Tito: As a friend, Liddell fighting is a concern

UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell recently teased a return vs. retired Bellator MMA title challenger and UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz, and then Ortiz shot it down so hard he later apologized. During a recent appearance on Submission Radio Ortiz explained what happened, and much more.

I was at a poker event with Poker Stars and he was at the same event also playing, and the media wanted to take a face-off picture,” said Ortiz. “I said, ‘Cool.’ And then when he started walking towards the back he said, ‘Let’s do another face-off picture and let me post it.’ I was like, ‘Alright, cool. I mean, you know it’s not gonna happen, why?’ But I guess he just wanted to get some play out of it, which he did.

“I probably shouldn’t have did what I reposted, but at that time I had a couple of drinks in me and the bad boy comes out every once in a while (laughs). I just, I just don’t plan on fighting. I don’t plan on people trying to force me to fight. I had to get neck surgery, why would I even think about fighting? Why would I even think about risking myself physically when I gotta take care of kids still? So I probably shouldn’t have said what I said on my Twitter. I was saying, you know, Do you need money? I’ll lend it to you.’ So I probably shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have posted the video of him in Texas, but like I said, I did it all on emotions. I thought it was funny at the time and I apologized after and it’s behind me now.”

“I’m still like dying from neck pain. I have to get neck surgery here and I was supposed to get it a month a half ago and I just, insurance got denied so I gotta wait. They gotta appeal it and after they appeal it then it has to go through, back and forth, paperwork. They make you jump through fire hoops to get the surgery done and I just, I don’t know, man, I can’t stand the pain but I have to wait to get the surgery. So fighting hasn’t even been an idea. Getting in the gym and training hasn’t even been an idea. I mean, I haven’t gotten into the gym since right before the fight. I think that’s the last time I did anything strenuous like that was fighting Chael Sonnen.

“I’m too old to be fighting. I’m 42 years old, I’m too old. I’m not a Randy Couture and I really don’t need the cash right now. So I’d rather make money in other means, more mental than the physical side. Being in the gym six days a week, six to eight hours a day isn’t really my idea of working anymore. That’s behind me now. It’s been 20 years and I think I’ve done all I needed to do. And yeah, I think I could beat Chuck, but still, I don’t need to do that anymore. My body can’t take it. That’s been my biggest enemy through my whole career, is my body. So I gotta step back and now I gotta use my brain. That’s what I went to college for. So let’s go ahead and continue doing that in an exciting sense.

“When we first became together we were managed by the same person. We were Team Punishment. We were the first Team Punishment, me and Chuck Liddell. He would come and stay at my house in Huntington Beach, I let him sleep on my couch and he’d do the same thing when I’d go up to San Luis Obispo. Him trying to say that we were never friends and so forth, it was he was buying what UFC were selling and that’s the whole deal.

“He didn’t care about what money he got paid, he just wanted to fight. That’s all. He wanted to be champion. That’s all he cared about. My idea was, if we’re going to be friends and we’re going to fight each other, we’re going to make big money. You know, we’re going to make five million, ten million. We’re going to make a big chunk of what the UFC were making at the time. I think one of the biggest ones they got were over 42 million dollars for our second fight, and we just got maybe four percent of that, three percent of that, if that. It just didn’t make sense to me.

“He caved in the very first fight when we fought and we got paid 150,000 dollars apiece, which is pennies. And for him to give away our friendship for that, we became acquaintances. And when we do see each other it’s , ‘Hey what’s up’, ‘Hey what’s up, buddy’, and no more than that. That’s the way I am towards friends who turn their back on me. It’s just acquaintances. I’m fine with it. When I’m close to someone, I treat them like family and I think that’s the way it should be when you become friends with somebody, it should be like family when money is involved.

“Same thing goes with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. We were going to make sure we made money, we were going to make millions when we fought. Even in Bellator, we were still going to make millions when we fought, and that was the reason why we were going to fight each other. Now with Chuck, it was always totally different. He didn’t care. He was willing to fight no matter what and I just didn’t. It didn’t make sense to me. So for him to turn his back on me the way he did, there was always that little grudge towards each other and nowadays it’s once again it’s, ‘Hey, what’s up’, handshake, ‘hey, it’s good to see you’, ‘right on’, and no more than that.

“Some guys can fix their problems and move on and get better, take a couple of the losses and come back as I did. I mean, I took five losses in a row until I came and did something. It’s hard. You look at Ronda Rousey and she’s just taken the loss she has and can she come back and do it? It’s hard for a person to do that. But I was always set in my mind that I could achieve anything as long as I set my mind to the right way. But I can’t help a person’s career if I’m not around managing them and if they won’t listen to me as a friend. I tried to talk to Chuck a long time ago as a friend and he wouldn’t listen to me. It is what it is and that’s the way it played out. UFC had his back after he retired, so he was getting paid all the way up until last year, and now he’s not getting paid anymore and he’s kind of realized, ‘Well, what am I going to do now?’ And that’s the way it is. It’s too bad. I wish people would listen to other friends who have been through it.

Liddell went out with three bad knockouts in a row, and is now 47. Ortiz expressed concern over his health.

I would be very worried about him,” said Tito. “I think that was one of the reasons why Dana pulled him from the UFC to fight in general. I think he needs to look at the history. I mean, as a friend, that concerns me. I would be concerned about the person, not only just to see a person fight. We’ve had our time. We’ve shined when we needed to shine. And that’s why I walked away personally. I shined when I needed to shine. I don’t need to hurt myself anymore. I don’t need to try and kill myself to prove to myself how bad I truly am, cause I know how bad I am. I don’t need to show it to anybody and I hope Chuck understands it himself how bad he truly is and he doesn’t need to show anybody.

Tito does believe, however, that he would win a third fight.

I think just my mental side of it now compared to what I was back then, I was a totally different person,” said Ortiz. “Number one, my life wasn’t about fighting, it was about taking care of a relationship and taking care of my children that was falling apart. Now it’s totally different. My family is completely solid. Amber Miller is my girlfriend that helps with my children that is pretty much their mother – not blood, but just the way she’s been here now for the last four years and she’s taken the place and made my family super, super happy and it’s made me super, super happy and that’s number one. With my kids happy, me happy, I’m a dangerous person with that.

“Yeah, my loss to Liam McGeary was a little mistake that I made, but I mean, I could have went 3-0 and been the Bellator world champ and retired. But I made a little mistake and I didn’t. But I did win three of those fights of the four. I just, now I’m a different fighter. I’m super dangerous and I think Chuck’s chin is very, very weak. When you get knocked out it gets easier and easier each time, but that’s just my opinion. Like I said, I’m a different fighter, I’m a different person in general. I’m not the same person I was from 2007 to 2013. I changed completely in general.