Tito on retirement: Maybe it’s time

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From 2000 to 2002, Tito Ortiz defended his UFC lightheavy weight title five times, setting a record for that division that has yet to be broken. After Vitor Belfort, no one has been on the UFC roster for longer, and Belfort is two years younger than the 37-year-old Ortiz. His rivals from that era – Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Guy Mezger, Frank Shamrock, and Ken Shamrock – have all retired or barely get by in regional shows.

Next weekend Tito fights Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, in the second to last fight on his current six-fight contract with the UFC. And then he can see his fighting career coming to a close, as he details in a recent interview with MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant.

“Maybe it’s time,” said Ortiz. “I don’t know.”

“I guess when I leave on my own terms — and I look at it as, when I don’t have fun coming in the gym anymore, sparring and pushing myself and running every day, maybe it is time. I’m not overstaying my welcome.

“My goal in my whole career was to do 15 years in MMA. May 30th will be my 15th year of fighting in the UFC and in MMA, in general … This will be fight No. 26 for me, I think. So I’ll have 27 and walk away. I think I’ve done good.

“I don’t know. But you never know. You never know if Dana and Lorenzo come to me with some numbers that make sense to me. I’m healthy.

“I just don’t want to have another surgery in my neck or my back anymore. My doctor says, “Out of surgery, you’ll get three years. And after that, you may have to have surgery again if you keep doing the banging.

“Is it worth it not being able to run with my kids or wrestle with my kids or throw a football with my kids when they get older? A million dollars ain’t worth it.”

(20:13 mark)