Tito Ortiz, Forgotten But Not Gone

With the demise of EliteXC, it seems that Tito Ortiz is once again a fighter without a promotion to call home. 

Dana White has made it very publicly known that he thinks Ortiz is finished and that he doesn't want him. The "ground breaking" contract he was supposed to ink months ago with Affliciton never materialized and no one over there seemed too broken up about it.

So where will Tito Ortiz end up? It all depends on what his demands are. 

For the UFC to resign him, Ortiz would likely have to take a pay-cut on the pay-per-view bonus end of his contract, which accounted for the majority of his earnings in 2006 and 2007. 

The $210,000 base salary he earns is paltry in comparison to the bonuses which ramp up along with the PPV buy numbers. 

For buys between 100-175K, Tito made one dollar per buy; between 175-300K, her earned $1.5 per, 300-330K, $2 per, and 330K+, $3 per. 

UFC 84 did 475,000 PPV buys which translates to Ortiz making just over $1M for the event.  That's a lot of money to spend on a fighter that lost, and that you consider to be in the twilight of his career.

Affliction on the other hand, was paying it's bigger stars in the same ballpark as Ortiz's UFC 84 earnings.

The problem, they quickly realized, is that it takes a lot of PPV buys to cover those salaries. Unless they end up like EliteXC—out of money because of overspending. Affliction announced that fighter salaries would be "adjusted," which is a nice way of saying slashed.

As for Strikeforce, the American Fight League, and other regional promotions that could parlay a Tito Ortiz signing into mainstream recognition, I think his price in just too high to justify. 

These organizations have seen the flaws of putting all your eggs in one basket with the dismantling of Kimbo Slice at the hands of relatively unknown Seth Petruzelli.

The wildcard in the Tito Ortiz destination discussion is that Ortiz said he wants to be "more than just a fighter" for the next promotion company he works for. I take it to mean he wants to be a paid ambassador for the sport and the company, a front office type that is tasked with expanding marketing and advertising partnerships, global growth, and mainstream acceptance. 

Sounds like a great job,but I'm skeptical of Ortiz in that role, and apparently so is the UFC and Affliction.