Spike
Launched	March 7, 1983 (as TNN) September 25, 2000 (as The New TNN) August 11, 2003 (as Spike)
Owned by	Network Enterprises, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of MTV Networks, wholly owned by Viacom)
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Slogan	Get Real
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Formerly called	The Nashville Network (1983-2000) TNN (1983-2000) The National Network (2000-2002) The New TNN (2000-2003) Spike TV (2003-2006)
Website	http://www.spike.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 241 (SD/HD)
Dish Network	Channel 168 (SD/HD)
Bell TV (Canada)	Channel 628
Shaw Direct (Canada)	Channel 584 / 268
G-18 N/Central America/Caribbean	4040 V / 29270 / 3/4 Channel 170 (Transponder 17)
AMC-11 N/Central America/Caribbean	4060 H / 29270 / 3/4 Channel 530/930 (Transponder 18)
Cable
Rogers Cable (Canada)	Channel 279
Verizon FiOS	Channel 54 (SD) Channel 554 (HD)
Available on most cable systems	Check Local Listings for channels
IPTV
AT&T U-verse	Channel 145 (SD) Channel 1145 (HD)

Spike (formerly Spike TV) is an American cable television channel. It launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network (TNN), a joint venture of WSM, Inc. (a subsidiary of National Life and Accident Insurance Company) and Group W Satellite Communications; Gaylord Entertainment Company acquired the channel a few months later. After several changes of ownership and name, Spike currently operates as part of MTV Networks, owned by Viacom.

Spike is available in 98.7 million American homes.^[1] It features re-runs of popular shows such as CSI, CSI: NY, Unsolved Mysteries, and The Ren and Stimpy Show, along with various original programs and movies, all targeting males 18-34. It is also the home of Impact Wrestling, the flagship show of professional wrestling organization Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. As of 2006, Spike's viewership was almost half women (45%), although many of them are reported to be watching it with male partners or family members, or were watching the CSI franchise.^[2] The average age of the channel's viewers was 42 years old.

In October 2007, Kevin Kay was appointed network president after being executive vice president and general manager of the channel for the previous two years.^[3] The post had been vacant since December 2006.^[4]

Precursors[link]

The Nashville Network era (1983–2000)[link]

Spike was originally launched on March 7, 1983 as The Nashville Network (TNN), a country living and country music-themed television channel, from the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park near Nashville, Tennessee. Country Music Television (CMT), founded by Glenn D. Daniels, beat TNN's launch by two days, robbing them of the claim of "first country music cable television network." TNN's flagship shows included Nashville Now, The Statler Brothers Show, American Sports Cavalcade, and Grand Ole Opry Live. Nashville Now and the Grand Ole Opry were broadcast live from Opryland USA.^[5][6] The Gaylord Entertainment Company purchased TNN and the Opryland properties in the latter half of 1987. Much of TNN's programming (except for its sports) during the Gaylord era was originally produced by Opryland Productions, also owned by Gaylord Entertainment.^[7] From 1983-1992, all of TNN's auto racing and motor sports coverage was produced by Diamond P Sports. Starting in 1993, TNN started having their NASCAR coverage produced by World Sports Enterprises, and the American Speed Association coverage produced by Group 5 Sports, while Diamond P continued to produce most of the rest of the racing coverage. Programming included variety shows, talk shows, game shows, outdoor shows (such as hunting and fishing), and lifestyle shows; all centered in some way around country music or the country style of living.^[8] Some of TNN's popular on-air talent included local Nashville media personalities Ralph Emery,^[9] Dan Miller, Charlie Chase, and Lorianne Crook, as well as established stars such as country music singer Bill Anderson and actresses Florence Henderson and Dinah Shore. By 1995, TNN was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which owned CBS; two years later, Westinghouse bought CMT, TNN's chief competitor. In 1998, the channel dropped its "The Nashville Network" moniker and shortened its official name to the simpler TNN, and ownership shifted to Viacom in the late 1990s after its acquisition of CBS Corporation, Westinghouse's successor.^[10] TNN subsequently relocated its headquarters to New York City from Nashville and folded into Viacom's MTV Networks division.

