For those kind of new to the sport here is 10 of Tito's best moments:
10. The “Living Death”
For pure mockery, there’s nothing that can match Ortiz’ reaction during a press conference with Shamrock leading up to their first meeting in November 2002. Shamrock, at the dais, is grimly detailing how he’s going to punish Ortiz for his verbal transgressions, while UFC honcho Dana White lingers in the background.
Shamrock turns to give Ortiz the tough guy stare, while Tito is sitting wide-eyed, feigning earnest attention like a pupil ready to receive the lesson.
“I hope to God you come ready. Because if you don’t, I am going to beat you…into a living death.” Shamrock fumes.
Pause. More pause. The two lock eyes. Shamrock’s game face is apparent, while Ortiz nods, like a customer being informed on the specifics of an especially high bill.
Then, Ortiz erupts in high-pitched, maniacal laughter, completely pulling the carpet out from under Shamrock’s attempt to intimidate him. Ken is so incensed he kicks a chair, which is caught mid-air by a stunned White.
9. Fan-friendly
Accessing fighters is an increasingly tricky business, as their stature and time demands grow, and as crunch time approaches they become expectably closed off and inaccessible.
Ortiz, however, always understood the fans as his natural outlet and was ever-accessible.
He mirrored this sentiment with the press, granting more interviews to keep his name in print than any other fighter in the game. If you ever had a dead moment during an Ortiz interview, you were in the wrong line of work.
8. Jenna
Dating the world’s most famous
**** star isn’t just cool. It’s crossover potential galore. Ortiz’ romance with Jenna Jameson gave a tabloid-quality veneer to the sport, giving it mentions in gossip mags and online media that would otherwise never touch MMA.
The fact that they’ve stayed together for several years, and now have twins, adds a delicious double-take factor to the conventional wisdom, not unlike hearing GW scored higher on his SATs than Al Gore.
7. Self-branding
Ortiz wasn’t just the first bad boy of MMA. He was the first to brand himself to a mass audience, and with the launch of his multi-million dollar Punishment Athletics line, proved fighters could capitalize outside of the cage.
Ortiz was the also the first to thank a string of sponsors after fights, opening up a revenue stream for today’s fighters as the viable possibilities emerged.
Who can forget the on-camera plugs for Rich’s Tire Barn and other early Ortiz supporters? In fact, it got so out of hand that the UFC precluded fighters from such pitches -- but the genie was out of the bottle.
Today’s corporate marketing types drool over the possibilities of capturing the vaunted 18-34 demographic that the UFC dominates.
Photo by Sherdog.com
Ortiz was a no-show in his
showdown with Dana White.
6. Fight your boss (or not)
O.k., so Ortiz was a no-show in his showdown with Dana White. It’s hard to say what was a greater letdown, not seeing these two in the ring, or the fact that Spike TV devoted an hour of programming time with such a dud ending, as White strolled around waiting for Tito to materialize.
However, it probably inspired a million middle-aged guys to get in shape.
5. Love for the Lion’s Den
Flipping off Shamrock and the Lion’s Den? At the time, it simply wasn’t done. But it took a no-name wrestler out of Cal State Bakersfield and made him a star.
After losing his second UFC bout to LD protégé Guy Mezger, Ortiz steamrolled Jerry Bohlander and then destroyed Mezger, flipping off Shamrock and his posse. It was the perfect buildup to his bout with Frank Shamrock, throwing gas on the fire, making for a match you had to watch.
4. Shamrock-Ortiz
While Ortiz became Public Enemy No. 1 with the Lion’s Den (and their fans), Frank Shamrock was establishing himself as one of the game’s finest champions. Ortiz’ run to a title shot and eventual battle with Shamrock at UFC 22 remains an MMA classic, as it’s an early example of a top contender tackling a vetted champ.
Looking back, there were no comparable storylines. Ortiz came up short against Shamrock in a fourth-round TKO loss that was a grueling battle for both. MMA needed this fight to emerge from the grim, mullet-tinged shadows of its early days.
3. Hangin’ TUF
While the first two seasons of “The Ultimate Fighter” were ratings winners, the third season with Ortiz and Ken Shamrock brought the needed “coach grudge” element to the show, which added gravitas to the week-by-week progressions and eliminations.
Both delivered whopper ratings on persona alone, and Ortiz’ torment of Shamrock losing the first six challenge matches was a reason to tune in again each week.
As a capper, the two nearly duked it out in the gym, providing a perfect lead-in to their second fight, which Ortiz won handily in a pay-per-view bonanza.
2. Liddell vs. Ortiz II
The big rematch stills number-one in live gate receipts for an MMA show in Nevada ($5.39 million), an impressive feat given the emergence of mega-star Brock Lesnar in the last year. It’s also reportedly only one of two UFC cards to break one million PPV buys (Lesnar’s pummeling of Frank Mir is rumored to be in the $1.5-million range), followed by Ortiz-Shamrock II (775,000) and a host of other cards in the 400-600,000 range.
1. Ortiz-Shamrock I: The Original PPV King
In perhaps the most anticipated MMA grudge match to date, years of bad blood came to a boil in Nov. 22, 2002, with Ortiz and Shamrock finally squaring off. Pay-per-view buy rates broke the 100,000 mark, a huge boost for a struggling UFC, whose shows had been sputtering at the 30-40,000 buy level in recent years.
It set a new benchmark for the sport and gave the UFC a lifeline until the lofty reinforcements of “The Ultimate Fighter” came along in 2005.
Ortiz also holds the distinction of being the main event in five of the 30 highest-drawing gates in Nevada MMA history, many of them registering impressive numbers in the early part of the decade, where other fighters simply couldn’t draw.
In closing, Ortiz’ return to the UFC could bring a few more compelling chapters to his career. But as it stands, he’s been a seminal figure in MMA, with memorable moments aplenty.
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