This past Saturday at Triller’s boxing event, Tito Ortiz (21-12-1 MMA) made his debut in the squared circle. The former UFC light heavyweight champion was taking on former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (34-11, 1 NC).
The matchup was Silva’s second boxing match of 2021 while Ortiz had never been in the boxing ring before. Ortiz had been vocal about his frustrations with Silva regarding the weight of the bout.
Silva forced Ortiz to make 195 pounds which Ortiz had never done in his professional career. Ultimately, Ortiz was unable to make the weight and came in at 200 pounds which is still lighter than he had been for the majority of his MMA career.
There were not a ton of expectations for Ortiz in the boxing match as he’s never been known for his striking. The Huntington Beach Bad Boy made a career out of taking his opponents to the ground and using his elbows.
While his boxing was never considered bad, it wasn’t considered great either. Ortiz opened the bout with immediate pressure and you could tell his strategy was to try and bully Silva. However, it didn’t work as Silva ducked/dodges all Ortiz’s shots and knocked him out with a right hand in the first round.
Ortiz wants another boxing match
Tito Ortiz didn’t look good at all in his boxing debut. His punches looked incredibly slow and he literally ate the canvas after a huge right hand from Anderson Silva. After Ortiz talked about hurting Silva, he was truly embarrassed by The Spider.
That said, Ortiz isn’t done with the boxing world. In fact, he made a callout on Twitter following his loss. Ortiz said that he wants Triller to setup a boxing match between himself and Logan Paul.
Have to admire Tito for wanting to stay in the news, but there’s little incentive here for Logan Paul. First and foremost, I’m not sure I could bet on Tito Ortiz to beat Logan Paul based on what I saw on Saturday night.
I’m sure the boxing match could do some decent numbers, and maybe that would be enough to entice Logan Paul. On one hand, it could make sense for Paul who could take on a former UFC champion and likely be the favorite against.
On the other hand, is Tito Ortiz even relevant enough nowadays for Logan Paul to have interest. Time will tell on this one, but one thing is for sure, we haven’t seen the last of Tito Ortiz.