The National Network, The New TNN and the WWE era (2000–2003)[link]

On September 25, 2000, Viacom sensed redundancy among its TNN and CMT channels when it merged them into its MTV Networks unit. Hence, the company decided to refocus TNN, and in the process the channel dramatically scaled back its country-western trappings and changed its name to The National Network.^[5][11]

The network's name change also triggered a significant programming change in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience than the channel's original constituency of rural/working-class Southern whites. This change was catalyzed by Viacom's acquisition of the rights to World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) programming, including its flagship show RAW Is War. Football also became more prominent on the network, as it began airing games of the original Arena Football League (AFL) with Eli Gold as an announcer. The National Network was also one of three networks to air games of the ill-fated XFL (NBC and UPN being the other two). As part of its contract, TNN had the rights to a late Sunday afternoon game each week except for the first week, when UPN aired the afternoon game instead.

In 2001, TNN aired the first opening-round game of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament when organizers expanded the field to 65 teams; it was produced by CBS Sports with CBS announcers. The game coverage moved to ESPN in 2002 and stayed there until 2010. As of 2011, it will be shown on a channel owned by Time Warner, possibly truTV, and will be produced by Turner Sports.

In 2001, TNN added off-network sitcoms and dramas such as Diff'rent Strokes,^[12] The Wonder Years,^[13] The Rockford Files,^[13] WKRP in Cincinnati,^[13] Newhart, Miami Vice^[13] and Taxi.^[13][14] It also became the first channel to air Mad TV off-network. These moves went unnoticed for the most part, due to TNN's lack of popularity. By this time, all country-western programming had been purged from the network; some of The Nashville Network's former programming was picked up by CMT, while other classic TNN shows were picked up by GAC, including eventually the Grand Ole Opry, which was pushed off to CMT and eventually removed by Viacom after they did not renew the agreement to carry the series in an attempt to infuse a more youthful schedule on CMT.

As time went on, the words "The National Network" were downplayed in promotions. By late 2002, the channel was known simply as The New TNN and had picked up more male-oriented shows, such as Baywatch, Monster Jam, Bull Riding, Robot Wars and Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was done in an effort both to further distance itself from its former country music-based identity and to trumpet an increase in original programming. Television critics at the time noted disdainfully that "The New TNN", when written out, technically stood for "The New The National Network", a pleonasm. Also, after more than two years in a non-country format, the network's offerings had long ceased to be "new" in any meaningful sense.

Spike TV (2003-present)[link]

In early 2003, The New TNN was rebranded as Spike TV, marketed as the first television channel for men. In early 2006, Spike removed the word "TV" from its name, referring to itself simply as Spike.

Spike Lee lawsuit[link]

The name change to "Spike TV" was supposed to be official on June 16, 2003.^[15] However, on June 13, film director Spike Lee won a New York Supreme Court injunction preventing the name change. Lee claimed that because of his well-known popularity in Hollywood, Enrique would therefore assume that he was associated with the new channel.^[16] Lee stated in court papers that: "The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what was obvious--that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee."^[17]

The channel had planned an official launch of its new name at a star-studded, televised party at The Playboy Mansion in mid-June. But due to Lee's injunction, the special—titled Party With Spike—had to be heavily edited and the impact of the event was considerably muted. During the lawsuit, even the name "TNN" was significantly scaled back, as logos and voice-overs referred to the channel only as "The First Network for Men".

Spike Jones Jr., son of comic musician Spike Jones, became a party of the lawsuit as part of Viacom's defense to protect the rights to his father's name.^[18] The suit was settled on July 8, 2003, and TNN was allowed to call itself Spike TV. In announcing the settlement, Lee admitted that he did not believe that the channel intentionally tried to trade on his name.^[19]

The name change became official on August 11, 2003.^[20]

Spike programming[link]

The name change was slated to coincide with an adult-oriented change in programming including original animated series Stripperella and Gary the Rat. Popular reruns such as Baywatch, V.I.P. and The A-Team, original specials such as The 100 Most Irresistible Women and imported programming such as MXC.

Spike TV hired cartoonist John Kricfalusi and a new version of the classic animated hit The Ren & Stimpy Show returned with new episodes in a series known as Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". After Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" was canceled, the channel started airing classic episodes that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s; it was named Ren & Stimpy: The Classics. It was TV-PG instead of TV-MA, though it aired late at night. The original Nickelodeon episodes aired on Spike also aired uncut.

The channel now airs a combination of original programming and reruns of network programming, including series from the CSI and Star Trek franchises, MXC, Game Head, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and Ultimate Fighting Championship programming.

It has scored some major coups in terms of its programming, receiving syndication rights to several Star Trek series (which was produced by another Viacom branch, Paramount Pictures), as well as most of the James Bond series of movies. It is also the cable home to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and the cult TV favorite MXC, an overdubbed version of the Japanese series Takeshi's Castle.

