Morning Report: Tito Ortiz wants Conor McGregor to learn from his mistakes, tells him not to fight the UFC

Tito Ortiz hopes Conor McGregor learns from the mistakes Ortiz made.

McGregor’s recent dispute with the UFC over promotional duties has taken over the MMA world. Everyone from fighters, to fans, to media members have voiced an opinion on the standoff. But now one of the the UFC’s biggest former stars who also had his share of issues with the promotion has thrown his voice into the throng. In an interview with Chael Sonnen on Sonnen’s podcast, Ortiz talked about his own history of fighting the UFC and what he thinks about Conor’s decision to do similarly.

“I don’t know, it’s just one of those things. I made some bad decisions with the UFC, with Dana and I’ve been talked bad about from them from Dana, and I look back on it and wish I would have done things a lot different. I just, I hope Conor makes the right decisions, and at the same time, but makes the decision for his future.”

Ortiz is no stranger to UFC ire. He was one of the most notoriously difficult fighters to deal with during his heyday, and his spats with UFC management and Dana White are well documented. Most of his disputes came down to feeling undervalued and underpaid by the promotion.

Ortiz was the company’s biggest star for a number of years when stars were lacking, and the UFC was still trying to find it’s footing. When Ortiz was the light heavyweight champion, he refused to fight during a contract dispute causing the UFC to create an interim title fight betweem Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. In another famous incident, after sitting out for over a year, Ortiz resigned with the UFC on the condition he could box Dana White. The fight never came to fruition but Dana White never lost the animosity towards Ortiz, even going so far as to release UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar from his contract with the UFC to go to Bellator to “beat the shit out of” Ortiz . Suffice it to say, Ortiz understands the dynamics of a star going against his promoter and had his own take on how the McGregor situation will play out.

“He’s only 28. Let him sit out for a little bit. Let him see how much money the other fighters can make the UFC. Which they can. The UFC, they are the star. They’re gonna make the money. They’ll keep bringing more and more fighters in and Conor’s going to miss out on a year or two and then he’ll have to cave in and ask what Dana and Lorenzo [Fertitta] want him to do…

“We’re fighters. We go out there and we’ll open a window of opportunity and they’re only open for so long and we have to take advantage of that time right then. When I did it, I was 30-31 years old maybe it was a little too late that I should have did it but I did it right. I was okay with the money that I got, the money that I made. So hopefully Conor makes the right decision.”

Ortiz notes that at the time he was battling with the UFC, he had no previous fighter to look to and see how to handle things. He was the first major star to butt heads with Zuffa over business and doing so likely cost him money. In the short term he was able to negotiate slightly better contracts for himself but in the long term some of his prime fighting years were spent in standoffs and there is certainly lost equity in angering your employer, especially when they are also your matchmaker.

“The window is really, really small. I think the best decision is doing what Lorenzo and Dana want him to do. They’re going to take care of the kid as they’ve already done and I think it’s just going to be better if they just do the right things. I made the wrong decision myself in my career. I tried to battle against the system. I should have never done that but I didn’t have anybody else who showed me how to do it before. I did everything on instinct….

“Trust has always been a hard issue in my life and when I was with the UFC it was hard for me to trust people because it was like I was seeing lies, up to lies, up to lies. So I think that at this time Conor should trust Lorenzo and trust Dana and do the right decision.”

Recently, Colin Cowherd made statements arguing that McGregor battling Zuffa is a fruitless endeavor because they have the time and resources to win the war. It seems Ortiz agrees with this general sentiment and would caution McGregor to make the most money in the time that he can because MMA is short and unforgiving. At the end of the day, Ortiz says it is easier and more profitable to go with the flow than to try and swim upstream.

“I think it comes down to the longevity and how long you’ll be in the sport. This job has to pay for your future and that’s why I ended up coming back. My job needed to pay for, not my future but my children’s future. I have three boys and I want to make sure they have …

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