Tito Ortiz (20-12) is going to fight former WWE champion Alberto Del Rio / El Patron (9-5) on December 7th in a legitimate mixed martial arts bout for Combate Americas. Let that settle in. A former UFC light heavyweight champion, Ortiz, against the guy who fought Cro Cop In a mask and got head-kicked in to orbit. Yep.
I’m still watching it.
Tito has had a career resurgence of sorts since leaving the UFC back in 2012. He lost 7 of his final 9 fights there and was released eventually landing in Bellator going 3-1 from 2014-2017. We all know what happened next. In November of 2018 he finally got his revenge on Chuck Liddell by knocking him out in round one. No one was sure what the Huntington Beach Bad Boy would do next and when we found out we all kind of scratched our collective heads.
Not only was that confrontation cringe personified but it was such a bizarre next fight choice for Ortiz.
Let’s keep it real though. Ortiz vs El Patron in Texas makes a lot of sense financially. Both are of Hispanic descent and McAllen, Texas‘s population is 85% Hispanic. Even the president of Mexico is going to be in attendance according to El Patron so this really is turning out to be a big deal.
Combate Americas issued their official press release for the event along with the bout line up. Check it out.
NEW YORK, Nov 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — COMBATE AMERICAS, the world’s premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts sports and media franchise and FITE, the global digital platform specializing in premium combat sports, announced today a joint distribution agreement for the Pay Per View event.
Together, they will offer the much-anticipated, ‘Winner Take All’ showdown between two iconic combat sports legends – Tito Ortiz and Alberto “El Patrón” Rodriguez (formerly “Alberto Del Rio” of the WWE) – live from Payne Arena in McAllen, Texas, next to the U.S.-Mexico border, on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 8pm EST to audiences worldwide with English and Spanish commentary feeds.
The Combate Americas live pay per view television event ‘Tito vs. Alberto – What Side Are You On?‘ pits two iconic superstars from some of the industry’s biggest fight franchises – UFC Hall of Famer and former world light heavyweight champion, Ortiz, who will face multiple-time WWE Heavyweight Champion and former PRIDE and DEEP MMA star Rodriguez of San Antonio, Texas by way of San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico.
The content partnership between FITE and COMBATE AMERICAS was a natural fit to deliver a world-class event. FITE CEO Kosta Jordanov said, “we’ve long admired the content that Combate Americas delivers to massive audiences and wanted to be their distribution partner when they announced this stellar attraction.”
Campbell McClaren, CEO of Combate Americassaid, “Combate Americas has been consistently delivering millions of global viewers to its live streams with every one of our events, so we immediately thought of FITE when we decided to offer this premium event via global pay per view.”
COMBATE AMERICAS: ‘TITO VS. ALBERTO – WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?’
PPV FIGHT CARD – DEC. 7TH – LIVE AT 9PM EST
CATCHWEIGHT (210 LBS.) MAIN EVENT:
ito Ortiz (20-12-1) vs. Alberto “El Patrón” Rodriguez (9-5)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STRAWWEIGHT CO-MAIN EVENT:
Melissa “Super Mely” Martinez (6-0) vs. Desiree “Dirty Dez” Yanez (5-1)
FEATURED FLYWEIGHT BOUT:
Dani Barez (11-4) vs. Joby Sanchez (13-5)
FEATURED FEATHERWEIGHT BOUT:
Levy “El Negro” Marroquin (12-3) vs. Enrique “Baby Bull” Gonzalez (8-3)
FEATURED CATCHWEIGHT (150 LBS.) BOUT:
Gaston “Tonga” Reyno (8-2, 2 NC) vs. Angel “Tito” Cruz (6-4)
FEATURED CATCHWEIGHT (118 LBS.) BOUT:
“Sexy” Dulce Garcia (1-0) vs. Marisol Ruelas (1-2)
FREE PRELIM FIGHT CARD
DEC. 7TH – LIVE AT 8PM EST (ADDITIONAL BOUTS TO BE ANNOUNCED)
LIGHTWEIGHT:
Jose “Luke” Flores (8-1) vs. Ismael “Marreta” Bonfim (13-3)
FEATHERWEIGHT:
Ricky “El Gallero” Palacios (11-2) vs. Jose “The Ghost” Ceja (4-5)