Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz is the other name for Jacob Christopher "Tito" Ortiz.  Nicknamed "Huntington Beach Bad Boy", Tito was born on January 23, 1975 in Huntington Beach, California.  He weighs 205 lbs and stands 6'2" tall. He masters the Muay Thai style of wrestling and is known for his intimidating presence and bad behavior on and off the rings.  Tito won the UFC Lightweight Championship in 2002-2003.

Ortiz started fighting martial arts career as early as in his school. He was coached by Paul Herrera and finished fourth in the State High School Championships. This gave him a good foundation to win the California state junior college title for Golden West College. He also had the opportunity to get trained by former NCAA champion Stephen Neal.

His first game for MMA fighting was at UFC 13 in 1997.  As an amateur, he defeated Wes Albittron but lost to Guy Mezger.  At this stage, Tito was fighting as an amateur and did not get paid for his fights.

UFC 19 was revenge time for Tito who was slated to meet Guy.  In a bitterly fought battle between these two fighters that lasted for over 10 minutes, Tito landed consecutive TKO strikes to Mezger that saw him win this fight.

In 1999, Ortiz faced Frank Shamrock heads-on for the UFC middleweight Championship title at UFC 22.  This was again a closely fought match lasting for about 5 minutes.  In the end, Frank due to his technical superiority handed Tito some submission strikes.  Ortiz' next match against Wanderlei Silva turned out to be a contest of the gladiators.  They met at UFC 25 - Ultimate Japan 3 and were at each other's throats for 5 minutes.  Tito settled the deal with a decision in his favor that saw him being crowned as the UFC Light Heavy Champion.

His defense of the UFC Light Heavyweight Title started in right earnest when he defeated Yuki Kondo at UFC 29.  He went on to win four more fights against different opponents defending his UFC Light Heavyweight title till September, 2003. 

UFC 44 - Undisputed saw the clash of Tito and Randy Couture.  The heavier Randy handed Tito a decision defeat.  With this defeat, Tito's winning streak of 3 years ended and so did his control over the Light Heavyweight title.

UFC 47 saw Tito losing to Chuck Liddell by means of a second round knockout.  Furious over the two consecutive losses, Tito took six months off from the rings and prepared himself for the battles ahead. What followed then was an amazing 5 match winning streak for Tito including couple of wins over the over-hyped Ken Shamrock.

This winning streak was halted by a loss to Chuck Liddell at UFC 66.  Had Tito won this match, he would have got to claim the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship which he defended so stoutly.

Tito has a mixed record in MMA fights.  He has won 15 fights ( 8 by knockout, 5 by submission and 2 by decisions) and 5 losses.  Most of his losses have come against opponents who could understand his fight strategy.  Every one is looking forward for a match up against Chuck Liddell in 2008 to see how Tito fares.