Tito Ortiz thinks Forrest Griffin may be joining him in retirement after UFC 148

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

In one week, Tito Ortiz's fifteen year MMA career will come to an end in his third fight with Forrest Griffin at UFC 148. The bout is Ortiz's final one on his contract, and he's made it clear for months that he'd like to go out with this final fight, on his terms.

Griffin made a recent comment that he would "retire from life" if he lost this fight with Ortiz, a comment that brought a response from Ortiz in an interview this week with MMAWeekly.com.

"I'm excited for the fight. Forrest is a tough guy and I know he's training really hard," Ortiz said. "I just heard a little thing saying that if he loses to me he's going to retire. Well, it looks like he better put on his retirement shoes cause it's going to be an exciting fight and I plan on having my hand raised...

"Maybe it's time for Forrest to retire; maybe he wants to retire. Maybe he's just letting everybody know that he's going to retire. For me, I know I'm retiring, but it's an idea, I'm going out and I'm winning the fight."

Ortiz has won just one fight over the last five years of his career, a stretch that includes a loss to Griffin. However, while he believes he'll go out with one final notch in the win column, don't expect him to go back on those retirement plans if he gets another taste of victory.

"I don't want to do that. I don't want to overstay my welcome," Ortiz said when asked if he'd consider fighting on further with a win. "I want to leave on my own terms. If I blast through Forrest, and get it over quick, there's always going to be that guess, like yeah I still have it, but people got to understand it's not the fight I prepare for. It's the training I prepare for. It's the grueling six days a week, 5 or 6 hours a day, of over and over getting up every day and going, 'Oh god, what am I doing to my body. I'm hurting, my legs hurt, my neck hurts.' It's a mental strain on you."

"I think it's time to move onto a different chapter of my life."

Penick's Analysis: I think Griffin was just joking as he typically does on Twitter. However, considering the seeming disinterest he showed in his fight with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and comments that he's only fighting for the money these days, it's certainly possible that he could be making his last appearance in the Octagon next Saturday as well. I doubt it, but it's possible. It really depends on how the fight goes, how he looks in the cage, how he feels about continuing on afterward, and more. It's just a matter of what he wants to do from here.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_13721.shtml

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