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Oscar De La Hoya Claims Liddell-Ortiz 3 Will Be Biggest Payday of Both Men's Careers



Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz have been household names ever since both fighters dominated the Ultimate Fighting Championship during their prime, but their new promoter claims that only now are they about to be paid what they truly deserve.

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The pair first met at UFC 47 in 2004 where Liddell put on a sprawl-and-brawl performance for the ages, turning aside the takedown attempts of his onetime training partner and lighting him up with strikes on the way to a second-round knockout. The second encounter between the pair occurred in 2006 at UFC 66 while Liddell was the reigning light heavyweight champion. On that night Ortiz fared a little better, but it ended the same, with Liddell stringing together a combo of punches and dropping “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” in the third round.

The two will square off for a third time this weekend under Golden Boy Promotions at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

Despite their advancing age -- Liddell is 48, while Ortiz is 43 -- the pay-per-view event will provide the pair with their biggest-ever payday according to the founder of the promotion, Oscar De La Hoya. The former professional boxer was a guest on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” and told host Luke Thomas that Liddell and Ortiz will both pocket more than they did in their prime.

“The message I want to send here is Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, this trilogy with this fight taking place, they’re gonna make the most money they’ve ever made in their entire careers,” De La Hoya said. “It’s incredible. I’m actually mind blown by that, because I would have thought with Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell -- with two names like that -- they would have made a lot more money in their careers.”

De La Hoya also responded to criticism from fans that he is charging too much for an event which is headlined by two men who came out of retirement to fight plus a relatively unknown under card.

“We’ve been staging fights at a price point lately at around $80, $75, $69,” De La Hoya said. “Let’s give the fans a break here. Let’s give the fans a break and not charge those crazy numbers. So we came up with that price point, which I think is perfect. You’re gonna be able to watch some great, great fights with the headliner being a terrific trilogy, which I strongly feel that this fight can obviously go either way.

Tito Ortiz looks in phenomenal shape and Chuck Liddell, I call him ‘Chucky’ because he just keeps on coming,” De La Hoya continued. “This guy is just in incredible, incredible shape. I think that price point is perfect. People are responding very well. The indications are that it’s gonna do some great, great numbers.”

De La Hoya said the reason Liddell and Ortiz will collect their biggest-ever payday is due to Golden Boy Promotions’ pay structure, which De La Hoya claims funnels a larger portion of pay-per-view proceeds to the fighters.

“I’m a promoter that loves to share all revenues and whatever revenues are coming in, we’re gonna share it,” De La Hoya said. “It’s not about the promoter, it’s about the fighters. And that’s exactly why, for instance, Golden Boy Promotions has been very successful, because we treat our fighters the way they should be treated. The fighters are the ones who make these events happen. This is a great indication that, look we’re letting Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell participate in the pay-per-view revenues from top to bottom, they’re gonna be able to make tons of money. The best purse they’ve ever made in their careers.”
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