Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz Ponders Legacy As He Tries To Bid Farewell With Sense Of Dignity

... such as Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and the late Kimbo Slice. That, in turn, led to Bellator-owned Viacom opening the checkbook to sign a gaggle of in-their-prime UFC fighters, such as Phil Davis, Benson Henderson, Matt Mitrione, and Rory Mac Donald. Would this seismic shift in the sport’s landscape have happened if the ratings tanked the night of the Ortiz-Bonnar fight? It’s not a stretch to say that Ortiz helped usher in the era of MMA free agency. Which is why Sonnen, the latest beneficiary of Bellator’s largesse, makes it clear the respect he has for what Ortiz has done, even as he pokes fun at his opponent’s mangled analogies. “He was there from the beginning,” the 39-year-old Sonnen said. “He was the one making the big money when I was just trying to break in. I was jealous; he was the guy I wanted to be. I have nothing but respect for what he’s accomplished. I’m pumped to be in there with a Hall of Famer like Tito.”. While Ortiz could barely wait for his UFC non-compete clause to end before signing with Bellator back in 2013, there’s little reason to doubt he means it this time when he says he’s ...

Tito Ortiz Says Chael Sonnen Will ' Expletive Himself' And Drown 'in His Own Blood' At Bellator 170

... and even approached the sport with slightly similar fighting styles. Ortiz said he has a precise read on Sonnen’s game going into the headlining bout. For him, that breeds confidence he’s capable of delivering a performance with which he can pridefully end his career. “I know what I need to do,” Ortiz said. “I need to defend the takedown. I need to watch out for the punches. I need to watch out for the guillotine. I know all of the moves that Chael has done, and my job is to go in and destroy him. On Jan. 21, two days before my birthday, I want to get the fight of the night. I hope Chael’s in great shape because when I’m on top of him, he’s going to (expletive) himself. I’m going to throw my elbows through his face, and like I said, this is no joke.”. The Bellator 170 main event marks not just Ortiz’s retirement fight, but also Sonnen’s return to fighting after more than three years away. Sonnen’s past 11 fights took place under the UFC banner, but his career with the promotional – and seemingly overall – ended when failed drug tests led to a ...

Tito Ortiz Submits Chael Sonnen

... to his feet to end the round. The judges gave the win to Campos by unanimous decision. Here are the results for this event. Main Card. Light Heavyweight Main Event: Tito Ortiz def. Chael Sonnen via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1. Welterweight Co-Main Event: Paul Daley def. Brennan Ward via knockout (flying knee) – Round 1, 2:27. Middleweight Main Card Bout: Hisaki Kato def. Ralek Gracie via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27). Featherweight Main Card Bout: Emmanuel Sanchez def. Georgi Karakhanyan via Majority Decision (28-28, 28-27, 28-27). Lightweight Main Card Bout: Derek Campos def. Derek Anderson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Preliminary Card. Kevin Casey vs. Keith Berry declared majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28). Alex Soto def. Demarcus Brown via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Chinzo Machida def. Jamar Ocampo via TKO (punch) – Round 3, 3:48. Jalin Turner def. Gabriel Green via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:36. ...

Chael Sonnen Keeping A Different Perspective Ahead Of Fight With Tito Ortiz

... Bodog Fight and WEC. "I had teammates and friends and people that had got there, but when they got up in the loft they pulled the ladder up behind them. That's OK and it took me a while to learn that I need to do this myself," Sonnen said. In 2009, Sonnen came back to the UFC and that's when he came into his own. The promos and smack talk turned a man from West Linn, Oregon, into "The American Gangster." For someone who's an admitted pro wrestling fan, you can see where some of the material came from. However, it was the legitimate angst that those words were delivered with that helped make Sonnen a star years after he believed he should've been. "I was the best 10 years before I got my opportunity and that was tough," he said. "That's a resentment and a jealousy that I have towards those guys. It's not a commentary on their skills. Those guys are great, but they're not me.". The lead-up to Ortiz-Sonnen has been an interesting one. Sonnen declared he was on a "legends ...

