I just placed my bets for tomorrow’s UFC 66 event, using Performify’s Picks as my blueprint.

For those of you unfamiliar with Performify and his fantastic record at betting MMA contests, check out his picks from yesterday or head over to Performify.com, hit the archives, and you can see his record of success. I feel very fortunate that Performify joined us here at MMAjunkie.com, and we’ve got some cool things planned for the future that are centered around his betting prowess. His specialty brings a very cool and interesting dynamic to the site.

One of his picks that has generated a lot of reader feedback is his predicted upset of Tito Ortiz over Chuck Liddell in the main event. Performify convinced me that Tito’s probability of winning this fight — even if it’s not a 50-50 proposition — makes this a profitable bet in the long run. I absolutely don’t expect everyone to agree with me or him — and honestly, I was one of those people just a few days ago. But Performify made a believer out of me.

(And if Tito doesn’t win, at least I have someone to blame for that goddamn bet.)

This is actually my first time officially wagering on any type of MMA event. There are a number of Sherdog posters who discuss it regularly, and I always tune into those threads, but I just could never bring myself to pull the trigger.

This time, though, I was determined to give it a try. Granted, my $1,000 (would it sound cooler if I said “one dime?”) spread over seven fights (ranging from a $25 bet on Tony DeSouza to a $250 bet on Michael Bisping) is small potatoes to the type of cash Performify throws around, but I can guarantee you that my few bets will bring a little more excitement to my UFC viewing tomorrow night.

Speaking of tomorrow night and Ortiz, I found an interesting profile piece on latimes.com. It’s quite an inspirational story and shows you how far Ortiz has come in life. It’s always good to see someone getting his life in order:

Before moving to Huntington Beach as a young teenager, Ortiz said he was raised with four older brothers in Santa Ana ââ?¬â? “Corner of Bristol and McFadden; you know where that is? You know how bad that is?” he asked.

He said his estranged father, Sam, and mother, Joyce, were then “hooked on heroin,” and he spent a childhood “in and out of juvenile hall,” while clinging to a Santa Ana street gang.

“Stealing out of cars, fights, hoodlum stuff,” Ortiz said. “I was dying for attention as a kid. I fell into wrestling. I was good at it. Wrestling gave me that attention. It saved me.”

Four years after moving to Huntington Beach, Ortiz became a CIF Southern Section semifinalist for Huntington Beach High in 1992. The next year, he won the Southern Section Division I championship at 189 pounds, winning MVP among the meet’s higher weights, and capped his season with a sixth-place finish at the state meet.

Again, however, Ortiz found himself at a crossroads. His mother told him to move out of her home when he turned 18, he said, and he skipped enrolling in college in favor of working for a moving company while living with one of his brothers.

“I got hooked on crystal meth,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said he vividly remembers going out for drinks one Saturday night in 1994 at the Rhino Room, where he ran into Golden West College wrestling Coach Paul Herrera, a former junior college state champion who asked Ortiz what he was doing with his life.

“Nothing,” was Ortiz’s response. “I remember going home that night, looking into the mirror. I looked terrible. I was a lost soul.

“Coach had asked me about wrestling for him, about getting some financial aid. Monday morning, I called into work ââ?¬Â¦ and quit my job.”

Check out the full story at latimes.com. It’s worth a read.