In the fall of 2003, Spike TV aired The Joe Schmo Show, a parody of reality television shows like Survivor and Big Brother. Its finale led to the channel's highest ratings at the time, and a second season aired in the Summer of 2004. In November 2004, Spike TV purchased the cable/satellite syndication rights to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for a record price of $1.9 million per episode. It joined the lineup on October 1, 2006. The promotion of the CSI franchises earned Spike the colloquial title "The CSI Channel" during this period because as much as one third (eight hours) of programming blocks were devoted to the franchise.

On November 18, 2004, they broadcasted reruns of the Nickelodeon TV series SpongeBob SquarePants at midnight, to promote The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie that came out the next day. They did this almost all night, as did another MTV Networks channel, VH1.

In September 2005, all WWE (formerly the WWF) programming on Spike TV left the channel as a result of acrimonious contractual matters between WWE and Viacom. WWE Raw moved back to its original cable home, NBC Universal's USA Network while WWE Sunday Night HEAT and WWE Velocity moved to WWE.com due to failure to gain a time slot for the shows in the United States. On October 1, 2005, wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling began airing its weekly program TNA Impact! in the Saturday night time slot formerly occupied by WWE Velocity. In WWE's last Monday Night Raw broadcast on the channel, executives decided to censor WWE personalities whenever they tried to mention Raw's return to USA Network, scheduled for the following week. In what turned out to be a hectic night of sound suddenly vanishing, WWE's commentators finally succeeded in slipping the words "Next week on USA" past the censors at Spike TV, most likely due to Spike TV executives finally giving in. Spike was the only channel to air first-run matches from all of the major wrestling organizations in the last 15 years (WWF/WWE from 2000–2005, WCW in 2001 (including the Raw/Nitro simulcast and WCW-sanctioned matches during the Invasion storyline), ECW from 1999–2000, and TNA from 2005–present).^{[citation needed]}

On January 18, 2005, Spike TV debuted The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), an original reality show based around the sport of mixed martial arts which proved to be a surprise hit. Spike later extended their UFC coverage with UFC Unleashed and UFC Primetime. On August 18, 2011, Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC, “The Ultimate Fighter” season 14 in September will be our last....Our 6-year partnership with the UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future.”^[21]

In October 2005, Spike TV debuted Game Head with Geoff Keighley, a weekly video game show, and later followed up with Fresh Baked Videogames, making them both part of their "Slammin' Saturday Night" lineup. Spike is also home to the annual Video Game Awards and the Spike Guys' Choice Awards. On February 15, 2010, TNA made a new deal with Spike TV which would move TNA Impact!,one of the channel's primary and most successful programs to Monday nights. The first episode aired on March 8, 2010, though Impact! was shifted back to Thursdays after reduced TNA audience on Mondays.^[22]

[edit] Fresh Baked Video Games

On January 14, 2006, Spike introduced the short lived video game review show Fresh Baked Videogames.^[23] Among the shows many comedy sketches, pranks and animations was its most popular segment "A Free Video Game for a Shot to The Nuts".^[24] In this segment male contestants volunteer to take a strike to their testicles for a free video game. The contestants are given options on how they will be struck, ranging from a sack of nickels, to a female soccer player. The most popular episode was episode four of season 1 which aired January 28, 2006. On this episode Swedish actress Annika Svedman dressed as an NCAA cheerleader and was selected twice by contestants to be kicked in their testicles by her.^[25][26] This specific segment of Annika Svedman emerged in early 2007 on YouTube and has since become an Internet phenomenon which has helped propel Svedman's notoriety. The best known version of the clip (usually distributed as a Flash clip) shows a cheerleading outfit clad Svedman (complete with pom poms) moving her legs back and forth before delivering a debilitating kick. The original clip was made and distributed on YouTube from a thread of the original segment. The clip has been continuously removed from the website for copyright infringement, however, the clip continues to reemerge due to its cult-like popularity.

Star Trek[link]

Spike has devoted large chunks of its programming time to the Star Trek franchise, to varying degrees. It initially featured Star Trek: The Next Generation heavily before introducing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 2004 and Star Trek: Voyager in 2006. All of these introductions were accompanied by multi-day marathons at some point, the Next Generation one including appearances by celebrities such as Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on The Next Generation. Deep Space Nine and Voyager had been relegated to late-night hours before their disappearances and The Next Generation had disappeared months before the syndication rights were bought by Syfy. The promotion of the Trek franchises earned Spike the colloquial title The Star Trek Channel during this period because as much as one third (eight hours) of programming blocks were devoted to the franchise.

