by Michael DiSanto

And still UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, the Huntington Beach Bad Boy Tito Orrrrtiiiiiiiiiiiz! Those words echoed from Bruce Buffers microphone shortly after Tito Ortiz successfully defended his title against Ken Shamrock at UFC 40, and at that moment, Ortiz was on top of the MMA world. Now, nearly a year after Ortiz career defining victory, his status as champion seems somewhat confusing as another man, Randy the Natural Couture, also walks around with a UFC light heavyweight belt after defeating Chuck Liddell at UFC 43. On September 26th, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Tito and Randy will step into the Octagon to settle all doubts as to who is the king of the 205 pound division.

InsideFighting spent the day with Tito Ortiz at his Big Bear, California training camp while he prepared for his upcoming bout with Couture. We had a chance to sit down and speak with Ortiz on a number of topics.

InsideFighting: Tito, thank you for inviting us up here. Some of the questions I ask you may seem a bit basic or repetitive from your last interviews, but keep in mind that a large number of our readers come from the boxing or fitness worlds, so they may not be aware of the UFC or Tito Ortiz. Also, please keep that in mind when answering the questions as well.

Tito Ortiz: No problem. I completely understand.

IF: Lets start off with something near and dear to you, Punishment Athletics . Why dont you tell our readers about your company and a little bit about how it started?

Tito: Punishment Athletics is a great clothing company [mumbled Ortiz as he shyly stared into his hands and then at the ceiling like he had nothing else to say. Ten seconds later, everyone in the room busted out laughing.]. Ok, seriously. Punishment Athletics actually started out as Punishment Clothing. When I first started out fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Championship back in 5/30/97, a kid came up to me after the fight and said Hey, Tito do you have something I can wear? I was like no, and it just clicked right there damn, merchandise what should I do? I couldnt think of a name that would be great because Tap Out just came out with a clothing line. I went back home and talked to my brother Marty. He said damn, you were punishing that guy, but you just got caught with a choke. And I said what did you say? He said man, you were punishing that guy! So I started thinking punishment, punishment, punishment damn theres the name right there. It just stuck from there. So I went to www.punishment.com on the Internet and it was some porn site, so I thought ok, it cant be Punishment. Then I thought Punishment Clothing that sounds good lets roll with that and see how it goes. I started out making my flamed shorts, making t-shirts with little Tito Ortiz quotes on them and Tito Ortiz t-shirts on the back of one it said Punishment we punish our opponents and had a picture of me punishing Guy Mezger from on top. And it grew from there.

As I got bigger and bigger, I had Team Punishment and Punishment Clothing sponsored Team Punishment. We made all the clothing for Team Punishment and people started associating the two names together and things got mixed up with people up calling it Team Punishment Clothing, but that wasnt the case. They were two strictly different entities one was Punishment Clothing and the other was Team Punishment. Punishment Clothing only sponsored Team Punishment. You know, I just held on to Team Punishment but then peoples feelings getting hurt and they started thinking they were superstars before they put in the work, so I said awe, the hell with it I'm not going to hold on to Punishment Clothing and let guys go off on their own. But I still had Punishment Clothing, so I had to change the name since people confused Punishment Clothing and Team Punishment. So I changed the name to Punishment Athletics because I wanted to expand beyond MMA and include extreme sports as in snowboarding, skateboarding, off-shore racing, skiing and any other extreme sports. Thats Punishment Athletics . If you watch extreme sports, those guys get punished. Snowboarding, downhill skiing, slalom, bobsledding, they all get punished. Punishment Athletics fit hand in hand, so I decided to revamp everything and start all over. So I took everything apart, redesigned everything, put new logos together I wanted to do all the logos by myself, so I did it.

The clothing itself is really great, great quality clothing. The clothing that we do have is some of the best quality clothing out there and lasts a long time. If anybody has any problems, we are 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If people dont like what they get, please return it and we will refund their money. If anything falls apart, we have no problems replace the clothing. If youre going to put out a clothing line, you have to be sure to put out really high quality stuff. People will only pay money for quality stuff.

