Tito Ortiz: From The Streets To UFC Legend Hall Of Famer Turned Entrepreneur (April Cover Issue)

On the April cover of The Rich Reporter, we shine a spotlight on UFC legend and Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz—an icon who’s never been afraid to speak his truth, take risks, and live life on his own terms. In this candid, no-holds-barred conversation, we dive deep into the battles that took place outside the Octagon—many of which were just as fierce as those inside it.

Tito opens up about the well-documented tensions and complicated history with UFC president Dana White, a relationship that helped shape the trajectory of MMA, both for better and worse. He also talks about the darker chapters—betrayals, financial thefts, and hard-learned lessons from those who took advantage of his trust.

But this isn’t just a story of pain—it’s one of evolution and healing too. Ortiz shares the powerful experience of undergoing stem cell treatment at CPI, where he had cells injected into his neck, and how that’s impacted his health and longevity. We also get into his entrepreneurial ventures, including the launch of his brand-new restaurant, a reflection of his drive to build something lasting outside of the cage.

In this raw, insightful interview, we also touch on faith, fatherhood, loyalty, and the friends who’ve stuck by him. Tito doesn’t hold back when reflecting on his political career—what he did right, what he would’ve done differently, and what the future might hold.

This is Tito Ortiz unplugged—unfiltered, unguarded, and unafraid to tell his side of the story. Let’s get into it.

BRIAN: Let me start by asking you this. So, when an athlete typically leaves a sport, it’s said that they usually get in some sort of financial distress. I believe the percentage in the NFL is like somewhere in 70%, with the NBA it’s like 60%. How did you transition out of the UFC and not get yourself into financial distress, or did you actually have a time period where it was a tricky transition and you went into some sort of financial distress after leaving the UFC?

 

TITO ORTIZ: Well, that’s kind of a difficult question because UFC fighters don’t make as much as an NBA player or so, you kind of have money management the right way. In the beginning, I learned that if I bought land, that was something that wasn’t made more of, and it was an investment to me. And at the same time, I really just had to focus on being able to take care of my kids. You know I got three sons, take care of my family, but making sure that I don’t overspend what was in my account. You know I didn’t get too expenditure on what I wanted to spend for the family, what I wanted to spend for myself. And don’t get me wrong, I like to have fun. I like to you know go out to the clubs once in a while. But at the end of the day, it was about my family and how would I make sure that when I’m in my 50s and 60s, to make sure 60s, 70s, even 80s, 90s, my grandmother lived to be 103, to take care of my family forever. And that’s just investing. I invested into myself. I invested into my portfolio of my future. And it was important and not overspending what was within my family. And don’t get me wrong, in 2020, things were hard because I lost four businesses because of COVID. I went through 2022, my house got robbed. They cut my safe out of the ground. It was $375,000 in the safe cash. People say, why would you have that much cash in your account at that time? I wasn’t sure what the banks were gonna do.

 BRIAN: Did they ever get caught?

 TITO ORTIZ: They did get caught, but they got turned right back around, got let loose because of the administration in it at the time. They robbed, I believe, 120 homes. I was number nine of 120 homes that got hit in 2022. And that’s one of the reasons why I moved here to Florida. It was just a situation where that I had to make sure that my family was protected, my kids were protected, and I was protected. When it comes to the situation, I’m gonna carry a gun everywhere I go. And in California, I had to.

 BRIAN: What do you carry?

 TITO ORTIZ: 45. Yeah, my buddies who were Sheriff of PD got to carry a gun. And I didn’t have a concealed carry, but we don’t care. Just to protect you, you need to have this. But once again, man, I love God. I don’t want to hurt anybody.

 BRIAN: Yeah, of course.

 TITO ORTIZ: I don’t need this. So, moving here, it changed everything. And once again, I had invested back into myself and that’s how I opened Tito’s Cantina.

 BRIAN: That’s amazing. During the height of UFC, when you had a little bit of money coming in during that time, did you have any, did you do any lavish spending at all? You know what, I’m gonna buy this and I’m gonna buy that. 

