Tito Ortiz will fight Alberto Del Rio in Combate Americas on December 07 in Hidalgo, Texas in what will be the company’s first pay-per-view event.
The fight between former WWE Superstar and Heavyweight champion Alberto Del Rio and former UFC champion Tito Ortiz is official for December 7 at the Payne Arena in Hidalgo, Texas. The event is expected to have a $39.99 price point on pay-per-view. The fight is scheduled to be a catchweight bout at 210 pounds. An interesting wrinkle is that the winner will earn a unique prize of one of the old title belts of the loser, i.e. if Ortiz wins he is awarded one of Del Rio’s WWE belts and if Del Rio wins he gets one of Ortiz’s UFC belts.
The match-up has been expected since Ortiz was signed to a deal with the company back in April. The fight will mark Ortiz’s third return from retirement after a lengthy career that saw him win the UFC light-heavyweight championship and be inducted into the Hall-of-Fame. While he has largely been a brand ambassador for Combate Americas at their events this year, the deal was always made with the intention that Ortiz would also compete under the Combate Americas banner. The fight with Del Rio takes place roughly a year after his last bout, a first round knockout over Chuck Liddell at the inaugural Golden Boy MMA event.
Albero Del Rio, real name José Alberto Rodríguez, is best known for being a WWE superstar and winning the championship back in 2011. He would go on to wrestle for his former promotion, AAA, under his other well known moniker “El Patron.” Del Rio holds a 9-5 record in MMA with fights under both DEEP and Pride. Del Rio has largely served in a variety of roles in Combate Americas as a brand ambassador, commentator, and more. The fight with Ortiz will be Del Rio’s first fight since 2010. Del Rio also resides in San Antonio so the fight in Texas is considered to be on his home turf.
The fight will be Combate Americas’ first foray into pay-per-view in their nearly ten years of operation. Notably, the promotion recently parted ways with broadcast partner DAZN whom they had signed a multi-year deal with last year to air the English broadcasts of their events. The company still airs their events on Spanish language network Univision. It is unclear whether or not there will be both English and Spanish broadcast of the event on pay-per-view.
No news about the undercard has been announced but Ortiz and Del Rio will be in New York doing media to promote the event.
