thaFormula.com - For most people out there reading Tito explain what the UFC and MMA is? 

Tito Ortiz - Well this is probably one of the biggest sporting events that's come along since professional wrestling first started but this is completely real. There is nothing fake about this at all. Mixed martial arts fighters are true athletes that know boxing, wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, and kick boxing. Of course you gotta have good cardio and great weight training. It's pretty much the purest form of mixed martial arts you can get. This is pretty much going back as far as Bruce Lee and is basically what he really wanted to do with the mixed martial arts.

thaFormula.com - I feel the same way and also feel that this sport needs to get more recognition so that the fighters can make what they deserve to make money wise…

Tito Ortiz - Oh of course man. But this is like any other sport just like when boxing first came about. What we have done in the last ten years with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, boxing took at least 100 years to do it seems like. When boxing first started it was completely with no rules. It was no gloves, no rounds and no weight classes. But then with evolution over the years they started putting weight classes in, rounds in. But we did that automatically it seems and learned really, really quick and the athletes that are competing in this now are former graduates from college's man. Like myself I went to Cal State Bakersfield. People like Randy Couture went to Oklahoma State. Chuck Liddell went to San Luis Obispo, a lot of these guys are college graduates who are really educated. The more this sport gets accepted, the bigger its gonna be, so its just a matter of time before it gets there. I think its starting to get more accepted to society and to the public eye.

thaFormula.com - Yeah you know it's nice to see the UFC coming back strong because it seemed like for a second before Zuffa took it over that the UFC was about to die…

Tito Ortiz - Yeah it was about to die and I think it just needed someone like Zuffa to change it. I mean they pretty much revamped the whole company. They took everything out and pretty much said "we're gonna put rules, were gonna put mandatory gloves, were putting rounds and all kinds of different rules to it." There are time limits, and if the match looks kind of like the guy on top is stalling on the ground the whole time they will stand it back up. So its more exciting to the fans so they get more for what they pay for on PPV.

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into your first match in the UFC. You actually came in as an alternate fighter right against Wes Albritton…

Tito Ortiz - Yeah it was an alternate match and it was actually an amateur fight. I did not get paid for those fights. I fought that night 'cause I was a college student and I was just doing it for the love of it. I mean I love to compete and I wanted to see how I would do in the UFC. It really grew on me quick man. I stopped him in 23 seconds.

thaFormula.com - Do you think that the fighters from the early days of the UFC could compete now with the way the sport has evolved?

Tito Ortiz - The top-level guys yes, but the guys who lost and stuff like that, I don't think so. 'Cause like I said its gone through a huge evolution. I mean the guys now are kick boxers, wrestlers, Jiu-Jitsu artists and boxing artists where its one whole meaning, you have to learn all 4 of those things to become a great fighter, plus with cardio and weight lifting you've got to be strong and you've got to have great agility. The stamina is really important. Knowing all these things together is what matters. When it first started it was the best guy in Jiu-Jitsu there was the best guy in boxing, and there was the best guy, which was a wrestler. That's how it first started and you had the people starting to say "wow this guy who is a Jiu-Jitsu guy, Royce Gracie is choking everybody out." Then all of a sudden you get guys like Frank Shamrock who went out and learned all the other things with the submissions, kickboxing, wrestling, and all that. So it pretty much went from Royce Gracie, to Frank Shamrock, to myself and it seemed like each time that fighter evolved so much. Like myself I evolved so much by putting my boxing, my wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, and my kick boxing all together where its a full form of fighting now.

thaFormula.com - I've got to ask you man, do you ever wish that you had fought Royce Gracie?

Tito Ortiz - Sometimes yeah, but then he was in his own era I think. I guess its kind of like one of those things that you say "could Muhammad Ali ever have fought Mike Tyson" kind of deal.

thaFormula.com - I ask cause it was actually possible at one time…

Tito Ortiz - Yeah it was actually possible and it still is actually possible too but I don't think Royce would like to accept that fight just because of how aggressive and how much ferocity I bring into the Octagon. There is no one who he has ever fought that fights like me, ever.

thaFormula.com - Now it wasn't till your recent fights that you really started to talk about your Mexican heritage and shout out your people. What made you talk more about your culture?

