Tito Ortiz

Jacob C. "Tito" Ortiz aka "The Huntington Beach Badboy" (born January 23, 1975) is an American mixed martial arts fighter from Huntington Beach, California. As a former Light-Heavyweight UFC champion, Ortiz became one of the sport's biggest stars, headlining several pay per view championship cards, and appearing on the covers of various magazines, such as Black Belt Magazine. Ortiz is recognized as a charismatic, if controversial and highly-criticized fighter.

Tito has been married but has since divorced. He has one child, a son, Jacob Ortiz Jr.

MMA Career

Amateur

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. Still in college, Ortiz competed as an amateur for no prize money or contracts. 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).

Road to the title

After returning with TKO victories over Jeremy Screeton at West Coast NHB Championships 1, and Jerry Bohlander at UFC 18, Ortiz dominated a rematch with Mezger. This time, the 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 Ken Shamrock and the Lion's Den, as well as 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.

Controversy

When it was time for Chuck Liddell to get his title shot (a then rising star in the UFC and #1 light heavyweight contender), Ortiz began a hiatus from title defenses. Ortiz had previously publicly challenged Liddell but now claimed 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 coax Ortiz to a fight. He finally agreed to fight the new Interim Light Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who had defeated Liddell for the interim title, at UFC 44 in September 2003. After a long battle, Couture, who many felt was near retirement, won via unanimous decision.

Following his loss to Randy Coture, Ortiz finally faced Chuck Liddell at UFC 47 and due in large part to Liddell's defense of Ortiz' takedown attempts, lost by second round knockout. After six months off, Ortiz returned and took split decision victories over both Patrick Cote at UFC 50, and Vitor Belfort at UFC 51. In February 2005, contract issues left Ortiz on bad terms with the UFC and it's president Dana White, (who was also Ortiz' 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 opted to try his hand at professional wrestling, signing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a guest referee.

After most of his UFC fights in which he wins, he wears a t-shirt that dawns some sort of saying. The t-shirt ordeal has become a staple for him and some look forward to what his next will say. Here is a past list of the t-shirts he has worn:

• TitoOrtiz.com. Retrieved July 20, 2006.

Professional wrestling career

In May 2005, Ortiz followed in the footsteps of rival Ken Shamrock when he agreed to appear with the professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

On May 15, 2005 at TNA Hard Justice Ortiz served as special guest referee in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title match between Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles at the behest of Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes. Ortiz played a large role in the buildup to the match as well as the outcome, in which he (kayfabe) knocked out Jeff Jarrett with a right hook after Jarrett shoved him. This allowed Styles to hit his Spiral Tap for the pinfall victory and claim the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Jarrett.

Ortiz returned to wrestling to once again referee an NWA World Heavyweight Championship match in October 2005. His appearance was at TNA Bound For Glory at the behest of Director of Authority Larry Zbyszko for the match intended to be between Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Nash. Ortiz played an even bigger role in the buildup of the match this time, attacking both men on an episode of TNA iMPACT! when they brawled prior to their scheduled match.

Nash had to withdraw from the match after suffering chest pains the previous night, so TNA management inserted Rhino into the fold after he won a ten man gauntlet match. Ortiz maintained order with some success, preventing interference from multiple sources but failing to prevent Jarrett from cheating. Rhino won the match (his third of the night) and the title, but Ortiz left the ring immediately after the match as a brawl ensued involving Jarrett, Rhino, Team Canada, Team 3D, The 3Live Kru, and America's Most Wanted.

Return to MMA

Surprisingly, in November 2005, Dana White announced that Ortiz and his still-bitter rival Ken Shamrock would coach The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality TV series, which premiered in April 2006. Ortiz also publicly confirmed that he signed a three-fight deal with the UFC which included a three-round boxing sparring session with Dana White. The sparring match will be private; it will not be shown to fans or spectators in a live audience, however White said that there is a possibility of them showing the fight somewhere and donating the profits to charity. [1] 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 was against Ken Shamrock at UFC 61 on July 8, 2006, a match which concluded a main storyline in The Ultimate Fighter 3, which Ortiz won in the first round by TKO due to a stoppage by referee Herb Dean due to repeated elbows.

Since Ortiz won both fights, he will likely get a shot at the Light Heavyweight title currently held by Chuck Liddell, following Liddel's announced fight with PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva.[2]

Acting career

Ortiz has had roles in several feature films, most notably Cradle 2 the Grave and the controversial Turkish film Valley of the Wolves: Iraq.

MMA Record

15 wins - 4 losses - 0 draw

• TitoOrtiz.com. Retrieved April 7, 2006.

Championships and accomplishments

Ultimate Fighting Championship

• UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, 5 title defenses

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• 2002 Feud of the Year (vs Ken Shamrock)

See also

• List of male mixed martial artists

External links

• Official Tito Ortiz Website
• Tito Ortiz at IMDb