UFC Should Let Ortiz Go

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz (15-5-1) is set to fight rising contender Lyoto Machida (12-0) at UFC 85 in May, a fight which Ortiz has suggested may be his last in the UFC.

“I’m just looking to get my final fight over with the UFC,” Ortiz told Sirius’ Fight Network Radio on Monday, citing money as the bone of contention with Zuffa, LLC, the company that owns UFC. Ortiz has one fight remaining on his contract, which the bout with Machida will satisfy.

The UFC typically re-signs fighters prior to them fighting the last fight on their contracts. However, months of contract negotiations failing to produce a new deal has left Ortiz out of the Octagon since a July 7, 2007 fight with Rashad Evans (11-0-1), which ended in a disappointing draw. It should be noted that Ortiz would likely have won that fight, had he not been docked points for grabbing the fence during an Evans attempted takedown.

Ortiz was expecting a rematch with Evans to be his final fight. He’ll now look to hit the free-agent market, come May.

“(The UFC) said I wasn’t worth the money,” Ortiz said. “I was worth no more than what I’m getting paid now, and I’m not a commodity to them anymore. I’m not as viable to them anymore. That was a sign of disrespect.”

There is no doubt Ortiz has been a huge commodity to the UFC in the past for myriad reasons:

• Ortiz has headlined 17 of his 20 UFC appearances, as Fight Network Radio pointed out.
• He held the UFC LHW belt for three and a half years, still the longest LHW championship reign in the promotion’s history. He first won the vacant title with a unanimous decision victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 25 (April 2000). He then defended his title five times, defeating Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Elvis Sinosic, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ken Shamrock. He then lost the title to Randy Couture at UFC 44 (September 2003) via unanimous decision, followed by a second loss (his only back-to-back losses) to Chuck Liddell via a second-round TKO at UFC 47.
• Ortiz remains one of the UFC’s largest draws. His rematch against Liddell at UFC 66 (December 2006) is the largest UFC pay-per-view to date and the largest in paid attendance in North America, with 12,191 fans and $5,397,300 in ticket sales.

But at 33 years old, Ortiz seems to be relatively stagnant while many of his fellow competitors are showing marked signs of improvement.

Since returning to the UFC in April 2006, Ortiz has posted a decent 3-1-1 record, including a split decision win over Forrest Griffin, two TKO beat-downs over aging hall-of-famer Ken Shamrock, a late-third-round TKO loss to the then-Champion Chuck Liddell and a draw to Rashad Evans. Take the 44-year-old has-been out of the equation, and Ortiz’s record is 1-1-1, and even his win is arguable.

Griffin, who is next in line for a title shot against Champion Rampage Jackson, has since bounced back from the close loss to Ortiz, going 3-1, including a third-round submission victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who at the time was considered the #1 or #2 LHW in the world.

Even Liddell, who has struggled at 1-2 since stopping Ortiz, has shown that old dogs can in fact learn new tricks in his recent win over Wanderlei Silva. The three-round slugfest, one of the best fights of 2007, showed a hungry Chuck Liddell (at 38) in significantly better shape than his two previous fights, with a solid chin willing to incorporate a spinning high kick and spinning back fist into his bag of tricks.

But what’s the most devastating to Ortiz’s fading hopes of a title shot is the increase in the UFC LHW talent pool. When Ortiz was granted a title shot last, in December 2006, the LHW division was rich in rising talent, but lacked real top contenders. Fighters like Forrest Griffin, Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans were no where near ready for a title shot. Liddell was fearless and largely considered unstoppable. The UFC was forced to sign fighters who Liddell had lost to in his early years so as to avenge his losses and prove once and for all that he was the greatest champion alive. So it was with Jeremy Horn, and so it was supposed to have been with Rampage Jackson…until Liddell lost. But back in December 2006, Ortiz was the only real option for a title shot—and a good option it was.

But those days are long gone now. Since that time, the UFC has signed an enormous stable of LHW talent, including former PRIDE LHW Champion Wanderlei Silva, Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, former PRIDE LHW and current MW Champion Dan Henderson, Thiago Silva, Lyoto Machida, Houston Alexander and Rameau Sokoudjou. Two of these fighters have already challenged for the belt (one of them won it), and four of the six remaining fighters are capable, talent-wise, of immediately challenging for it. Only Alexander and Sokoudjou have a bit more room to grow before they are ready.

Plus during this same time, several fighters who were seen as “up-and-coming” in December 2006 are now legitimate contenders in their own rights. Forrest Griffin, Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans are all either worthy of a title shot or one fight away, and Matt Hamill and Stephan Bonner are closing in on that goal by showing marked improvement with every fight.

During this same time, the only LHW fighters that the UFC has lost have been Babalu Sobral (due to unsportsmanlike behavior inside the cage) and Ken Shamrock (due to retirement), neither of whom will be missed.

So if Ortiz wants to leave the UFC for more money, it’s safe to say the UFC would not miss him either. In fact, it might actually benefit both parties. Consider:

• Competitor MMA leagues, like M-1 Global, HDNet Fights, EliteXC and Strikeforce, have only a few top contenders in any division who are truly worthy of challenging for the belt. HDNet Fights lists just four 205 lb. fighters on its website, while EliteXC lists only Murilo “Ninja” Rua and Strikeforce lists only Bobby Southworth. M-1 Global lists only one fighter regardless of weight class on its website: its HW posterboy, Fedor Emelianenko. (By comparison, the UFC lists 50 LHWs, although by our count, only about 34 have fought in the Octagon in the past year.) These competitor leagues would be fools not to scoop up Ortiz, should he leave the UFC.
• Should Ortiz leave the UFC and challenge for a belt in a competitor league—and win—not only would Ortiz be happy, but the UFC would be thrilled as well, because it just shows how stuffed to the gills with talent the organization truly is. How better to demonstrate that the UFC is superior when its throw-aways are kicking your ass?

The bottom line: if Ortiz wants to go, the UFC should show him the door. It’s a great way to save about $210,000 per fight, which it can then re-allocate to a fighter(s) who’s truly next in line.