The Mystery of Tito Ortiz
Published by Zach Arnold on July 1st, 2009 in Current Events

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It was only a few years ago that Dana White and UFC management thought that Tito Ortiz would become their first mega-Mexican superstar athlete. Unfortunately, Tito doesn’t speak Spanish and he grew up in Huntington Beach, California.

Rest assured that this was not the only problem between the two sides during Ortiz’s long tenure with UFC.

Outside of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz is a marketing icon closely associated with UFC. His matches still air on Spike TV re-runs all the time. He’s still one of the most popular figures in all of MMA. Ortiz likes to call himself a brand, which is a fair claim to make. However, he also gives back to fighters by not only marketing them but by also sponsoring them. Of course, given UFC’s tactics these days in terms of who can sponsor what fighter and how a sponsor reportedly has to pay UFC the right just to even sponsor someone, it seems as if Zuffa wouldn’t be disappointed if companies like Tito’s were left on the outside-looking-in.

If only MMA Memories had existed a few years ago, I would have written about 30 articles about Dana White’s boxing match with Tito Ortiz and the Spike TV special that White made sure was on television to show just what great shape he was in and what a pussycat Ortiz ended up being.

We know what the history is between White and Ortiz. The great irony is that is no matter what White has tried to do to Tito, it always seems to reflect off of Tito like teflon and not cause any damage. Case in point — the last two notable fights Tito had in the UFC were against Rashad Evans a few years ago and against Machida. Tito and Evans went to a draw in Sacramento and Machida beat Ortiz by decision. Evans and Machida would end up facing each other and Machida would become the Light Heavyweight champion. When Ortiz and Machida were booked against each other in Tito’s UFC farewell match, it was clear that a lot of people thought Ortiz would get humiliated and damaged in the fight. Instead, the affair was largely boring and didn’t really hurt Ortiz’s stock all that much. White didn’t get the ultimate payoff that he wanted.

Despite being gone from UFC for over a year now, Ortiz keeps getting asked by the media as to whether or not he will return to Zuffa. During this time period, Tito has made several claims about potential contract offers from Affliction or Strikeforce or other parties, but nothing ever seems to come to fruition.

In a recent Trib Total Media interview with Jusitn Labar, Ortiz announced his latest business declaration.

“I’m starting my own organization also with Strikeforce called Punishment Fighting Championships so not just as a promoter, I’ll be competing also and bringing some of the other guys around, try to make some more superstars and for me to get a chance to fight in Pittsburgh would be awesome, I’d love it.”

And as for a return to UFC?

“Not as long as Dana White’s the President of UFC. It’s just, I have too much integrity, I have too much respect for myself and to be taken advantage of, to be talked as bad as I have from him, he does not have my best interests as a businessman or as a fighter he has no respect for me so I live my whole career and my life on respect and for me to grow on and show that successful no matter what that’s the most important thing in showing that I’m just not a fighter, I’m a brand and I’m a businessman, I’m a smart businessman and I’m going to make sure to look out for my future and for there I will lose complete integrity if I do go back.”

Set the odds to 3-1 that Tito makes a comeback to UFC by next year if and when the organization needs him to pop them a good PPV buy rate. Count on it.

One person Zuffa can count on to be their mega-superstar in Hispanic markets is Miguel Torres. Unfortunately, Miguel fights for their baby sister promotion WEC and he fights at 135 pounds. Oops. Dana White finds his Spanish-speaking super talent and somehow, Torres doesn’t fit into their scheme in UFC.

In an interview with Superstar Steve Cofield and Smokin’ Dave Cokin interview last week on ESPN 1100, Torres talked about his upcoming fight against Brian Bowles in Las Vegas on August 9th. Torres, who is taller than the majority of his opponents, has to train against smaller guys in camp in order to prepare himself for fights.

“Whenever I have a fight coming up I try to find guys who are almost the same height and the last time I fought in Vegas I fought Manny Tapia and I had to find guys that were like 5’4″, 5’5″ and I could not believe how tall I was than those guys. I was like man I got to go up in weight, I got to start put on some weight, and my metabolism is so crazy I can’t do it and when I fought Tapia it was so easy that I was so much taller than him. So I don’t know, it’s kind of crazy.”

While Mike Brown is the WEC’s ace at Featherweight (145 pounds), Torres is the promotion’s king at 135 pounds and overall the company’s best fighter. Nobody matches up with him in terms of speed, skill, stamina, and heart. What does Miguel think separates him from the rest of the pack?

