American Fight League Want Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz remains one of the most controversial figures in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. As long as that’s the case - there will be people who want to sign him up.

Since he left the Ultimate Fighting Championship, rumours have been rife about where “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” will turn up next. EliteXC looked the most likely destination, but the demise of that organisation has left the way open for others. Now, the American Fight League (AFL) are keen to snap up Ortiz.

BJ Santiago, the CEO of the Kentucky based promotion told mmajunkie.com:

“We're still very interested in Tito. I think it's more of a Tito decision right now. As far as if that's what he's saying, I haven't talked to him in a few weeks. We're interested.

We knew he was looking at EliteXC and going down that path. I sort of rolled the dice on that one and let it play out. But I'm super interested as having Tito as part of the AFL”.

The AFL have already made some waves, snapping up WWE star Bobby Lashley and leading female fighter Tara La Rosa, but signing Tito would be their biggest coup yet.

Tito Ortiz is without doubt one of the biggest box office draws in MMA - but he divides fan opinion. Ortiz was one of the stars who helped to build the UFC into the powerhouse it is today. Doubters point out that he is without a win in the last two years. Fans will point out that he has gone the distance with two of the UFC’s leading light heavyweights in that period. Love him or hate him - there is no doubt that people are willing to shell out to watch Tito fight again; making him a tempting proposition for any promoter.

Some have questioned the viability of the AFL, but BJ Santiago is bullish about the future.

He outlined his plans to mmajunkie.com:

“We're definitely going to have an event by February of 2009. We want that to be either some kind of televised event or pay-per-view event. One of the things we don't want to do as well - I'm not sure if you understand how the pay-per-view industry goes. You have two different ways of running an event on DirecTV. If you're the level of the UFC, you can run it on your own as a stand-alone. If you're a new-coming player, you have to work or broker your way through an already-licensed person.

So for example, Affliction, they had to go through another organization to run their first one. And they're going through Golden Boy Promotions to do their second one. What we're trying to do is position ourselves with the right athletes on the card. In our talks with DirecTV, they said that if you have a certain high-level - like for example if Tito Ortiz were to sign with our organization - well they know that Tito, Tara La Rosa, and Bobby (Lashley) would do well if marketed correctly. You wouldn't have to go through another company, per se. You could do it as a standalone. So profitability-wise, that's what we're trying to do”.