A notable omission during the period was Star Trek: Enterprise, which the channel passed on (Syfy had proceeded to ease it into four-hour Monday night blocks). TV Land meanwhile had the rights to Star Trek: The Original Series, but Spike stated that there may not be sufficient episodes (only three seasons) to accommodate the kind of blocks it would like to air. Syfy and BBC America now have the rights to Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[27]

Spike has replaced that block with re-runs of Disorderly Conduct: Video on Patrol and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Get More Action[link]

After the Viacom/CBS Corporation split of 2005, Spike became a part of the "new" Viacom with its sibling channels in the MTV Networks family. In May 2006, the station was re-branded to accentuate its masculinity, including a new logo, dropping the second half of its channel name (TV) from the logo and adding the "Get More Action" tagline.^[28]

In June 2006, Spike debuted Blade: The Series, a TV series based on the Blade films. Rapper Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones played Blade in the series. David S. Goyer, writer of all three Blade films (and director of the third Blade film), wrote the pilot and served as Executive Producer on the series. It was canceled on September 28, 2006.

On September 5, 2006, the documentary film Metal of Honor: The Ironworkers of 9/11 by filmmaker Rachel Maguire, premiered on Spike. Metal of Honor is a documentary profiling the Ironworkers' efforts in the attempts for rescue and recovery on and after the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center site. The film proceeds through the Ironworkers' dismantling of the fallen towers.^[29]

On October 10, 2006, Spike presented the Scream Awards, the first awards show honoring horror, science fiction, fantasy and comic books. At the 2007 Comic Con International the Spike TV booth was awarding tickets to that year's presentation ceremony to the winners of their "Scariest Costume" contest.

In late 2006, Spike introduced the Late Night Strip consisting of original series that are sometimes inappropriate for daytime TV, with regular intermissions featuring women. The programming airs Thursdays and Fridays at 12:00 a.m., and includes MXC, Wild World of Spike, The Dudesons, and Game Head.

Throughout the summer of 2007, starting on Father's Day, the channel launched its first public service campaign, the "True Dads" national outreach campaign, with former New York Yankees player Don Mattingly spokesperson. This focused on fathers who demonstrated active roles in their children's lives, through public service announcements on the channel featuring both celebrity and ordinary fathers and websites such as Spike's own "True Dads" site, among other things.

In April 2008, Spike aired the commercial TV premiere of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and became the first basic-cable channel in the U.S. to air all six Star Wars movies. Viacom bid against NBC Universal and Turner Broadcasting for this opportunity, which is worth up to $80 million, despite each of those channel systems having previously aired at least part of the original trilogy. The same year, the channel began to broadcast a reality show based on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).^[30] On the weekend of April 5 and April 6, 2008, the channel aired the first three Star Wars films against the simultaneous TNT broadcast of all three Lord of the Rings films. More viewers watched the Star Wars broadcasts on Spike than watched the Lord of the Rings broadcasts on TNT.^[31] On April 7, 2008 the channel acquired cable syndication rights for the sitcom Married... with Children.^[32] Five new unscripted series were picked up for the channel's summer 2008 lineup.^[33]

Though the programming is still aimed at the male demographic (age 18–49),^[34] Spike no longer makes the claim to be "the first network for men". Presumable motivations for this include acknowledging earlier attempts at "male-only" television (such as mentv in Canada), and the risk of losing access to its Canadian audiences due to a claim of "duplication" (in terms of programming and target audience) contrary to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulations. Due to licensing restrictions and programming rights issues, Canadian viewers of Spike see alternate programming whenever Spike airs certain films such as the James Bond film series, or other certain series programs.

On June 1, 2010, Spike launched into the first crowd-sourced pilot episode contest with Scripped, a web-based screenwriting community.^[35] In this contest, Spike tested its ability to discover new talent from untested channels.

Alternate History[link]

On August 24, 2011, at 7 pm Pacific Time, Spike launched a new series called Alternate History, illustrating what the world could be like if past events were slightly different. The premiere episode documented what would have happened if the Germans stopped the Allied invasion of France and took over the world.

2011 rebrand[link]

On March 30, 2011, with the series premiere of Coal (a new series from 1000 Ways to Die creator Thom Beers), Spike rebranded itself with a slightly recolored logo and a new theme.

Website[link]

On October 15, 2005 Viacom acquired ifilm.com, which was initially launched in 1997. After acquiring the website for $49 million, it was eventually re-branded to Spike.com and provided hosting of user-uploaded videos.

