Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz competed for the final time at Bellator 170, where he submitted fellow UFC veteran Chael Sonnen with a rear naked choke. A choke that Ortiz admitted, was maybe applied for a little too long.
“When he was tapping, I thought he was trying to grab my hands, but I kind of held on to it because I have ill will towards him,” Ortiz explained at the post-fight presser. “But that’s just me, when someone talks about my family, when someone talks about my character, I have bad will towards the person. And I’ve never done that before, but it was just something in my mind saying, if I let go and they stop it and restart it again, I couldn’t let that happen. I apologize to the athletic commission for holding on to it a little longer, but I did hold on to it longer. I just had that ill will, I felt like an animal, I felt like a lion, and this lion roared how I said I was going to. This was my fight, no matter what, this is what I was going to do.”
Sonnen doesn’t even harbor any ill will towards Ortiz for the incident, despite Ortiz saying it was personal.
“I tapped and he didn't let go. I'm not upset about it. I don't have any ill feelings towards him,” Sonnen said. “But yes did he hold the choke after I tapped? Sure.”
Sonnen is now 0-1-0 under the Bellator MMA banner and it was his first fight in over three year’s time. You can see Fightful's Bellator 170 coverage at this link.