 TITO ORTIZ: A lot of it. Yeah. Yeah, 2006, one of the biggest years for me. Bought a Rolls Royce Phantom. Bought a 30-foot Fountain boat with twin 300s on it. You know, I bought it. It was a Porsche Panamera. And I’ll go out all the time. I go gambling in Vegas. I just lived the life that I wanted to live at the time. As a kid growing up that I always dreamed about.

 BRIAN: Right. And you grew up broke?

 TITO ORTIZ: I grew up with nothing. 

 BRIAN: Like nothing, nothing?

 TITO ORTIZ: I grew up in a Democratic Party, a Democratic family. That government cheese, food stamps, powdered milk. We lived in motels, lived in cars, lived in people’s garages. And I’m very thankful ’cause at the age of 13, life kind of turned around. My mother got remarried and I had another opportunity in life to do something different. And I got into wrestling my freshman year in high school and life changed because wrestling saved my life. You know, people see me as Tito Ortiz, the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, but my true name is Jacob. And in the Bible, Jacob wrestled against an angel, the angel beat him and saved his life. I found wrestling, it saved my life. I was very fortunate.

 BRIAN: That’s an inspiring story. Appreciate that. When you look on social media right now, you see the longevity community is growing and growing and growing. If you see that guy, Brian Johnson, he’s literally always going viral. So you’re seeing, you’re seeing so many things about stem cells and things along those lines and people trying to live to 120 years old. I know you had a ton of neck injuries and you got stem cells from CPI. Tell us your experience about that. Did it work? Would you recommend it to other fighters and other athletes and what did you go through after you took stem cells?

 TITO ORTIZ: Well, I questioned it in the beginning, ’cause I wasn’t really sure about it. You know, it was kind of witchcraft, people as they say. Blew my mind. I went there, it was first class from, I mean, and I’m from Southern California, so Tijuana, I would go there all the time. And it was ghetto back in the day. Now the money’s there. It is phenomenal. Just first class from staying at the hotel, beautiful hotel, the service through CPI, Scotty, you know, Lola.

BRIAN: Lola’s amazing. 

TITO ORTIZ: Amazing. Everybody there who just making sure everybody has a first class experience. But number one was the pain that I went through over the last, gosh, 15 years. You know, I’ve had four neck surgeries. I couldn’t sleep on my stomach. I couldn’t sleep on my left side. Once in a while I’d sleep on my right side, but then my left hand would fall asleep. I went to CPI last year in September and it took literally hours for the pain to go away.

 BRIAN: Within hours?

TITO ORTIZ: Within hours. When I came out of surgery, I no longer had pain in my neck.

BRIAN: Were you surprised by that?

TITO ORTIZ: I was blown away. I was blown away. This is something that I thought that would be, ohh it would be okay. But once UFC endorsed CPI, I knew that I had to take the chance, I had to do it. And I’m very thankful that Lola came up to me, actually in Miami, I was at a pool and she came walk up to me, she goes, “Hey…” I go, yeah. She’s a cute girl. I was like, all right, what’s up? And she’s like, “You had neck surgeries, huh?” Yeah. And then all of a sudden…

BRIAN: That’s how she found you?

TITO ORTIZ: Yep, and that’s how she found me. And she actually got me down to Tijuana and I was questionable. I mean, I was like, ehhh. Got right across the border, no problem. Got to the hotel. We’re staying at Hyatt, a nice hotel, across the street, five-star restaurants. Went to the hospital. Everything was like, this is not Tijuana. What happened? Tijuana used to be so much different. And I talked to locals there. They’re like, no, they wanted to change here. You know, before there was Federales everywhere. Now there’s Naval everywhere. On every fifth street, you see a truck with six guys with M16s, and there’s no more trouble down there. Money’s been brought in. They’re making sure they’re taking care of that city. And it was just happy to see a safe community. And at the same time, to get the experience that I got through CPI, I’m very thankful. You know, Scott is an amazing guy. I’ve known him for a long time before he even got into this business, but he’s saved a lot of lives. I mean, for me, I mean, I can now sleep on my stomach. I have no problem.

BRIAN: With one treatment, or do you have to continue treatment?