YouTube was also launched in 2005, which later suffered a class action lawsuit reported to be over $1 billion. Spike.com's managing division claims that they only host videos they approve after they are submitted.^[36] YouTube Partner user Mike Mozart pointed out videos on Spike.com/iFilm that were uploaded from YouTube onto Spike.com, without permission as their descriptions are criticizing the video itself. He also pointed out that YouTube embeds hosted on Spike.com did not link back to YouTube, and any sort of video hyperlinking was forcibly disabled, contradicting YouTube's Terms of Use.^[37]

Rugby League[link]

In the fall of 2009, Spike showed live Australian rugby league semi finals games from the National Rugby League and also showed the grand final, as David Niu tried to bring professional rugby league (National Rugby League USA) to the United States.^[38][39]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

v t e Viacom Inc. Corporate directors George S. Abrams · Philippe Dauman (CEO) · Thomas E. Dooley · Ellen V. Futter · Robert Kraft · Alan C. Greenberg · Charles Phillips · Sumner Redstone (Chairman) · Shari Redstone · Frederic Salerno · William Schwartz MTV Networks MTV Networks Company, Inc. MTV · VH1 · Nickelodeon · Comedy Central · CMT · Spike · more... BET Networks BET · BET Gospel · BET Hip-Hop · Centric · BET UK Paramount Motion Pictures Group Paramount Pictures Corporation: Paramount Pictures · Paramount Vantage · Paramount Classics · Republic Pictures · United International Pictures (50% with NBCUniversal's Universal Studios) MTV branded labels: MTV Films · Nickelodeon Movies Other units: EPIX (co-owned with Lions Gate Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Television stations KGBS-CA (Tr3́s) · KHMM-CA (Tr3́s) · KMMK-LP / KMUM-CA / KMMW-LP (Nick Jr) · KZMM-CA (Tr3́s) Viacom Music Group Comedy Central Records · Nick Records Miscellaneous assets Viacom International · Viacom 18 (India)  · Viacom Entertainment Store  · Bellator Fighting Championships  · MovieTickets.com  · URGE See also Template:MTV Networks Europe · Viacom (1971–2005) · National Amusements · Gulf+Western Annual Revenue: $17.3 billion USD ( 10% 3Q 2005) · Employees: 38,310 · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: VIA, NASDAQ: VIAB · Website: viacom.com

Tito Ortiz
Born	Jacob Christopher Ortiz (1975-01-23) January 23, 1975 (age 37) Santa Ana, California, United States
Other names	The Huntington Beach Bad Boy, The People's Champ
Nationality	American
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	206 lb (93.4 kg; 14.7 st)
Division	Light Heavyweight
Reach	74.0 in (188 cm)[1]
Fighting out of	Huntington Beach, California
Team	Team Punishment
Years active	1997–present
Mixed martial arts record
Total	27
Wins	16
By knockout	8
By submission	3
By decision	5
Losses	10
By knockout	4
By submission	2
By decision	4
Draws	1
Other information
University	California State University, Bakersfield
Spouse	Divorced[citation needed]
Notable relatives	(son) Jacob Ortiz
Notable school(s)	Huntington Beach High School
Website	titoortiz.com
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog
last updated on: September 15, 2011 (2011-09-15)

Jacob Christopher "Tito" Ortiz (English: /tɪtɵ ɔərtɪs/) ^[2] (born January 23, 1975) is an American mixed martial artist and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion,^[3] having held the title from April 14, 2000 to September 26, 2003.^[4] Along with fighters like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, he was one of the sport's early stars. Ortiz ultimately became the biggest pay-per-view draw of 2006 for his fights with Liddell, Forrest Griffin, and Ken Shamrock.^[5]

Outside of his fighting career, Ortiz is the CEO of the Punishment Athletics MMA equipment and clothing line. He also owns an MMA training gym called Punishment Training Center, which is located in Huntington Beach, CA.^[6]

Early life and career[link]

Jacob Christopher Ortiz was born to Samuel and Joyce Ortiz. He received his nickname "Tito," which means tyrant, from his father when he was a year old. He is the fourth child of his mother, Joyce, who had three sons from a previous marriage.^[7] His mixed heritage (Mexican father, American mother) has been reflected in his ring entrances as he has borne both Mexican and American flags.^[8]