Why Tito Ortiz Is Worthy Of Legendary Status

... card’s main event. If we consider just the facts, it doesn’t look all that good: Ortiz has won just three of his last 12 fights and last won a world title fight in 2002. Sonnen is coming off a two-year suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, and despite the artificial aid was 1-3 in his last four fights. But on the October day the Ortiz-Sonnen fight was announced, Ortiz did what he usually does: He spoke excitedly and passionately about the event and how he was finally healthy and eager to shut up Sonnen. “I’m excited for this fight,” Ortiz told Yahoo Sports when it was announced. “This is going to be one for the fans. I have been looking for an opportunity at payback for a long time and when he signed with Bellator and called me out, I was like, ‘Wow, this is my dream and it’s coming true.’ To be honest with you, I want to go ...

Cyborg Camp Responds To Ortiz Ufc 'advice' Claims

... team, he advised "Cyborg" to accept the deal and fight for the belt. even though she claims she was still  recovering from a near-death experience. "I told her to take the fight," Ortiz told MMAjunkie. "She said, ‘Tito, I’ve been working really, really hard for the last three years. I’ve been cutting a lot of weight. I want to enjoy Christmas time. I want to go on vacation,’ and I understood that. Personally, I understood that," said Ortiz. But, that conversation never took place, according to Ray Elbe, a rep for the current Invicta FC champion, stating that Cyborg, "has not sought career advice from him in some time as he no longer plays a part in her management." Indeed, while Ortiz was once an integral part of Cyborg’s management team, the two went their separate ways in 2014, long before the devastating striker got her first fight inside the Octagon, which ...

Tito Ortiz Told Cris 'cyborg' Justino To Take Featherweight Title Fight

... her attorney and what I’ve heard from her, it was strictly from her doctor,” Ortiz said. “So I have no input on that at all. I don’t know. I’m not going to make any statements at all about it, because I know zero about it.”. In her statement, Justino denied wrongdoing and apologized to fans for the news. Elbe said the situation is “a shame” and expects “some penalty” for the failed test. “She needed the medicine to recover from the weight cut,” he wrote on “The Underground.” “People slammed her for not fighting Feb. 11, but she was recovering from the extreme weight cut and was in treatment. Her doctor told her the three cuts in eight months were becoming dangerous.”. Justino was recently featured on an ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” special on weight-cutting. The video detailed the extreme efforts she took to make weight for the bout with Lansberg. “Cris ‘Cyborg’ already learned the risks of steroids in 2011,” Elbe wrote. “(In) 2016, Cris ‘Cyborg’ learned the risks of extreme weight ...

My Biggest Enemy Has Been My Body

... Griffin and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Then came an improbable run with Bellator, one in which he drew a game-changing television rating for a fight with Stephan Bonnar on Nov. 2014 which helped usher in the current era of MMA free agency. But while the inevitable can be postponed, time catches up with everyone eventually. Ortiz’s Bellator 170 main event against Chael Sonnen comes two days before his 42 nd birthday, and “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” affirmed that win, lose, or draw, he intends for the bout to be the last of his MMA career. “This retirement is well due,” Ortiz said on a Bellator 170 conference call. “Twenty years of competition has pretty much, I’d still be fighting if it wasn’t for my surgeries.”. While Ortiz has taken some heat over the years for his frequent references to his physical woes, the injuries he has accumulated in a lifetime of combat sports which started in the sport’s Wild West early days is no joke. ...

Sonnen A Compulsive Liar, Needs Rehab

... other - "Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz and "The Bad Guy" Chael Sonnen. In one of their many promos to build up the fight, Sonnen revealed that he made a deathbed promise to his dad to beat Ortiz back when "Huntington Beach Bad Boy" was UFC's Light Heavyweight champion. "Listen, Tito Ortiz was the world champion when my father passed away and I made him one final promise on his death bed and hand to God this is a true story, I said, 'Dad, I am going to beat Tito Ortiz and I'm gonna be the world champion. It's the one promise that I never kept. And on January 21 st I'm going to make that right.". Meanwhile, on a recent edition of " Pardon My Take Podcast ," Ortiz dismissed this idea as a complete and utter fabrication. "Not even a second. Nope. That's a lie from Chael. He's a compulsive liar. The guy needs to go to rehab to stop lying. He's a compulsive liar and his father's turning over in his grave right now. He's a filthy liar. That's a lie.". That's not all that Ortiz thinks Sonnen is prevaricating about. "He says he's beaten legends, he says he's beaten Hall of Famers, give me one ...