[autotag]Tito Ortiz[/autotag]’s submission win over [autotag]Alberto El Patron[/autotag] only stood as a no contest for a couple days. Now his victory has been restored.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation released a statement to MMA Junkie on Friday saying Ortiz’s win in the “Combate Americas: Tito vs. Alberto” main event from this past December is back on the books.
“A urine sample provided by Jacob ‘Tito’ Christopher Ortiz on Dec. 7, 2019, at the Combate Americas MMA event showed a potentially disqualifying substance that Ortiz claimed was prescribed by a physician,” the statement reads. “Pending the outcome of the TDLR inquiry into whether the substance was indeed prescribed by a physician, TDLR marked the fight results as ‘No Contest.’ TDLR confirmed with the physician that the item was prescribed to Ortiz. TDLR has reinstated Ortiz’s victory in the Dec. 7 bout.”
MMA Junkie on Wednesday was first to report that Ortiz’s win had been overturned. At the time, TDLR representatives would not comment on the reason for the no contest, other than to say the “results of the fight were changed pending further investigation.”
Ortiz (21-12-1) submitted El Patron (9-6) this past December for his 21st career win at State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
After news broke from MMA Junkie that his win had been overturned, Ortiz posted on social media that he would be exonerated, and that proved to be the case.
Ortiz, a former UFC light heavyweight champion and a member of that promotion’s Hall of Fame, dominated his 210-pound contract weight fight against El Patron, who is best known from his WWE career as Alberto Del Rio.
Ortiz finished El Patron with a rear-naked choke at the 3:10 mark of the opening round. The event was Combate Americas’ first pay-per-view offering. The week after the fight, Combate Americas said the event “did not fare as well” as it had hoped in terms of pay-per-view buys, particularly compared to the ratings it did on Televisa Canal 5 in Mexico.
The 42-year-old El Patron hadn’t fought an MMA bout in nearly 10 years. In the early 2000s, he fought for the DEEP promotion in Japan before a pair of fights under the PRIDE banner in 2003 and 2004. There, he was the recipient of a famed Mirko Cro Cop head-kick knockout, then lost a decision to eventual UFC fighter Kazuhiro Nakamura.
Ortiz, who turned 45 in January, returned from a second retirement for a third fight against longtime rival Chuck Liddell in November 2018. He knocked out Liddell in the first round for his first win against fellow former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer. That led to his contract with Combate Americas – a multi-fight deal. The fight with El Patron was his first on that contract.
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