It'll be a former UFC champion taking on a former WWE champion later this year.
Tito Ortiz, a UFC Hall of Famer, will be returning to the cage to fight pro-wrestling veteran Alberto Del Rio in a mixed martial arts bout for the Combate Americas promotion, officials confirmed Tuesday with ESPN.
The announcement was first made by Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren to MMA reporter Gonzalo Campos. No date or location has been set, but the fourth quarter of 2019 is the target.
The fight will be contested at a 210-pound catchweight, the promotion said.
Ortiz (20-12-1), a former UFC light heavyweight champion, came out of retirement to knock out fellow legend and longtime rival Chuck Liddell last November under the Golden Boy MMA banner. One fight before, Ortiz defeated Chael Sonnen by first-round submission in January 2017 at Bellator 170.
Ortiz, 44, has won four of his past five fights since leaving the UFC in 2012. He is credited with being one of the stars who led the UFC to mainstream prominence in the mid-2000s and is one of the best-known fighters in mixed martial arts history.
Del Rio (9-5), a 42-year-old Mexico native who now lives in Texas, has not fought in MMA since 2010. He is most known for his time in pro wrestling, including the WWE from 2009 to 2014 and then again in 2015 and 2016.
Del Rio, whose real name is Alberto Rodriguez, is a two-time WWE champion and two-time WWE World Heavyweight champion. Del Rio fought MMA with the Pride FC promotion in Japan in 2003 and 2004 under a mask as his Mexican lucha libre character, Dos Caras Jr.
Combate Americas is an upstart MMA promotion focusing on the Latin American audience in the United States. McLaren, its CEO, is one of the co-founders of the UFC.
