At UFC 132, UFC president and owner Dana White has told legend MMA legend Tito Ortiz that if he loses again his career with the company is over.
This has to be a serious blow to Ortiz’s ego, but the writing has been on the wall for the last few years. While Ortiz has struggled recently in his career, there was a time when Ortiz was the biggest draw in the sport’s history.
Ortiz started with UFC in 1997 and has been on the roster ever since. Along the way he has battled some of the sport’s best in Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and most famously Ken Shamrock.
While his time in the UFC and things he accomplished can’t be disputed, UFC president Dana White doesn’t believe Ortiz’s place in the UFC Hall of Fame is so open-and-shut.
White told Yahoo! Sports:
That’s debatable. […] Let’s just say, Tito hasn’t always done the right things to build the sport or build the UFC. Tito would like to think so. I would beg to differ.
The problem with White having that much influence on the selections for the Hall of Fame would be his ongoing feud between White and Ortiz.
With White giving Ortiz the ultimatum that if he doesn’t win on Saturday at UFC 132 he will be fired, it is obvious that the feud is not over. To further show the divide, at the UFC 132 weigh in, both men had words for each other, and it appears their relationship can’t be saved.
Ortiz was one of the reasons UFC got as big as it did, and that means he has a rightful place in the UFC Hall of Fame. Whether he actually will or not is anyone’s guess.
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