Its making really good money right now. That is what's kept my head above water while I wasnt fighting. I've really been putting a lot of time into it. Everything is strictly sold on websites no stores at all. And I think were doing very well for strictly selling on websites.

Starting in 2004, I think we may start selling Punishment Athletics in stores places like Hot Topics, Tillies, and stores like that, so people can but it in stores too. Man, we sell this stuff all over the world its amazing. It sells from Australia to Thailand to Asia to Tanzania. It is really amazing because you think man, barely even have tv's therehow do they have computers to get this stuff shipped out to them? Its really amazing where people buy clothing from, but they just want to support Punishment Athletics . I think its great I've got Mike Tyson wearing the stuff, Fernando Vargas wearing the stuff, Tara Reid wearing the stuff, and a lot of other great actors and fighters supporting me and Punishment Athletics , but it really is great quality clothing. We have stuff for babies to kids to adults and, like I said, its clothing for the whole family.

IF: Do you have any new products that you plan on releasing soon? Or maybe an update on the white flamed shorts since those seem to be very popular?

Tito: Actually yes. We just got a full stock of the white flamed shorts and black flamed shorts are all back in stock. Shorts go like hotcakes - thats the problem. We sell them faster than we can make them. Before we can even make them, they're sold out or so it seems. Its really hard to keep those things in stock since so many people want to buy them. Of course, we have the flame beanies. We have some new colors coming out. People will see the new colors at my next fight September 26th at the Mandalay Bay. It should be good new beanies, flamed shorts and long sleeved shirts, you know, the stuff I usually walk out to.

We also have some different type of warm-up stuff, snap-offs and jackets. You know, just some different types of clothing. We may try to get into some casual clothing like some Levis-type stuff, button-ups or stuff you can wear to clubs or stuff like that. Then again, we have to keep the overhead low and make sure we dont make too much stuff and have too much inventory. We have plenty of colors designs of t-shirts and sweatshirts. We actually have three different colors of sweatshirts and all colors of beanies and hats. You know, we have to provide for the consumers who want different colors. Some guys who dont want to wear blue, some guys dont want to wear red and some guys dont want to wear want black, so you have to make sure you have every color for everybody.

IF: What about stuff for kids?

Tito: Kids, actually we have sizes for kids. Its exactly the same thing beanies, sweatshirts, t-shirts, jackets. We tailor things for youths and kids from the ages from 5 to 12. When kids get to around 13, they usually start to wear an adult small. We do have youth kids sizes in small, medium and large. As far as the flamed shorts, there are some younger kids who want flamed shorts. But for right now there isnt enough demand for the kids flamed shorts. Once the demand grows, we will start making flamed shorts for kids.

IF: Lets move on to Tito Ortiz the UFC light heavyweight champion. How's training going?

Tito: Actually training is going really, really great. Im up here in Big Bear in complete isolation. Ive taken something from watching other great champions like de la Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Lennox Lewis, all the other guys who used to come up here to train and still train today. I looked at them and asked myself why do they come up here to train? I realized what it was. There aint NOTHING to do. Man, there ain't a damn thing to do up here. I train three times a day, watch videos and play Xbox. And thats it!

I've been up here already for seven weeks and have five more weeks to go, so I will have been up here for twelve weeks total, which is three months. Man, that is the longest I've ever been up here to train. The three times before this was four weeks, five weeks and then six weeks.

This fight means the world to me. I have one of my toughest opponents in Randy Couture, the ex-two-time heavyweight champion. He's one of the toughest opponents I've ever competed against, so I have to bring my A game. Its hard man. I mean each day is a full day of training. I dont really see it as twelve weeks of training. I just take it day-by-day. Champions are made day-by-day. Each day either I throw up once or I have some type of bump or bruise from my coach Colin Oyama pushing me saying lets go, lets go.

