Issue 095

December 2012

FO GETS ACCESS TO THE ORTIZ FAMILY HOME, HANGING WITH JENNA AND THE TWINS, BEFORE GOING UP TO BIG BEAR FOR TITO’S FINAL CAMP, AND THEN WE'RE GONE FISHIN’... 

Huntington is special to Tito. It’s always been his happy home

Tito admits Huntington Beach has a special place in his heart, as the only extended period he spent away from the area coincided with his parents’ drug addiction. “We left Huntington Beach and moved to Santa Ana when I was five,” he says. “We moved from hotel to hotel, from car to car, we lived in people’s garages, we lived in trailer parks. And that went on until I was 13 years old. Then my mom got remarried and we moved back to Huntington, and I kind of got a second chance at life I think. That’s why I have such a strong affinity with this area. It’s always been a happy place for me, and my childhood experiences totally reinforced that. I’d never leave Huntington Beach.”

He adds: “My children have nothing to worry about. I just try to be there for them as much as possible, and love them as much as I possibly can. Taking care of my family, that’s my number-one thing. And I never want to be broke, because I know what broke feels like and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”

TITO ORTIZ - ICON

“It’s definitely a mental sanctuary, because you’re literally taking yourself out of society and putting yourself in a place where all you do is train,” Tito says of Big Bear Lake, the fight camp training base he’s used for the past 11 years. “All you’ve got to worry about is training, with no distractions and nothing else to worry about. 

“And then the altitude, of course, makes a big difference up there. It helps with your cardio and your recovery. You spend eight weeks up there and so when it comes to fight time all you know how to do is eat, sleep and train. That’s it. You become almost like an animal.”

Now up for sale, Tito’s Big Bear training center played a huge role in his Hall of Fame fighting career. Tito adds: “It’s up for sale now. I put a lot of money into it, it’s really cutting edge. But I have a lot of homes, and I only use it for training purposes, so it makes no sense to keep it. I don’t know about opening it up as a museum, it would be a real shame to not utilize it for its purpose. I’d love to see it used for a series of The Ultimate Fighter, that would be really cool.”