Fight Facts Retrospective: Chuck Liddell & Tito Ortiz
Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.
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ELDER STATESMEN: With a combined age of over 92 years, this fight has a higher age than any fight to ever take place inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is one of the oldest matchups in a major promotion since Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie faced off for the third time at Bellator 149 in 2016, with 101 years between the two. Additionally, when Renzo Gracie met Yuki Kondo at “One Championship: Reign of Kings” this past July, their age totaled over 94 years.
FIRST BALLOTS: As Liddell was the sixth fighter
inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2009, and Ortiz the eighth in
2012, their meeting will be the third bout in MMA history between
current inductees of the UFC Hall of Fame. The first of which took
place at UFC 109 in 2010 between Randy
Couture and Mark Coleman,
and the second at Bellator 149 in 2016 between Ken Shamrock
and Royce
Gracie.
NOW WE HAVE A COMMON ENEMY, WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER: Throughout their careers, Liddell and Ortiz faced four common opponents. The only fighters to ever beat both Liddell and Ortiz were Couture and Rashad Evans. On the other side, Liddell and Ortiz both celebrate victories over Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva.
NEVER IS ENOUGH: Both men retired long ago, with Liddell calling it a career after a knockout loss in 2010 to Rich Franklin. Ortiz retired once in 2012 after losing to Forrest Griffin, and then returned to fight four times in Bellator, only to retire again in 2017 after beating Chael Sonnen.
Chuck Liddell
BACKGROUND CHUCK: When “The Iceman” graced the Octagon with his presence for the first time in May 1998, “Deep Impact” was the biggest film at the time, with “Titanic” fever dying down after a 15 week run on top of the box office, and “Too Close” by Next was the top single.
NO ONE LIKE HIM: Knocking out seven consecutive opponents from 2004 to 2006, including Ortiz twice, “The Iceman’s” knockout streak is the longest in UFC history.
ICE COLD: Liddell scored 10 knockout wins inside the Octagon, setting the record that has since been tied by Michael Bisping, Cain Velasquez and Derrick Lewis for the fourth most all-time. They trail Anderson Silva and Anthony Johnson with 11 and Belfort with 12.
WE GOT A RINGER: After losing his interim light heavyweight championship bout against Couture at UFC 43 in 2003, the UFC lent Liddell to Pride Fighting Championships to participate in their middleweight tournament. UFC President Dana White, who attended the events in Japan, wanted his top contender to represent the organization and prove that the UFC was superior to its Japanese rival by winning the whole tournament. Liddell lost in the semifinals to the man that later took his UFC title away: Quinton Jackson.
CLEAN SWEEP: Coaching Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter” opposite then-champion Couture, Liddell became the first coach to win a fight between TUF coaches, when he knocked out Couture to win the light heavyweight belt at UFC 52 in 2005. Both of the Team Liddell fighters, Forrest Griffin and Diego Sanchez also won in their respective finals.
REPEAT OFFENDER: Coaching Seasons 1 and 11 of The Ultimate Fighter, Liddell was one of only 6 fighters to ever compete in multiple TUF coaches’ fights. Those other fighters include Jackson, Michael Bisping, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, B.J. Penn and Fabricio Werdum.
IT’S DARK AND ICE IS COLD: The most frequently used walkout song by Liddell was “Intro” by DMX, who walked out to it seven recorded times. Liddell went 5-2 with the track with four knockout victories along the way. Across his career, he also walked out to artists like Vanilla Ice, Slayer and even Eminem in his final appearance, where he lost.
Tito Ortiz
THE HUNTINGTON BEACH BAD BOY: Ortiz made his MMA debut when he competed at the UFC 13 lightweight tournament in 1997 at the age of 22, at the same event Couture made his MMA debut as well. Winning an alternate bout against Wes Albritton, Ortiz replaced Enson Inoue in the finals, with Inoue bowing out due to an injury. Ortiz was ultimately submitted by Guy Mezger, but he got his revenge about two years later when he knocked out Mezger at UFC 19 in 1999.