Ortiz began wrestling in his sophomore year at Huntington Beach High School under coach Paul Herrera, finishing fourth in the state high school championships as a senior. Ortiz continued his wrestling career at Golden West College, winning a California state junior college title. Following his stint at Golden West, Ortiz wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield. Ortiz trained with future NCAA, World and Super Bowl champion Stephen Neal.^[9]

Ortiz has had fights as a submission wrestler and competed in the 2000 Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling tournament, in the under 99 kg division. He finished in third place after winning 4 fights before losing in the semi-final to Ayaz qadir. During the tournament he defeated Matt Hughes, Mike van Arsdale, Rumina Sato and Rostyslav Borysenko.^[10]

Mixed martial arts[link]

Ultimate Fighting Championship[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

Prior to his UFC career, Ortiz was Tank Abbott's training partner. Ortiz's mixed martial arts debut was at UFC 13 in 1997. Still in college, Ortiz competed as an amateur for no prize money or contracts. He beat Wes Albritton in an alternate bout by referee stoppage at 0:31 of the first round. He was selected to face Guy Mezger in the Lightweight final after Enson Inoue could not continue due to injury. Ortiz lost the fight at 2:00 in the first round by guillotine submission. After returning with a TKO victory over Jeremy Screeton at West Coast NHB Championships 1, Ortiz fought top ranked fighter and UFC 12 lightweight champion Jerry Bohlander at UFC 18. Ortiz dominated the fight and won via TKO due to cut stoppage. Ortiz then avenged his loss to Mezger at UFC 19 by TKO. Ortiz's post fight antics towards Mezger and the Lion's Den led to his long running rivalry with Lion's Den leader Ken Shamrock.

Ortiz has credited former UFC Heavyweight Champion Bas Rutten for inspiration during his early days. Ortiz said; "I looked up to Bas Rutten. Bas was my idol. People were just so scared of fighting him, he was like the man. I thought that was what I need to do now. If I train as hard as he does then one day I'll be as good as him and two years later look where I am, I'm on top of the world. I'm got to say thanks to him, (Bas) for helping me out by making me believe in dreams."^[11]

In 1999, Ortiz fought Frank Shamrock for the UFC middleweight (199 lb) title at UFC 22, losing via submission due to strikes. Following the victory, Shamrock retired and vacated the championship. The middleweight division was then renamed the light heavyweight (205 lb) division and Ortiz was chosen, along with Wanderlei Silva, as a top contender. Ortiz defeated Silva for the vacant light heavyweight title at UFC 25 via unanimous decision. He went on to defend the light heavyweight belt a record five times in the following three years, defeating Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Elvis Sinosic, Vladimir Matyushenko and Lion's Den head Ken Shamrock.

At UFC 44, after a near year-long layoff from the sport, Ortiz fought the new interim light heavyweight champion Randy Couture, who had defeated Chuck Liddell for the interim title at UFC 43 in September 2003. Couture defeated Ortiz via unanimous decision. The loss ended Ortiz's near three and a half year title reign, which is still the longest light heavyweight championship reign since the title's inception in 1997. Following his loss to Couture, Ortiz faced Chuck Liddell at UFC 47, losing by second round knockout. After six months off, Ortiz returned and took a unanimous decision victory over newcomer Patrick Côté at UFC 50 and a split decision over Vitor Belfort at UFC 51.

In February 2005, Ortiz took time away from the UFC and was offered deals with several promotions, including PRIDE Fighting Championships and the Don King-backed World Fighting Alliance, but none came to fruition. Ortiz opted to try his hand at professional wrestling, signing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a guest referee.^[12]

In November 2005, UFC president Dana White announced Ortiz and Ken Shamrock would coach The Ultimate Fighter 3 reality TV series on Spike TV, which premiered in April 2006. Ortiz's first fight in his return occurred at UFC 59 on April 15, 2006, against previous The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner Forrest Griffin. Ortiz won via split decision. His next fight was against UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock at UFC 61 on July 8, 2006, a match which was to conclude a main rivalry on The Ultimate Fighter 3. Shamrock lost in the first round by TKO due to strikes (elbows) by Ortiz. On August 25, 2006, at the UFC 62 weigh-ins, Dana White announced a rematch between Ortiz and Shamrock for October 10, 2006, on Spike TV, as the main event of Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3: The Final Chapter. Ortiz beat Shamrock for the third time in this fight, which was stopped in the first round due to strikes. On December 30, 2006, at UFC 66, Ortiz's rematch with Chuck Liddell (for the UFC Light Heavyweight championship) ended in defeat via referee stoppage in the third round.^[13]

