Tito Ortiz Would Fight Fedor Emelianenko, But With A Catch

Tito Ortiz has fought the top names in mixed martial arts.

He has gone up against Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, Wanderlei Silva, Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion hasn’t fought since he lost a chance to win the Bellator 205-pound title to Liam McGeary by first-round submission at Bellator 142 in Sept. 2015.

After the fight, Ortiz had to have surgery to have vertebrae fused in his neck. “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” is back to training and ready to return to complete his last fight on his contract. Ortiz has said after the fight takes place, he is retiring. 

He has a list though of who he would want to face in his sendoff. In a recent interview with Fighthub TV, Ortiz said he wanted to face Royce Gracie, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Fedor Emelianenko.

While he did express interest in fighting Gracie and Jackson, Emelianenko is the name that kept coming up. But, there is a caveat to fighting the former PRIDE heavyweight champion. And it requires the fighter who resides across the Atlantic to do the work to make the fight happen.

“Like I said, I’m a light heavyweight,” Ortiz said. “I understand my limits. I’m not going to go out there just to fight for money and to put on a show for people at the risk of my own health. I won’t do that. I know my limits, as I say, and I’m a 205 lb. light heavyweight. I walk around 220, 225, right now. Fedor’s a big cat. I did a press junket with him in England and God, he’s about 6′ 1″ and a good 245, 240. He’s a big cat. Like I said, I know my limits. I respect the guy but at the same time, if he makes 205, let the beatings begin.”

In 41 career fights, Emelianenko has never fought at 205 pounds. So the bout would then have to be at a catchweight. The California native said the scenario is “possible”, but he doesn’t see the reason to take the risk.

“I think it’s just the weight, Ortiz states. “That’s the only thing stopping me. I’m getting paid the same amount of money no matter what, don’t matter who it is. Don’t matter if it’s some nobody on the street, which I would never do, but still. Bellator have really given us our own constructive criticism about our own careers so it’s really lucky to have that and to give us the decisions of who we’re going to fight, when we’re going to fight, and give us the opportunity to fight the people we wanna fight.”

Emelianenko hasn’t fought since a controversial majority decision victory over Fabio Maldonado at EFN 50. Emelianenko has said he would fight again and it was just a matter of what promotion it will be for.