FLASHBACK TO 1997: When Ortiz made his debut in the sport in May 1997, UFC newcomer Maycee Barber was not yet born, Sage Northcutt was 14 months old and probably had a six-pack, and UFC 4 competitor Ron van Clief was already 54 years old. At the box office, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was the top film, and Hanson’s “MMMBop” was at the top of the music charts.
THE LAST KNOWN SURVIVOR: Of all the fighters to compete at UFC 13 or earlier, Ortiz is the only one still active in MMA. Belfort, who made his debut at UFC 12, was active until May 2018, retiring after suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Lyoto Machida.
THE ORIGINAL DEFENDER: Defending his light heavyweight strap a whopping five times, Ortiz broke former opponent Frank Shamrock’s record of four. Ortiz’s record was eventually tied by Matt Hughes in 2003 after his fifth defense, and that record was in turn broken by Silva in 2010 when he defended his middleweight belt for the sixth time against Demian Maia.
THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE: With five straight title defenses, only six other fighters in promotional history defended their title more times in a row than Ortiz: Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Jose Aldo, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey and Demetrious Johnson.
SHAMROCKED: When Ortiz finished Ken Shamrock for the third time at Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3: The Final Chapter in 2006, he became the first fighter to compete a trilogy inside the UFC by winning all three bouts. Ortiz knocked out Shamrock in all three of those bouts.
ALL THIS JUMPING AND FIGHTING, IT’S EXHAUSTING! Going the full five rounds against Wanderlei Silva to first earn the UFC light heavyweight championship, Ortiz became the second fighter in UFC history to go five full rounds in a fight. The first occurrence of this came at UFC 23, when Kevin Randleman won the heavyweight strap against Pete Williams by fighting all five rounds.
TRENDSETTER: Ortiz’s first encounter with Griffin at UFC 59 was the first fight on a pay-per-view event awarded post-fight honors, as the two men won “Fight of the Night” for their scrap. It was the third fight overall to be deemed “Fight of the Night” and the first for light heavyweights.
BORN TO ENTERTAIN: Winner of four “Fight of the Night” bonuses, Ortiz earned the second-most bonuses of that type in light heavyweight divisional history. Tied with Alexander Gustafsson, Jon Jones and Mauricio Rua, they all trail Griffin, who won 5.
BIG DRAMA SHOW! Ortiz’s second encounter with Shamrock was highlighted when the two coached opposite one another on Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter. When they met at UFC 61, it was only the second fight between TUF coaches, and Ortiz prevailed by first round knockout. Ortiz coached Season 11 as well, but was forced to withdraw from fighting Liddell. He was replaced by Franklin, who knocked out Liddell at UFC 115 and retired him from 2010 to 2018.
JUST LET GO: With all three judges scoring the bout 28-28, Tito Ortiz fought to the first unanimous draw in UFC history when he faced Evans at UFC 73 in 2007. In the second round, Ortiz was deducted one point for grabbing the fence multiple times.
HE WAS BLESSED WITH A FOURTH ROUND: Although he ended up losing, Ortiz’s 4:42 of the fourth round stoppage loss to Frank Shamrock at UFC 22 in 1999 was the latest stoppage in the history of the company, and the first fight to go beyond the third round. That record stood until UFC 39 in 2002, when Ricco Rodriguez forced Couture to tap out in the fifth round at 3:04.
TITO THE CREATOR: Starting at UFC 30 in 2001, Ortiz was allowed to choose his own walkout song, where he selected “Rollin” by Limp Bizkit. Transitioning to “Break Stuff” for three fights, Ortiz drifted between P. Diddy and Korn before settling on Eminem, which he used for the majority of his career.
BIRTH OF THE EMINEM CURSE: When he walked out to “Mosh” by Eminem at UFC 51 in 2005, Ortiz became the first recorded fighter to ever walk out to an Eminem track. The first four times he walked out to that track, he won. When his UFC career ended, Ortiz had walked out to various Eminem tracks in twelve of his Octagon appearances, with a record of 5-6-1 while dropping four of his last five.
Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.
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