Tito Ortiz: I get no credit for inventing the UFC glove
Sergio Non: Do you like having controversy behind your name? Tito Ortiz: I think that’s just part of the game. I look…
Sergio Non: Do you like having controversy behind your name?
Tito Ortiz: I think that’s just part of the game. I look at Muhammad Ali. He was one of the most controversial heavyweight boxers in the world. That’s the way he did things. I try to do the same thing too. I’m trying to bring attention to this sport.
You’ve got to understand, when I first started, this sport was nothing at all. I would try to bring attention. I would try to make people understand what this sport is really about, because this sport is one of the greatest sports that’s ever been invented.
I’m doing my job. If it’s for me to talk smack on somebody, or if it’s to make people hate me or love me — you’re on the one side where you hate me, or you’re on the side you love me. There’s no guys that are in the middle ever, and that’s who I am. That’s why I’m the bad boy. That’s what my whole career’s been about.
I look at my career, and it’s not like I lose all my fights. I’ve been the longest reigning light-heavyweight champion UFC has ever had, and no one can take that away from me, ever. I was the first light-heavyweight champion and the longest reigning one, and I’m still a force. I’m one of the biggest names in the sport.
I work harder than anybody else, I do more than anybody else in this game of UFC. It’s not just a factor of the fight game, it’s outside of the fight game. All the charity work I do. Working with the troops.
I was the first guy to start a clothing company as a fighter, Punishment Athletics. Fighter cards — I was the first guy to do the fighter cards. The gloves that the UFC has — I’m the one who invented those UFC gloves. But I don’t get no credit for anything like that.
But it’s fine. I sit back and I continue to work. I’m very diligent in the things that I do. I’m a businessman, I’m very smart, and I always continue to work.
When it comes to the fight game, I look back on it, and I’m one of the legends of the sport because I pushed the envelope on every situation in mixed martial arts.
I think of myself, of all the hard work that I’ve done, and I’m thankful. I’m thankful for Dana White, I’m thankful for Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, for putting the money up front, for giving fighters like myself the opportunity to show the greatness that we really have.