Tito Ortiz knows a thing or two about being on the bad side of Dana White and the UFC. This lead him to publicly send a message of support to the current UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world Francis Ngannou.
Ortiz sent the following message to Ngannou:
Ortiz quickly realized his mistake and corrected – albeit not entirely.
“@francis_ngannou Congrats on the fight and standing your ground for the future of all #MMA fighters. I did it and they tried to erase me from the UFC’s history books. I hope they don’t the same to you.”
.@francis_ngannou Congrats on the fight and standing your ground for the future of all #MMA fighters. I did it and they tried to erase me from the UFC’s history books. I hope they don’t the same to you.
— Tito Ortiz (with the blue check) (@titoortiz) January 24, 2022
Of course in doing so Ortiz stumbled a bit over his words. After all the former UFC champ once accidentally wished he outlive his children.
Here’s Tito Ortiz saying he hopes to outlive his kids. Sometimes I wonder why he says the things he does lmao. pic.twitter.com/APEP9nPIcR
— Not Suga Show (@notsugashow) February 23, 2021
Tito Ortiz became a household name thanks to his stint in the UFC. He was a significant part of the promotions history and had fought there from 1997 until 2012.
In 2012 Ortiz became the 9th person to ever receive and invite into the UFC Hall of fame. However his relationship with the promotion would go on to substantially sour in the years after. Ortiz reportedly even physically fought with with Dana White when a friendly grappling match escalated.
“I was tapping, and he didn’t stop. You can seriously hurt somebody in a neck crank, especially as big and strong as Tito is.
“So I just started blasting him in the ribs – started punching him in the ribs – and when he let go, I just jumped up, and it was just a full blown fist fight in the plane.
“We were literally taking off, and the plane was (going back and forth), and the Fertitta brothers had to jump in and break up the fight.”
Tito said about the same incident:
“I love the guy, man,” Ortiz told ESPN following the fight. “He was my first manager. I always just fought for what I wanted in my career. No hard feelings. I’ve grown up a lot over the last four years.”
Once White became a part owner of UFC – he recommended both TIto and Liddell hire his friend. Ortiz argues this was not in his best interest – while Liddell isn’t too torn up about it.
Ortiz is estimated to have made around 3 million dollars fighting in the UFC. Back in 2013 Ortiz spoke with Sports Illustrated, he had some very harsh words for his former boss, saying, “I thought slavery was over a long time ago,” and followed that up by saying: “One of the biggest things now is bullying. And [Dana White’s] one of the biggest bullies, I’d say, in the business. He’s a big bully.”