Tito Ortiz’s submission victory over Ryan Bader at UFC 132 creates an interesting problem for the UFC, Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva. The truth is that nobody gave Tito a realistic shot to win this fight including the odds-makers who had him as a 4:1 underdog.
Even Matt Hughes was getting a few good laughs over Ortiz’s chances of winning at the UFC 132 Q and A. Dana probably believed that he wouldn’t have to deal with Ortiz after tonight and he could finally hand him his walking papers and be done with him.
Tito’s victory creates a little bit of a dilemma for the company because no one really knows where Ortiz is ranked in the light heavyweight division and it also derails the development of Ryan Bader. Just like any other sport, building prospects is an important part for any organization and Tito was thought to be easy prey to get Bader back on track after his loss to Jon Jones.
It will certainly be interesting to see what the UFC decides to do with both men at this point. Bader has now lost two fights in a row and a third would put him in danger of no longer being a can’t miss prospect a la Brandon Vera, Todd Duffee and Houston Alexander.
It will be even more interesting to see what the UFC does with Ortiz. A win may have saved his job, but probably isn’t enough to catapult him into the upper echelon of the division.
An interesting option could be to fight the winner of Rich Franklin and Lil Nog or maybe pair him up with Phil Davis if he happens to get past Rashad. One thing you can bank on is that Dana certainly won’t be giving Ortiz any easy fights.
With all that being said, Ortiz definitely deserves credit for tonight’s victory because he showed his complete game. Tito’s hands never really instilled any fear in opponents but he was able to rock Bader with a solid right hand, he showed a little of his patented ground and pound, and quickly switched to a guillotine.
Overall, it was quite an impressive performance and it will be interesting to see how he looks his next time out.