Both are fan favourites, although Ortiz falls into the 'love him or hate him' category.
On Saturday night (available on pay-per-view), the two ground-breakers square off for the second time in a UFC 106 main event that is crucial to both men on a personal level.
The bookies have made Griffin a slight favourite.
Ortiz, 34, is returning from back surgery and an 18-month absence from the cage. With a new six-fight contract in hand, his goal is to prove that he can survive among the new breed of 205-pound sharks, that he can remain not only relevant but challenge for the title again.
For the 30-year-old Griffin, the challenge is simpler. Two fights ago, he lost his title. Last time out, he was humiliated by middleweight champion Anderson Silva. He badly needs a win.
Like Austin Powers, the quirky Griffin has lost his mojo and is making life changes to get it back.
"I can handle losing ... It's when you work for 13, 14 weeks and then go out there and look like s***, it's kind of heartbreaking," he said.
Ortiz won a split decision the first time they met at UFC 59 in April 2006, dominating the early going before Griffin roared back.
The two former champions have managed just one draw between them in their last five fights. But both men say they are revitalized.
Ortiz (16-6-1, including 14-6-1 in the UFC) has not fought since a messy exit from the UFC in May 2008 when his contract expired after a loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 84. The UFC, which can be a fighter's best friend or worst enemy, made sure he left on a negative note by pairing him with Machida, who at the time was an exceptionally skilled but not very exciting fighter.
The UFC's hopes of a dull Ortiz loss were almost dashed when Ortiz locked on a late triangle choke. But Machida escaped and Ortiz exited, albeit after a messy post-fight news conference in which he refused to leave the dais.
Ortiz went on to have back surgery to correct six years of pain. "I was eating Vicodins like they were candy." Ortiz lists off just how incapacitated for each recent outing - 60 per cent for his draw with Rashad Evans at UFC 73 and 80-85 per cent for Machida, a fight he says he took "to pay the bills."
In typical Ortiz fashion, he offers up the cost of his surgery (US$250,000) while extolling its success. The repair work on his discs also ended up giving him a half-inch in height.
"That is true. I'm 6-3 now," said the chiselled Ortiz, who holds the UFC record for longest-serving champion.
The surgery has also allowed Ortiz to return to normal training. Gone are the days when he could only work out once or twice a week because of the pain. While he acknowledges it was hard returning after a long layoff and that his timing was off early in camp, he says his trademark power wrestling game is back. The ability to do squats and other exercises has restored the power in his legs.
Ortiz's game is all about pace and power. If he takes you down, he can do great damage. Being in guard does not seem to slow Ortiz down. While other fighters look to pass guard, to improve their position, Ortiz will simply settle in, posture up and use elbows and punches to break his opponent down.
Saturday marks the 13th main event for Ortiz, who will tie Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell's UFC record for 22 fights when he steps into the Octagon. It's the latest chapter in a UFC career that dates back to UFC 13 in May 1997.
It will also mark a rare meeting between two authors in the cage. Griffin's book is titled "Forrest Griffin: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat" while Ortiz's is "This is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion."
Griffin was summoned to fight Ortiz when Hall of Famer Mark (The Hammer) Coleman was injured in training. Griffin didn't hesitate, cutting his honeymoon short to start six weeks of training.
"It wasn't a hard decision," Griffin said. "Work's work. Work's why you get to go on a nice honeymoon, man. If it wasn't for fighting, we wouldn't be having a beautiful wedding, a beautiful anything."
Griffin does not possess great knockout power but is a well-rounded fighter who mixes up his standup nicely. No UFC fighter has landed more leg kicks than Griffin (164), including a record 38 in his win over Hector (Sick Dog) Ramirez at UFC 72.
He lands 16 kicks a fight on average, but only succeeded on four the first time out against Ortiz, no doubt mindful of not giving his opponent a chance to grab his leg and take him down.
Griffin gets stronger when he fights, averaging 53 strike attempts in the first round, 61 in the second and 67 in the third in his six UFC bouts that have lasted at least 14 minutes.
