Tito still says he wants to fight Chuck.

Quote :

Source: MMAFighting.com

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Tito Ortiz has updated everyone on his neck injury that forced him to pull out of his fight with Chuck Liddell, as well as the eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Speaking via MMAFighting.com, Tito said:

“I think we should still fight, just because of the sh*t he’s been saying. Saying that I’m afraid of him and I’m a p—-, this and that. Go f*ck yourself man. Are you kidding me? Has he ever defended his world title longer than me? No. Has any light-heavyweight ever defended the world title longer than me? No. I’m only 35 years old. I’ll be back in the cage again, and I’ll be dominating.”

On the neck injury that forced him out of the fight, Tito said:

“There was a disc and two bone spurs pressing on my spinal cord. If anyone’s had spinal cord problems or disc injuries in their neck, they’d understand what I went through.”

“Me with my mind focused, being in the gym everyday and being the strong, ferocious, ground-and-pound artist I am, when I get back in the cage, you’ll see Tito Ortiz is back. Hopefully Chuck will get a knockout in the first round. Yes, I am rooting for Chuck to win.”

Ortiz returned to the UFC back in November after going through extensive back surgery, losing to Forrest Griffin via Split Decision. Time will tell if Tito and Chuck will step inside the octagon together for a third time, but first Chuck must get past Rich Franklin this Saturday night at UFC 115.

Tito doesn't want to fight Chuck. Chuck has already KOed him twice. It as a close decision, it wasn't even a decision, Chuck turned his lights out twice. Tito defended the title against guys that were not even close to his league and when he fought Chuck and Randy, he lost badly. I think Tito is the most overrated UFC Champ of all-time.

Somehow, I don't see him dominating. A fight with Machida would be interesting just because I know he'll get raped.

I seriously don't understand what Tito has built his UFC legend around. His best win was against Belfort maybe? He did not look good against Forrest and I still think Forrest should have won their first fight. I am trying to remember Tito's last few fights. Didn't he have a draw with someone?

Tito built his UFC legend around fighting in one of the weaker divisions back in the day (LHW is probably the deepest or second deepest now in the UFC) and he was able to build a lot of hype for the UFC when they weren't that big yet. Basically, his mouth mixed with the fact that there weren't enough quality LHWs to take him out helped him build his legacy.

To me, his Legacy is empty. It looks great on the outside, but when you peel away the shine paper, you have very little. Tito got his ass kicked by the top 2 LHW of his time and all-time. So he beat Shamrock 5 years after Ken should have stopped fighting? So what. What happened when he came up against 2 of the very best, in their prime, he got his ass beat. To me, that is his Legacy.

Chuck Liddell isn't as sharp as he once was. He's taken some major losses over the past few years. In their primes Tito couldn't beat Chuck, but these days I think it could go either way really. The safe bet would be Liddelll but I wouldn't be too surprised if it went the other way.

And Ortiz's legacy in UFC and MMA is being one of the biggest draws in its history. Regardless of his ability as a fighter, he has brought a lot of interest to the sport and kept a lot of people tuning in.

OK, he brought people to the show, but how can he be considered great when he never performed against the true greats?

^^ Greatness is subjective. For me, what Tito has done for UFC in terms of helping make it so popular, is more important than a win over Chuck Liddell. Keith Jardine managed that - Tito's more of a legend than him. That's not to say that Tito is one of the best ever in the UFC but he's one of the most important.

Not only could Tito not beat Liddel, he could not beat Couture either. Those 2 were the water mark for the LHW's during that era. My problem with Tito is not that he lost to Chuck twice. My problem is that he never beat anyone truly great in their prime.