AUDIO | Tito Ortiz bumps on Chuck Liddell: I didn’t leave because I got knocked out four times in a row
A historical rivalry seems to have been reignited as former UFC light heavyweight champions Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz have gone back and forth on social media recently.
Liddell posted a photo of he and Ortiz doing a faceoff that they did for fun at a past poker tournament they were both playing in. “The Iceman” captioned his post, “Why not?” The two UFC Hall of Fame legends went back and forth and in a recent interview with Submission Radio, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” said that the post from Liddell wasn’t the first time “The Iceman” was interested in doing a trilogy fight.
“No. Actually that night he didn’t but I know prior (to that) he had people reach out to my people saying, ‘we should fight each other again,’ and I just, I left on my own terms,” Ortiz said when asked if Liddell mentioned trying to put together a fight the night they took their faceoff photo. “I left when I wanted to leave. I didn’t leave because I got knocked out four times in a row. I left when I needed to leave. I took the best path I could possibly do with and I walked away. I think I left on a storybook ending. No reason for me to come back and mess anything up and try to push my body beyond where it needs to go.”
“But with Chuck, that night he never came up to me and said let’s post it and let’s fight and so forth. He said a couple of people came up to him, that we’d make some big money out of it. And I was just like, I don’t want to fight anymore.”
While Liddell and Ortiz have had their rivaled history, Tito gave some friendly advice to his former teammate.
“I would be very worried about him,” Ortiz said of Liddell fighting again at 47-years-old. “I think that was one of the reasons why Dana pulled him from the UFC to fight in general. I think he needs to look at the history. I mean, as a friend, that concerns me. I would be concerned about the person, not only just to see a person fight. We’ve had our time. We’ve shined when we needed to shine. And that’s why I walked away personally. I shined when I needed to shine. I don’t need to hurt myself anymore. I don’t need to try and kill myself to prove to myself how bad I truly am, cause I know how bad I am. I don’t need to show it to anybody and I hope Chuck understands it himself how bad he truly is and he doesn’t need to show anybody.”
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on 6/15/2017.
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Chuck Liddell Tito Ortiz Videos