Dana White explains how Tito Ortiz “destroyed what could have been an incredible relationship” with him and the Ferttita’s

Dana White used to be very close with Tito Ortiz but the two had a major falling out, which the UFC boss claims was Ortiz’s fault.

White used to manage Ortiz and when he became the president of the UFC, the two continued to have a solid relationship. However, as White got more and more experience with being a promoter and the company got bigger, he says Ortiz began to get selfish which ruined their relationship.

According to Dana White, he says Tito Ortiz would threaten to pull out of a fight just days before if he didn’t get more money, which caused a lot of friction and obviously angered the Ferttita brothers (via Jed I. Goodman on Twitter):

Dana White: Tito's just a really dumb human being. pic.twitter.com/kSZv7MOmYQ

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 12, 2023

“Here’s the problem with Tito. Tito is just a dumb human being, he’s not intelligent at all. He’s very, very f*****g stupid. Let’s start there,” Dana White said on Big Boy TV. “Look at him speak publicly, google Tito Ortiz talking. Okay, I don’t have any beef with Tito anymore, Tito you know you’re stupid, you know you are. Tito would, we’d be coming up to a big fight on Saturday, right? Deals have been done for months. Tito would call and say ‘I’m not going to show up unless you pay me another $150,000’ or whatever the number was.

“He would do this on the regular. I would go f*****g crazy. Tito was the kind of guy who would step over dollars to pick up dimes. Because he thought he was smart, but he was the complete opposite of smart,” White continued. “He’s not a smart guy. He destroyed what could have been an incredible relationship because we loved Tito at the time. Tito was our guy. Tito was my guy. Frank and Lorenzo loved Tito. He absolutely destroyed a relationship that he could have had for the rest of his life. Over nickels. Nickels, in the big picture. Chuck Liddell was the exact opposite, Chuck Liddell still has the relationship.”

The comments from Dana White are interesting, and he says because of that, Tito Ortiz no longer has a relationship with him or Lorenzo and Frank. He also points to Chuck Liddell and how the UFC still takes care of ‘The Iceman’, thanks to how easy Chuck was to work with.

In the UFC, Tito Ortiz went 15-11-1 and was the former UFC light heavyweight champion.