Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tito Ortiz is set to take on Alberto Del Rio

I never thought I would write these words, but Alberto Rodriguez (better known as Alberto Del Rio following his multiple stints as a WWE superstar) will be fighting former UFC champion Tito Ortiz this weekend, in a 210-pound catchweight fight… this should be interesting.

Now, straight off the bat it’s worth noting that this shouldn’t be CM Punk levels of bad, as Rodriguez does have a notable MMA background, going 9-5 over his career between 2001 and 2010. That being said, he hasn’t fought in an MMA bout since 2010 and is now 42 years old. He never was up to the standard of Ortiz, not even close, but hopefully the pair will be able to put on something of a show.

The last time we saw Ortiz in the octagon was in a horrifc fight against long time rival Chuck Liddell. The less said about that fight, the better, but if you want to watch a seemingly geriatric Liddell get blasted by Ortiz, you can catch the highlights here.

Tito Ortiz taking on WWE superstar

The key thing to take away from that fight was that neither man should have been in the octagon anymore. As one YouTube commenter so eloquently put it, the fight looked slower than a sloth on valium. It was painful to watch and quite honestly I can’t see the fight between Rodriguez and Ortiz being any different.

Neither man is in their prime, nor have they been active within the world of MMA in recent years (Ortiz has fought three times in the past five years) and the talent gap between the two should be astronomical. Rodriguez’s most notable fight was against Mirko Cro Cop and that ended very poorly for him, being knocked out 46 seconds into the first round.

I’m sure the fight will do decent enough numbers, it’s being hosted by Combate Americas and will likely sell well into that market, however it hasn’t really caught a huge amount of mainstream MMA attention. The bottom line is, neither man is really a draw at this point in their career.

Sure a crossover between a WWE star and an MMA athlete will always create some kind of intrigue, especially when said star has an MMA background, but Rodriguez has been out of the spotlight for some time now and almost no MMA fan wants to see Ortiz fight again, so why would we pay to watch it?

Quite honestly, I might catch the highlights after the fight in the hope that Rodriguez is brutally KO’d, but the reality is that this fight should just be swept under the carpet and left to rot in the same way we see Ortiz vs Liddell 3, Kimbo Slice vs Ken Shamrock… actually just make that any Kimbo Slice fight, or Derrick Lews vs Francis Ngannou. All I can say is thank the lord Bellator had the common sense to steer clear of this one.

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