Betrayed by Dana White to Turn Against His Friend, Tito Ortiz Reveals $50M Truth Behind Iconic Chuck Liddell Rivalry

Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell were, without a doubt, two of the best 205-pounders in the MMA world back in their heyday. Liddell and Ortiz began their career at the Ultimate Fighting Championship as friends. However, the duo were destined to face each other in the Octagon. They fought thrice and Liddell rose victorious in two of the fights via a finisher move. Ortiz claimed victory in their third bout at Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, with a first-round KO. But things fell apart between the two fighters and Ortiz blames Dana White for it.

White and Ortiz had their differences for quite some time now. Both of them have often struck each other on social media platforms. This time too, Ortiz pointed his fingers at the UFC head honcho for ruining his relationship with Liddell. However, the blame also pointed at White’s low fighter pay. 

Tito Ortiz blames Dana White for ruining his relationship with Chuck Liddell

The former Mayor Pro Tempore of Huntington Beach was recently interviewed by Mike Perry on ‘The Overdogs’ podcast. No talk with Ortiz is complete without including his rivalry with Liddell. Perry claimed that the rivalry was, in fact, one of the best ones that the UFC has ever witnessed. But this time, Ortiz revealed that White was scamming him with a low paycheck. 

Ortiz revealed that he had to take up the fight for a meager amount of $150 thousand. Meanwhile, the MMA promotion pocketed about $50 million. He said, “Me and Chuck were supposed to fight each other, and I said, ‘You know, if we’re gonna fight each other, we should be paid huge money.’ Then Dana gets in his ear and all of a sudden he becomes a company guy and he caves in for $150,000. UFC pretty much propaganda my name and just bashed me and bashed me and bashed me and bashed me and forced me into the fight. So, I had to take a fight at $150 grand for the fight, as they made over, I think, $40 or $50 million for that fight.” 

Without a doubt, Ortiz blamed the UFC for turning friends into rivals. “We were friends, but the UFC turned us against us. And that rivalry, I think that was just fabricated to how the UFC wanted to portray me as the bad guy and Chuck as the good guy to raise him to a high level,” he said.

Although things went astray because of the green bills, Ortiz believed that no amount of money was worth destroying a friendship. Needless to say, this wasn’t the first time when Ortiz brought up the money matters. In a previous instance, he claimed that there was a time when he wasn’t paid a single penny.

Ortiz claimed to have fought in the UFC for free

During a conversation with Paddy Pimblett, a couple of years back, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ revealed that he fought his first fight in the UFC for free. The former mixed martial artist entered the Octagon at UFC 13 as an amateur. Without a doubt, UFC was in its dark age with significantly lower earnings than what it is earning today. Despite getting no pay, Ortiz greatly impressed the fighting community as he defeated Wes Albritton with a knockout in only 31 seconds. 

But the fighter had to fight another bout on the same night. The second fight was the battle for the UFC lightweight championship belt against Guy Mezger. Unfortunately, Ortiz wasn’t able to secure the belt and was defeated via submission in the first round. Nevertheless, he claimed that he fought both of the fights for free.

Despite all this, Dana White was upset as Ortiz wanted a bit more money than what he was paid. The UFC CEO claimed that Ortiz was indeed the “worst to deal with” when the company was at its most vulnerable stage. And now, the bittersweet relationship still continues with both the parties often throwing words at each other. Do you think White scammed Liddell and Ortiz of $50 million? Let us know in the comments down below.