Tito Ortiz - Well actually about 2 years ago I went on tour with Limp Bizkit and went to Mexico City and actually my father's parents are from Mexico City but I really didn't feel the heritage that much until I went to Mexico City and I stayed an extra 4 days and went to the Mayans and stuff and I really kind of got a feeling. I don't know what it was but something just touched me in my heart and it made start to realize and recognize where I need to start focusing a lot of my time because there is a lot of Latino kids out there who don't really have anybody out there to be mentors or to be a role model towards them and being an inspiration to their lives is what really matters. So if this is a way I can touch them, I mean I'm an Ortiz and I have Mexican blood in me so I want to take advantage of that as much as possible and I really appreciate the support a lot of Mexican fans have given me, but more important than anything I think is to be an example and inspiration to the Latino kids out there. Knowing that once they set their minds straight and their goals high then they can achieve anything in life. I wanna be that inspiration towards their life. So if this is what it takes then this is what it takes and I think that's what really matters.

thaFormula.com - Yeah I really respected you even more when you did that 'cause I always wondered when and if you would…

Tito Ortiz - I mean I think I should have done it a long time ago, but I guess you've got to find yourself sometimes. When I went to Mexico City, I talked to a lot of people there, went to the Mayan ruins and it was just a real good feeling in my heart that I felt. It was like "alright now its time to accept this" and I accepted it 100 percent.

thaFormula.com - Did you get a lot more support from the Latino community?

Tito Ortiz - Oh a whole bunch man. It seemed like all of a sudden I started a monster and its good man. Its good support man, the more the merrier because it just makes me that much stronger when I step in the Octagon because if it wasn't for fans man I would just be another fighter. So the fans are the ones that keep the fuel burning underneath my fire.

thaFormula.com - Now I wanna talk to you about the Frank Shamrock fight. Going into the fight did you really feel you were gonna win that fight or were you looking at that fight as more of a learning experience?

Tito Ortiz - In my mind I knew I was gonna win that fight. I had no doubt in my mind. I felt I was ready. I felt like I was 100 percent at that time. But I was still a young kid man. That was only a year and a half into competing in a sport of anything. I had never done any fighting at all ever and I didn't really know how to keep my tempo at a certain rate and I would push myself too hard where I got too tired too quick. But Frank Shamrock was doing the stuff 6 years before I started doing it and he kind of showed why he's a champion. I mean he showed it in the championship rounds where it really mattered. In the 4th where he pushed the tempo towards me, I wasn't ready for that and I think it was just me being inexperienced. You know being the young kid and that being my fourth fight ever. I mean I never even had any amateur fights, ever. That was my fourth straight fight I ever had. I learned from it where I know I'm never gonna get tired again and I think it was a huge learning experience towards me to prove that I can be a champion, that I do learn from my losses and it only makes me better.

thaFormula.com - How do you think a rematch with Frank would go?

Tito Ortiz - Well if you watch the first fight it would be exactly the same way but I would never get tired and it would probably be a fourth round stoppage or even like a third round stoppage. Its just the size difference at the level that we are matters a whole bunch. With frank being 5'-10", 190 pounds, I mean he's a really small guy, but he has great technique and a great style of fighting. But now its just I'm a little bigger than him, probably about 3 inches taller than him. I probably outweigh him by about 15 pounds and I would completely dominate I would imagine. I have heard all kinds of interviews where Frank Shamrock says that he wanted no part of Tito Ortiz and I believe him 'cause of the ferocity I bring into the Octagon. After I fought Ken Shamrock, I think that kind of opened his eyes too, 'cause he told me "oh yeah Ken used to just man handle me and just muscle me around." I pretty much muscled around Ken Shamrock and I gave him a really good beating. That was probably one of the best fights in my career so far.

thaFormula.com - I thought your best fight was your fight against The Axe Murderer, Vanderlai Silva cause that is one crazy fighter. Do you think the outcome would be the same in a rematch with Silva?

