It's a gig that Ortiz agreed to do for free as a favor for Affliction VP Tom Atencio, the former UFC light-heavyweight champion said in an interview with the Between Rounds Radio Show.
"Me and Tom are good friends," Ortiz said. "And he asked me 'You ever thought about doing commentary?' and I go 'Yeah, I've always thought of doing commentating but every time I ever asked the UFC they always shot me down.' So Tom asked if I would do it, how much it would cost, and I said 'Tom, you're a friend of mine. I'm going to do it free for you.'"
The former UFC bad boy is keeping himself in the public eye while trying something new until he recovers from rehabilitation from back surgery.
"The fight game and the commentary game are two different worlds," Ortiz said. "[Commentary] is more mental than anything. It's making sure you say everything with great pronunciation of course and just making sure that I know the background of each one of the fighters and making sure the fans understand where they come from and what expertise they have inside in the ring."
As for a perk of being a former UFC champion doing commentatry, criticism of his abilities on the mic will be left to words.
"There's one thing I got going for me is that I don't have to worry about [fighters]beating me up afterwards," he joked.
Between Round Radio Show is the official radio partner of MMAFighting.com. Listen to the show hosted by David Hiza, Ken Gonzalez and Xtreme Couture's Shawn Tompkins every Tuesday afternoon on MMAFighting.com.
