Dolce: Tito’s statements are deluded & defamatory

Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter was once famously photographed next to a pillow with the following words embroidered on it: IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT SOMEONE, SIT RIGHT HERE BY ME.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth would have loved MMA – there are a lot of people in it who can’t say something good about someone. Her dad would have loved MMA too, but for different reasons.

Tito Ortiz recently did an interview with Steven Marrocco for MMAJunkie in which he questioned the weight cutting methods of nutrition guru Mike Dolce, apparently without ever working with him.

Guys like Dolce, they’re bodybuilder weight-cutters, said Ortiz. It’s totally different. To compete at wrestling and jiu-jitsu, you can’t cut weight like that. I talked to BJ Penn about the way he had him cutting weight. You don’t do it like that. If you’re a bodybuilder, yes, cool. He knows what he’s doing with bodybuilders. But when was the last time Mike Dolce stepped into the cage and fought? He doesn’t know.

He’s just doing what he thinks bodybuilders do, and it bothers me that people go to Mike Dolce to cut weight when he cuts weight for bodybuilders, for people who want to look shredded, and not like a top athlete. That’s the wrong recipe. You’ve got to go by somebody who’s fought in the cage or wrestled at the highest division.

Dolce currently works with a number of top fighters, including Johny Hendricks and Ronda Rousey. Ortiz said those fighters already knew how to cut weight anyway, although Rousey has on several occasions said publicly she does not feel she knew how to cut weight properly.

“The UFC just wanted to make him a superstar by selling merchandise and getting big gyms,” said Ortiz. “It’s all a marketing tool. The guy doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Dolce responded, in detail.

I don’t personally know Tito, and Tito does not personally know me, he said. Tito’s statements prove he knows absolutely nothing about my business, my athletes, my career, or what I do. I have fought professionally over 20 times in MMA, competing on Season 7 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ I coached ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ as an assistant coach on three separate seasons. I’ve competed as a high school and Division I college scholarship wrestler, as well as jiu-jitsu tournaments, amateur boxing, and organized powerlifting. The one thing I’ve never been associated with is bodybuilding. I’ve never worked with a bodybuilder, I’ve never been a bodybuilder, and I’ve never body-built myself.

My athletes are not known for being ripped. We don’t care how we look on the scale. Johny Hendricks will never be confused as being a ripped athlete. But he is a world champion. Hendricks has stated he has never felt better in his MMA or wrestling career until he started doing the Dolce Diet, and that he wished he followed my program while competing as an amateur wrestler. Ronda Rousey has said multiple times that I’ve helped revolutionize her career. Before she started working with me, she did not know how to truly cut weight in a healthy manner.

So Tito’s statement are completely wrong, out of context and it seems that he has more of an issue attacking the UFC, where I seem to be collateral in his issue with the company.

The Dolce Diet is a Las Vegas based corporation with office space in Summerlin, (Nevada). On my staff, I have Registered Dietitian Nutritionists, licensed by the state of Nevada, as well as employees who hold Master of Science degrees in Exercise Physiology. We blend cutting edge science with the experience of what is truly effective at the highest levels of sport. Tito’s statements are deluded and defamatory.