Chuck Liddell says Tito Ortiz was 'terrified' of him in UFC
Chuck Liddell has never bought into the idea that he and Tito Ortiz were friends back when they trained together in the late 1990s.
The two former heavyweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">light heavyweight champions appeared on UFC Rivals to discuss their legendary feud, which produced two of the biggest fights in early UFC history. According to MMA Fighting, Ortiz maintained that their friendship prevented the matchup for years, while Liddell dismissed that claim entirely. "We weren't friends," Liddell said in the episode.
Dana White on why the UFC 47 fight took so long
UFC president Dana White, who managed both fighters before buying the promotion alongside the Fertitta brothers, offered his own explanation for the delay. White told the show that Ortiz dominated their gym sessions but knew a real fight would go differently. "Tito was absolutely, 100% terrified of Chuck Liddell," White said, per the MMA Fighting report.
The matchup finally materialized at UFC 47 in 2004, with the title off the line after Ortiz had lost the belt to Randy Couture. Liddell ended the wait in under two rounds, catching Ortiz with a punch to the eye before pinning him against the cage and landing what Liddell recalled as 23 punches in seven seconds. The barrage forced a stoppage with Ortiz crumpled on the canvas.
Ortiz, who appeared visibly upset at the time, offered grudging respect two decades later. "He was the victor," Ortiz said. "Congratulations to him. He got his point across." Liddell repeated the result three years later with a third-round knockout in their rematch. Ortiz finally claimed a win over Liddell in 2018 at the lone Golden Boy MMA event, though both fighters were well past their primes by then.
The rivalry predates modern UFC feuds like Jones-Cormier or McGregor-Nurmagomedov and helped define the sport's early pay-per-view era.
Photo: IthakaDarinPappas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Original reporting:
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