'30 For 30: Chuck & Tito' is Required Viewing for MMA Fans

The "30 For 30: Chuck & Tito" documentary aired on ESPN this week and while some of it may have been a recap of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s rise in popularity, it's required viewing when looking at the history of mixed martial arts. Royce Gracie, who won the UFC’s first-ever tournament, says that both Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz are “the originals.” Coming from a pioneer like him that is saying a lot.

Rivalries are a part of sports culture and rivalries in combat sports can be more intense than any team sport. Dana White often says that “fighting is in our DNA,” and that is true, especially when looking at the history between Liddell and Ortiz.

As the sport constantly grows, it can be easy to forget the long road it has traveled to be featured every weekend and on ESPN. The lookback reminds fans of a time when watching events on pay-per-view was the only way to watch UFC. Both White and Lorenzo Fertitta comment on the struggles of getting on television and making a profit before "The Ultimate Fighter" got the company going.

While the history of the promotion and the sport comes up, this 30 For 30 shows how important polarizing figures like Liddell and Ortiz are in the growth of both the UFC and MMA. There was a time when trash talk didn’t really take anything too far and was settled in the cage. Three times in the case of Liddell and Ortiz if you include the recent event they headlined for Golden Boy, which ESPN does a good job of including.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There’s a brief clip where they feature some of the big names in the sport since the time of the Liddell/Ortiz rivalry. We see that stars such as Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor have used rivalries to help put people in seats and continue to sell the sport. However, it all started somewhere and there was just something more pure about the one between Liddell and Ortiz.

Edward Carbajal serves as the lead MMA analyst for Frontproof Media and holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a brown belt in Ishin Ryu karate. He has covered combat sports since 2014 and has been a fan of MMA since the first UFC. You can follow him on Twitter @Carbazel or at his website TheBlogBoardJungle.com.