Tito Ortiz's Options
by Michael Rome on Jul 30, 2008 2:42 PM EDT
in MMA News
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PrintRecent reports that Tito Ortiz has come to terms with Affliction appear to be premature. He was in Stockton for Elite XC, and I highly doubt he made the trip up to see the fights. At this point, he is by far the hottest free agent in the industry, and all three major companies would benefit from signing him.
The UFC: The reasons to keep Tito around are obvious. The major challenge for the UFC over the next year will be to maintain dominance in the industry and to strengthen their perception as the top dog. If they can survive the challenges of EliteXC and Affliction and emerge as the clear winner, it's unlikely they will see a major challenge for some time to come.
Even though Tito Ortiz lost his last fight, he still has immense value. He was the most popular fighter at UFC 84, and even in defeat came out stronger because of the triangle choke, and because of the way he stole the spotlight after the show. There are still money matches for him in the UFC: A clash of UFC icons with Rich Franklin would draw, as would a battle at 205 lbs with Anderson Silva. The latter could do incredible business on PPV, and would certainly cement Silva's stardom. If he could put a few together, he has a win over the current champion, and that match would do amazing business too. The fact that he has beaten their champion is something that will be brought up repeatedly by any promotion that signs him, and provides yet another reason to keep him around.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the UFC can pay him the most of any of his options. He was offered an even more lucrative deal than his last one that he turned down, and he is rumored to have received multiple offers since. The UFC is the only one of these three major options that will surely be around for years to come, and there is value in stability.
EliteXC: This is the promotion that needs him the most. They now need to do a good rating in October, or they will lose their spot on CBS, and the company is likely finished if they lose that deal. They have just lost too much money, and they bet the whole bank on this deal with CBS working out. The recent news of their abysmal gate in Stockton confirms even further their need for star power outside of Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano. They need stars on the other shows, and Tito can certainly carry things on that end.
It is questionable however whether EliteXC can pay Tito what he wants. They've lost a ton of money, and I have my doubts about whether CBS will be willing to pony up millions for a project they don't seem that dedicated to. Tito would have to take a substantial pay cut in exchange for increased exposure, and I don't see him taking that pay cut.
Affliction: Renato "Babalu" Sobral has called Ortiz out multiple times, and rumors have emerged of a deal between Tito and Affliction. Tito has a relationship with Donald Trump, but Trump is just a front man, he is not running this thing. In the long term, Affliction has nothing to offer Tito at 205. He could move to heavyweight, but there is nobody at the top level of that heavyweight class he can beat. If he loses to Babalu, I think it would do significant damage to him.
Nobody really knows the financial status of Affliction, other than that they lost millions and can't lose that much again. Frankly, we still don't even know if they have Fedor for the next show. I think they do, but they haven't announced anything yet, and he is not locked down. If they are using Fedor, and I think they will, adding a gigantic salary for Ortiz on top of that will make it very difficult to survive this show without significant losses. I do think, however, that cutting over a million in needless salaries from their last show and replacing them with Tito Ortiz would be a good move.
Overall, I think the best move for Tito would be to sign a one fight deal with EliteXC to fight Frank Shamrock on CBS. They have been hesitant to put anyone on CBS without a long term deal, but Tito has the leverage to pull it off, and it provides him with a great chance to pull off a high profile win in front of millions of people, and EliteXC needs it. The next best move would be to leverage his position to get a lucrative 4-6 fight deal with the UFC that does not have the clause allowing them to cut him.
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pay aside, i think the best thing for Tito, is EXC. He would be one of their top stars, and could fight at both lhw and hw, setting up some interesting matches. Kimbo, Pezao, Ken 4(please no!), Frank, Calvacante. Plus it is on CBS and Tito loves exposure.
Affliction has one nice fight, Babalu. There is no reason he couldn’t have this fight and fight in EXC, imo. isn’t that the reason we wanted non-exclusive contracts? I don’t think he could hang with the Affliction HWs.
"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"
Great write up - good points to ponder
My two cents is that Tito should stay with the UFC. The other two organizations are unstable and bleeding money. Tito helped build the UFC, he’s already been thru the trials of working for/with a start up mma company. Why would he want to do that over again unless it was his own promotion company?
