Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz was first married to Kristin, and the marriage lasted for 5 years.

After his separation with Kristen, he started a relationship with Jenna Jameson. He had twins though this relationship. The couple is now separated.

Tito Ortiz is currently dating Amber Nichole Miller. Tito runs his own sportswear line ‘Punishment Athletics Enterprises’.

Tito Ortiz was born Jacob Christopher Ortiz in Huntington Beach, California on January 23, 1975, and lived there until he was five. Thereafter, he moved to Santa Ana, California along with his family.

His father, Samuel Ortiz, is of Mexican descent and mother, Joyce Ortiz, is an American, and that makes him half-Mexican and half-American. He was born Jacob Christopher but his father nicknamed him Tito. He has been known as Tito since then.

Ortiz is youngest of the four sons born to his parents. His parents were drug-addicts, and that made his childhood rough and traumatic.

With parents addicted to heroin, Ortiz also turned to drugs and got caught in the gang culture. He used drugs like cocaine and PCP, and was often placed in Juvenile centers.

Even so, his determination to soar to the sky made him choose martial arts over his drug addiction. He was 13, when his parents got divorced and he moved back to Huntington with his mother.

During his sophomore year, Tito started wrestling and ended up winning a CIF championship at 189 pounds, and finished fourth in the state tournament as a senior.

After he met Paul Herrera, he joined the ‘Golden West College’ and started his training. He became a California Junior College State Champion for two consecutive years

He then transferred to California State University at Bakersfield where he continued wrestling but not full-time. Ortiz also trained with UFC fighter and fellow college wrestler, Tank Abbott.

He continued his training till he made his professional debut at UFC 13 in 1997.

Ortiz was still in college when he made his debut at UFC 13. He competed as an amateur for no prize money or contract, but destroyed his opponent Wes Albrittione. However, he lost his next match to Guy Mezger in the Light Heavyweight final.

After that defeat, Tito went on winning his next three contests, including a UFC 12 Light Heavyweight Tournament Champion Jerry Bohlander at UFC 18 and an avenging win against Guy Merzger via first round TKO at UFC 19.

It was customary for the impudent and Ortiz to wear his t-shirts with quotes that disrespected his opponents. After defeating Guy Mezger he wore a t-shirt that read, ‘Gay Mezger is my Bitch’ while he raised the infamous finger gesture towards a bunch of his opponent’s supporters.

This gesture by Ortiz infuriated Ken Shamrock, team’s leader, and that became the reason behind their long running rivalry.

In 1999, he lost to Frank Shamrock for UFC Light Weight Championship at UFC 22.