I have Jesse Reid, who is a professional boxing trainer, up here helping me with my hands. Of course, I have Colin Oyama who is doing all of my Muay Thai kickboxing training teaching me how to knee, clinch, kick and stuff like that. I work a lot of that. Then I have my jiu-jitsu guys like Fabiano Iha, Dean Lister, I've got a lot of great guys like Ricco Rodriguez and Quinton Jackson. For sparring, I have Julio Gonzales and others. Basically I try to bring the best guys in the world up here to beat my ass just so I know what it feels like to be in the worst possible position. When I come to the Octagon I know what it feels like to be in that position. And if I do get mounted or if I do get taken down its nothing new to me because I've been there before and so I just see if I can get out of it or try to finish from there.

IF: How do you feel about fighting in a unification bout for a title that you never lost?

Tito: I believe its a belt I never lost. I guess organizations now are going to be like boxing and where theyre going to make up titles. They are going to try to take away a champions status because he didnt want to compete for financial reasons and likeness and image reasons. I had to stand up for what I believe in as an athlete and a fan of the sport. If I didn't do it, nobody would ever be able to do it. The spot I was standing in at the time, where I was at the time, I had to lookout for my family, I had to look out for myself, for my career as a fighter and I got a chance to do something a little different which is acting. I got the chance to do it, so I jumped on it. Man, I didnt even want to fight anymore. I mean, I'm not going to waste my time for a measly $160,000 to come up here for three months when a complete drunk is getting paid $150,000 just to show up and he's not even training. It was just a fact of I'm not getting enough respect as a champion for how hard I work to publicize the sport and to educate people on the sport, but I'm not getting anything in return. I mean, yeah, they put me as their poster boy, so pay me as your poster boy.

But, again, I must thank Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. Those guys took a chance and gave me what I wanted, and I really, really thank them. I cant thank them enough for going out of their way to believe in what I believe in and that is making PPV huge! I think that is my job. I have a lot of other people helping me out trying to make it huge. Of course, I was in Fernando Vargas corner on HBO. I got a lot of calls about that. Fernando called me and said man, everybody was talking about you being in my corner. And I think that will help out PPV.

I have Benicio del Torro, an actor, who's going to be doing something on All Access Holywood where he's going to be kind of introducing me and mixed martial arts to the world. I just have a lot of people behind me supporting me like the Maloofs. My afterparty is going to be at Rain in the Palm Hotel and theyre going to put a big thing on their sign outside their hotel saying Watch Tito Ortiz on September 26th. Their PR guy is also helping me out with a lot of things.

Of course, my team, Xtreme Promotions, Glen McCuster and Mark Friedman, thats my management group. They're helping out tremendously by trying to get me on as many big shows as possible. It just goes back to who you know and not what you know. You know, a lot of people are taking a chance by helping me. I think they believe in my whole game. I think all that's really helping thing out by showing what champions can really do with their status, and that's what I'm trying to do.

InsideFighting: What was going through your mind when you watched Randy Couture fight Chuck Liddell? And what was going through your mind when you saw them put the title around Randys waist?

Tito Ortiz: I was pissed! I felt like I was betrayed. I felt like everything that I had worked so hard for was just thrown out the window. They just took a title away from Tito Ortiz and kind of said @#$%^# you to his face. And it was really a feeling of hurt, but also a feeling of satisfaction to watch Chuck get beat down because how much s**t he talked. Its kind of like a catch-22. But you talk s**t and you get dealt s**t. And he talked a lot of s**t and didnt back it up. His mouth was writing checks that his ass couldnt cash, and that's what it came down to. And it was just a fact of when they put that belt around Randy's waist, I felt proud for Randy. I was happy for him. I like Randy a lot. Hes actually a mentor of mine - a guy that I look up to; a guy that I've always looked up to. But once he was like Tito, if you're in the house, if you want this belt, youre going to have to come and take it. And I was like what's up with that? I didnt understand it. It was just a factor of why are they putting him as champion? They didn't say anything about interim champion. They said the new light heavyweight world champ. Well, the last time I looked at my shelf at my house I still have a light heavyweight belt. Last time I looked at my record I just stomped Ken Shamrock. I just stomped him maybe he hit me once. It was total domination and every person I've ever defended my belt against I've always dominated them. And it was just a fact of looking at someone getting a belt put around their waist and thinking that doesn't say interim on it, nobody ever said interim.

