Tito Ortiz’s return to fitness and fighting has spurred him on to try and improve the holes in his game. Never known for his striking skills, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ is trying to improve his boxing skills with Freddie Roach in order to make an assault on the light-heavyweight division once again.
He will face off against another wrestler renowned for his one-dimensional nature in MMA legend Mark Coleman and some improved hands could be the key to success.
Roach, the trainer who has seen the likes of Manny Pacquiao to success in the Boxing world, has been working with numerous MMA fighters recently such as Andre Arlovski, Dan Hardy and Anderson Silva. Ortiz now joins that list and Roach stated how impressed he is with his progress to Fight Hype.
“His hands are getting better,” stated Roach to of the former light-heavyweight champion. “He’s more fluent and he’s getting better all the time.”
Continuing to sing his praises, he commended Ortiz’s work ethic and grit.
“He’s a good athlete, he has no quit in him. I think I made him throw up again yesterday. I think that’s the third time he’s thrown up after a workout. But I push him hard and he won’t quit. He sucks it up and fights back. I like that.”
At this stage in his career, it is apparent that Ortiz will never light up the division with his striking prowess and he is aware of that, instead focusing on improving enough to get himself into good positions to do what he does best; ground and pound.
“The thing is, he’s not doing this to become a boxer at all. He just wants to improve with his hands,” said Roach. “His main sport is wrestling and he’ll shoot on me when he gets position; he’ll shoot as quickly as possible whereas Andre Arlovski would prefer to stand a bit.”
“So his number one game is the ground of course,” Roach continued, admitting that Tito was under no illusions. “His punches, he’s sitting down, he’s rotating, his back is no problem. He’s had that surgery and he’s feeling 100% better.”
Whether Ortiz’s boxing skills will be noticeably better in the Octagon at UFC 106 is a question we cannot answer until the time, but it is great to show a former champion looking to expand his skillset at a late stage in his career instead of being content. Ortiz is looking to make another run to the title and any skills that he can pick up on the way will help in the shark infested waters that are the UFC’s light-heavyweight division.
