Tito Ortiz Believes Manager Should’ve Prevented Chuck Liddell From MMA Return
Tito Ortiz believes that there should’ve been something done in order to protect Chuck Liddell from himself. In fact, the former UFC light heavyweight champion thinks that Liddell’s manager should’ve told him not to do this fight.
As seen on Saturday night inside The Forum in Inglewood, California on pay-per-view, Tito Ortiz was able to score a first round knockout victory over arch-rival. Before this bout, Liddell and Ortiz had fought twice throughout their legendary careers, with “The Iceman” knocking out Ortiz at UFC 47 in 2004 and UFC 66 in 2006. Now, the standings see Liddell 2-1 against Ortiz.
In the fight, Ortiz evaded almost every attack with ease before he stopped Liddell with a violent right hand. Since Liddell retired from the sport of MMA seven years ago, Ortiz fought nine times. After the fight, Ortiz made it known that he doesn’t think Liddell should have even accepted this fight.
“If I was his manager, then no,” said Ortiz when asked he would have let Liddell sign on for the fight. “I would have told Chuck, ‘No, let’s get you an ambassador job. Let’s promote your name and get you to signings and do other means of making money.’”
Despite the bad blood between these two fighters, it appears that beef is over with. To the point that Ortiz doesn’t want to tell Liddell that he should go back into retirement.
“You can’t hold someone back,” said Ortiz (H/T to MMAFighting). “If they feel something they want to do and they want to fight and continue to fight, then you’ve go to let them walk out on their own. So, If he still wants to fight, then let’s find him an opponent. Let’s find him someone that isn’t a Tito Ortiz.”
“I don’t want to take anything away from Chuck. If wants to compete, then let him compete. Maybe not as a main event, of course. But let’s find him someone that’s a tune-up for him, because I’m not a tune-up fight.”