It was kind of funny because the commentators during the match Joe and Mike Goldberg said these two guys are true fighters they would never turn down a fight. That was strictly derogatory towards me. I mean, yeah its different when a guy is afraid of somebody. But I'm not afraid of any man at 205 pounds. I believe Im the baddest man at 205 pounds. But these guys have Tank on the Best Damn Sport Show saying Tito Ortiz is afraid of Chuck Liddell and he won't sign the contract. And then having Chuck on there saying yeah, Tito is afraid of me because I used to beat him up in training. Yeah, I'll admit it. He used to get the best of me in training. But remember that's only training! I'm opening myself to see what happens. I'm opening myself to see what it feels like to get hit with a good shot; what it feels like to get dropped; what it feels like to get kicked; what it feels like to get taken down, just to have someone take me down. But nobody has ever taken me down in the Octagon ever. And they never will! Why? Because its fight time! When its fight time, it's different from training. And if anyone thinks I'm afraid of Chuck Liddell, Chuck Liddell is in for a whuppin! Win, lose or draw against Randy Couture, hes the next opponent for me in my mind no matter what. I've got what I held out for and I have to thank Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for giving me what I wanted.

Randy Couture, once again, is a mentor of mine. I've always looked up to him. But him saying Tito, if you want this belt, you're going to have to come here and take it, I took offense to that and being a mentor of mine now is no longer there. Now he's just an opponent and a victim of Tito Ortiz. Im going to walk right through him like I walked through Ken Shamrock. People dont think so, but its going to take two or three or possibly four rounds! Lets see if his cardio is as good as mine. Lets see if his strength is as good as mine. Let's see if he's as fast as I am. His boxing skills are great. His boxing skills are probably the same as mine, so I'm going to try to out box him. I'm working with Jesse Reid and I want to give a lot of fans a lot of boxing fans are going to be introduced to the UFC for the first time and I want to show them what kind of boxing skills MMA fighters have such as myself. I've been working really hard with Jesse Reid and Colin Oyama in putting my punches and kicks together, but punching will be the biggest asset in my fight. When I take apart Randy Couture, people are going to see what type of champion I really am. I think thats what really, really matters and showing how much I've evolved as an athlete.

IF: You seem very confident in the outcome. If you could give one reason why you have an advantage over Randy, what would it be?

Tito: One reason why I have an advantage over Randy

IF: [interrupting] Or as many as you want for that manner.

Tito: I can give you one right off the bat and thats age. Im 28 years old. Im in my prime man, I'm not even in my prime yet. I'm mean, I'm fast, I'm strong. I come with ferocity, man. I come with the ferocity of Mike Tyson with the intelligence of Oscar de la Hoya. I try to take my opponents apart mentally before the fight even starts. And once the fight starts, I'm such a ferocious god, like a ferocious tiger on them and they can't stop me. Everyone of my fights and I watch them to I look for mistakes that I've done and every one of my fights that ended have ended with my opponent's face beaten to a bloody pulp. They say that the most damage caused in the shortest period of time wins, and I usually cause it.

They say that a wrestler is kind of like a cockroach. If you put it on its back, it dies. Randy Couture is a wrestler. I'm a wrestler too, but I've been working on my back for a long time. If he wants to take me down, right on let it be! I dont think he's got to worry about going to his back because he's going to get knocked out while he's standing on his feet.

