Former UFC champion and MMA legend Tito Ortiz says he nearly died in a serious boating accident eleven weeks ago, and is still suffering with serious health issues from the incident.
Tito Ortiz was one of the biggest names in combat sports world through the early 2000s and held the UFC light heavyweight title from 2000 too 2003. He hasn’t competed regularly since 2012, with his last fight being a 2021 KO loss to Anderson Silva in boxing.
Ortiz shared the news of the boating accident on Instagram.
“I
got into a boating accident eleven weeks ago,” Ortiz said. “I was on my friend’s boat … And we’re coming back from a fishing tournament. I was sitting next to him and we’re going about 55 miles an hour.”
“He clicked on the autopilot, and I was looking down. I had my feet on the dash, texting my buddies who were at the tournament. And when he clicked in the autopilot, the boat did a complete veer to the left and turned at a 45 degree angle, threw me off the boat. I hit the water going 55 miles an hour.”
“I’ve been in a lot of fights and sparring, everything, but I’ve never been hit that hard,” he said. “And to be knocked out unconscious, to wake up 10 feet in the water and have to swim to the top? I almost died, and it was scary for me, really really scary for me.”
“For the next eleven weeks, I mean even today, headaches, numbness down my arms. I [went] to the hospital about a week after because I had really bad headaches. I really didn’t remember anything … It was really bad for the first couple weeks. I had problems speaking, I had problems thinking. I mean to this day, I still have problems thinking of names and everything. It really damaged my head, damaged my body, damaged my neck, lower back.”
Ortiz said that he’s already undergone one spinal surgery and is set to undergo another to hopefully help with the pain he’s been dealing with since the accident. Given the severity of the injuries he’s sustained on top of all the prior damage he’s done to his body through his career, he’s understandably worried about the outcome.
Here’s hoping Ortiz only gets better after this serious boating accident.
