The ultimate pioneer?
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In many ways, Tito Ortiz is the ultimate pioneer when it comes to the way he changed the modern-day UFC.
As the first fighter to really use weight-cutting to his advantage, the ramifications of Ortiz coming in heavier than his early opponents, arguably lead to the situation we have today when practically every fighter cuts at least 10lbs to get into their chosen weight class. Good or bad in the long run, it’s important.
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While his fighting style quickly became dated once he was faced with fighters closer to his size who were able to stop his takedown and expose his weaker kickboxing game, it was the out-of-the-cage actions of the Huntington Beach Bad Boy that made him important.
He was the first fighter to really develop feuds – first with the Lion’s Den and Ken Shamrock, then with Chuck Liddell, and finally with Dana White and Zuffa, which meant any fighter who faced him was almost Dana’s boy by proxy – that piqued the interest of the fans like nothing before.
Those feuds drew buy rates for the UFC that were largely unmatched during the time period he fought, making him by far the most recognisable star in the company alongside Liddell. Due to the work of Ortiz in building them, the blueprint was set for future feuds like Lesnar/Mir, Rampage/Evans and Sonnen/Silva that went on to draw equally huge amounts of money.
Furthermore, Ortiz was the first man to really challenge the UFC’s pay scale, and he did it by simply walking away when he was able to until the UFC needed him more than he needed them. While Randy Couture attempted to take the UFC to court, Tito just bided his time and was always brought back to the fold.
As far as I’m aware, he always got the contract that he wanted, too. He never came back with his tail between his legs like Randy did. Probably because for all of his faults, Ortiz always came off as someone who would deal with things face-to-face.
I get the feeling that it’s probably that side of Tito that allowed him to go from feuding with Dana to being back in Zuffa’s good books, time and time again.
In the end then, while Ortiz’s fighting style became out of date very quickly, he fought past his prime for years and was arguably somewhat overrated inside the cage, there are few fighters that can be looked on as more important for the development of the modern MMA scene.
That’s a pioneer if ever there was one.
Until next time....
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