Former UFC light heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz is looking back at his California roots while aiming at Dana White for treating him like an outcast.
Appearing on OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren is Fearless,” the 51-year-old MMA icon said there’s a “very, very big chance” he moves back to the Golden State once his kids graduate high school next year.
Ortiz, who resigned from the Huntington Beach City Council in 2021, claims he was made a political “scapegoat” but says the city’s rightward political shift has opened the door for a return.
“Yes. Me and my wife, we actually thought about that and, and they could bring the, um, crime down, not get rid of the homeless, but just take care of the homes in certain big cities,” Ortiz told Lahren.
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“You know, I know in Huntington Beach, they’ve taken care of it since I was pretty much the scapegoat of it, you know, all the people there, they all voted Republican. They voted all Republicans into city council. And I really believe that there’s an opportunity for me to go back. I would love to… But a chance of us going back to California is very, very big chance. I would to. I miss California a lot.”
While Ortiz eyes a political and personal revival on the West Coast, his decades-long feud with UFC CEO Dana White is still down the tubes.
Ortiz confirmed the two have “no relationship at all,” accusing White of constantly mocking his intelligence whenever his name comes up.
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“No relationship at all. You know, I see him once in a while when someone mentions my name to him. He once again, automatically reacts to ‘Tito’s stupid man.’ Okay. Okay, Dana, we get that,” Ortiz said.
“Um, I, I just, if I feel that much hate to him, it’s, it, I won’t say concerning, but it’s just, uh, I don’t really think about it. I’m like, whatever. And you could say what you want about me, but I think he’s done a great job for UFC.”
Then there’s the topic of President Trump.
White famously spoke for Trump at multiple Republican National Conventions, but Ortiz insists he was Trump’s favorite fighter long before White entered the picture.
“The relationship he has with President Trump, it goes back to where I fought in UFC 30 at the Trump Taj Mahal back in 2001 when UFC first got bought. I was the main event, you know, um, Trump coming to my fights before him and Dana were ever friends,” Ortiz asserted.
“Maybe on a ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ before him and Dana were ever friends. Uh, but I, like I say, I’m gonna hold that over his head.”
Despite spending 16 years helping build the UFC from its low-rent beginnings into a multi-billion-dollar powerhouse, Ortiz said he’s now completely shut out by the promotion.
“I wish I was invited to the White House card. I am not,” Ortiz lamented.
“It just, after the 16 years I gave to them from the very beginning, when they first bought the company to almost to the end where they sold the company, um, I don’t get tickets. I gotta pay for my own tickets when I do want to go.”
Though Ortiz concluded that “life’s too short to hate,” the legendary Bad Boy is clearly still keeping score.
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