We all know it by now; Tito Ortiz will be fighting for his job at UFC 132.
Tito has not won a fight since 2006 and has admitted that he had to beg UFC President Dana White for one last chance to prove that he has what it takes to compete in MMA‘s most prominent organization.
Everybody has been talking about how badly Ortiz needs this win, and he does need it, but why Ryan Bader?
If you ignore the fact Tito is fighting for his job, there is a lot more pressure on Bader in this fight than there is Ortiz.
People think Tito is way passed his prime and are expecting him to lose. This is partially true, but people forget that while Tito has not been winning, his fights have still been competitive.
Let’s look at his last three fights.
Tito lost a unanimous decision to Lyoto Machida. In his next two fights, Machida would go on to knock out Rashad Evans and Thiago Silva. Both of those fighters are still relevant today, and Tito did better against Lyoto than they did.
Next, Ortiz lost a split decision to Forrest Griffin. After that Griffin beat Rich Franklin by unanimous decision, but no one was calling for Rich to retire.
After that, Tito lost another unanimous decision to Matt Hamill. This loss was uglier for Ortiz and did show that his skills are declining.
Tito may be nearing the end but he can still put up a good fight, and not many people are acknowledging that.
This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Bader; nobody wants to be the guy who loses to the guy hasn’t won in five years.
Ryan is already coming off a very decisive loss to Jon Jones, and so a loss to Ortiz would be nothing short of devastating.
Bader certain has the tools to defeat Tito, that much is certain. As a fighter, Ryan could be called a more dangerous Matt Hamill.
If Bader trains hard and does not underestimate Ortiz, then he can win the fight. That said, he better make sure he is doing those things because a loss for him would knock him out of the division’s top 10 and put him miles away from a title shot.
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