He has a legacy that he should be working on solidifying that legacy, he needs to grow up and move past whatever the beef is with him and Dana. He has the potential to be so much more in a positive light.
Tito has been on The Apprentice and I think that did him some good in the eyes of mma. He displayed on the show that fighters don’t have to be placed in the category of thugs and jocks.
Just my ramblings…..
haven’t Dana White & Tito both made it clear that they are done with each other? I think Dana hates him too much to cut him another fat check.
Let's just say
that Tito and Dana made up, think of how they could spin that if the UFC does resign Tito. Dana will go on to say that Tito has rededicated himself and has a new training team and blah blah blah. We all love Tito again and he gets to fight Forrest again after his rematch with Rashad.
Machida needs to get exciting – mark my words the UFC will lose fans & money if this guy is the LHW champ. Not many are going to buy a ppv with him headlining. The main reason I wouldn’t is because I know 9 times out of 10 it will go to a decision that means 25 minutes of watching him fighting to not lose. That also means that I probably will get to see maybe one undercard fight.
Dana would never do that….nor does he want him as champion again….because that would just restart the cycle of Tito claiming he is worth more money…
http://tharealness.wordpress.com/
by Tha Realness on Jul 31, 2008 8:07 AM EDT up reply actions
He should just start his own promotion. We need more promotions!
"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"
GINA, KIMBO, TITO
I’m pulling for EXC to win the Tito sweepstakes. I’ve had a soft-spot for them ever since they signed Gina Carano & I was extremely impressed with the show they put on last Saturday.
Production-wise, they are the 2nd best MMA promoter (Yes, BETTER THAN WEC), and Tito would best serve himselft by joining their organization.
Their production last Saturday was very nice, perhaps better than UFC.
"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"
There Production
was definately better than the last show, but i still don’t think it’s better than the UFC’s or WEC..
affliction
affliction has a 5% chance of sruvival…
UFC is very smart… they know exactly how much to offer so if a rival company matches or exceeds it which is likely the monetary benefit for that company in extra buys-exposure comes out to a net loss.
so if they dont sign the fighter the fighter is then an albotross that hangs the competition.
brilliant…
you’re not nitpicking, smoogy. The report everyone read clearly said the fight was not signed and detailed the specifics of Tito’s non-compete and when he can and can’t legally sign or talk with other groups.
thats code
all that is code for:
“we are negotiating and pretty close but we dont want to get sued.”
As you all know, Tito is a very smart and savy businessman like he has said in every interview hes done in the past two years. I’m sure he will make the right decision.
Although I don’t agree with Tito that he is a savvy businessman, I do think he did pretty well on The Apprentice.
From a business standpoint, I think the UFC is his best bet. He makes more money out of the ring than he does in the ring. The UFC is the perfect platform to launch your business or whatever it is your trying to sell the fans.
The fact that he has beaten their (UFC) champion is something that will be brought up repeatedly by any promotion that signs him, and provides yet another reason to keep him around.
I never thought about that…. interesting.
According to a recent Tito interview, we’ll all find out after Aug 4th.
Ehh…that fight was ion’s ago…plus it isn’t like they could air that footage of tito dropping elbows in Griffin’s mouth the entire first round.
http://tharealness.wordpress.com/
by Tha Realness on Jul 30, 2008 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions
If he’s looking for money then he should sign with affliction. eliteXC is a good fit for him because it’s a small pond. UFC probably won’t pay him very much becuase they know that he’s on the decline of his career.
by monkeyfightclub! on Jul 30, 2008 3:37 PM EDT reply actions
the ultimate test
tito will be the ultimate test if free agency is the wave of the future as what tim silvia said.
However it remains to be seen how much “venture capital” will remain in the industry after exc and affliction die.
Tim silvia is now part of a group that is going from one dying promotion to the next ala mat linland, fedor, etc…
They seem to be doing good but the question remains how long will new money come into this thing. Once this dies out, they are fucked.
