11 Most Brutal Acts Of Revenge In MMA History
3. Ortiz Avenges His First Loss... While Setting Up A Legendary Rivalry
Back in the tournament days of UFC PPVs, a young upstart by the name of Tito Ortiz got the chance to show the world what he was made of at 1997’s UFC 13.
After a win over Wes Albritton, the 22-year-old Tito was submitted by Guy Mezger in what officially went down as Ortiz’s first professional loss.
While revenge over Mezger eventually came two years later, this was only the start of Tito’s battles against Mezger and his Lion’s Dean team. In a brash move that would become part of his trademark style, Ortiz’s UFC 19 TKO win over Mezger saw the Huntington Beach Bad Boy stick two middle fingers up at Mezger and his corner.
As it happens, that corner featured a certain Ken Shamrock.
Not only did Tito avenge his first professional loss in defeating Guy Mezger, but Ortiz went on to have a legendary rivalry against Shamrock – a rivalry which saw Tito defeat Ken in all three of their meetings.
While Tito Ortiz was initially out for revenge on Mezger, what made this revenge particularly brutal is the fact that Tito went one further and made this into a rivalry with Lion’s Dean and, more importantly, the trigger-tempered Ken Shamrock.
Even now, Ortiz and Shamrock are seen as two of the greatest rivals in the history of MMA – even if this rivalry was ultimately an extremely one-sided one. Then again, Frank Shamrock managed to temporarily shut Tito up by beating him at UFC 22 in the immediate aftermath of that first Mezger fight.