Tito Ortiz - I think it would be the same outcome but more damage.

thaFormula.com - How would Tito do in a Pride fighting ring instead of a UFC Fenced Octagon?

Tito Ortiz - I think it would be a lot better cause I'm allowed to knee on the ground. In UFC I'm not allowed to knee. When I first got into this you were allowed to knee and Bohlander and Metzger, you know I was cutting those guys up really bad cause I have really good knees and that would actually help me out a whole bunch. I would love that but maybe in the future that may happen if the UFC lets me do it, but I would love to get a rematch with Vanderlai Silva. I mean he is a great athlete and fighter, I mean he is just walking through people in Japan.

thaFormula.com - How did it feel to finally win that title when you beat Silva?

Tito Ortiz - You could say it kind of felt like buying your first home or getting your first car ever, or getting married for the first time. I mean it was just a love man. All this hard work paid off and I got something where it matters a whole bunch and that's the World title.

thaFormula.com - One of the things that upsets me most is that most people still look at this sport like a Tough Man competition where just anyone off the street is in the ring?

Tito Ortiz - Nah not at all man. This stuff has changed so much because now its a mixture of everything man. You got kickboxing, wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, and you got boxing. A lot of my sparring partners are professional boxers man who kick my butt, but at the same time I'm getting the best out of it where I'm learning how to box to and it has changed a whole bunch. You got great fighters like Vanderlai Silva who I fought for the World Title. Frank Shamrock pretty much relinquished his belt saying that he didn't want a rematch with me so he's just gonna hold out and me and Vanderlai fought for a vacant belt. So once I did my job by beating him I mean I was the number 1 guy in the world and there was no mistaking it at all saying "oh Tito's a paper champ." Well I mean I beat Vanderlai Silva who hasn't lost in man a long time. The last time he lost was the loss to me so…

thaFormula.com - Was the Abu Dhabi Grappling Tournament before the Silva fight?

Tito Ortiz - Yeah it was before the Silva fight. I was really prepared for the Silva fight. Actually when I was in Abu Dhabi for the World Submission Championships I ended up taking 3rd in the world at my weight and 4th in the Absolute division and actually the match maker Joe Silva told me "well if you wanna fight for the belt you're gonna have to fight Vanderlai Silva," so I was like "oh shit!" 'cause I knew who Vanderlai was so I was like "I don't know about that 'cause Vanderlai is tough." But he said "Tito you could beat him as long as you put a good game plan together." So I ended up signing the contract with Vanderlai Silva and it happened.

thaFormula.com - Now you had fought a submission specialist in Frank, a Muy Thai fighter in the Axe Murderer, and then came Yuki Kondo. No athlete in the world has to fight so many different style of fighters like a MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter…

Tito Ortiz - Yeah, Yuki Kondo was coming from Pancrase in Japan so it's more kicks and he was a real good submission guy. He has never submitted once throughout his career till he faced me.

thaFormula.com - Yeah I remember him beating Frank pretty good in Pancrase?

Tito Ortiz - Yeah, he knocked Frank out of the ring actually and this guy was really wild man. He had flying knees, flying kicks and this guy was just a guy from Japan kind of like a Bruce Lee type of guy where he was really, really good and I ended up stopping him 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the round I think. I caught him with a submission but before that he had hit me with a flying knee and sat me on my butt. I kind of did a somersault roll back to my feet and body locked him, put him to the mat and caught him in a choke man and I was one of the first people to submit Yuki Kondo, so people were like "wow Tito Ortiz has some submissions now." It just seems like I was starting to become a better and better fighter.

thaFormula.com - Then came your fight with Evan Tanner which also didn't last very long...

