After fighting on a Manny Pacquiao undercard, Deniz Ilbay joined Tito Ortiz for a memorable night out in Las Vegas.
The German boxer turned MMA fighter has created many a special moment during his stint in combat sports, but nothing quite compares to drinking tequila shots with ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’.
Deniz Ilbay had a fantastic experience partying with Tito Ortiz in Las Vegas
On Saturday night, at Oktagon MMA 62 in front of 59,000 fans at the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, Deniz Ilbay produced a mesmeric performance, rendering Michael Deiga-Scheck unconscious in brutal fashion.
Born in Cologne, Germany, with Turkish roots, El Pistolero’ had his adoring supporters on their feet, as he recorded the biggest victory of his life.
The memory of fighting on the highest-attended MMA event of all time, will no doubt hold a special place in Ilbay’s heart for a very long time to come.
Now, 7-1 in MMA, the 29-year-old is excited for what’s to come next. But before he ever set foot in an MMA gym, he was lighting up the sport of boxing, once competing on the Manny Pacquiao vs Tim Bradley 3 undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Despite giving everything in his power to secure the victory, Ilbay suffered a unanimous decision loss to ‘Mean Machine’ Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who’d later box Terence Crawford.
However, rather than letting the result dampen his spirits, the fighter instead headed out with Tito Ortiz for an epic night out.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, Ilbay reminisced: “My favourite boxing memory was a loss at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I fought on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley. After that, I went to a big party with Tito Ortiz, he’s a good friend of mine. This is the most beautiful memory I have of my whole career.”
When asked what occurred during their time at the party, the combat sports star chuckled: “You don’t want to know what happened at the party with Tito. Tito Ortiz is a crazy guy. He brings out Tequila shots and everything. Greetings to Tito.”
Deniz Ilbay gives his stance on whether any more boxers will cross over to MMA
Over the past few years, several high-profile MMA fighters have moved over to the world of boxing, and tested out their skills in the squared circle.
However, very few boxers have tried on the four-ounce gloves, with the exception of Ilbay and a few others. But the German hero thinks with the proper training, more practitioners of the sweet science could make the transition to the cage.
The two-sport athlete explained: “There are a lot of guys I think that if they got a good stand-up coach in MMA, they could have a great career inside the cage.
“There are a lot of good guys, man. Boxing is one of the coolest sports. I always say my foot is in the door; I don’t close the door. If a big offer came, I would box again, but now, this is my new family, the MMA family. I’m really happy to be here.”
He actually DOESN’T tell a wild story.
This is literally entire “story”
Stupid thread title