Tito: Jones vs. DC feud will push PPV buys 1 mil+
Tito Ortiz: “This probably adds about 500,000 pay-per-view buys. The fight without this would have sold maybe 500,000. It will hit the 1 million mark now.”
There was a time when the popularity of Tito Ortiz sustained the sport in North America like nothing other. His second fight with Chick Liddell broke 1,000,000 PPV buys, and that was back in 2006.
On ESPN’s The Weigh In, Ortiz joined the panel and weighed in on this weeks Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier feud.
59% of ESPN fans believe Cormier/Jones brawl was staged, but Ortiz thinks otherwise.
“It looked real to me. A fight is a fight,” said Tito. “If you want to get in someone’s head, that’s the best way to do it. Cormier stood his ground. I would have done the same thing, both ways, as Jones or Cormier. What we do is real. It’s real competition and we’re fighting for our lives pretty much. We’re trying to hurt each other. You get two alpha males that want to be the best in the world and there you go. I was really surprised it happened, though. This usually doesn’t happen.”
“The People’s Champ” also sees the brawl in a positive light.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s good for the sport,” said Tito. “That’s just me. This goes back to Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. This goes back to me and Ken Shamrock. Me and Chuck Liddell. People tune in for this because they want to watch it. Everybody has an opinion. Why did Jones react like that? Is he afraid and overcompensated for it? This probably adds about 500,000 pay-per-view buys. The fight without this would have sold maybe 500,000. It will hit the 1 million mark now.”
So what do you think UG? Are you going to be one in a million buying UFC 178 on September 27, 2014?