tito ortiz

“The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz is to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame prior to his retirement fight against Forrest Griffin.

The news was broken to MMAWeekly by Dana White after yesterday’s UFC 150 press conference. He said that Ortiz would be inducted at the Fan Expo before his fight at UFC 148.

He now joins the likes of Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes.

Ortiz was the UFC’s poster boy before the sport became as big as it has. A former UFC light heavyweight champion, Ortiz defeated Wanderlei Silva for the belt, which was left vacant by Frank Shamrock. He fought and beat Ken Shamrock at UFC 40: Vendetta in, what was then, the biggest fight in the company’s history.

Ortiz remains a big draw for the promotion, but he has been on the slide for many years now. He did shock everybody with a win against Ryan Bader last year, but any thoughts of a huge comeback were quickly diminished by Rashad Evans in his next bout.

Ortiz faces Forrest Griffin for a third time next month. Both men have won one a piece.

By Mike Clarke (@fightlounge)