Tito Ortiz - I was actually really intimidated by Evan Tanner 'cause I watched a lot of his tapes and he would stop guys man. He would take them down and elbow the hell out of them and knee the hell out of them standing up. He just really beat a lot of really good guys like Heath Herring. This guy was like 23 and 2 so he had a really good record and he looked big. When I was looking across the ring I was thinking "man this guy is huge" man. In my mind I was thinking "I'ma have a really tough fight on my hands." I went out and I just let my body react, threw a kick, he went to go clinch, I threw a knee, I threw a upper cut and I body locked him. Once I body locked him it felt like grabbing a little rag doll. I mean he felt really, really light. So I picked him up and dropped him on his head and he was out man and that was probably one of the fastest knockouts I've ever had and I was surprised man. I was so full of energy. I trained about 3 months really, really hard for the fight and there was like 6 weeks I was up in Big Bear training and I trained like Rocky it seemed like. That was the year that I was up in Big Bear and they had the most snowfall ever in their history. I was running in that snow man. I felt like Rocky, I was running in the snow where you couldn't even see 15 feet in front of you and it was really a hard place to train.

thaFormula.com - So you were rolling now and getting even bigger, and next up came your fight with Jiu-Jitsu/Muy Thai fighter Elvis Sinosic...

Tito Ortiz - I didn't really wanna fight the guy 'cause I thought the guy was really too small. The guy was 6'-3", 200 pounds, kind of on the skinny side but he had really great technique as he had just submitted Jeremy Horn with an arm bar. But I ended up buzz-sawing through him man. He couldn't handle the ferocity of myself man. I put an "x" mark on his forehead like the size of a silver dollar so it was a nasty cut and Jon McCarthy stopped it in good timing cause I was really gonna hurt the guy so I mean I got another TKO and stuff like that is really good.

thaFormula.com - Then came your fight in Vegas with "The Phenom" Vitor Belfort. What happened with that fight?

Tito Ortiz - I was up in Big Bear man training and they called me 2 weeks prior to the fight saying that Vitor got injured. I was like "man this is the biggest fight in my life, what are you talking about Vitor got injured?" So I was like what do I do? So they said :alright we're gonna find 3 guys for you to fight and you got to pick one of the 3." So they gave me Chuck Lidell, Kevin Randleman, or Vladimir Matyushenko.

thaFormula.com - Now about Randleman…what exactly started the problem between you guys?

Tito Ortiz - He's just a jealous bastard. I think I was up in Big Bear for the Vitor fight and someone did an interview with me and said "so I heard Kevin Randleman is cutting down to your weight, what would you do?" I got "what would I do?", I said "nah what would he do? I wanna see the guy get off the steroids and see how he would like to fight at 205 pounds. I would like to see that man. He has nothing that impresses me and I would love to fight him, it wouldn't be a problem at all." So I think I got under his skin a little bit and you know what man I'm honest man. I'm an honest person and I say what's on my mind no matter what and Kevin didn't really like that. But I speak what's on my mind no matter what and I ain't gonna hold back anything for anybody man.

thaFormula.com - We feel the same way...

Tito Ortiz - So I had the choice of those first 3 fighters. I said "how about Randleman, he's ex heavyweight champion." They couldn't find him for about another week. He wasn't answering no phone calls or anything at all so that fight wasn't happening. I didn't wanna fight Vladimir 'cause I knew he was a tough wrestler but I didn't really know anything about him. So I said "okay why don't you guys put the Chuck Lidell thing together," then all of a sudden my manager who was actually both of our managers called back and said "Chuck doesn't wanna do that right now, no way."

thaFormula.com - So chuck turned it down?

Tito Ortiz - Yeah, cause he didn't train for me.

thaFormula.com - Yeah 'cause I always hear from a lot of people how you kept ducking Chuck?

Tito Ortiz - That's funny cause it was never a factor of ducking Chuck, it was that I thought of this guy as my friend man and it was never a factor of fighting him and until that fight is when I said "okay now this is gonna be a factor of me and him fighting each other," and before I never did wanna fight him just because of him being a friend. I never wanna give a friend a beating but it seemed like after UFC 33 it just started building more and more to where I was like "alright this is gonna have to happen no matter what now."

thaFormula.com - It seemed like when both of you started training together that you both were becoming even better fighters...

