Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz trilogy seems to be near to finalized.
Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz both coming out of retirement to renew their rivalry with an Octagon fight later this year, both fighters have now stated publicly.
Former boxing world champion Oscar De La Hoya announced his plans to start his MMA promotion last month and expressed his interest in promoting a Liddell vs. Ortiz trilogy under Golden Boy MMA banner.
According to “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” a former UFC light heavyweight champion said he has already signed the contract and has been training since then, but Liddell still needs to sign the dotted line. (Via MMAFighting)
“The fight’s not official, but yeah, I started working out for almost a month and a half,” Ortiz told Submission Radio recently. “My body feels great, I’ve bounced back faster than I expected, which is great. But I feel good, man, I’m anxious. I’m just waiting on Chuck Liddell’s side to kind of sign the contract, get this done. So, it’s just a matter of time.”
“I think Chuck’s kind of holding out, trying to make more money out of it, which it just doesn’t make sense because this deal is pretty much a cut and dry contract. We’re both partners. De La Hoya wants his 40 percent and me and Chuck Liddell get to split 30 percent. So that’s on complete revenue of the whole fight in general. And this is the whole thing that I’ve been waiting for for such a long time in mixed martial arts, to really make a difference, and we’re gonna do that with De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions.”
Liddell and Ortiz have met twice already in UFC, and both times, Liddell came out victorious. His first win came via knockout at UFC 47 in April 2004, and he followed that up with another knockout at UFC 66 back in Dec. 2006. Ortiz is hoping to pull 500,000 Pay-Per-view buys for the trilogy. Can they buy this number, Ortiz said, in their rematch at UFC 66 which was the first UFC event to draw over 1 million pay-per-view buys, so he is confident to attract an impressive number this time as well.
“I talked to some of the guys like Sean Shelby, some of the other promoters, and they said, ‘you guys have a possibility of doing some really great numbers because people don’t know what to expect,’” Ortiz said. “So what’s the magic number? Is it over 500,000? Will we meet that million number that we did last time me and Chuck fought? You know, we did over 1.4 million pay-per-view buys. If we fall right in the middle of that, I would be happy.”
Liddell (21-8) has not competed since June 2010, dropped five of his final six bouts. Ortiz (19-12) last fought in January 2017, where he defeated Chael Sonnen via submission at Bellator 170. Ortiz has an opportunity to earn the redemption against Chuck Liddell in the trilogy.
“I really have dreamt about it, I thought about it, I’ve gone over in my head, over and over and over and over again,” Ortiz concluded. “It’s just put the pressure on him, put the pressure on him and catch him within the second round with my hands. It’s either going to be a left hook or a right hand, one or the other.”
“It’s gonna happen. This fight is gonna happen. It’s just a matter of time. Chuck Liddell, come on, buddy, stop asking for pennies, man. You’re stepping over dollars, looking for pennies. Let’s sign this fight, let’s get it done so that we can give all the fans 25 years of UFC.”
Is their trilogy excites you? If this happens, who will come out on top?
