Tito Ortiz announced he has 2 fights left in him, which includes his match-up this Saturday with Antonio “Lil Nog” Rogerio Nogueira. The last fight Ortiz would like is a rubber match with Forrest Griffin. Ortiz told MMA Weekly:
“I think me and Forrest Griffin, we got some unfinished business, just because they gave him the last fight and I thought that was BS. That really annoys me a lot about it. But, of course, Rich Franklin calls me out, it’s like take a number dude. Stand in line with the rest of the people that’ve been calling me out. Everybody wants to get famous by fighting Tito Ortiz and I think the people who really deserve it are people who already fought me or are fighting for a title.”
Of course, many fans these days question the heart of Forrest Griffin when it comes to the sport as he very openly admitted he was no longer evolving as a fighter, leading up to his almost expected loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 134. Griffin said in his blog:
It quit being fun when I realized I wasn’t getting better. I’m plateauing or almost getting worse sometimes. One of the essential elements to have in this is your perceived expectation of the future, and I’m a painful realist, so I realized that I’m not going to get better; this is it. It’s only gonna get worse from here on and you fight as much as you can, you fight until you don’t have it anymore, and then you fight a couple more times after that.”
Maybe Griffin’s words are echoing sentiments of Tito Ortiz right now. Regardless of current or passing frames of mind, both of these fighters have held titles and bolstered the sport and the UFC above and beyond their call of duty. Give respect to both men and here’s to an epic trilogy, I hope we get to see.
See Tito’s full interview with MMA Weekly below: