Back in December, former WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio made his return to the octagon after a 10-year hiatus; however, it didn’t take long for former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz to get the victory, as the UFC Hall of Famer won the bout thanks to a rear naked choke.
After so much build and trash talk from the former WWE superstar, he wasn’t particularly thrilled over losing his first fight in ten years (Transcript courtesy of
MMA Junkie):
“I was very upset, and people are never going to know what goes on in the mind of a fighter or athlete after losing a fight, You have live another battle because you have to deal with the fact that you lost in a fight, that there’s a better man than you, that you trained so hard for so many months and that wasn’t enough.”
Despite the quick defeat, Del Rio feels good about the way he trained for the fight, stating that he gave it 100% even though it was a bit tough adapting to the cage after being away from the sport for long:
“But after processing the loss, I felt good about it because I trained hard, I gave it my all in the training camp. It was tough adapting to the cage and I think a lot of people don’t understand that it’s night and day fighting in a cage as opposed to a ring. It’s completely different.
“And all that time away from MMA and since MMA has evolved a lot when I used to fight in Japan. You could win many fights with just wrestling and ground and pound, but now everyone has a good base in wrestling, striking, and grappling. So if I would’ve came back and had more time to prepare, maybe the result would’ve been different. But I leave happy, I didn’t have any major injuries from the fight, I don’t think I looked bad against a legend like Tito Ortiz, and I leave mixed martial arts happy. I’ll just continue growing talent with Combate Americas and keep doing what we’ve been doing from the beginning.”
The Former WWE star states that he wasn’t impressed with Ortiz’s work inside the cage and could’ve won the fight if he had more time to prepare. However, despite his belief that he can beat the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Del Rio has no plans on getting back into the octagon anytime soon:
“I said it from the beginning, this was going to be one fight and that’s it,” Del Rio explained.
“There was a possibility because, as you know, people in Saudi Arabia are buying everything and they wanted us to bring Combate Americas there, specifically with me fighting on that event.
“They were putting down a lot of money and like “The Godfather” said, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. But that just stayed on the table, and since the beginning, I said I was going to do it so the company would keep growing. For me, to do my last fight was to take that stake off my chest from Japan since in my last fight I wasn’t training the way I was supposed to.’
“For this one I trained very well, but you know, Tito is someone with a lot of experience and me retiring for so long from MMA, being 14 years away from the sport that did affect me. But oh well, like I said, it was one fight and that’s it.”
Check out the full interview where Del Rio talks about giving up his WWE title, whether he and Ortiz are friends, and so much more!