Another thing I have over Randy Couture is heart and strength. I've watched him and hes been through a lot of wars. Hes a like a wounded soldier who's been through many, many wars, but his body is still taking that. Hey, at 40 years old you have people saying that Randy Couture is the man. I'm saying that Randy Couture is the man! But he's never fought anybody like Tito Ortiz ever nobody with the strength, the speed, the tenacity and the ferocity that I bring into the Octagon, and when I bring it to him he's really going to feel it. I think I'm really going to surprise him. When I fought Ken Shamrock he was overwhelmed by it because he thought he was going to be much stronger than me, but he was completely overwhelmed. When I grabbed hold of him it felt like I was grabbing my little sister or something. It was amazing. I couldnt believe it. Man, I threw him around like a rag doll. And when I do the same thing to Randy Couture, what does that prove? It proves that I am still the true champion. But at the same time its just another stepping stone for me. In my mind, I can be a 15-time defending world champion. It all depends on how much hard work and how much dedication that I put into the sport.

IF: If you could take a magic wand and waive it over the fight with Randy Couture, scripting the fight from beginning to end, how would it go?

Tito: Hmmma magic wand

IF: [interrupting] it can be one second or one hour.

Tito: It would be literally I'd say about two rounds. Tito Ortiz comes to his corner hopping and jumping around. Look at Randy looking at him. Tito still has the ferocity. Tito Ortiz comes at him hits him with a jab and a right hand. Randy goes for a shot can't take Tito down. Tito hits him with an uppercut then a left hook. Randy is stumbling. Tito is pushing, pushing. Tito Ortiz hits a double-leg and Tito gets on top of him and pounds him out for the round. Randy survives! Tito looks down, smiles, blows him a kiss, walks back to his corner and gets a drink of water. [laughter erupts in the room].

Second round is about to begin. Randy looks to his corner, shake my arms out, shake my arms out, he says to his corner because he ain't ready for the fight. Fight starts. Tito Ortiz looks back at him saying let's do this! John McCarthy says are you ready? Are you ready? Lets get it on!

Tito Ortiz comes back out and lands a leg kick. He lands a right hand, misses a right hand, but then kicks him in the head. Randy is delirious. Sloppy shots come left and right. Tito drops him to the ground elbow. Match gets stood up again because Randy was holding on for dear life. Tito Ortiz stands up, hits him with the jab, hits him with the left hook, left to the body, left hand to the body, right uppercut and then a knee to the chin. Randy's on his back looking up counting how many lights there are in the house while Tito stands above him victor once again!

IF: Wow, that was an interesting

Tito: [interrupting] Thats with the magic wand, but magic wands are never waived never, EVER waived! I've gone through this fight 100 times in my mind before I go to bed. I believe in visualization a whole bunch. I believe in visualizing what's in front of me. I believe in visualizing what's going to happen. What's the worst possible thing that could happen? The worst! What if I get hit with a shot I didnt see coming? How can I recover from it? What do I need to do to recover from it? What if he takes me down and mounts me? How do I get him off of me? Just little small things like that. And by pushing myself in training and putting myself in those positions in training will make the difference in the fight. So if I get hit with a shot I don't see, I'll recover from it. My recovery time is great. People say that I have a suspect chin because I've been hit in a lot of my fights and I've been dropped. Yeah, a lot of those punches or knees that I've been hit with other people would have been knocked out by those punches or knees. I think I can take a really great punch and I have really great recovery time. And when the fight comes about we'll see what I can really prove.

IF: Theres something we like to do with all the guys we interview and thats name association.

Tito: I love name association!

IF: Good, then lets have fun with it!

Tito: Lets do it!

MD: Rampage?

Tito: Rampage the toughest black man in the world! Theres no one like Ramage. I'd say Slampage! You fight him and you're going to get slammed one way or the other. Me and him are going to be number one in this world, man. We talk to each other, we still train with each other, and we'll never fight each other. Me and him will still be kicking people's asses at 205 pound and his next victim is Chuck Liddell. So after he gets done beating on Chuck Liddell, I'm going to beat on Chuck Liddell.

IF: Since you brought him up, Chuck Liddell?

Tito: Chuck Liddell. sloppy, white Oakey.

IF: Wanderlei Silva?

Tito: A juiced up Brazilian [laughter in the room].