TITO ORTIZ: I have one treatment. I’m actually going for, here at the beginning of May, I’ll go for my second treatment, but it’s just kind of a follow-up. But in one treatment, it was mind-blowing. And then, like I said, having four neck surgeries, I had a T3, T2, T2, T1, T1, C7 disc replacement, C6, C7 fuse, C5, C6 fuse, and C5, C4 disc replacement in my neck. And to have that change that quick, I was just like, it was a life changer.

BRIAN: Wow, unbelievable. So the UFC fans… they truly remember the iconic battle between you and Chuck Liddell, right?

TITO ORTIZ: Yeah

BRIAN: What was the biggest misconception amongst UFC fans about that rivalry between you two?

TITO ORTIZ: Me and Chuck Liddell were close friends.

BRIAN: So you were actually close friends?

TITO ORTIZ: We were close friends.

BRIAN: Yes. But the perception was?

TITO ORTIZ: The perception was that I was afraid to fight him. That was it. It’s trying to say that I was afraid to fight him, that I was afraid of competing against Chuck Liddell. I was like, I’m not afraid to compete. But for us to compete as friends, I thought we should get paid a lot more money. And that’s the biggest thing, they didn’t want me to speak out. Once I started speaking out, then all the other fighters started to realize and understand like, wow, maybe we should start getting more money. But I did so much PR. I did so much work for the UFC at that time. I was doing it for free. I did everything. I would travel with Dana, I would travel everywhere. I’d do it all for free. I never got paid for it. And so that was like, we’re helping build your brand. And I was like, okay, is it about my brand or is it about your brand? I couldn’t realize it was about their brand, and that’s what they were building. And at the same time, it was just one of those things that me and Chuck going to compete against each other which we did three times. The first time I got pushed into it, I got bullied into it. The second time I wanted to do it, but then they ran me for, I think it was a week. Two weeks before the fight, I was here in Miami for a week. I was on Latino ESPY Awards, and it was a dry run, which means they brought me there for nothing. I took time out of camp to go do that, to help promote the UFC, and I was there for nothing. So it kind of threw a wrench in my unit. It was hard ‘cause I came back and I wasn’t feeling well, and all of a sudden I got sick, I had the flu. Two weeks later, I had to compete against Chuck Liddell.

BRIAN: Yeah, it’s a little tricky. What about now within the UFC? Is the pay any different from when you competed?

TITO ORTIZ: Pay is a lot different. 

BRIAN: They changed. 

 TITO ORTIZ: Oh, they changed a lot. They changed everything a lot.

BRIAN: Do you think you were the driving factor of some of it?

TITO ORTIZ I think so. I hope so. I know Conor McGregor, he was a huge change for it, but he was me 2.0. He did everything but he had social media. Back when I was, it was different. 

BRIAN: We had MySpace. 

 TITO ORTIZ: Literally, we had MySpace. That was it. There was no social media back then when I was in it. If I had the opportunity that Conor had or has, I would’ve been in the same situation. I’d have been the same person. But once again, I gave what I could at that time for the company. And for them to sell the company for $4.5 billion and for me to walk away and I still gotta be a blue collar guy, I still gotta work my ass off… but it’s a challenge, a challenge from God. God gives me a challenge. He will do nothing more than I can handle and no more than I can’t handle. So I’ll continue to work hard for it

.

BRIAN: If you were to go back in time, are there any beefs or any controversies within the UFC or outside of the UFC that you would change?

TITO ORTIZ:That I would change? Yeah, I probably should’ve never worn a T-shirt that said “Dana’s my bitch.” That was probably the worst decision I ever made in my career.

BRIAN:
Say that again?

TITO ORTIZ:
“Dana’s my bitch.” I probably should’ve never did that. I apologize to you, Dana. At the time, I was in a relationship, and she was kind of pushing a few things and I just got to a point where I was like, you know what, being bullied. I hate being bullied. I hate people telling me what to do. And that was my chance to get back. And I probably shouldn’t have did that.

BRIAN:
What was the fallout from that?