See everyone misses the point when people say the important thing is the fighters get paid well… The reality is:
“the most important thing is fighters getting paid well and the people paying them turning a profit.”
The latter benefits all the fighters… the former benefits only a few and only short term.
No one is talking about the collateral damage caused by the affliction show…
and that is the death bell for adrenaline mma.
instead of the original m-1 investor getting screwed by fedors management he/they got screwed by Cox. signing his 2 fighters (rothwell and sylvia) to big contracts.
Everyone is talking about monte’s conflict of interest from the fighters point of view but no one is talking about the conflict from his investors point of view.
there first show bombed and it looks like his dream of being the “strikeforce” of the midwest is gone as who the heck will pay to see tim and rothwell?
Don't burn your bridge Tito !!!!!
I myself could really care less where his big as 5 Head signs his days as a top fighter are long gone .he is so one dimensional and boring, This sport passed him buy about 5 years ago. That being said if he was smart he would not look for the quick and big pay day and stick with the UFC.Lets face the facts its the only stable pay check and organization out there where you know if you sign a 5 fight deal you will fight all 5 fightsand get all 5 pay checks. You won’t have to worry about them going under and filling bankruptcy and then not getting your pay. I hope I am dead wrong but I think Elite XC and Affliction are done for its only a matter of time and If Tito burns his bridges now with the UFC demanding some crazy contract they might just not take him back when the other orgs fold ????
pay day
Aging fighters don’t care about stability—they want to get paid. Like him or not, Tito Ortiz has paid his dues and has tremendous bargaining power. The UFC has a stable of good young fighters willing to headline PPV’s for only $20K or so (like Jardine). Why would they pay Tito over 50X that amount? His drawing power no longer justifies his pricetag.
Tim Sylvia made more in 1 Affliction fight than he could have made in 5 UFC fights. At this point, I’m sure he could care less if they went bankrupt—he’s already cashed that check.
I think, if Tito fights with EXC, the UFC certainly won’t ever allow him back into the fold. He probably doesn’t have too many fights left, so maybe long-term stability isn’t an issue. I can’t see EXC or Affliction lasting too much longer in their current forms. I suppose something could happen to change the fortunes of both promotions, but I can’t imagine what it would be. I don’t think Tito could make either profitable by himself. However, a Frank/Tito fight would be bigger than anything EXC can currently produce. It would be interesting to see how big a draw Tito is without the UFC behind him.
why tito frank????????
Why is everyone talking about tito frank????
thats not the money fight… the money fight is tito vs kimbo. I bet that one fight would get more ratings than any other fight that´s available including in the ufc.
now how it will do on ppv is different… but it would be the best non ufc ppv out there in terms of buys.
I cant get over how stupid affliction is… with the same outlay they could of had a better chance of survival which is currently at 5%.
how do you pay a fighter 8 tijmes what he was making… and there were no bidding wars. tim sylvia was released from his contract. so these idiots decide to pay 8 times what he would have made for a loss in the ufc.
not 100% more, or 200% more but 800% more.
they could have gotten the same buys with half the purse. that would mean they can last twice as long which brings there survival rate up to about 20% because the longer you last more opportunities present themselves.
and you would need a truckload of serendipity to make it nationally.
but at least get your probability higher
I think a Tito/Frank fight could do well, both have the gift of gab and a desire to make themselves heard.
They would be hurt, a little, by not being able to use the footage of the first fight. But I do think it could be successfull.
But I don’t see either man being willing to do it on CBS, but are going to want the kind of money that comes from ppv.
As far as Kimbo/Tito selling on ppv, I question whether or not folks will drop coin on that bout, especially after the Kimbo/Thompson bout.
Would it do well on CBS? Sure, but I don’t think Tito would take that on CBS.
Also, Kimbo’s first real tough bout should be against somebody that would actually benefit from beating Kimbo. Tito is already a draw (Not as much as a couple of years ago, but still a draw) and would not benefit too much from beating Kimbo.
At this point, Kimbo should have one more journeyman bout, then be put against Silva for the title.
If Kimbo wins, he is the champ! If he loses, more folks will see Silva as a badass.
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