He then fought against undefeated The Ultimate Fighter 2 winner Rashad Evans on July 7, 2007, at UFC 73. The fight ended in a draw after Ortiz was penalized for grabbing the fence.^[14] Ortiz's last fight on his contract with the UFC was a unanimous decision loss to the then undefeated Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 on May 24, 2008.^[15] All three judges scored the fight 30–27 to Machida.^[16] Ortiz came close to submitting Machida in the third round with a triangle choke before transitioning to an armbar.^[17] However, Machida managed to escape and survived the round, winning a unanimous judges' decision. The fight concluded Ortiz' stay with the promotion as he chose not to re-sign, citing his frustration with UFC president Dana White as a major factor in the decision.^[18]

Outside the UFC[link]

After leaving the UFC, Ortiz was approached by multiple promotions, including the now defunct EliteXC, Affliction and the American Fight League. However, a clause in his old UFC contract forbade him from signing with or fighting for any other organization until approximately April–June 2009. Until his return to the UFC, Ortiz was considered the biggest free agent on the market.^[19]

On October 6, 2008, Ortiz underwent back surgery in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[20] According to his website, he had been experiencing back pain since his fight with Randy Couture.

On Wednesday, December 17, 2008, Affliction Entertainment announced that Ortiz would be part of the broadcast team for the Affliction: Day of Reckoning. Ortiz had said he would fight again in August 2009, but this did not occur.

Return to the UFC[link]

As part of his comeback to the UFC, Ortiz began training with his original Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo instructor Cleber Luciano a student of Royler Gracie. Ortiz originally briefly trained with Luciano back in 1997, when he was still a student at Golden West College.^[21]

On July 17, 2009, both Ortiz and Dana White stated that the pair had made amends.^[22] One week later, White announced that he re-signed Tito.^[23] Ortiz stated he is returning for a six fight deal he and White have worked out. White officially announced Ortiz's return in a conference call on July 31, 2009. White mentioned that "everyone wants to see Tito fight" and "Tito will retire in the UFC." Mark Coleman was named as Ortiz's opponent for his return to the octagon at UFC 106.^[24] However, Mark Coleman pulled out of this bout due to a second-degree tear of his MCL, and was replaced by Forrest Griffin.

Due to an illness to heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, Ortiz's fight with Griffin was promoted to the headlining event for UFC 106. Griffin won the fight via split decision, showing superior striking ability.^[25] Whilst Ortiz was able to secure takedowns in the first and second rounds, Griffin showed considerable improvement since their first fight and kept the fight standing throughout the third, leading to the split decision victory.

On December 5, it was announced Ortiz would coach the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter, with the opposing coach being Chuck Liddell. He was scheduled to fight Liddell again for the third time at the end of the season and later pulled out of the bout.^[26] On April 7, 2010, UFC president Dana White said Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 was scheduled to be the main event for UFC 115.^[27] However, on April 12, 2010, the UFC confirmed the main event for the card was Liddell vs. Rich Franklin.^[28]

Ortiz fought Matt Hamill at UFC 121.^[29] Hamill was Ortiz's first overall pick during Season 3 of the Ultimate Fighter. Ortiz lost the fight via Unanimous Decision (29–28 29–28 30–27).

UFC President Dana White hinted at Tito Ortiz's possible release from the UFC in a post fight interview after UFC 121^[30] stating that 'We all know what happens when guys lose four fights in the UFC'. There has been no official statement to confirm this however. On November 7, in a response to a fan via his twitter, Ortiz stated that he will again fight in the UFC.^[31]

Ortiz was expected to face Antônio Rogério Nogueira on March 26, 2011 at UFC Fight Night 24.^[32] UFC president Dana White said that he had expected to cut Ortiz loose from the UFC after his loss to Hamill, but decided to give him one last chance against Nogueira.^[33] Ortiz received a cut above his eye and a concussion while training for his fight with Nogueira and was forced to withdraw. He was replaced by Phil Davis.^[34]

Ortiz took on Ryan Bader on July 2, 2011 at UFC 132.^[35] Coming in as a heavy underdog with his UFC career on the line, Ortiz dropped Bader with strikes and submitted him using a guillotine choke at 1:56 of the first round, thus securing his first victory since 2006 and saving his UFC career. The victory earned him "Submission of the Night" honors.

In a rematch against Rashad Evans on August 6, 2011 at UFC 133, Ortiz lost by TKO via strikes to the body in the second round.

Ortiz faced Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on December 10, 2011 at UFC 140.^[36] He lost the fight via TKO in the first round.

