Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz apologized via Twitter early this morning for comments he recently made concerning upcoming opponent Matt “The Hammer” Hamill.

While a guest on the Aug. 6 episode of HDNet’s “Inside MMA”, Ortiz made some disparaging remarks about Hamill having a “soft head” because he was deaf:

“He’s been babied his whole life coming from being deaf of course and he’s going to be babied after when I knock him out. He’s slow; he’s like a big slow ox. I’m going to pick him apart and I know his corner can’t really tell him what to do and show him the mistakes he does. I’ve noticed he’s deaf, so he has a soft head, you hit him with more and more shots. You people don’t know this. Watch how Franklin knocked him out quick. You hit them with soft shots because their equilibrium, they don’t have no equilibrium. And you hit them with shots and you hit them with small shots, I’m not looking’ for big shots. I’m looking’ for small shots. Little small shots and by the second, middle of the third round you’re going to see someone going to sleep and I’ll snuggle him.”

Ortiz first met Hamill as his coach on season three of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show. Hamill was Ortiz’s number one pick on the show. He took Hamill under his wing and they continued to train together for a time even after the show ended.

Hamill mentioned on “Countdown to UFC 121” that he will “always be a member of Team Punishment” and Ortiz, along with Rich Franklin, are the only two fighters in the world he is really close to.

Ortiz has commented that the fight is not personal but just business. Hamill was looking at the fight as just business too but was a bit perplexed by the comments Ortiz made about deaf people. Hamill, as well as some of  his deaf friends, were not sure if having a “soft head” was a good or bad thing.

Although he apologized, Ortiz wanted to make sure people did not take this as a sign of weakness:

“Dont get me wrong.Im going2give Matt the fight of his life. He will get 1 thing out of this fight “Famous”! Don’t take kindness 4 weakness!”

Ortiz vs. Hamill will be part of the UFC 121 televised card which takes place this Saturday, Oct. 23, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and airs live on Pay-Per-View.

2 thoughts on “Tito Ortiz apologizes to deaf community, but warns not to mistake this for weakness”
  1. As a member of the deaf community, I will say his comments were quite stupid. Also, I do not mistake this apology as weakness, I interpret his weakness as weakness.

  2. I thought it was funny most people had no idea what the hell he was talking about… “soft head” … where the hell did that come from … doesn’t even make sense… “I’m not trying to hit him with hard shots… just soft shots”.

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