Tito Ortiz’s career looked as if it was all but over when he stepped into the octagon at UFC 132.
The former UFC Lightweight champion was on the cusp of being fired when he took on Ryan Bader in Las Vegas in 2011.
Ortiz hadn’t won a fight in five years, not since his knockout victory over Ken Shamrock at UFC 61, and was on the cusp of being fired from the promotion after a string of bad losses.
UFC 132 looked set to be his final outing in the UFC, offering a legendary fighter one last chance to redeem himself in the octagon in front of a crowd that once loved him.
However, things didn’t end in a way that anybody expected that night for Ortiz.
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Tito Ortiz shocked UFC fans with one of the biggest upsets of 2011
Ortiz’s clash with Bader looked likely to be his last fight in the UFC, and nobody gave him much chance of walking out of Las Vegas as the winner.
The bout was often remarked as being Ortiz’s “final stand”, given his bad form over the past five years as he suffered losses to fighters like Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida, and Forrest Griffin.
He looked a shadow of his dominant former self and, like all fighters must go through in their careers, looked past his best in the octagon.
Meanwhile, Bader was primed for greatness. The “The Ultimate Fighter” winner won his first four fights in the UFC before understandably losing to Jon Jones less than a year before the Ortiz fight.
Everyone expected him to add Ortiz’s scalp to his record to help propel Bader into the upper echelons of the UFC Light Heavyweight division.
But sometimes, youth is no match for experience, or the incredible tenacity of a legendary fighter with his back against the wall, fighting for his career.
Ortiz dominated the younger Bader, knocking him down with a big right hand early on in the first round. He mounted “Darth” Bader, laying in hammer fists before locking in a brutal-looking guillotine choke, from which Bader had no escape.
He wrenched on the neck of his helpless opponent, the pain so unbearable and inescapable that Bader had no choice but to helplessly tap out on Ortiz’s shoulder, signaling that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was not done yet.
The victory over Ryan Bader was Tito Ortiz’s last win in the UFC of his career
However, for all intents and purposes, Ortiz was, in fact, done.
Despite being one of the greatest light heavyweight fighters in UFC history, Ortiz’s win over Bader was the last bit of juice left in the tank.
Ortiz’s victory over Bader was the final UFC win of his career. He followed it up with back-to-back TKO losses to Rashad Evans and Antonio Nogueira, as well as a unanimous decision defeat to Forrest Griffin.
He left the UFC to join Bellator, where he added a few more victories, including over Chael Sonnen, but never reached the heights that the win over Bader seemed to hint at.
Bader never became a champion in the UFC, but made history in Bellator. He was the first-ever two-weight champion in the promotion’s history and still holds the record for the longest winning streak of any champion.
Given the success that Bader went on to have after tapping out to Ortiz, it makes the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s” final stand that much more impressive.