Coker: After Frank Shamrock plan, Tito Ortiz 'boxed me into corner' to get title shot

TEMECULA, Calif. – Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz will fight for a Bellator title next month in California. But it wasn’t the fight he was supposed to have.

Ortiz (18-11-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) will challenge 205-pound champion Liam McGeary (10-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) for the title in the headliner of “Bellator 142: Dynamite,” which takes place Sept. 19 at SAP Center in San Jose. (The event will be a dual MMA and kickboxing production with a separate Bellator cage and a ring.)

With two wins under the Bellator banner, Ortiz was relentless in his pursuit of a title shot, promotion President Scott Coker said – to the point Coker gave in and gave him the shot, scrapping a fight with Frank Shamrock he had previously planned for Ortiz.

“Tito had some other choices to fight other people,” Coker told MMAjunkie ahead of tonight’s Bellator 141 event in Temecula, Calif. “I was like, ‘Tito, do you really want do this?’ He was like, ‘I wanna do it.’ He boxed me into a corner, basically, to get this fight. I was like, ‘OK, be careful what you wish for, because now you have to go climb the big hill.’ But he wants to do it.”

Ortiz retired after a July 2012 loss to Forrest Griffin, which made him 1-7-1 in his previous nine fights, with just one since since 2007. He came out of retirement nearly two years later and signed with Bellator. He won his promotional debut with a submission of Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 120, the promotion’s only pay-per-view event. Then he fought fellow UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131 this past November, winning a split decision.

Coker said his plan was for Ortiz to fight Shamrock, which would have been a rematch from UFC 22 in September 1999 – a fight Ortiz lost in the fourth round when Shamrock pounded him out to win the UFC’s light heavyweight title. Ortiz went on to win the then-vacant belt the following spring. (He also had three fights against Shamrock’s half-brother Ken, winning all three by TKO.)

“Originally, I had him ready to fight Frank Shamrock,” Coker said. “That was the original fight. And Frank agreed. We went to Tito, and he was like, ‘Nope, I want to fight Liam McGeary or Emanuel Newton for the title.’ Shamrock vs. Ortiz in San Jose would have been just a monster fight. I’m thinking like a promoter here.

“But he didn’t want to do it, and he just kept bugging me. When Liam fought Emanuel, he just kept tapping me on the shoulder and said, ‘I want to fight the winner of those two.'”

Now Ortiz has his wish next month, and Coker seems to think it may be just what Ortiz needs at this stage in his career.

“He, as a martial artist, as a fighter, this is what he needs to rise to the occasion. The title’s important, but the journey is just as important for him. He wants to rise to the occasion and really test himself.”

For more on Bellator 142, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.