It sounds like UFC President Dana White has given “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz his last chance. White was a guest on ESPN’s MMA Live following UFC 121 Saturday night and when asked about Ortiz’s future he said,
“Tito has lost four n a row now and I think we all know what happens when you lose four in a row in the UFC.”
Ortiz went the distance Saturday night with his former Ultimate Fighter student, Matt Hamill, losing a unanimous decision with scores of 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27.
It was actually one of the best performances we have seen from Ortiz in a long time. He looked fast, he threw a lot of kicks and his boxing looked good, but it just was not enough.
Prior to the Hamill loss, Ortiz lost to Forrest Griffin at UFC 106, Lyoto Machida at UFC 84, he had a draw against Rashad Evans at UFC 73, and a loss against Chuck Liddell at UFC 66.
Ortiz’s last win was a TKO over Ken Shamrock at “UFC: The Final Chapter” in October 2006.
When questioned at the post-fight press conference about his future, Ortiz said he is far from done and needs to get back to concentrating on his wrestling. He may not be done with fighting, but it sounds like he is done in the UFC, at least for now.
Ortiz still holds a lot of star power and would be a huge asset to any number of smaller promotions out there. I just wonder if Tito will still consider Dana his hero when he gets the official pink slip or will he throw his “Dana is my hero” T-shirt away?