TITO ORTIZ: Fallout from that was he hated me. I’m a stupid guy. I’m the stupidest guy you’ve ever met. Then I came to realize that he put social media against me. I don’t know if he paid for it, I don’t know if he did it, I don’t know if he had people doing it, but they had memes of me. And don’t get me wrong, I mean, people get nervous when they talk behind a camera and they say some stupid things sometimes and not sure of the timing or you know the expression or the verbiage. And he would spot and pitch little small things. Yeah, he says I’m one of the stupidest guys. And you know what? I believe he’s correct. I was one of the stupidest guys ‘cause I believed that he would give me the honest truth of being a fighter. He would give me what I wanted. He would give me what would make me a happy fighter. And at the end of the day, it’s behind me now. I look in the rearview mirror. I look ahead in the windshield.

BRIAN: Right. Love it.

TITO ORTIZ: Right now, it’s about the future, what I’m gonna do for my family. I got three boys. My oldest son, Jacob, is at Arizona State University. Gonna be 23 here June 1st. Then I have my twin boys who are 16, just turned 16 on March 15th, and they’re my legacy. They’re everything that I worked hard for. I’m trying to do everything that my father didn’t do. And I’m very fortunate you know, my father passed away a year and a half ago. It’s a part of life. He was 86 years old, had a heroin problem, and my mother took me away from my father and gave me an opportunity. Now I realize that it’s not my fault and I can’t blame him because I never walked in his shoes.

TITO ORTIZ I’m a person of my own. I’m responsible for my actions.

BRIAN: Correct.

TITO ORTIZ: And I had to forgive him, and it was hard. I mean, if you ever watched a movie, it’s on Netflix, I believe called The Shack, you’ll understand a lot of what people go through in life. And I learned by watching that film and this is only like a year and a half ago when I watched the film I was like, wow. I get it now. And I had to forgive my father. I had to forgive my father ‘cause I never walked in his shoes, what he did. He taught me what not to be. And I’m very thankful for it because now I can be everything that I want to be. I’m not a victim of society. I really just work hard to prevail being the best father I can be for my kids. I mean, it’s important. My wife Amber, she’s my rock, my bedrock of our family. It’s nice to have a person who cares about my children as much as I do. And it’s not her biological children. Their mother stepped out when they were three years old. She stepped up as a mother when they were four and hasn’t left. Been with me since then. It’s been 13 years. And it’s just amazing just to see the support and the happiness that I get out of it, of knowing that my family’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna continue to work hard. I’m gonna continue to chase this American dream ‘cause it is alive and I will do it.

BRIAN: I love that. Now, as everybody knows, you actually had two different stints in the UFC. What are the biggest changes from the first time you were fighting to when you came back and you were fighting a second time that you saw within the UFC?

TITO ORTIZ: So the first time when I started fighting was 1997, and it was just a brand-new thing. It was something new. It was two men enter, one man leaves. Human cockfighting. Compared to 2006, when I came back to The Ultimate Fighter against Ken Shamrock, now all of a sudden, it was exposed to mainstream media. Like, it was exposed as one of the greatest events around. What Dana and Lorenzo Fertitta did for UFC. They made it mainstream. They made rules, regulations, weight classes, time limits. It changed the game completely. And we had an opportunity and I was one of the forefront guys to give the opportunity to push UFC to the next level. You know, there were guys like Forrest Griffin, of course. Anderson Silva, GSP. And as the years went on, it just got better and better. They just kind of refined how the business would work, how fighters would be, how they would be able to present themselves. And there were times guys were crazy, like Conor, he would lose his mind a few times. But if you got the attention, you got the satisfaction from other fighters or other fans of watching. You’re like, wow, this sport is for real. And it’s not just two men enter, one man leaves, human cockfighting. This is actually mixed martial arts. This is competitive competition, may the best man win type of thing.

BRIAN: Right. Now, there was a period of time that everyone knows that you entered politics, right? What are the similarities between politics and the fight game?

TITO ORTIZ: Oof. Some letters are… gosh. You gotta work within the lines.

BRIAN: Yeah.

TITO ORTIZ: That’s about the similarity I can give for that. The side effect of it is, a guy can yell at you as much as possible. You’re not gonna punch him in the face after the conversation’s over. And that’s what kind of hurt me. You know, when I got into politics in Huntington Beach, California, I was mayor pro tem, city council member. I got the most votes in Huntington Beach history. But once again, my thing and my ideas lined on a conservative mentality. You know, I care about my faith. I care about my freedom. I care about my family. I wanna take care of my community.

BRIAN: Right.

