After a boating trip gone wrong, Tito Ortiz is just lucky to be alive. Now seven months removed from his accident, the UFC Hall of Famer is still dealing with trauma.
Back in mid-March, it was a calm afternoon of fishing on the lake with Ortiz and seven of his friends. That was, until Ortiz was launched from the crew’s boat and found himself fighting for air beneath the lake’s surface.
Speaking on Wednesday’s edition of “The Ariel Helwani Show,” the MMA legend reflected on the incident that nearly cost him his life.
“We’re coming back, going 55 miles per hour. Everything was done. I usually sit next to [my friend who was driving],” Ortiz told Uncrowned. “I’m a huge fisherman. I’ve been a deckhand for almost 10 years, fishing my whole life.
“I went to sit on the starboard side of the boat, which is the right side, and the center console of a 40-foot boat. I went to put my feet up on the dash to text my buddy who’s 10 miles down. I asked him how many fish he got, and I went to press send. All of a sudden, it felt like we hit a boat, and that’s all I remember.
“Then I woke up, and I was in the water. I go, ‘Wait, this is warm.’ I looked up, and I could see the sun, and I was probably about 15 feet deep. I swam to the top. I could see the boat from afar, and he was probably a good 100 yards away from me. I waved, and they turned back around and pulled me out of the water with four guys. I sat on the beanbag for a second, and it felt like getting punched, but getting punched by concrete. It hurt really, really bad.”
Ortiz, 51, recalled equating his initial reaction to that of a fight and having to gather himself between rounds. He told his friends he was fine, however his right eye was completely bloodshot. When Ortiz asked the driver of the boat what happened, they said they looked over only to see Ortiz in fetal position hitting the water and spinning out of the boat, head-first, before his body was consumed by the water.
“It was really scary, because when I started thinking about it, I could be dead,” Ortiz said. “Was it God putting his hands on my shoulders to wake up feeling the warm water?
“I had a concussion for a little over three months.”
Ortiz said he began experiencing severe neurological issues from that point on. He pointed to an example in May when he was hosting a UFC 328 watch party at his Florida restaurant.
“What I can remember was having the last fight at Tito’s Cantina, because we have all the fights. It was [Khamzat] Chimaev vs. [Sean] Strickland,” he said.
“All the fights before that, I guess, we had at my restaurant. I guess I showed up. I guess I was doing raffles. I guess I drove there and drove back. I don’t remember any of it at all, besides maybe three or four different conversations.”
Seven months since his accident, Otiz is still dealing with neurological and physical trauma.
His struggles to recover didn’t end there. A few weeks after the May event, Ortiz remembers speaking at a dinner and having trouble putting together his sentences and stuttering abnormally. That was the moment he knew he had a real problem, comparing it to past fights when he suffered severe concussions.
Headaches were consistent and brutal for the first four months after the crash, said Ortiz. When he went to get MRIs of his head and neck, the scans revealed a bulged disc that required surgery. The surgery was completed eight weeks ago. He received a follow-up stem cell treatment two weeks ago in Tijuana, Mexico.
Even now, Ortiz admits he’s still battling some mild pain and soreness in the side of his head and face.
“I had really bad head trauma from it,” Ortiz said. “I couldn’t be around people, I couldn’t be around loud noises. I was pretty much locked in my room for a good four months. I guess there was times where I wanted to go to my restaurant to work. I don’t remember driving there.”
Ortiz alleges the accident was caused by a malfunction in the motor and autopilot feature installed by the boat’s manufacturer, Mercury Marine. Subsequent Mercury testing this year has revealed the same issue occurring several times when simulating the same situation that caused Ortiz to be thrown from the boat.
The MMA legend is currently seeking legal action while he continues to recover fully. Ultimately, he’s just glad it wasn’t as bad an outcome as it could have been.
“It was scary. I almost lost my life,” Ortiz said. “It was a mishap on the autopilot of the Mercury engine. My friend hit autopilot going 55 miles per hour, and the boat literally turned. That’s what threw me off the boat. He didn’t hit anything. It was a malfunction on the autopilot for Mercury engines. Everybody else was in their seats with the armrests down. … A boat has never done that before that I’ve been on ever. I’ve got over 15,000 hours on fishing boats.
“My attorneys are dealing with it now. I’m just lucky to be alive. I’m thankful. All the trauma I’ve had. The stuff I’ve been able to do with wrestling for the school in Ida Baker with the kids, I’ve been trying this week a little bit to drill. My therapist is telling me to be out and around people so I can have my conversation skills back again. It’s been pretty traumatic for me, but to get myself back to normal has been hard. Mentally, physically, and emotionally, the things I’ve been going through — I’m lucky to be alive and very, very thankful.
“Life’s really short. Things can be taken away really, really fast.”
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