Ortiz dominated the first round of their first fight, taking Griffin down twice and cutting his face open. But it was Griffin the rest of the way, with Ortiz - whose left knee was bandaged - blaming torn knee ligaments and the bulging disc in his back for the letdown.
Griffin began to stuff Ortiz's takedowns and hit him with punches. "Get him on the ground. Put him on the floor," Ortiz's corner urged him. It was good advice and a takedown with 90 seconds left probably earned him the 30-27, 28-29, 29-27 decision.
"I fought on pure heart and I pulled the win off," said Ortiz, adding the only reason he didn't pull out of the fight in advance was because the Anaheim arena had sold out in three days. "But Forrest has got a lot better the last three years. I've gotten better."
Ortiz has been working with noted boxing trainer Freddie Roach in advance of the rematch.
Griffin, a former sheriff's deputy in Georgia, kept winning after the reality TV show, losing only to Ortiz and Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine at UFC 66 in his first eight fights.
The Jardine loss taught him to tighten his game and stick to his strategy, rather than just swing away.
He stepped up in class at UFC 76, defeating a rusty Mauricio (Shogun) Rua and then took the title from Quinton (Rampage) Jackson at UFC 86. He lost it next time out to Evans at UFC 92.
Always hard on himself, there were problems outside the cage too, Griffin said he had become jumpy, snappy, snippety.
"I never relax because when I relax I don't think I get anything done. I'd be like that dude on 'Office Space,"' he said referencing a notorious movie slacker. "I've become wound too tightly."
At some point along the way, fighting had no longer become fun.
"Then it became real, then it was like 'hey I'm actually pretty good at this, I can actually do this,"' he said.
With that realization, came pressure to win fights and perform. That stress took its toll on a man who admits he is hard on himself.
"The last couple of years is just train out of fear, training out of anxiety, am I training enough, am I doing this enough, am I doing that enough?"
The loss to Silva at UFC 101 in August may have been the breaking point. Silva is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet and he destroyed a slow, sluggish Griffin, eventually putting him away with a jab.
A distraught Griffin ran out of the cage afterwards.
"What am I going to do? There's not a whole lot to take from that," he said later. "It was a bad night, you didn't show up, you didn't want to fight, you didn't want to be there. You looked like shit, you embarrassed yourself. Shit happens."
Several months later, he has found a way to handle the painful episode in his career.
"I think the best analogy I've come up with is you've got to be like the defensive back, you get burned for an 80-yard touchdown, you've got to go out there like you're still the man - fast legs and a short memory."
Griffin also took stock and realized just how good he has it.
"I really look at my life in terms of how many people do I have to take shit from. It's about five. And that's pretty good," he said, turning his gaze to the gaggle of reporters around him, "because you've got to take shit from a lot of people."
Financially secure for the rest of his life, Griffin now talks of living the dream and how blessed he is.
"I'm just happier in general, enjoying training more. I still get punched in the face a lot, but I get to punch people too."
Griffin, who values his privacy and is no fan of fame, has even rethought his earlier opposition to being considered a role model.
"I've changed on that completely ... I think I'm a good person. I cuss a lot but I'm a really good person, I'm going to continue to be a good person and really be a better person, do a lot more charitable work."
"I've got so much. I've got everything. All my needs are met. Why be anything but happy?" he added.
Ortiz too says he too is blessed.
"This is living the American dream and I'm doing it from a kid who was living on the streets and living in motels, you know, living in cars, and having drug addict parents to who I am today. I sit here in Oscar de la Hoya's house that I bought from him," he said on a pre-fight conference call, referring to his training base in Big Bear, Calif.
Partnered with former porn princess Jenna Jameson, Ortiz has twin boys - and a son from a previous marriage. He also has a flourishing clothing line called Punishment Athletics.
The UFC is happy to have him back. The organization is looking to stage a live show in Mexico and Ortiz's heritage will come in handy. Ortiz is also a useful name fighter to have with a crowded event calendar.
Ortiz has also been welcomed by the fans, who gave him a raucous reception at a question-and-answer session before UFC 103 recently.
"It feels nice to be not the heel anymore. ... I guess people want to see me back," he said of the response.
"Life couldn't get any better besides being a world champion again," he added.