TITO ORTIZ: And there, that’s why I got voted in for. Then all of a sudden, I got pushed by the opposite side. They didn’t want me to speak about family. They didn’t want me to speak about faith. They didn’t want me to speak about our freedoms. And they almost destroyed me. I almost came to a point where I had nothing. If I didn’t sell everything there and move here, I probably wouldn’t have anything left. I probably would’ve lost everything. They would’ve destroyed me as they tried to destroy our president. It was just one of those things that I’m not a multi-multi million-dollar guy, you know? I’m still a blue-collar guy, still gotta wipe my butt off. And I’ve worked hard to get where I am. But I’m an honest man, you know? God’s been a huge part of my life. Since I’ve been here, you know, I really noticed what my family truly needs. It’s just prosperity. Satisfaction of being good humans in this country.

BRIAN: Now, going back to the political space, is there anything you would change about that time if you could go back?

TITO ORTIZ: I think I should have spoken up a little louder. I wasn’t sure, ’cause at the time, I would tell people I’m not a politician. I’m still not a politician. I’m just an honest man who’s trying to help out the community. I was the person trying to make our community safe. And it was actually I was the guinea pig, ’cause in Huntington Beach, it’s changed over completely all Republicans. It’s one of the most reddest cities in California. So I was the guinea pig. I was the person that actually spoke up and everybody started to listen. And I’m thankful for it. But I’m thankful for it too because it made me realize what was the best future for my children and that’s living here in Florida. You know, I’m here in Cape Coral, Florida, and my kids are safe. The community’s phenomenal. The police have a great presence. They’re allowed to do their job here. Crime is pretty much to a minimum. You know, there is petty stuff that has happened, a lot. But anything serious that ever happens, Cape PD’s on it super fast.

BRIAN: Yeah, that’s awesome. If you were to step back into the Octagon today as prime Tito Ortiz, what adjustments do you think you’d make stepping back in?

TITO ORTIZ: Really no adjustments. I think just as long as my body was healthy, I could compete with the top guys, no matter what. Just because at the time from 2003 to 2009, I went through a lot of problems. I mean, I had L4-5-S1 fused in my lower back in 2009, and from 2003 to 2009, I competed with ruptured and bulged discs in my lower back. And I still, I did the work. I did what I needed to do to make it happen. Injuries were my biggest faults, I think, but I still competed. Guys nowadays, they get a stubbed toe, and all of a sudden, they pull out of a fight. Back then, I got stitches in my face or, you know, back, neck, knees, I still competed.

BRIAN: Do you feel like in 2025, the generation has gotten a little softer?

TITO ORTIZ: On certain parts of our country, yes, the generation has gotten softer, a lot. You know, right now, weak men make weak times. And this is what happened. But I come from the Gen X era, where, you know, I started working at 11 years old. I was bait lines at 11 years old for fishing. I was a deckhand at 14 years old. And I was grinding it every single day. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to work hard. I wanted to make money. Nowadays, people get kind of coddled, and there’s an expectancy of this is what I deserve. I should have this. No, you gotta work for this.

BRIAN: Correct.

TITO ORTIZ: And I mean, that’s just my idea behind that. Because my children, I make them work for it. They gotta work for it.

BRIAN: What would you tell upcoming UFC fighters? How to prepare for the stress, how to deal with Dana White, how to deal with the medical issues that are gonna come along with it? What would you tell the up-and-coming fighters?

TITO ORTIZ: A lot of up-and-coming fighters, I think they just gotta do the work. They gotta do the work. They gotta make sure they do it the right way. Make sure they eat clean. Find hyperbaric chambers, altitude simulation machine called SEVAC. There’s one actually at ADEPT Application in Newport Beach, and it’s an altitude simulation machine. Assimilates altitude up to 22,000 feet. Ice baths. Once again, eating healthy, making sure of your surroundings so you’re not going out partying all the time. Sacrifice, you gotta sacrifice. You gotta sacrifice the world. I mean, I can’t count the times that I’ve had to sacrifice: birthdays, Christmases, New Year’s, Thanksgivings, my kids’ birthdays. I mean, there were times I had to sacrifice. I had no choice. I mean, going out with your buddies, going out to a club, it’s like, yeah, no time for that. It’s like, my job is to compete. I mean, I can even remember back when Korn was one of the biggest rock bands in the world. They’re like, “Tito, man, come on tour with us!”. I was like, “No, I gotta get ready for this fight.”  And at the time, I was the world champ. I mean, Limp Bizkit, “Tito, come on the tour with us!” I can’t, man. I gotta get ready for this fight. Sacrifice those small little things. Even when they come back, they’re like, “Hey, everyone’s in the Playboy Mansion, man! Come to the Playboy Mansion!” No, I can’t. Literally, I gotta put in the work. If I don’t put in the work, somebody else is putting in the work.