Tito Ortiz - Yeah we worked on a lot of stuff man. I was showing him my secrets and he was showing me his secrets and we were helping each other out. We were friends and in my mind we were helping each other to become better fighters. So there was a little pact there saying we won't fight each other, but it seems like he just damn forgot and he was pretty much convinced that he was gonna fight me.

thaFormula.com - So that left Vladimir for this fight in Vegas?

Tito Ortiz - Yeah Vladimir was a former world Freestyle champion from Ukraine. The guy was an awesome wrestler and he came on the scene really quick. The guy came in I think at like 217 so he didn't really legitimately make weight but Russians are tough as hell man. So once again I found myself in probably one of the biggest fights in my life and this is with 2 weeks notice of knowing who I'm gonna fight. And I ended up walking through him in 4 rounds. I put a hurting on him that's for sure.

thaFormula.com - So now you were really rolling…up next came your fight with Ken Shamrock. How did that fight come about and was it hard to get Ken to agree to that fight?

Tito Ortiz - I don't think it was hard to get him to agree to that fight 'cause me and him had a lot of hatred towards each other just because of when I fought Guy Mezger and Jerry Bohlander 'cause they were from his Lions Den team and I disrespected them a whole bunch cause they didn't have no respect for me, so why should I respect them? I think that fight needed to happen. I had seen him fighting in Pride and he ended up losing to Don Frye and I was like "wow he lost a decision to Don Frye? That's gonna be a tough fight for me." But I took a chance and said "the hell with it, I would like to take this fight." So I called Zuffa and I asked them "is there any possible way for you to do a Ken Shamrock fight?" So they called Ken and Ken in his mind thought he would beat me with no problem at all.

thaFormula.com - That was probably the most focused I've ever seen you for a fight, I mean I had no idea you would end up beating Shamrock the way you did. I don't think any one did..

Tito Ortiz - Yeah I just knew in my mind I had to stay in his face. I had to push him and you know I had to try and push the tempo of that fight.

thaFormula.com - How did it feel to fight someone like Ken knowing that you were in the ring with one of the O.G. legends of this sport that set it off basically?

Tito Ortiz - It felt like a blessing man. It felt like someone was looking over me and giving me a chance to really show my expertise and show what I'm really about. What that fight did man is it showed all my weapons and all my attributes as a fighter and I was really thankful for Ken taking the fight and for him taking everything I gave at him. I must have thrown a couple hundred elbows, a couple hundred knees and punches and he took everything I gave him. I mean his face looked like it. I'll tell you one thing, Ken Shamrock has a hard head and he has a huge heart so I can't take nothing away from him that's for sure.

thaFormula.com - Now Ken says a rematch with you would go completely different due to him having a very bad leg injury at the time of the fight. What do you think a rematch with Ken would be like?

Tito Ortiz - I would love to give him a rematch. If he thinks it was just his knee, cool. I hope he finds an excuse next time to but I would love a rematch, a rematch would be nice. I would stomp him the same way. I think I have gotten a lot better since the Shamrock fight. I've exposed myself a lot more in training to learn those things. I think I would stop him by the second round. I would love to fight him again. If he wants another beating, sign on the dotted line.

thaFormula.com - Now after that came your fight with Couture and I've got to say I didn't know who would win that fight mainly because you two had very similar fighting styles?

Tito Ortiz - We were the exact same fighter it seemed like and Couture just had a little more experience then I did.

thaFormula.com - Now by this time you had become a pretty famous guy and sometimes that seems to get to people...

