Tito Ortiz has finally given his side of the story on his infamous boxing match with Dana White.
Back in 2007, White and Ortiz were set to face each other in a much ballyhooed exhibition boxing match, as part of their ongoing feud with one another. The bout was cancelled after Ortiz didn’t show up at weigh-ins. White spoke out several years later to explain Ortiz’s lack of attendance to weigh-ins. He said that he was afraid and used to beat Ortiz in training. However, White spoke on Paddy Pimblett’s Chattin pony podcast recently Bloody Elbow ), Ortiz told his side.
“It was supposed to be 50/50 [split] on any money that was revenue from the fight,” Ortiz said. When it was time to sign the contract, it wasn’t. I have always signed bout agreements for fights that I was involved in. It wasn’t something I was ignoring. I was in a losing situation.
” They were in negotiations about one of mine and I told Lorenzo that we needed to add this clause to the Dana and me box. On TV.’ We were supposed to do it on Spike and ended up … the contract came and said I was making zero off of it. I was like, ‘Hold on a second, I thought you said we’d do 50/50?’ He’s like, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not fighting. I said, “But don’t put your hand on the scale to say Tito is a no-show or he’s afraid of me fighting.” He did exactly that.
” I’m not going to fight anyone for nothing. And he was doing it to make a name for himself, and he did well. He was in a losing situation, but it was win-win for me
For what it’s worth, Ortiz did back up White’s statement that he used to lose to White in the training room, however, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” countered that White did not share the whole story.
“Me, Dana and I used to spar when we first started boxing. I didn’t know how to box.” Ortiz stated. He said, “And as I gained the upper hand on him and got faster, stronger and bigger, I became the world champion.” ?’ He goes, ‘Because you’re f****** hurting me, man!’ I’m like. ‘Alright, that’s fine.'”
Friction between Ortiz and White was one of the defining features of Zuffa’s early ownership of the UFC, and continued on for a long time. However, Ortiz was inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame 2012,. Over the years, Ortiz has come to regret the ways in which things turned so hostile.
” We had great times together, which I will always remember,” Ortiz stated. “He was a really good dude, but business comes first, I get it. He was en route to making UFC huge to what it is today, and I really didn’t see that vision that he had. It would have been a great experience. Although I wish I had done things differently, at the end I learnt negotiation from him. It was either his way or no way. And that’s the way I thought, I said ‘F*** it, it’s my way or no way.’ And I think that might’ve been my little mistake, but he’s a few years older than me. Because we were such close friends, we used to talk s*** all the time .
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” I think that he took to his heart many things I said and that I also took to my heart many things that he stated. Of him calling me a p**** or a stupid man. You can’t make a millionaire from a dumb man. It’s impossible for a stupid person to run a business. A stupid man can’t run a family, I think, in my mind, and successfully.”
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