Tito Ortiz is the definition of a ground and pounder in MMA. The Huntington Beach Bad Boy burst onto the scene at UFC 13 as an amateur and lost to Guy Mezger in the second round by submission choke. He then won three in a row, avenging himself on Mezger before facing Frank Shamrock for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship and loosing. Shamrock vacated the title immediately afterwards, giving Ortiz a second shot at the title. He won the title and went onto set a record five title defenses before loosing to the much older Randy Couture in his sixth title defense. After losing to Chuck Liddell immediately afterwards, Ortiz won five fights in a row before his career fell into a downward skid of loosing seven out of nine fights. In the majority of those fights he was unable to utilize his deadly ground and pound for various reasons. Following the second loss to Forrest Griffin, Ortiz initially decided to call it a career and retire. However, after a year away Ortiz decided to return and signed with Bellator where after a neck injury sustained during training he won two in a row. In both matches he once again utilized his wrestling, though his recent match with Stephan Bonnar was by no means pretty.
Matthew Salzer fell in love with Mixed Martial Arts when he watched Pride Fighting Championships on Japanese TV. He is a lifelong wrestler having earned a Bachelor of Science at Missouri Baptist University. Matthew is the Senior Editor at MMA Freak and has written for Funky Monkey MMA, H4 Entertainment, and MMA Fiends.
