Tito Ortiz is apparently just waiting for Chuck Liddell to sign a contract to make their third fight official.
What kicked off talks of a third fight between these two MMA legends was when Oscar De La Hoya teased starting a new MMA promotion alongside Liddell.
De La Hoya has gone on record in the past by stating that he and Liddell were talking about the possibility of working on “Golden Boy MMA.”
This led to Liddell declaring that he would be coming out of retirement to fight once again. That led to Ortiz coming out of retirement and thus, both sides have openly talked about fighting each other for the third time.
There is some bad blood between Ortiz and Liddell as they have fought each other twice. Liddell stopped Ortiz in both fights.
Their rematch for the light heavyweight title at UFC 66 was the most successful UFC event ever at the time. With their track record, the third fight between them could do very good business.
Ortiz claimed in a recent interview with Submission Radio that now it all comes down to signing contracts in order for this fight to happen.
“I’ve bounced back faster than I expected, which is great,” Ortiz said (transcript courtesy of MMANytt). “But I feel good, man, I’m anxious. I’m just waiting on Chuck Liddell’s side to kind of sign the contract, get this done. So, it’s just a matter of time. I think Chuck’s kind of holding out, trying to make more money out of it, which it just doesn’t make sense because this deal is pretty much a cut and dry contract,” Ortiz said.
“We’re both partners. De La Hoya wants his 40 percent and me and Chuck Liddell get to split 30 percent. So that’s on complete revenue of the whole fight in general. And this is the whole thing that I’ve been waiting for such a long time in mixed martial arts, to really make a difference, and we’re gonna do that with De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions. We’re able to make a big percentage of the revenue with pay-per-view, the gate, merchandising, sponsorship – something that no MMA event has ever done before, and we’re gonna make it happen.”
“It’s gonna happen. This fight is gonna happen. It’s just a matter of time. Chuck Liddell, come on, buddy, stop asking for pennies, man,” Ortiz said. “You’re stepping over dollars, looking for pennies. Let’s sign this fight, let’s get it done so that we can give all the fans 25 years of UFC.”
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