Tito Ortiz - Yeah it got to me I will tell you that, and that's the truth. I was doing a lot of press and before that I shot a movie. I took a year off after the Shamrock fight and I think I kind of looked past Couture like :oh this is just another match." I think I over trained a little bit where I was up in Big Bear for 3 months straight non-stop. I pushed myself a little too hard I think. It was 7 days a week and 8 hours a day of non-stop training where I pushed myself so hard that a month prior to the fight I ended up injuring my back where I had a herniated disk in my back so I had to take a week off and then I couldn't wrestle from then on until the fight. I mean I couldn't really do much besides box and do Jiu-Jitsu and light upper body lifting. I couldn't do much lower body because of my lower back. And I thought I was ready man. I mean mentally I thought I was ready but hey.

thaFormula.com - Yeah but I've got to be real with you man…one thing that bugged me was watching you in the dressing room before the fight taking pictures with all these stars and I'm thinking "damn Tito is about to fight Couture and he's taking pictures with all these people and not even taking this serious…"

Tito Ortiz - And you know what man, I look back at that and I felt the same way and shit like that will never happen again. That's funny you say that man because when I was taking pictures I was thinking like that but I said "ah nah it ain't gonna happen to me like that." But I ain't taking nothing away from Couture, he's a great champion, a great fighter. He is someone that I look up to and a huge inspiration in my life. But I think I gave him a little too much respect.

thaFormula.com - Was it a different feeling in the ring before the fight than most times?

Tito Ortiz - It felt like dream man. It felt like everything was in slow motion. When I was jumping it wasn't the same jump. I didn't have that explosiveness I usually do but a lot of that came from my back I think too. My legs weren't as strong. I felt really flat man. But I was not tired at all. Fatigue was not a factor. I had muscle fatigue in my legs. I think I was up in Big Bear a little too long but it just seemed like it was Couture's match. I didn't have the strength I usually did. The week before the fight when I was checking my weight I was 207 pounds. I've never been 207 pounds until the day to make weight and this is a week prior of me weighing that light. You cant weigh that light against guys like Couture 'cause he's walking around at 217 and he's gonna cut down at 205 and he's gonna put that weight right back on and that was one of my biggest strengths through my career. I've always been a bigger guy. It just seemed like once I was that light and I couldn't get my weight back up I was so worried about my weight man that everything else just seemed like it was just coming out of wack. I look at the match and I've learned a lot from it. This training I've been doing for the Lidell fight, I've been kind of focusing on a lot more strength stuff so I'm not as weak as I was before 'cause I think that's one of my biggest strengths.

thaFormula.com - After that fight with Couture you wanted a rematch but at the same time people kept screaming that you were ducking Lidell...

Tito Ortiz - And that's what it came down to man. People just telling, telling me, and telling me and I know its best not to listen to other people but it really bothered me man. I never really wanted to hurt him, its just that people got at me so much and he started getting at me and the promoter started getting at me and I was like "you know what, the hell with it let's fuckin' do this man." Let's just get this over with and I wanted to make all my fans happy by taking the fight so I took the fight and after the fight when I fought Couture I wanted a rematch. Then I was like "alright, I've got some unfinished business to take care of so lets do this Lidell fight first."

thaFormula.com - Now you said during training that Lidell got the best of you 80 percent of the time…

Tito Ortiz - Yep from the standup to the wrestling he always got the better of me and you've got to understand this was at the beginning of training season. It wasn't when I was in shape, it was when I was out of shape and I kind of exposed myself man. I exposed myself a whole bunch to learn and see what it felt like to be in a certain position and I mean training is training, but a fight is a fight and its totally different 'cause you're fighting on survival, you're not fighting because its training. So its two different things.

thaFormula.com - But people also say "what makes you think that Chuck wasn't doing the same thing during training as far as exposing himself?" But I think its good that you admit that cause most fighters wouldn't. But is this something that you think about going into this fight?

Tito Ortiz - Not really. I think it gives me more to feed off of 'cause I know I've got to prove myself no matter what.

thaFormula.com - Do you think it's a harder fight 'cause you both know each other so good in training?

Tito Ortiz - Oh hell yeah. He knows all my weaknesses and all my strengths so you're god damn right its gonna be a harder fight. I'm gonna make sure that I do my best by trying to push him and taking him out of his element man and I guess that's what fights are made of. When Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought each other man, they knew each other front to back and they were friends man. This is pretty much exactly the same stepping stones that we're at right now between me and Chuck Lidell, but on April 2nd things are gonna be pretty much squashed and everything is gonna be done and people are gonna know who is the best.

thaFormula.com - So if things don't go you're way on this one Tito, where would you go from there?

