Tito Ortiz not done yet, guarantees he’ll fight in MMA before 2023

Tito Ortiz apparently still has at least one more fight left in him.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight champion has done more fighting outside of the cage as a politician rather than inside it as a fighter in recent years. Having fought in back-to-back-to-back years from 2017 to 2019, Ortiz currently rides a three-fight win streak in mixed martial arts (MMA).

However, after his campaigning for mayor of Huntington Beach, Calif., ended, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” returned to action for a boxing match with Anderson Silva in Sept. 2021. The affair didn’t go Ortiz’s way, with “The Spider” needing only 82 seconds to land the knockout blows (watch highlights).

If it weren’t for that loss, Ortiz may have been done for good. Instead, we can now expect a return sooner rather than later.

“It’s just preparation, getting in the gym and continuing in the gym putting in the work,” Ortiz told The Schmo. “You can’t go in and have a month of camp and try to fight in your 40s. You’ve got to prepare for the six months, seven months, and just prepare for the fight in general. I think it’s just mentality and how young you truly think you are.

“Myself, I’m 47 right now, I won’t be 48 until next year,” he continued. “I feel good, I feel strong. I just started training this week. I’ll fight one more time this year before the year’s over. I want not to go out the way I did with Anderson. It’ll be an MMA fight. But like I say, just started preparing this week. I’ll be getting ready here for the next four months and we’ll see. Maybe September, October, another Tito Ortiz in the cage.”

Ortiz’s last fight came against former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Albert Del Rio at Combate Americas 51 in Dec. 2019. Del Rio suffered defeat via a first round rear-naked choke submission.