Tito Ortiz is preparing to fight a fellow MMA legend… But it won’t be in a cage.
The 46-year-old half-Mexican American mixed martial artist will fight Anderson Silva in an eight-round cruiserweight boxing match on September 11.
Ortiz and Silva will participate in the co-feature before Oscar De La Hoya faces Vitor Belfort in the pay-per-view main event, Triller co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh tells ESPN.
The Triller PPV will take place at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will feature two other boxing matches: former heavyweight champion David Haye vs. Joe Fournier and Andy Vences vs. Jono Carroll in a battle of 130-pound fringe contenders.
“I am very excited to have the opportunity, along with my team, to get in the ring against Tito Ortiz on September 11 with Triller Fight Club, who are really shaking things up in the combat sports world,” Silva said.
The Silva-Ortiz and Haye-Fournier fights will be sanctioned by the California State Athletic Commission, meaning they will be real bouts, not exhibitions. Silva and Ortiz will fight eight two-minute rounds, and Haye and Fournier will fight eight three-minute rounds.
“Big” John McCarthy, a former longtime UFC referee, will officiate Silva-Ortiz.
Silva scored an upset over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June, just his third pro boxing match, then entered negotiations for a fight with YouTube personality Logan Paul.
Silva is a former UFC middleweight champion and holds the record for longest title reign in promotion history at 2,457 days. He’s one of the most recognizable draws in MMA history, with 18 headline appearances on UFC PPV. He suffered a fourth-round TKO defeat to Uriah Hall in October — his seventh loss in his past nine appearances in the Octagon — and was released by the UFC one month later.
Ortiz was also one of the UFC’s most bankable stars. He’ll make his pro boxing debut at 46, nearly 10 years after his final UFC fight.
“I am excited to be taking on a new challenge and compete against another great fighter in Anderson Silva,” said Ortiz, a long-reigning UFC light heavyweight champion who made his debut at UFC 13 in 1997. “As a patriot, fighting on Sept. 11 means a lot to me.”