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Steven Marrocco: If we’re even going to talk about excuses, we have to go to the very source of dubious explanations post-fight and otherwise, the reason we cringe and sharpen our Internet pitchforks when a fighter begins a sentence with, “I don’t want to make excuses.”
At this point, I don’t think Tito Ortiz even attempts to use that softener when, after just about every single fight, he details the injuries he sustained before he stepped into the cage.
If not for the syntactic surprises, an Ortiz press conference is easily scriptable. It goes a little something like this: “I came into this camp with a broken (insert malady here), but I overcame it with my heart and will and determination, and I doubt you all could do the same if you’d been through as many surgeries as me, my back, I do this for the fans, Punishment Athletics, out.”
We’ve seen these over the past six or seven years of Ortiz’s career, to the point where we can’t begin to take them seriously. But there’s one that still stands out to me as the Mt. Everest of Ortiz excuses, and I think you know where I’m going with this.
Yeah, the cracked skull.
After a split-decision loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 106, Ortiz claimed to suffer this ghastly injury in training camp and “that’s why I had a black eye the whole time.” In a surprising display of solidarity, Griffin even stepped to his defense, which was nice, but didn’t quite put things to bed.
More: http://mmajunkie.com/2016/03/the-list-our-all-time-favorite-mma-excuses
