Ortiz, 36, refuses to let career be counted out
Tito Ortiz is a vinyl record, a land line, Polaroid. He is seemingly always about to yield to a better product, a new and improved version of the champion he once was, a time in the Ultimate Fighting Championship that supposedly passed him by and left him at retirement’s doorstep.
Problem: He refuses to play along.
Maybe he knows something we don’t.
They’re going to wheel him into the octagon one day, baggy trunks and hair so white that it needn’t be dyed any longer. He’ll be a big underdog, more than the 5-1 shot he was against Ryan Bader at UFC 132 on Saturday night, and he’ll shuffle over to a younger opponent using a walker.
And then he’ll probably kick the you-know-what out of the guy and have a few nurses help him to the ground so he can perform his grave digger celebration before a post-fight meal of tapioca pudding.
Dana White often has said Ortiz is at his best with his back to the wall, but not even the UFC president could have imagined this sort of best. Ortiz was fighting for his career at the MGM Grand Garden and responded by submitting Bader at 1:56 of the first round.
Somewhere, someone is clutching a betting ticket with Ortiz’s name on it and smiling from here to the nearest ATM.
“Tap out, baby,” Ortiz said of his victory, which earned submission of the night. “Tap out.”
It was as impressive as it was shocking, Ortiz catching Bader with a right hand and pouncing on him before applying a guillotine choke. How ironic. The entire buildup to the fight had Ortiz walking up to a tall upright frame and having a suspended blade finally drop on a career that helped deliver the UFC into the mainstream popularity it enjoys today.
The execution of his fighting life will have to wait for another night. The guy who once successfully defended his light heavyweight title five times lives and breathes and climbs atop the Octagon to thousands chanting his name once again.
Ortiz for years was the face of this sport, one who helped draw the masses and build the UFC from unknown into globally recognized. In the crowd on Saturday night sat Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, who combined with Ortiz to establish and then grow the sport’s success.
A trio of champions. One remains.
Yeah. I know.
How?
Ortiz hadn’t won a fight since 2006 but, as White says, “Love him or hate him, people give a (expletive) about him.” It’s why the man in charge, whose relationship with Ortiz has been rocky at best, kept giving the fighter shot after shot. Fans still want to see him and will pay to do so. It’s business, and the business part just got better for the UFC with Ortiz winning.
But even legends have limits they must meet, and Ortiz was one loss from being forced to pursue his post-UFC life. Could it be as simple as he states, that he is finally healthy from the neck and back injuries and the fighter we saw Saturday is one that still exists within a 36-year-old body?
“Tito Ortiz is back,” he proclaimed. “It’s a rebirth of the bad boy. I’ve gone through a lot of negative stuff in my life, and I just wanted to show I could still be on top. It’s nice to get all the negative stuff behind me and show that I’m still here.
“The injuries were such a downfall for me. I knew I was so much better than what I was showing. It was just a little small gap that I was missing. I closed that gap tonight. My timing was back. Once I dropped (Bader), it was on. Tonight, I think I put a lot of fear into a lot of these light heavyweights like, ‘Oh, (expletive), Tito Ortiz is back. And I am.”
He wants to fight Forrest Griffin for a third time. Or maybe Rashad Evans for a second. Maybe the UFC will get a little loopy and give us Ortiz-Liddell III and settle all that nonsense once and for all, because you know the latter would ditch retirement for such an opportunity. Again, good business.
Either way, Ortiz wants back in the mix. He might be back. He might have just been really good for a little under two minutes Saturday.
What he remains is interesting, and that’s hard to be when you just won for the first time in six fights.
For the moment, at least, he is not going away. He saved his job, extended his career.
For the moment, at least, the blade remains suspended.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
