The Huntington Beach Bad Boy has lived up to his self-proclaimed nickname, both literally and figuratively.
Literally, he seems to have pissed off as many fighters, fans and UFC personnel as he possibly could have in his MMA career. Granted, Tito has also received one more the biggest following of dedicated fans who will stick behind him no matter what he gets himself into or where he is fighting.
And of course figuratively, he has seemed to slip lately, win, two losses, and a draw in his last three fights dating back to 2006. His highly publicized split with the UFC, due to his ‘rocky’ relationship with Dana White.
So where did the train come off the tracks? Where did the career of the ex-light heavyweight champion go wrong? Tito seemed to be on top of the world, dominating the UFC for a number of years.
He was outspoken, rarely beaten and the champion. Was Tito a ticking time bomb, which was set to self destruct and all of this was just a matter of time?
Instead of quickly jumping to the future, let’s take a (quick) look at Tito’s career, to try and find if this current Tito is only a faze he is going through, a bad couple years, or if this was inevitable from the get go.
Tito made his first appearance in the UFC with a 31-second TKO victory over Wes Albritton, but in the same night he lost to Guy Mezger due to a Guillotine Choke three minutes into the fight.
When Tito returned to UFC 18 he came with a new attitude a new found confidence, or maybe it was already there, but this time he was showing everyone how he felt donning a t-shirt (the first of many) after the win of Jerry Bohlander.
The simple idea of the shirt was only the beginning of another way Tito would let everyone know how he felt of himself and his opponents. “I Just F***ed Your Ass” was printed on the back of the shirt and seemed to go mostly unnoticed by everyone, but that wouldn’t be the case for long.
Tito got his redemption against Guy Mezger at UFC 19, with a TKO just under ten minutes into the fight. Tito sparked controversy with Ken Shamrock, who was the leader of the dominate Lions Den, by displaying a “Guy Mezger Is My Bitch” t-shirt. Ken said he was upset with the lack of respect Tito showed and Tito seemed like he could care less.
Tito lost his next fight to Frank Shamrock, and with some would say a sign of respect Tito had Frank sign the shirt he was wearing with Frank’s picture on it. After this fight Tito came back stronger than ever, winning the UFC Light Heavyweight Title, beating Wandy in decision. Tito then defended the title five times.
The last title defense was against Ken Shamrock, a highly anticipated bout, which was accompanied by mass amounts of trash talk from both sides. Tito won, by TKO due to corner stoppage and immediately tossed on another t-shirt, and in my opinion the funniest one Tito has come up with, “I Killed Kenny, You Bastard!”.
Ortiz, then lost the belt in his text title defense against Randy Couture, who had dropped down from heavyweight for the fight claiming Tito was ducking Chuck Liddell. More words were exchange but this time Tito was not the victor.
Tito had lost everything he had worked for and seemed like he was at a crossroads. Tito then lost to Chuck dude to KO in the second round, the first time Tito had lost back to back in his career. He then bounced back with victories over Patrick Cote, Vitor Belfort and a close split decision over Forrest Griffin.
Then came Ken against, Tito beat Ken at UFC 61 in the first round and it seemed like the feud was over. Tito’s shirt didn’t disrespect Ken or the Lions Den, just a simple statement, “I’m You Fight Tito You Loose!”
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