MMA legends Tito Ortiz, Chael Sonnen to settle 20-year-old beef at Bellator 170

July 08, 2024

When MMA legend Tito Ortiz speaks about Chael Sonnen, his voice gets sharper. The 41-year-old doesn’t just view Sonnen as the fighter he plans to conquer when he steps into the cage for the final time at Bellator 170 on Saturday, Ortiz sees in Sonnen a chance for redemption bestowed upon him from a higher power.

“I’m not really a religious person, but I believe in things happening for a reason,” Ortiz said in a phone interview last week. “And I think God gave me the opportunity to redeem myself.”

See, when Ortiz meets Sonnen on Saturday, it won’t be the first time these two have squared off. In 1998, the two met at a college wrestling meet that saw Sonnen earn an upset over his older, more experienced rival. Sonnen’s quick, 44-second victory came as a surprise — and not just for the audience, who already knew Ortiz as a rising UFC star. Sonnen, who remembers the day quite clearly, also could barely believe what happened.

“I didn’t think I would’ve put him away in the wrestling match in under one minute,” the 39-year-old said on the phone last week.

Sonnen chalked up his victory over Ortiz to “a little bit of happenstance and luck,” noting, “I caught him in a position. If he caught me in that position, it would’ve gone the other way.”

“I’m a little surprised that he remembered it,” Sonnen added.

But Ortiz hasn’t forgotten. And heading into Saturday’s event at the Forum in Los Angeles, that amateur wrestling loss weighs heavily on his mind.

“He beat me back in college and humiliated me and just embarrassed me,” Ortiz recalled, predicting Sonnen will likely try to take the fight back down to the mat where he succeeded two decades ago. “He’s not gonna box with me.”

Sonnen, meanwhile, predicts a longer fight on Saturday.

“I definitely don’t think it will be quick,” he said. “I would hate to align the universe against me by saying I got another gimme coming.”

Sonnen, who will be entering the cage for the first time in three years after dealing with a lengthy suspension for performance-enhancing drug violations, doesn’t want to give Ortiz too much credit, however. The middleweight fighter remains adamant that if he had ever fought at the same weight class as Ortiz, who defended his UFC light heavyweight championship a record five times in the early 2000s, Ortiz would never have risen to fame.

“I knew there wasn’t a day I couldn’t whip his a–,” Sonnen said. “If I would’ve been there, he never would’ve been champion. And if I would’ve been there, he never would have been on the top of the bill and he never would’ve been in the Hall of Fame.

“I’m glad all of those things happened for him, but from a competitive standpoint, it didn’t change my mind about who the best fighter in the world was, it’s just I couldn’t get my shot.”

With his shot now imminent, however, Sonnen knows the pressure is on.

“On January 21, I’m either right or I’m wrong,” Sonnen said. “Maybe I wasn’t the best fighter of that era, but I’m gonna find out one way or another, the easy way or the hard way.”

Ortiz, meanwhile, continued to laugh off Sonnen’s bravado that he was the best at anything other than talk.

“He wants to be something that he never was,” Ortiz said. “This guy has claimed to be a legend. This guy has claimed to be the people’s champ. Um, there’s no championship belt around his waist.”

Ortiz said Sonnen’s “sideways” talk does serve one purpose for him, however — it’s motivating.

“I don’t like this guy. I’m gonna hit him with bad intentions. I’m gonna hit him with everything I have. Knees, elbows … I’m gonna try to destroy him. … For this fight there’s no respect and I’m gonna go in and try to hurt him.”

For Ortiz, who is looking forward to spending more time with his three kids when he retires, this fight will end in one of two ways. He’ll either win or die trying.

“I’m not gonna lose. There is no possibility that I will lose,” Ortiz said. “He’s gonna have to kill me to beat me — 100 percent. If he catches me in a submission, I’m going out. I’m not tapping.

“I hope he’s ready. I hope he’s ready for war. I hope he’s ready to die for his cause. I’m willing to die for that win.”

Bellator 170 airs at 9 p.m. EST on Saturday on Spike TV.

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