I’m sure most of you don’t remember Tito’s title reign or his rivalry with the Lions Den (post prime Ken Shammy), but it was a spectacle back in the day... Tito like Conor could sell a fight. He was boisterous, obnoxious, and absolutely lacked a respectful bone in his body. Personally I didn’t see it as bravado, coming from a TMA and military background mutual respect to me should be a necessity in competition... anyway, moving on, I wanted to see HBBB get KO’d dead by Chuck, Wandy or Vitor, but we all know he epically ducked certain fights while running his mouth with the belt. That being said at least he stayed active and
defended unlike some of his more current successors...
Fast forward and he finally got soundly beat by Randy and then Chuck cashed the check Tito wrote earlier by highlight reel KO. Tito then went on a good win streak beating Ken a few times, Vitor and a green Forrest Griffin setting up the hematch with Chuck... we all know how that went.
From 2006-2014 Tito went on a hellacious seven year (2695 day) 1-7-1 skid. He was competitive is some of the early fights that ended his UFC stint, but was humiliated in a few of those loses getting finished. Unfortunately Tito always had an excuse for losing, “cracked skull”, or “I went out on my shield like a warrior” most notably “it is what it is” became Tito’s mantra long before countless other fighters have adopted this nonsensical phrase.
By this time I felt bad for Tito, karma had come full circle and then some. the guy... let’s face it hasn’t had an easy road, self sabotage at times yes... he got wrapped up having kids with Jenna and his personal life became a fish bowl for others to criticize and chastise him... Actually seeing him get some of his self respect back by winning some fights in Bellator and get his personal life in order made me happy for the guy. Even seeing him beat a geriatric Chuck seemed long overdue for Tito, even I felt maybe he deserved some redemption...
I changed my mind however about a nanosecond after he opened his mouth post fight press conferences...lol