BRIAN: 100%, all the time. If you were to go back to the UFC now, in this era, who would you wanna fight right now? Do you have any particular people you’re “I could take that guy on”?

TITO ORTIZ: Guys compete now, at the light heavyweight division, at my prime, guys like Alex Pereira, super tough. The Russian who just beat him, that guy would be a problem, just because his striking’s really good and his wrestling’s really good. But Alex Pereira’s takedown defense was phenomenal. Like I said, I think it’s just a different era right now of guys that are competing compared to when I competed. The guys are a lot more well-rounded. They’ve been doing it a lot younger. When I started fighting at 22 years old, didn’t do jiu-jitsu, didn’t do boxing, didn’t do kickboxing. All I did was wrestle. And all of a sudden, I started learning more and more. And when I first won the world title in 2000, I was competing a year and a half. I knew a little bit of jiu-jitsu. I think I was a white belt in jiu-jitsu. I knew a little bit of striking. So through my whole career, I was always learning. I was getting better and better. It was all the way up to about 2011, 2013, 2014. Those were my best times. Those were the times that actually I was very well-rounded. Very, very well-rounded. I mean, at the time I was 39. I was at the end of my career. And it’s just hard because I was able to push myself for such a long time. 25 years of competing in mixed martial arts, and to be as successful as I have. I’m just thankful God gave me the opportunity to do the things that I have, to inspire people to be better, not just in fighting, but just in life in general. People come here in my restaurant, Tito’s Cantina, they come up like, “You changed my life. You made me want to be a better man.” and that satisfies me ’cause I know I’m doing the right thing, not only as a fighter, but just as a person.

BRIAN: Love that. Now, since leaving the UFC, how many businesses have you started, been a part of, and what’s the most profitable business you’ve been a part of?

TITO ORTIZ: Well, number one, UFC. I made the most money I’ve ever had in my life. Number two would have to be used cars. I had Tito Ortiz’s wholesale business out of Fontana. I worked for Manheim and I was doing almost a million a year. Like, first year we did a million, second year we did 1.5, third year we were doing almost 2.5 but then my partners were stealing from me. And two things I hate: a liar and a thief. You lie to me, eh, shame on me. But steal from me? I can’t do that. Stealing money? I hate thieves. I just can’t do it. Acting was decent. I made okay money. Money I made really good money on was actually doing. I believe it was motivational speaking. Just talking about my life, talking about how I got to this point. I did a lot of stuff for free when I went to Iraq from 2006 to 2011 for the USO. Got an opportunity to speak to a lot of our soldiers, just through hard work and dedication, just getting through the grind. I had my supplement company, which once again, I think the business wasn’t run right. I didn’t make a lot of money out of it, but it was okay. Doing the small films in Hollywood was great, all the way up to about 2022, 2023. And just ’cause my political views didn’t align with them. I get it, it’s okay. I’m fine with it. It’s not like I’m trying to say I’m the greatest actor which I’m not. It’s a learning process. You just gotta do it over and over and over again. You prepare through those things of making yourself vulnerable in certain opportunities. And that’s what acting is. You gotta be so vulnerable. You gotta be able to do things that people won’t expect you to do.

BRIAN: Now, on your business journey and your entrepreneurial journey, you’ve had people steal from you multiple times?

TITO ORTIZ: Yeah.

BRIAN: Do you have a dollar amount to what people have stolen from you off the top of your head?

TITO ORTIZ: 100%.

BRIAN: Would you know the dollar amount, like exactly what it is?

TITO ORTIZ: It took about a week, but yes.

