Former UFC light heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz has won a seat in the city council in Huntington Beach, California.
The 45-year old ran on a heavy conservative platform linking himself to President Donald Trump, with Ortiz often spreading erroneous conspiracy theories throughout his campaign.
The city council had three seats up for grabs with Ortiz topping all other candidates with 14.3 percent of the vote that equaled 34,901 votes. Democrats Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser finished behind Ortiz in the field of 15.
The UFC Hall of Famer last fought in December 2019 submitting Alberto El Patron (Jose Alberto Rodriguez Chucuan) for Combate Americas.
Ortiz was a pivotal figure for the UFC during its dark days before the Ultimate Fighter.
When the promotion was losing lots of money, Ortiz and Ken Shamrock fought at UFC 40 in November 2002 and was the first sign of success for the Zuffa ownership on pay-per-view.
Ortiz was a key contributor to the UFC’s explosion in 2006 with pay-per-view fights against Forrest Griffin, Ken Shamrock, and Chuck Liddell with the latter two among the biggest fights of that era. In October 2006, he had a third and final fight with Shamrock that aired on Spike TV with 5.7 million viewers watching the fight.
