Tito Ortiz was spotted doing Tito Ortiz things during an appearance on a Florida radio show.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion has seen a series of ups and downs since exiting the promotion more than a decade ago. Emerging as an outspoken conservative in more recent years, Ortiz has been an avid supporter of embattled former President Donald Trump and made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that nationwide lockdowns and mask mandates were affecting his freedoms.
The controversial stance, along with falsifying documents to apply for unemployment in California when he was in fact not unemployed, ultimately cost him a spot on the Huntington Beach city council.
Today, Tito Ortiz gave us yet another example of why he’s one of the most disliked fighters in mixed martial arts history. Appearing on a radio show in The Sunshine State, the ‘Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ put one of the hosts into a choke hold and inevitably put him to sleep. It’s certainly not the first time a fighter has been asked to slap a hold on someone out of sheer curiosity, but the problem here is that the radio host clearly tapped, signaling Ortiz to relinquish the hold. As you can see in the video clip below, Ortiz refused to let go in what can only be described as a total d*ck move.
Tito Ortiz Has a History of Holding Onto Chokes Longer Than Necessary
It’s certainly not the first time Tito Ortiz has refused to let go of a choke after a tap out. In a 2017 bout with Chael Sonnen in Bellator, Ortiz admitted to holding on to a choke longer than necessary against the ‘American Gangster’.
“When he was tapping, I thought he was trying to grab my hands, but I kind of held on to it because I have ill will towards him,” Ortiz explained at the post-fight press conference. “But that’s just me, when someone talks about my family, when someone talks about my character, I have bad will towards the person. And I’ve never done that before, but it was just something in my mind saying, if I let go and they stop it and restart it again, I couldn’t let that happen.“
Ortiz went on to fight two more times after the incident, securing wins over Chuck Liddell under the Golden Boy Promotion’s banner and against former WWE superstar Alberto Del Rio.