Tito Ortiz discusses MMA battle with WWE alum Alberto Del Rio, meeting Hulk Hogan and more
Combate Americas, the world’s premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts sports and media franchise, is gearing for a highly anticipated fight — with an unprecedented challenge — between legendary combat sports icons Tito Ortiz and Alberto El Patrón (WWE alum Alberto Del Rio).
Ortiz, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Fame member, former UFC light heavyweight champion and a pioneer of the sport, will square off with multiple-time WWE Champion, former Pan American Games Greco Roman wrestling medalist and former PRIDE MMA star El Patrón, in a live national pay-per-view television broadcast on Dec. 7 from Payne Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
Pro wrestler, boxer and MMA fighter Sexy Star Dulce Garcia will also be on the card.
Priced from $30, tickets for the event are on sale at Ticketmaster.com.
Ortiz and El Patron, who will face off at a 210-pound catchweight, have agreed to an unprecedented and historic “winner take all” title belt challenge.
If Ortiz emerges victorious in the bout, he will take possession of El Patrón’s WWE title belt. If El Patrón wins the fight, however, Ortiz will relinquish possession of his UFC title belt to his opponent.
“This is a one-of-a-kind, larger-than-life fight — one of the greatest MMA superstars of all-time, facing off with one of professional wrestling’s most decorated champions and an accomplished MMA fighter in his own right,” Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren said in a release. “On top of all that, these two legends are putting their belts where their mouths are. It’s the type of fight that comes around once or twice in a lifetime, and Combate Americas is going to deliver it to fans worldwide from the U.S.-Mexico border.”
One of the biggest pay-per-view television draws in MMA history, Ortiz (20-12-1) of Huntington Beach, California, has produced some of the sport’s most memorable moments while facing off with nearly every major rival in his weight class and defeating the likes of Ryan Bader, Ken Shamrock, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar.
Ortiz’s status in the sport has garnered him starring roles in three different hit reality television shows “The Celebrity Apprentice” hosted by Donald Trump and two different seasons of the UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter.”
Ortiz, 44, known as the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, is coming off a first-round knockout of fellow UFC Hall of Famer and former world champion Chuck Liddell in Los Angeles in November 2019.
In my audio interview with Ortiz, he talks Combate Americas, Alberto Del Rio, MMA, Hulk Hogan, Pro Wrestling, Bruce Willis, Movie, The Rock, family and more.
Born in San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico, into one of the most famous Lucha Libre family dynasties, El Patrón, who resides in San Antonio has blazed a trail to superstardom in his own manner, establishing himself as a force in three different combat sports — Greco Roman wrestling, American professional wrestling and MMA.
El Patrón, 42, is the only athlete in history to win two of WWE’s most coveted events — the “Royal Rumble” and the “Money in the Bank” ladder match — in the same year (2011).
Competing under his Lucha Libre name, “Dos Caras, Jr.” and training under former UFC and Vale Tudo champion Marco Ruas, El Patrón crossed over into the world of MMA, where he fought under the promotion of the former number one MMA franchise in the world, PRIDE, and earned all of his career victories by way of (T)KO or submission.
El Patrón (9-5) announced in October 2019 that he returned to MMA training and was intent on competing for Combate Americas.
He has since relocated for training camp to Glendale, Arizona, the home of former UFC star and fellow Mexican American Javier “Chunty Boy” Torres’ MMA camp, where El Patrón has been preparing for his MMA return with former Ortiz opponent Bader as well as with former UFC star and NCAA Division I All-American wrestler C.B. Dollaway, among others.
Since launching its live event series in 2015, Combate Americas has catapulted to the top of the food chain in the sport of MMA, consistently beating the television ratings of general market competitors in the U.S., and amassing millions of television viewers regularly across Latin America and Spain.
Combate Americas live television programming has also attracted almost an entirely new audience to the sport. According to Nielsen research produced this year, over 90 percent of Combate Americas’ television audience in the United States is comprised of viewers that do not watch general market MMA programming.
Also on the card
A featured women’s 118-pound catchweight contest sees former Lucha Underground world champion and undefeated professional boxer Sexy Star Dulce Garcia (1-0) against MMA upstart Marisol Ruelas (1-2).
Facing off in a Combate Americas world strawweight (115 pounds) championship showdown will be undefeated knockout artist Melissa “Super Mely” Martinez (6-0) and fellow world-ranked, ferocious star Desiree “Dirty Dez” Yanez (5-1).
Former World Champion Dani Barez (11-4) collides with fellow sensation Joby Sanchez (13-5) at flyweight.
Also, Gaston “Tonga” Reyno (8-2, 2 NC) vs. Angel “Tito” Cruz (6-4) in a 150-pound catchweight bout.
About Comabte Americas
Combate Americas is the premier Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise, rapidly becoming the number two sport after soccer, for Spanish speaking fans worldwide. The Combate Americas franchise includes live event and original shoulder programming on some of the biggest television, OTT and digital platforms in Spanish and English, including Univision and Univision Deportes Network (UDN), DAZN, ESPN, GOL, Pluto TV and Facebook Watch worldwide. The company also owns and operates a multiplatform media studio, La Jaula Studios. This event is not sponsored or affiliated with WWE or UFC.
Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, also the co-founder/co-creator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has been described by New York Magazine as “the marketing genius behind the UFC,” while Yahoo Sports has said he “knows more about the sport than just about anyone in it today.” With an unprecedented and cutting edge product and a blue-chip ownership and management team, Combate Americas is poised to break new ground and bring about a new era in world championship level MMA competition.
Broadcast on Univision and DAZN, Combate Americas recently announced an agreement with AXS TV.
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