Tito Ortiz (23/08/09)

Jacob "Tito" Ortiz (born January 23, 1975) is a Mexican American participant of the sport of mixed martial arts, or 'MMA'. Ortiz's career has been mostly within the UFC organization. A former Light-Heavyweight UFC champion, Ortiz has become one of the sport's most shining stars, headlining several Pay Per View championship undercards, and appearing on the covers of various magazines, such as Black Belt Magazine. He is a native of Huntington Beach, California. Tito Ortiz is recognized as a charismatic, if controversial and highly-criticized fighter. Whatever the opinions of Ortiz, he undeniably is both a showman and a talented fighter.
Ortiz began his martial arts career as a wrestler in his sophomore year of high school. Under coach Paul Herrera, Ortiz would place 4th in the state high school championships as a senior. Following high school, Ortiz continued his wrestling career winning a California state junior college title for Golden West College. Following his stint at Golden West, Ortiz wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield. While never a full-time starter, Ortiz did gain significant experience training with future NCAA and world champion Stephen Neal.
His mixed martial arts debut was at UFC 13. He beat Wes Albittron on the tournament's first round by referee stoppage due to a barrage of punches, but lost a bout that he was dominating early on to Guy Mezger in the next round. The Mezger match was interesting as it showed the potential Ortiz had for dominating his opponents with control and hard, sharp elbows (ground and pound). It also demonstrated the very real lack of experience Ortiz had. The fighters were stood up over a disputed end to the fight (Ortiz claimed Mezger tapped). It was ruled the fight should restart (as custom at that time, standing) and Ortiz, as reasonably instructed by his corner, shot in to quickly finish the fight. A slight miscalculation in distance and technical inexperience in MMA found Ortiz caught in a guillotine choke from which Ortiz had no idea how to escape.
In February 2005, Ortiz took time away from the UFC and was offered deals with several promotions, including PRIDE Fighting Championships and the Don King-backed World Fighting Alliance, but none came to fruition. Ortiz opted to try his hand at professional wrestling, signing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a guest referee.
In November 2005, Dana White announced that Ortiz and Ken Shamrock would coach The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality TV series on Spike TV, which premiered in April 2006. Ortiz's first fight in his return occurred at UFC 59 on April 15, 2006 against previous The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner Forrest Griffin. Ortiz won via split decision. His next fight was against UFC Hall Of Famer Ken Shamrock at UFC 61 on July 8, 2006, a match which was to conclude a main storyline in The Ultimate Fighter 3. Ortiz won in the first round by TKO due to a stoppage by referee Herb Dean due to strikes. Shamrock protested that the stoppage was early. On August 25, 2006, at the UFC 62 weigh-ins, Dana White announced a rematch between Ortiz and Shamrock for October 10, 2006 on Spike TV, as the main event of Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3: The Final Chapter. Ortiz beat Shamrock for the third time in this fight, which was stopped in the first round due to strikes. Ortiz's rematch with Chuck Liddell (for the UFC Light Heavyweight championship) at UFC 66 (December 30, 2006) ended in defeat via referee stoppage in the third round. UFC 66 is estimated to be currently the UFC's biggest pay-per-view success to date with just over 1 million buys.He then fought against undefeated The Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Rashad Evans on July 7, 2007 at UFC 73. The fight ended in a draw after Ortiz was penalized for grabbing the fence. Ortiz' last fight on his contract with the UFC was a unanimous decision loss to undefeated Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 on May 24, 2008. With all three judges scoring the fight 30-27 to Machida. Ortiz came painfully close to submitting Machida in the third round with a triangle choke before transitioning to an armbar. However, Machida managed to escape and survived the round, winning a unanimous judge's decision. The fight concluded Ortiz' stay with the promotion as he chose not to re-sign, citing his frustration with UFC-president Dana White as a major factor in the decision.