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| FSM31 Page 62: Review - This Is Gonna Hurt |
David West |
Book review:
THIS IS GONNA HURT
Author - Tito Ortiz w/ Marc Shapiro
Distributor - Simon & Schuster
Price - £17.99
Other info - Hardback, 206 pages
Release - Out now
Weblink - www.simonsays.co.uk
“I have a high opinion of myself,” says Tito Ortiz, but his autobiography provides a surprisingly open look behind the trash-talking façade. Prior to his appearance on The Ultimate Fighter’s third season, Ortiz looked like a big guy with a bigger mouth and a planet-sized ego. On the TV show, he displayed another side to his bad boy personality, proving an excellent coach who really cared about the young fighters in his charge, unlike his nemesis Ken Shamrock who looked like an egomaniac.
Coming from Tito himself, This Is Gonna Hurt is obviously going to be a sympathetic portrait but it reveals hitherto unknown depths to the Huntington Beach Bad Boy. He got off to a rocky start in life; his parents both got hooked on heroin and he wound up living in a car, after everything the family owned went on money for smack.
© www.titoortiz.com
Unsurprisingly, Ortiz went off the rails – joining a gang, stealing and doing his own share of substance abuse, from glue sniffing to pot and cocaine – though he never touched heroin. Getting into wrestling in high school helped, to a point; as long as it was wrestling season and Tito needed good grades in order to stay on the team, he studied hard. But once the competition season wrapped up, it was back to getting high, breaking into houses and going nowhere fast.
Ortiz gives a refreshingly honest account of himself. “Before just about every fight I’ve ever had, I’ve cried,” he confesses. “A lot of times I’ve thrown up. But that was just the fear leaving me.” He describes his introduction to the fledgling sport of MMA when he was brought in to help Tank Abbott train. “At the time I thought Tank was a pretty cool guy,” he writes.
“He taught me that if you talk the smack, when it comes down to fight time, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You talk the smack to make people either love you or hate you. Once they love you or hate you, then they’ll talk about you.” Later, when Ortiz needs money for a lawyer, Tank’s reply is “I ain’t your f**king dad!” and that’s the end of that friendship.
© www.titoortiz.com
The book certainly puts a different spin on Ortiz’s relationship with Dana White and the reasons why it took him so long to get in the cage with Chuck Liddell. White and Liddell have both always said that Tito was scared, but in his version he’s trying to stand up to Dana White and get some decent money for himself and all the other fighters.
“I’m a firm believer that all fighters should get as much as we can because it’s our asses on the line when we step into the Octagon. But Chuck doesn’t really care that much. He’s kind of a trailer park kid who likes to dress in thongs [flip-flops, not the underwear that rides up the crack of your butt] and shorts.” Now them’s fighting words!
As books about bruising go, This Is Gonna Hurt is never going to compete with the likes of AJ Liebling’s The Sweet Science or Pierce Egan’s Boxiana. But it’s an entertaining read and Ortiz is as frank about his failures and shortcomings as he is proud of his accomplishments.
DAVID WEST
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