Tito Ortiz has some advice for Conor McGregor
Tito Ortiz: “I think that at this time Conor McGregor should trust Lorenzo Fertitta and trust Dana White and do the right decision.”
UFC Hall of Famer and current Bellator MMA fighter Tito Ortiz has some sage advice for Conor McGregor. Ortiz was the biggest star in the UFC for years, so big in fact that you can make the argument that he saved the organization. Ortiz also feuded ferociously with UFC president Dana White.
He refused to fight at one point, to the point that Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture fought for an interim title. He sat out for a only, and only re signed after White agreed to box him; it never came to pass, but that’s another story. White said more than once that the two needed marriage counseling. But the two made each other a lot of money.
Ortiz appeared recently on Chael Sonnen’s You’re Welcome podcast, and said McGregor is doing it wrong.
“I made some bad decisions with the UFC, with Dana, and I’ve been talked bad about from them from Dana, and I look back on it and wish I would have done things a lot different,” said Ortiz, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “I just, I hope Conor makes the right decisions, and at the same time, but makes the decision for his future.”
“He’s only 28. Let him sit out for a little bit. Let him see how much money the other fighters can make the UFC. Which they can. The UFC, they are the star. They’re gonna make the money. They’ll keep bringing more and more fighters in and Conor’s going to miss out on a year or two and then he’ll have to cave in and ask what Dana and Lorenzo want him to do…
“We’re fighters. We go out there and we’ll open a window of opportunity and they’re only open for so long and we have to take advantage of that time right then. When I did it, I was 30-31 years old maybe it was a little too late that I should have did it but I did it right. I was okay with the money that I got, the money that I made. So hopefully Conor makes the right decision.”
“The window is really, really small. I think the best decision is doing what Lorenzo and Dana want him to do. They’re going to take care of the kid as they’ve already done and I think it’s just going to be better if they just do the right things. I made the wrong decision myself in my career. I tried to battle against the system. I should have never done that but I didn’t have anybody else who showed me how to do it before. I did everything on instinct….
“Trust has always been a hard issue in my life and when I was with the UFC it was hard for me to trust people because it was like I was seeing lies, up to lies, up to lies. So I think that at this time Conor should trust Lorenzo and trust Dana and do the right decision.”
“I think it comes down to the longevity and how long you’ll be in the sport. This job has to pay for your future and that’s why I ended up coming back. My job needed to pay for, not my future but my children’s future. I have three boys and I want to make sure they have everything I never had as a kid so it is saving my money by doing the right things, investing in the right areas but at the same time not being crazy by spending my money the wrong way. I’ve been in this game almost nineteen years, the thirtieth of this month will be nineteen years that I’ve been competing, and I can look back on it and I’ve made some bad decision, I’ve made some great decisions, but at the end of the day I think fighting against the UFC is the wrong way to do it.”