By Chris Howie
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer
Tito Ortiz was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame today on the same weekend he will compete for the final time inside the Octagon as he has already made it known he will be retiring following the finale of his trilogy with Forrest Griffin.
MMAFighting.com was in attendance today when Ortiz was inducted at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas and caught the following quotes from the man of the hour himself and UFC President Dana White:
“I put my heart, soul and body into this sport. I've had ACL surgery, back surgery, neck surgery, a meniscus tear. When people ask me, “Why you retiring? I'm retiring because it's time.
“I've done everything I wanted to do. My number one goal was to be the best fighter ever in the Octagon. I think I can hold hands with many who can stake that claim.
“Chuck Liddell, Randy [Couture], Ken Shamrock, thanks. We helped build this sport into what it is today.”
“Oh the times we've had,” UFC President Dana White said. “When we look back on when we started this company back in 2001, I managed Chuck and Tito before we even ran the UFC. It was some of the best times and some of the worst times I ever had, but the story between me, Tito, Chuck, and all the early days of the UFC are the things that helped build the UFC. Whether it was Tito vs. Chuck, Tito vs. Randy, all those big fights had one thing in common: Tito was involved.”
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