Chuck & Tito

One was a kick-boxer, the other a wrestler. One looked like he’d been in a few too many fights, the other could have stepped off a movie poster. They were Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, frenemies from SoCal who brought millions of fans to mixed martial arts and supercharged the UFC. In this brutally honest 30 For 30 documentary about a brutal sport, director Micah Brown recaptures their glory days while chronicling MMA’s unlikely history and success. The memorable characters could fill an Octagon—UFC promotor-come-president Dana White, fighters Ken Shamrock and Randy Couture, the UFC Commentator Joe Rogan. But the story really belongs to the Ice Man and the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, whose second fight for the light heavyweight championship at UFC 66 in Las Vegas on December 30, 2006, marked the sport’s entry into mainstream culture. Their legends became frayed in subsequent years, but as this film shows, their mark on the sport will live on forever.