BRIAN: Something you say or you’d rather…

TITO ORTIZ: Well, I mean, one situation here at my restaurant.I think it was $598 and it was just skimming off the top. And I had the person arrested in my restaurant. With employees. With customers. Yeah, to make a statement. Don’t do that here. If you need something, ask me. I’ll give it. I’m a giving person. If you ask for it, okay, you’re going through problems, I’ll get it back, no matter what. And there’s a lot of other times, I mean, going back to the car business, you know, it was $40 to $50,000. And it hurt my heart ’cause I trusted these guys with everything.But they used my name. Got to a point where I was just like, “All right. I’m out.” What do you mean, “you’re out”? I’m out. We’re signing out. Checking out. I’m done. “How can you do that, man? We’re making millions.” Yeah, but you guys are stealing $20,000 to $30,000 now. When I was gonna make $20 to $40 million, you guys were stealing $100,000 to $200,000. I can’t do that. If I can’t trust somebody I can hang with, I won’t be a part of it.

BRIAN: What would you say the best part of being an entrepreneur is, and then the worst part you’ve experienced about being an entrepreneur?

TITO ORTIZ: Best part is the satisfaction knowing that I can do it myself. Of having that happy feeling of going, “You know what, Tito, you’re gonna do it.” And I just watched something recently with Ice Cube. He says, “If you’re gonna be an entrepreneur, you wanna push something into it. It’s gonna take you five years.” And it motivated me a lot because I’ve been in this now for a year and a half. And there’s challenges, you know, getting up and doing it every single day, making sure everybody’s doing the right thing, making sure we have the right employees, making sure the numbers match. But I realized that, you know what it does take five years. Because through my career of everything I’ve ever done, I got up to a three-year point, four-year point. I was successful automatically. Then all of a sudden, you get to that four to five year, and there’s little small gaps. You lose a little bit of money in little small things, and you get a little lost hope. You realize you just gotta push through it. And I was able to push through it. On the other side, what were the worst things? Gosh. Worrying about taking care of my kids. Worrying about paying my bills. Having the frustrations and living in a negative mentality. And I catch myself super fast. I’m thankful for social media because there’s entrepreneurs that actually speak out and say things about this. If you dwell upon negativity, it’s gonna indulge your whole life. If you stop it and say, “Nope. We’re gonna stop it right here. We’re gonna reset. We’re gonna do this. I wanna think positive about this.” That’s what has helped me a lot. Because there are times that I go back to 2022 when I got robbed for $375,000. That was a big chunk of my savings. I didn’t know what I was gonna do. And I got to a point where I was like, “What do I do?” You know what I did? I prayed. I prayed. Then all of a sudden, I got a fight with Anderson Silva for Triller, and I made a big chunk of money. It was like this is acceptable. This is something that now I completely believe in, not just for myself, but for the feeling. Knowing that I’m gonna do something great for my family. To be able to provide for my family  ’cause I want to be a provider. I’ve always been a provider. And that’s probably one of the worst things or the hardest things to think about is not being able to provide for the family. Scary. Yeah, it’s pretty scary. It’s really scary. Just to then go, “Yeah, I worked so hard to get what I have,” and everything taken away. Now I gotta restart again. That’s life. Life goes up and it goes down. It goes up and it goes down. And I think it’s just a challenge from God to understand: how can you prevail? I’m gonna give you only as much as you can handle. Yeah. And I’ll give you enough so you can handle it.

BRIAN: Right.

TITO ORTIZ: And I’m thankful for it. Very.

BRIAN:
Awesome. Hey, thank you so much, man. Incredible answers. We appreciate it.

TITO ORTIZ: Yes, sir.

BRIAN: That was great. I love it.

Tito Ortiz is more than a fighter—he’s a survivor, a father, a businessman, and a man who’s constantly evolving. Through triumphs, trials, and transformation, he’s stayed true to himself, even when the world was against him. Whether it’s rebuilding his body with cutting-edge science, opening a new chapter with his restaurant, or reflecting on the political spotlight he once stood in, Tito shows that his fight has always been about more than wins and losses—it’s about legacy. After this conversation, one thing’s clear: Tito Ortiz isn’t done writing his story, not by a long shot.