Ortiz has stated that he will retire after his next fight, which is also the last fight on his contract. He has stated he would like to fight his last fight the July 4th weekend of 2012. ^[37]

Ortiz is expected to face Forrest Griffin for a third time on July 7, 2012 at UFC 148.^[38]

Professional wrestling[link]

In May 2005, Ortiz made an appearance for the professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). On May 15, 2005 at Hard Justice Ortiz served as special guest referee in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship title match between champion Jeff Jarrett and challenger A.J. Styles at the behest of Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes. Ortiz (in kayfabe) knocked out Jeff Jarrett with a right hook after Jarrett shoved him. This allowed Styles to hit his "Spiral Tap" for the pinfall victory and claim the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Jarrett.^[39] Ortiz returned to TNA on the October 1 edition of TNA Impact! and the following week he was revealed as the special guest referee for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Nash at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, in a segment, where he grabbed the number one contender Nash in a rear naked choke in order to prevent him from brawling with Jarrett.^[40][41] On October 23 at Bound for Glory Ortiz refereed the match for the title between Jarrett and Rhino, a last minute replacement for Nash. Ortiz (kayfabe) knocked out James Storm and Chris Harris, two of Jarrett's associates, who attempted to interfere in the match, and then counted the pinfall, which made Rhino the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.^[42]

Film[link]

Tito made a cameo in the 2008 comedy Zombie Strippers as the bouncer of the Rhino. In addition, he has a cameo in Jet Li's Cradle 2 the Grave, as well as co-starring in The Crow: Wicked Prayer. Tito also played a minor role in Turkish film Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, and briefly appeared in Korn's music video "Got the Life"

Personal life[link]

Ortiz was married to his first wife, Kristin, for 5 years.^[43] The couple has a son named Jacob together.^[44] In 2006, he began dating former porn star Jenna Jameson,^[45] whom he met on Myspace.^[46] He cancelled a November 12, 2006 appearance as the guest of honor at the United States Marine Corps birthday ball at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, when the Corps refused to let him bring Jameson as his guest.^[47][48] On November 30, 2006, in an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ortiz stated that he was in love with Jameson, that she was no longer acting in pornography, and that they were in a monogamous relationship.^[49]

Ortiz announced in August 2008 that he and Jameson were expecting twins together in April 2009.^[50] On March 16, 2009, Jameson gave birth to twin boys, Jesse Jameson and Journey Jette.^[51]

On April 26, 2010, Ortiz was arrested for felony domestic violence at the couple's Huntington Beach, California home.^[52] Jameson was photographed afterward that day with a bandaged arm,^[53] amid accusations by both parties against each other, with Ortiz accusing Jameson of being erratic and addicted to OxyContin, while she alleged that he was abusive. Since the incident occurred, both parties have recanted these allegations that were made toward one another, though as of April 29, 2010, the investigation by the police department remains open.^[54]

Championships and accomplishments[link]

[edit] Mixed martial arts

• Ultimate Fighting Championship
  • UFC Light Heavyweight Championship (One time)
  • Knockout of the Night (One time)
  • Submission of the Night (One time)
  • Fight of the Night (One time)
  • Most fights in UFC history (26)
  • Most successful Light Heavyweight title defenses in UFC history (Five)
  • Most consecutive Light Heavyweight title defenses in UFC history (Five)
  • Tied (Matt Hughes) for third most consecutive title defenses in UFC history (Five)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • 2002 Feud of the Year vs Ken Shamrock
  • 2006 Feud of the Year vs Ken Shamrock
• Black Belt Magazine
  • 2001 NHB Co-Competitor of the Year along with Chuck Liddell [3]
• FIGHTING SPIRIT magazine
  • 2006 Fight of The Year (vs Forrest Griffin, UFC 59)
  • 2006 Golden Gloves
• Sherdog
  • 2011 Upset of the Year (vs. Ryan Bader, UFC 132)

[edit] Submission grappling

• Abu Dhabi Combat Club
  • 2000 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships −99 kg Bronze Medalist
  • 2000 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships Absolute 4th Place

[edit] Amateur wrestling

• California Community College Athletic Association
  • CCCAA State Champion (1995, 1996)
  • CCCAA All-American (1995, 1996)
  • CCCAA All-State Selection (1995, 1996)
• California Interscholastic Federation
  • CIF All-State Selection (1993)

Mixed martial arts record[link]

Books[link]

• (2008) This is Gonna Hurt:The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion.^[55]

See also[link]

• List of current UFC fighters

References[link]