UFC 229 aftermath: 6 times in MMA history that brawls broke out post-fight

#2: Ortiz flips off Shamrock at UFC 19 – 03/05/1999

During the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ of the UFC – deep into the infamous cable ban – some of the UFC’s biggest stars came from Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den team. By late 1996 Shamrock himself had left the promotion, but his students continued to see success in the Octagon, and two of those more successful fighters were Jerry Bohlander and Guy Mezger.

Meanwhile in 1997, UFC 13 saw the debut of a cocky young fighter named Tito Ortiz. A bleached-blonde wrestler with a bad attitude, Ortiz defeated Wes Albritton in his debut fight to reach the finals of that event’s Middleweight tournament, but in the final he fell prey to a guillotine choke from Mezger despite dominating early on.

Two years later, Ortiz returned and renewed his rivalry with the Lion’s Den by beating Bohlander down in one-sided fashion. That set up a rematch with Mezger two months later, and it was following that fight that a fracas that would define the UFC for years to come broke out.

Ortiz defeated Mezger in another largely one-sided bout, controlling him on the ground and destroying him with ground-and-pound, but once the fight was called off, he decided to turn up the heat.

Firstly he pulled on an offensive t-shirt which read “Gay Mezger is my bitch” before turning to Mezger’s corner to flip off Shamrock himself. The then-WWE superstar went ballistic and had to be restrained from leaping the fence to confront Ortiz, while Tito himself just grinned at the chaos he’d caused.

Three years later Shamrock would return to the UFC to face Ortiz – and the fight main evented UFC 40, which went on to become one of the most successful shows in promotional history.