Tito Ortiz: The UFC's Sacrificial Lamb

Years from now, many people will look back at the UFC and say that it's the house that Chuck Liddell built.

Over Tito Ortiz's dead body.

Virtually, mind you.

Ortiz was a star in the UFC before Liddell, and before Liddell ever won the UFC belt, Ortiz had already defended his belt five times and helped build-up the UFC.

Say what you want about Ortiz dodging Liddell, in the end, Ortiz stepped up to the plate and fought him twice, and fought Randy Couture as well for good measure.

In fact, much of Liddell's popularity is due to his feud with Ortiz.

Liddell, the Stone Cold Steve Austin of MMA, has an exciting fighting style, and a look that appeals to the beer-chugging brawler in us all. But by himself, he isn't the most exciting personality.

In the worst case scenario, Liddell might just fall asleep in his interviews, but even in the best cases, Liddell was not exactly quotable.

It's not like Ortiz is an great orator himself, but even though what he says often doesn't make sense, he still always gets a reaction.

For all his faults, Ortiz was one of the most magnetic and polarizing fighters in the early days of the UFC. Fans loved him, or they loved to hate him.

Tito Ortiz does ridiculous things. Among those things:

1. He says contradictory and confusing sentences. Last week's example: "There's a difference between cockiness and confidence. Cockiness is always a good thing."

2. He does an obnoxious gravedigger victory celebration.

3. His injury excuses are more predictable than Old Faithful.

4. He manages to say "God bless the troops," and "make sure you buy the pay-per-views," in the same sentence.

People might not have liked his gravedigger victory celebration, his bleach blond hair, or Jenna Jameson, but they nevertheless would pay to see him fight, if for no other reason than to see him lose.

It took two fights with Ortiz to really elevate Liddell to super-stardom. Without Ortiz running his mouth and making excuses about fighting Liddell for years, people might never have gotten behind Liddell as much as they did.

Liddell vs. Ortiz 2 was one of the biggest pay-per-view sellers in UFC history, which is incredible, considering how badly Ortiz was beaten in the first fight.

Ortiz somehow has the ability to remain marketable no matter how badly he gets beaten. Somehow, no matter who beats him or how the fight goes, people still want to see him take an even worse beating.

After Ortiz's recent loss to Forrest Griffin, I wrote an article about how a third Ortiz-Griffin match was unnecessary. Without going into my reasoning, I'll just say that the overwhelming e-mail response that I got from that article was that another match was necessary because Ortiz had not been beaten badly enough.

Fans weren't happy with the level of beat-down that Ortiz had received, and more than that, they've told me that they weren't happy with the level of punishment Ortiz took in the two Liddell fights.

After re-watching the beatings Ortiz suffered at the hands of Liddell, I can't see how people still think the point hasn't been proven, so I must conclude that no matter how badly Ortiz gets beaten in any future fights, somewhere out there, there will be fans who think Ortiz got off the hook too easily.

In fairness, I should mention those fans on the other side, the die-hard Ortiz fans who insist that Ortiz would have won the Liddell fights if it wasn't for eye-pokes. They want to see Ortiz fight Liddell again, but they see it as a chance for revenge.

I personally don't see the point of a third Liddell-Ortiz fight. Liddell is a terrible stylistic matchup for Ortiz, and the result should be quite predictable.

In fact, there are only a few things more predictable than the fight outcome.

1. If Ortiz makes it to the third round, he'll be gassed out.

2. When Ortiz loses, he'll disclose some injury that affected his performance, and it may or may not include made-up body parts.

3. When Ortiz loses, fans will still want him to take more punishment.

Even if Ortiz somehow manages to win, the understanding will be that Ortiz's win has more to do with Liddell's decline that anything else.

Anyway, those thoughts about the potential fight may not matter as there are multiple rumors indicating that Ortiz has pulled out of the fight.

But until we know things for certain, fans will tune in to watch The Ultimate Fighter in order to find out what happened to Ortiz, because as Dana White says, "Love him or hate him, people give a (expletive) about him."

It is for that reason that we should recognize Tito Ortiz. He's brought a ton of attention to the sport, and it's safe to say that even though fans might not like him, the sport wouldn't be where it is today without him.

I don't want to say that we "owe" anything to Ortiz, because he's profited handsomely for his efforts, but we should certainly understand how important a role he has played in the popular growth of mixed martial arts.

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