Ryan Bader and Tito Ortiz Have The Most Compelling Fight At UFC 132
The main event of UFC 132 is the bantamweight championship fight between Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz, but the most intriguing fight is going to be between Ryan Bader and Tito Ortiz.
Ortiz is on his last legs in UFC and everyone knows it. He has not won a fight since 2006, compiling a record of 0-4-1 in his last five fights. There were reports that he was asked to retire following a loss to Matt Hamill at UFC 121.
Ortiz is one of the most fascinating characters in mixed martial arts thanks to the success that he used to have and his loud, confrontational personality.
But he is one loss away from being kicked to the curb by UFC, and Bader is a budding star looking to make a name for himself after the first loss of his career to Jon Jones in February.
This fight is summed up perfectly by Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports when he wrote this:
In all combat sports, there comes the day when the role of the old lion becomes to give the rub, as they say, to the new lion. That is one of two themes of this UFC 132 co-feature fight, the other being Ortiz battling to keep his UFC career from what is likely its ending without either a win or a hell of a performance going down to defeat.
Bader is a star on the rise. His star lost a little shine when he lost to Jon Jones at UFC 126, but he is still a major prospect in the light heavyweight division. He gets better with each performance, particularly his punching, which has come a long way over the last three years. He needs to prove that he is not going to let his first career loss linger with him for a long time after it has happened.
Ortiz is a star whose best days have clearly passed him by. He is still fighting top guys, which tells you that he isn’t afraid to challenge himself. But this is his last shot to prove what he has left to Dana White, the fans and himself. One more loss and he is (in all likelihood) going to be released.
When you put these two storylines together, you have the makings of one of the more dramatic fights that we will see in mixed martial arts this year.
Ortiz is going to give everything that he has to save his job. Bader will give everything he has in order to prove that he is still the hot prospect everyone believed him to be before the Jones fight.
This fight may not be the main event. It’s not the fight that is going to sell a ton of buys. But, aside from the championship fight, this bout has the most at stake for both combatants. For Ortiz, his job and livelihood is at risk. For Bader, he needs to bounce back from the first loss of his career if he wants to become a star.
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