going to step into the ring 100 percent.

I could see Tito firing back that no fighter is going to give away to an opponent ahead of time that's he's injured. Fair enough. But it all adds up to making UFC look bad and chipping away at their good will with fans. Fans hear what Goldberg and Joe Rogan said about Tito looking great in his training sessions and how he's finally injury-free and past his back problems. Then as soon as Tito loses, not only does he go back to the excuses, but Forrest Griffin vouches for him and lectures the fans.

I understand that fighters get hurt when training. What fighters need to understand is that $50 for a PPV is a lot of money. When they're sold a fight on one premise, then fighters who they were told were 100 percent beforehand are lecturing fans afterward about how injured they get training, fans are going to feel bad, if not ripped off - even if the rest of the show was good. That's why fan-favorite Forrest even got some boos when he stepped up to defend Tito. Yes, it was a good card. The main event wasn't what was promised, though.

I applaud Tito for fighting injured. I don't applaud him for making excuses afterward and drawing attention to it. His history of doing so, no matter how justified, makes it sound like a broken record. And worse, fans were explicitly sold ahead of time that he was not walking in at less than 100 percent. UFC should protect themselves in the future and acknowledge that fighters hide injuries and you never know ahead of time if someone walks into the Octagon saying they're feeling great, but they're not.

And most of all, don't lecture the fans. Ever. Apologize, hang your head, acknowledge their frustration, and explain yourself if you must without sounding like they have no right to be upset that one fighter stood there in the third and final round and did almost nothing - because he was injured - after UFC announcers hard-sold them on his health - something in retrospect they shouldn't have done because they can't know that they're not being lied to by the fighter.

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