Tito Ortiz releases statement after getting knocked out by Anderson Silva

Tito Ortiz’s return to combat sports this weekend (Sat., Sept. 11, 2021) in the co-main event of Triller Fight Club’s “Holyfield vs. Belfort” event didn’t go well for the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion. Not only did Tito miss weight for the 195-pound boxing bout against Anderson Silva (forfeiting 20 percent of his purse to “The Spider”), he was knocked out cold just over a minute into the fight.

You can watch the disastrous end of that fight right here if you haven’t seen it.

After the fight, a cameraman caught Ortiz headed back to his hotel room with his team, and he gave an impromptu interview.

“I made a little mistake, I was just being too wild,” Ortiz said regarding the fight. “I think just if I had a bit of a longer camp. The weight cut. Getting down was really really tough, just to get down. And it’s been a little while since I’ve fought and I’ve never boxed before. But it was an opportunity. I love it, it was fun. It’s exciting to even get to the point.

“But I’ve never been clipped like that,” he continued. “Not even Liddell has clipped me that bad. That was a good punch. He caught me with a clean punch, a really clean punch. It was a right hook, right? Right hook, caught me with the right hook. I think I was being too stupid, to stand in front of him like that. And Anderson’s been boxing for a long time, that’s why he’s that good. I give him all the respect in the world. I trained as hard as I possibly could for it.”

The payday must have been really good, because Tito sounded more than willing to try again in the boxing ring.

“Yeah, I’ll continue to box,” he declared. “I still want to box, I’d love to box. I’m just learning. I’m obviously inexperienced. I’m not a boxer, I’m a wrestler. And I’m gonna learn, I’m gonna keep learning.

“I think I got too excited and I pushed into him,” Ortiz concluded. “And I pushed into him and I got clipped. And I shouldn’t have done that. I tried. I gave it my heart, my life and soul, I worked as hard as I possibly could for it. I’m not a boxer, but I’ll put my life on the line for this.”

Honestly, Tito, maybe reconsider? “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” is on a three-fight win streak in MMA (5-1 since 2014), which is better than most aging legends still cashing in on their name value. Why give up the wrestling and the ground-and-pound? An extra zero on the paycheck is the only answer that makes sense to us.

Ortiz took to social media later that night to post a few times:

And then this quote from Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena.”

Followed by a calling out of Logan Paul, because of course ...

What do you think, Maniacs? Should Tito step into the ring again with Triller? Or would you rather he go back to the cage?