On October 15th, ESPN will premiere Micah Brown’s “30 for 30” on the rivalry between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
When asked why he decided to create a film on who are considered to be the cornerstones of the UFC, director Micah Brown said, “Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz have always been two heroes of mine in the sport, especially as a fan of the UFC. So when I decided to make a film, I wanted to have a couple of things in it. I wanted to have the guys that helped grow the sport and these two guys were kind of the godfathers of that. They were icons in that they transformed the sport from something people thought would be a fad to something that could rival boxing not just with pay-per-view but star power as well.”
Micah continued to say that he had not met either of these two juggernauts prior to the film, “it was really fun because when you picture what they’re going to be like and when you actually meet them in person it’s completely different. You picture Chuck Liddell, you see him with the mohawk and you know that he’s the Knockout King you think he’s going to be this really scary, intimidating guy. Then you meet him and he’s super down to earth he just happened to be good at one thing, knocking people out. With Tito Ortiz, you see this brash guy who everybody thinks is a jerk but when you sit down and talk to Tito you actually realize he’s a very intelligent guy who knows how to sell a fight.”
The documentary walks the viewer through every part of the illustrious rivalry from the friendship that once was all the way to ‘Liddell vs. Ortiz 3’ on November 24th, 2018. One of the biggest antagonists if you will was Dana White, the President of the UFC. She constantly berated Ortiz’s intelligence and character.
When asked how he believed the documentary reflected him, Ortiz said, “seeing the film shows the sourness still in his mouth for me. Chuck had the opportunity to say the truth but it got cut out because there were 19 edits for this film. Dana had everything to do with it, it was bad because it took out the integrity of this film that Micah Brown really put into it, he put his life and heart and soul into it. He was with us for four months, from beginning to end. He said the truth, everything that was supposed to happen and about fifty percent of it got cut out which is too bad. At the end of the day, it shows what kind of champions Chuck and I really were and it got Dana in there saying how stupid I was which was kind of stupid on his part because I must not be that stupid if I can sign a multi-million dollar deal at 44 years old.”
Brown, who has been a fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship since the beginning reflects on how far the sport has come and how exciting it has been to watch it grow, he, as do numerous fans of the UFC, give a lot of the credit to Chuck and Tito.
The film will air on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN and will join the 30 for 30 library on ESPN+ on October 18, the same day as UFC Fight Night: Reyes vs. Weidman on ESPN2.
