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Tito Ortiz struck again, adding his dose of has-been show-biz pro-wrestling nonsense to the UFC PPV on Saturday night. He prodded the easily provoked Mark Coleman after the fight, apparently in an attempt to set up his second money grudge fight after Chuck Liddell or just get himself on TV to promote The Ultimate Fighter.
Tito's not going to be a title contender anytime soon, even though he's the about age when Randy Couture was starting his MMA career. So the way for him to cash in on what's left in his tank and remain relevant is finding ways to manufacture feuds. This isn't to say he doesn't feel antagonistic toward some of the targets of his verbal insults, but the way he goes about it comes off as beneath the sport of MMA.
Ortiz is a showman, but UFC is successful enough it shouldn't tolerate someone going into business for himself. It's even worse if they're encouraging or orchestrating this stuff. Sure, Tito's going to be on The Ultimate Fighter as a coach, but the way to get him on the minds of UFC fans is to interview him at ringside about the fights that night. Get his insight and predictions before or some guest analysis afterward.
This pro wrestling nonsense is unbecoming. UFC is way beyond needing that type of thing to make masses of profits.
His third round debacle against Forrest Griffin looked like a gentlemen's agreement not to hit each other too hard so Forrest could get the decision and Tito and Forrest could go 1-1, setting up a rematch in a couple years when everyone forgot how flat of a finish Tito-Forrest 2 was. And we got the obligatory pre-match "I've never felt better, back's just fine, quit asking" routine from Tito and the post-match "My back is actually really bad, I couldn't really train for this fight, I'd have won if I was 100 percent" routine.
It's time for Dana to get this Tito-Chuck match out of the way and then send Tito away. He's not doing anything for a sport that he was instrumental in bringing to this level. It's a shame to see him desperately inserting himself into matches through showbiz nonsense like this.
The sport he helped build has grown up. It's time for him to grow up, too. Or join WWE, where he probably belongs anyway.
MMATorch Supervising Editor Wade Keller has covered UFC dating back to UFC 1 on PPV for the Torch Newsletter. He covered the first UFC PPV event in Las Vegas, Nev. in person in 2001, has interviewed Dana White, Mike Goldberg, and original matchmaker Art Davie (link), among others over the years, and has been quoted in major newspapers as a professional MMA analyst. He has over a dozen years of martial arts training in karate, judo, and jujitsu.
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