"I remember looking him down thinking, 'you're gonna lose right now.' He wouldn't make eye contact with me. Would not have eye contact with me at all. He looked like a feared animal in the cage with a lion. He was gonna get eaten at this time. I know what I needed to do, see if Ryan Bader likes to get punched in his face."
Obviously no one actually likes getting punched in the face, but Tito Ortiz has a point. Was Ryan Bader intimidated by the former UFC light heavyweight record-holding champion Ortiz when they squared off at UFC in July of 2011? Many had felt "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" would be released had he been defeated by Bader, who was considered one of the promotion's brightest prospects at the time. Instead, the veteran scored the lone victory in the final six years of his his career over the course of nine fights.
Now retired, Ortiz keeps himself busy as a manager, most prominently handling former Strikeforce women's featherweight champion Cris Cyborg's affairs and negotiating her Zuffa release and subsequent Invicta signing. Do you think he's doing right by Bader in bringing up his thoughts on their fight nearly two years after the fact?
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