Tito Ortiz - Well you know me man, I love to fight so you will see my ass fighting no matter what man.

thaFormula.com - Will we ever see Tito go to Pride in Japan?.

Tito Ortiz - Nah, cause UFC has always been good to me man. They have always been there for me and I pretty much wanna finish with the UFC man. If I'm gonna retire, I'ma retire a UFC champ or being a UFC fighter. I don't really see me going to Pride unless they offer me millions of dollars man 'cause you can't say no to something like that, but I mean more than anything I think the UFC is where I'm gonna stay and where I'm gonna end.

thaFormula.com - Now if you win this fight with Chuck what are your plans from there?

Tito Ortiz - Well if I win this fight of course, I wanna fight that Lee Murray kid. I wanna shut him up.

thaFormula.com - What exactly went down with you and Lee Murray?

Tito Ortiz - I'll tell you exactly what happened. We're at a club, we're all drinking and everything and it was an open bar and we were hammered. I'm in an Armani suit with dress shoes that are slippery on the bottom. We come out of the club, one of my friends jumps on Pat Militechs back just playing around with him. Pat throws him off and Pat's all "come on man get off me," and one of the guys with Lee Murray said something and my friend ended up getting punched in the face and he got knocked out on the concrete and he was out. So Lee Murray and all his friends started hitting him in the head. So I came walking out of the club and I see this happening, I'm like "what the hell, who's getting pummeled on the ground?" I look and it's my best friend. I'm like "you got to be fucking joking me." The first person I grabbed was Lee Murray. I clinched him and kneed him a couple of times and then Chuck Lidell comes out and he swings at one of the guys and it was mayhem, it was on. Then Lee took off running so I went to go chase him and he turned around and put up his fist and I went to go stop and I slid right into him and he hit me with a one-two and kicked me in the head. He said he knocked me out…he never knocked me out and I guess it all started from then. 'Cause he kept talking about "oh I knocked Tito Ortiz out in England." He rode on my coattail the whole time and that's the only reason he's fighting in the UFC right now is 'cause of that. It's like now I'm gonna squash the kid just because of how much smack he's been talking. I can't wait!

thaFormula.com - I wanna ask you about the Gracie's and how you feel someone like Rickson Gracie would do in 2004 seeing that he is always talked about by so many people?

Tito Ortiz - Um, Rickson beat a few good guys in Japan but that was it. He pretty much got tailor maid to fight the guys who he wanted to fight. I think someone like Royce is a lot tougher than Rickson just because he's fought a lot more stiff competition then anybody else. Royce is a really, really tough athlete man. I mean he's the real deal I think and I talked to him on a few occasions and I got to thank that guy man. He's the guy who paved the way for people like myself man. If it wasn't for him man, this sport would not even be alive. So I think Royce is probably the toughest one out of all the Gracie's and I would just like to be a part of saying that I think Royce is one of the number one guys in the world to make this sport even happen. He's like Bruce Lee of our generation. Royce Gracie is the one who made Ultimate Fighting Championship happen and I've got to thank him for sure. I mean this sport is the new competition of the new millennium man. This is it right here with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

thaFormula.com - We agree 100 percent with you on that Tito…what else do you have going on?

Tito Ortiz - Well it's not just getting in the Octagon and fighting man. There are a lot of other things I do on the outside that make me different than everybody else. Of course the Tito Ortiz Foundation thing I'm working on and its pretty much getting done by the end of April. That is for all inner city kids that are on the streets to keep them off the streets and give them something to do after school and I think that's what really matters man. Its just little things like that. Of course I've got my clothing line, www.PunishmentAthletics.com. It's just getting bigger, bigger, and bigger it seems like. More and more people are starting to buy and what we're working on right now is putting a catalog together and everything and getting it into some of the big stores so hopefully they will be seen in some of the stores here in the West Coast soon. I'm just trying to do more and more things to better myself so I'm not fighting for the rest of my life.

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