Tito Ortiz Won’t Earn Base Purse For Chuck Liddell Trilogy Bout

Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz III is supposedly far from a money grab fight for “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy.””

Ortiz recently spoke to media members at a media event for the UFC’s International Fight Week and discussed his upcoming fight with “The Iceman.” A date and venue for the bout have yet to be announced as of this writing.

The former UFC light heavyweight champ revealed that this fight isn’t about money for him. So much so in fact that he isn’t fighting with a base purse. His payday will be based solely on the success of the pay-per-view (PPV):

“This isn’t about money,” Ortiz said. “People have to understand this, this fight – I’m not getting paid no money. There’s no $1 million payday guaranteed.

“I make money when somebody buys the PPV, I make money when somebody buys a ticket to the fight. My job is to perform the way I’ve always performed for the past 21-and-a-half years. That’s what I’m going to do.”

In regards to why he’s taking such a risk fighting for De La Hoya with no guaranteed payday on the table, Ortiz believes the mixed martial arts (MMA) community will come out to support this fight and also has faith in De La Hoya’s promotion skills to make this event a big seller:

“No base purse,” Ortiz said. “That’s how bad I want this fight. This is important to me. I’m coming in as a partner, I believe in my fans, I believe in Chuck Liddell‘s fans, I believe in the promotion that De La Hoya can do – but people want to see me fight, they want to see me beat Chuck Liddell and get my hand raised over him – they’ll tune into this PPV.””

Ortiz is more than willing to bet on himself with this fight. De La Hoya wanted to attempt a one-off event in the MMA realm and Ortiz is happy to be a part of that. He’s also hoping that they can reach a 1.5 million PPV buy number given the success he and Liddell have had together in the past:

“It was cut and dry, plain and simple that’s exactly how it was. De La Hoya said he wanted to get into the business and do a one-off and see what it’d turn out to be. I’m a business man. I believe in myself. I’m willing to take a chance.

“I’m willing to bet on my name, and that’s what I’m doing in this fight, because I know I’m going to win, I’m getting my hand raised. It’s going to be a double edged sword that I get to shine myself.

“I get the win, and hopefully it will be a huge PPV where we do 1.5 million PPV buys as we did before.”