IF: Vitor Belfort?

Tito: Mentally weak! Mentally weak! He can be destroyed before he steps into the Octagon just by words alone. I saw him cry after his last fight. If he ever gets a chance to fight me, he'll be crying before he gets into the Octagon. That person is mentally weak!

IF: Frank Shamrock?

Tito: Frank Shamrock awesome person. A person who evolved the sport, and a person that I have to thank for the cardio that I have today. If I didn't lose to him, I wouldn't be the person that I am today.

IF: Dana White?

Tito: A person who works really hard in the sport. He spends a lot of time away from his family. He's trying as hard as possible to make the UFC better. I think he needs to work on a lot of things and not take things too personally, but a very hard worker.

IF: Bob Sapp?

Tito: A phony!

IF: Mike Tyson?

Tito? Pure aggression! One of the most dangerous boxers in the world.

IF: Fernando Vargas?

Tito: A youngster with pure aggression. He has all the talent in the world. He just needs to believe in himself to train really, really hard. Hes got what it takes! I think its going to take a little bit of maturity, and he has that maturity now. I look up to him because of where he's come from, and I think he will be the next champion.

IF: Tank Abbott?

Tito: Fat piece of s**t!

IF: I saw that one coming. What are your thoughts on the rumored match-up of Mike Tyson versus Bob Sapp?

Tito: Its great for the sport. Boxing fans will see that and whoa this mixed martial arts stuff might be for real. Even if Mike only fights K-1, it can still help expose MMA to millions of new people. And Don King coming in is great for everyone in sport too. Who else promotes fight cards like Don King? Everybody makes money when he's involved. Don King brings us to pay-per-view more easily and with better results. Hey, he's in this to make money, and so everybody will make money. This is exactly what we need to take the sport to the next level.

IF: Ok, lets wrap this up in two parts. First, is there anything at all that you want to say to your fans out there? Any message that you want to get out there?

Tito: All my fans that have been supporting me so far I had a lot doubters and a lot of guys who jumped on the bandwagon because I beat up on Ken Shamrock but when they found out that I wasnt fighting Chuck Liddell and said I was afraid of him, those aren't my true fans. The true fans knew that I was holding out because of likeness/image and, of course, money. And those are the ones that have stuck by me. Those are the ones who always said Tito, I'll believe in and support you no matter what decision you make, and when you step back in the Octagon, I'll still be there as your fan. And those are the true fans who always stuck by me. Those are the ones who I fight for and have true heart for. And for all the other guys they'll always be number one in my book no matter what, and thats with the straight middle finger! [as Tito flips off the microphone with both hands]. Those are the guys who always are waiting to see me lose. Those are the guys who are waiting for me to lose. Those are the guys who want to see me fall. But I'll guarantee you that Tito Ortiz will stay on top for a long time, so all of my fans who stuck by me will be standing on top with our hands raised. And those who are waiting for me to fall will be waiting for the rest of their lives.

IF: Last question, what message do you have for those people that will read this article who have never watched a MMA match before - boxing fans and people in the fitness world, for example?

Tito: To those people, please buy the pay-per-view on September 26th. Well be live at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. If you've never seen mixed martial arts before, you will see the best in boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling all mixed into one. Of course, you'll see myself Tito Ortiz fighting and you'll see the best ferocity and action of the night! In my fight you'll see a little bit of Mike Tyson, the intelligence of de la Hoya and the straight ferocity of Fernando Vargas. That's Tito Ortiz and when I come into the Octagon I'll never stop moving and I'll give everybody what they paid for a great fight and a great effort. I guarantee that no matter what!

MD: Tito, thank you for having us up here at your Big Bear camp. We definitely appreciate it.

Tito: No problem, thank you for coming. And of course, you may not be able to fight like the champ, but you can dress like the champ. Punishment Athletics check it out.

Again, we would like to extend a special thank you to Tito Ortiz and Team XFC for being fantastic hosts during our day at Titos Big Bear training camp

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