There’s a famous quote when it comes to Dana White promising someone a title shot, telling a story about a fighter, and plenty of other instances…
Now, there’s no shortage of examples of Dana being a great guy and going above and beyond for some of his fighters and fans, but there’s plenty of stories that go the other way too. Fans know how the promotion game works, and we know how exaggerations happen from time to time.
Dana White recently told a story about being on an airplane with Tito Ortiz, where the two started going at it, and in Dana’s version he was landing some solid shots on Tito. In regards to fight promoter vs fighter, landing a huge solid shots is a massive victory as far as we’re concerned. Dana White landing solid shots on a former champ? Kudos. That’s the type of fight where even if you lose, you still win. Although Dana made it sound like he won…
Here’s the Conan interview where Dana White talks about the altercation on the airplane
It’s a long interview so they go over a lot of other stuff too, but basically Dana and Tito got into it on a plane, Tito didn’t stop trying to choke Dana when Dana tapped out, so Dana started feeding shots to Tito, they were on a small airplane and all of that commotion isn’t a good thing so the fight got broken up.
“We were on a private plane on our way to Japan and it was my partners, the Fertitta brothers, myself, Tito Ortiz and our matchmaker at the time, Joe Silva. Tito and I were messing around, and he put me in what’s called a neck crank.
“I was tapping, and he didn’t stop. You can seriously hurt somebody in a neck crank, especially as big and strong as Tito is. So I just started blasting him in the ribs – started punching him in the ribs – and when he let go, I just jumped up, and it was just a full blown fistfight in the plane. We were literally taking off, and the plane was (moving back and forth), and the Fertitta brothers had to jump in and break up the fight.”
That’s Dana White’s recollection of the event, here’s what Tito said in a text message to MMA Junkie when asked if he has any memory of that:
“Yes, of him (saying) stop stop Tito!!!! I was manhandling him. But it was fun.” – Tito Ortiz
So there you have it, who are you going to believe was winning the fight between Dana White and Tito Ortiz?
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