Tito Ortiz' Return to Fighting Will Not Affect His Management of Fighters
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz’s return to fighting will not interfere with his management of other fighters.
Shortly after announcing his retirement from fighting following his UFC 148 loss to Forrest Griffin on July 7, 2012, Ortiz formed Primetime 360 Entertainment and Sports Management with longtime business partner George Prajin.
“Primetime 360 Entertainment & Sports Management, Inc. is a full service agency based out of Huntington Beach, Calif., that represents up-and-coming mixed martial fighters, athletes in all sports, and artists working in film, television, and music,” read a press release when the company was formed in August 2012.
Ortiz recently inked a deal with Bellator MMA to return to fighting and will headline the organization’s first pay-per-view event in November against former UFC titleholder Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Ortiz says his coming out of retirement will not affect his managing of athletes.
“It won't affect my manager career at all,” said Ortiz on a recent media conference call. “I'm not the only one running Primetime 360. (George Prajin is) one of my partners, and we've got a couple of other people that work with us closely and diligently as they possibly can.”
The first client Primetime 360 signed was Invicta featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino, formerly known as Cris Santos.
“Cris is going to continue to be champion, and continue to be dominant by being the baddest woman on the planet Earth and the number one pound-for-pound woman on this Earth,” said Ortiz. “We got a great team behind us with the trainers, with the management, with the PR group. Everything we're going to do we're going to continue doing.”
While competing in the UFC, Ortiz ran a clothing company and did some acting, among other things. He’s used to multitasking.
“It's not going to be any downside at all, I don't think. I've been running Punishment Athletics since the beginning of 1999 while I was fighting,” he said. “You can't run a business on your own. You have other people that bring in the attributes of being the best you can possibly be and that's what I'm going continue doing.
“I'm a workhorse,” added Ortiz. “People who worked with me in the last company that I worked with, I was the workhorse. I was always on time for every meeting. I was pushing the company as hard as I possibly could, pushing the brand of mixed martial arts as hard as I possibly could. And I’ll continue doing exactly the same thing.”
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