“Well, I mean, it’s just the mentality, how you think about it. For me, fighting is a lifestyle. Mixed Martial Arts is a lifestyle for me. I do mixed martial arts to be a martial artist in the most pure sense. I don’t consider myself a fighter. I do this for enlightenment, I did it to learn more about myself, challenge myself, and you know for me it’s a process. A lot of other guys that get into the sport, you know, they played football, they wrestled in High School, they get into the sport in their mid-20s, they do it because they think it’s cool and they want to make a lot of money, they’re trying to break onto the scene and their mindset is a little bit different. Their training is not going to be focused 100%, their body’s not going to be there 100%, so it’s two different levels. A good example of that is when you had Machida fight against Rashad Evans. A guy who’s flourished his whole life, in the back of his head, this is his time and his moment in time to become a world champion, he’s been waiting his whole life. Evans is the world champion who came off The Ultimate Fighter, so you have two different mindsets.”

There’s that name again, Machida. We know Machida’s father taught his son karate and other martial arts as a kid, but we also know that Ryoto/Lyoto first came to prominence under the marketing of Antonio Inoki. Machida’s win over Rich Franklin on NYE 2003 in Japan is what got everyone’s attention. From that point forward, Machida was destined to become the king of his weight class, just like Torres is the king of 135 pounders.

Will Torres stay at 135 pounds, however?

“Well I’m happy where I’m at now, 135, I want to cement a legacy, I want to be, I’m one of the first fighters at 135 that’s actually been in the weight class and the popularity. I’m doing what Urijah Faber did for 145, so I want to do it at 135, you know I think a couple more of years here, two more years here at this weight class, and then before I retire I want to move up in weight just for some really big fights, some higher profile fights.”

The problem for Torres has more to do with the way UFC looks at WEC and handles their own affairs as opposed to his skill set, his marketing ability, and his fight style. Torres is the complete package and much like Urijah Faber, it is evident that these two prime talents should be on a bigger stage rather than watching the peak of their careers in a league that Zuffa treats as secondary to UFC for business purposes.

Since WEC isn’t on PPV and is a TV-only property, the salary structure is going to be lower. The live event ticket prices are lower than UFC’s, so the gates are smaller. For men like Torres and Faber who put on fight-of-the-year caliber matches while fighters in heavier weight classes make anywhere from 5-10 times the amount those guys do on undercards or midcard slots on PPV, it has to be incredibly frustrating.

“They do take care of us, they give us undisclosed bonuses and perks on the side but you know I have a family and I got things I want to do with my gym and I have other venues I can get into as far as making income. Fighting, I love fighting and I can stay and fight another 10 years, it’s just the training process, it’s just so rigorous not just on my body and my mind but being away from my family and just so much traveling and so much, you know, there’s so much other sacrifices that I make to get ready for a fight especially being at the level where I’m at now that I don’t get to have any fun in my life and you know depending on where the money is at in three or four years would depend on if I stick around but I’m planning on staying in 3 or 4 more years and then getting out.”

Money is always a top priority for fighters, no matter how much MMA is a lifestyle to them or not. Torres should be positioned by Zuffa in a much higher profile slot, but he isn’t. For years, Dana White clamored about finding that Spanish-speaking superstar that could help him expand operations into Mexico and other Latin America countries. Now that he has that fighter, not a lot is being done for expansion plans. Combine this along with the end of Setanta Sports and suddenly the European expansion plans compared to focusing more time, money, and energy expanding into Latin America is looking like a big mistake.

We know Torres is the real deal. As a guest host on MMA Live, he comes across as humble, yet very much his own man with his own opinions. In other words, he’s about as good as Rich Franklin when it comes to speaking and marketing. That’s a pretty good man to be compared to.

Given the limited shelf life that fighters have in MMA, Torres has to be frustrated. After all, he puts in an incredible amount of time into training, into marketing and hyping fights, and into doing PR for WEC. What is it that separates Torres from the rest of the pack as far as being an elite-level fighter both in training and during the actual fight performance itself?

“Well the biggest thing when you’re getting ready for a fight is getting your mindset right and if you’re training for a fight and the days coming up, you got two months to get ready for your fight and you’re going out and you’re having a good time and you’re going to the movies and playing video games and doing a lot of other stuff where you’re not focused on what you got to do, when the fight comes that night the day of the fight you think back on your training process, you know, that’s the ground that’s the base of what’s getting you ready for this fight and you think about that process and what did you do to get ready for that fight. You go back in your head, you know I was drinking, I was eating fast food or I was out partying or I was hanging out with these people and I wasn’t in the gym or you know, you got to be focused on what you got to do. The physical part is the easy part, anybody can be in shape, but to mentally be prepared for a fight that very few people can do and that’s what I do when I get ready for a fight, you know, wake up in the morning and I train, I’ll eat, I’ll take a nap, I’ll go back to the gym, go for a run at the beach, so I’m at the beach but I’m not really having a good time at the beach because I’m training, I’m running, when I get out of the beach I got to get back and sleep again so that the sun’s real hard on your body, then at night I train again so there’s no time to go out, there’s no time to do anything else but to eat and go to sleep because you got to do it all over again in the morning. It’s just a process.”