Tito Ortiz Talks Downfall Of Short-Lived Golden Boy MMA
Tito Ortiz headlined the first ever Golden Boy MMA event, promoted by former boxer Oscar de La Hoya. According to Ortiz however, this will also be the last event held by the promotion.
Ortiz faced long-time rival Chuck Liddell, and there was much concern leading into the fight, the Oscar was not taking the health of Liddell seriously. In fact, it seemed that de La Hoya wasn’t taking much of it serious, at all.
In an interview with Aaron Bronsteter, Ortiz opened up about this. According to him, this is primarily the reason there would not be another Golden Boy MMA fight.
“Yeah it’s dead. They are just in the boxing business and I can leave it there. i can really just leave it there I gave them the opportunity to run with something and make it huge And it just didn’t work out. I did what I needed to do promotion wise. Getting ready for the fight it was eighteen weeks and it just gave me an OPPORTUNITY to have another fight in the future.
I can’t say nothing bad about Oscar because he gave me an opportunity and I am very thankful for it. It’s just one of those things as a promoter, you’ve got to do your work. You know a perfect example is Dana White. He does his homework, he busts his ass and he does it for the MMA crowd and not just for his family but for fighters and their future. Oscar just really didn’t put his homework in and he didn’t do what he wanted to do for mixed martial arts. He’s a boxing promoter, and I guess we’ll leave it right there.”
Well, at least Tito Ortiz was able to score a contract with Combates Americas from this mess.