Chael Sonnen fires back at ref 'Big' John McCarthy over tweet about Bellator 170 controversy

LAS VEGAS — Chael Sonnen said John McCarthy should stay in his lane when it comes to the controversy the referee reignited over his controversial headliner with Tito Ortiz at Bellator 170.

Sonnen (29-15-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) put the fight back in the headlines when he recently claimed that Ortiz (19-12-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) verbally submitted prior to locking in a fight-ending submission. Now he’s questioning McCarthy’s motivations for getting in the middle of the issue (via Twitter):

On McCarthy’s opinion that Sonnen was imagining things that night, Sonnen retorted, “I love John, and I respect John, but I don’t know what that would help.”

“One, I don’t know if he felt he needed to defend himself. And, two, if there’s a major fire burning for a rematch with me and Tito, why somebody who has nothing to do with the business would come in and put any kind of water on that, or who that is to help, is beyond me,” he added during an appearance on the “Phonebooth Fighting” podcast recorded at the L.A. Comedy Club in Las Vegas.

Sonnen said the rear-naked choke Ortiz applied in the first round was a legitimate move, despite buzz over its severity and open accusations from MMA observers and veterans that a fix was in.

“I laid an egg – Tito won,” he said.

But when it comes to the conspiracy theorists and the videos – isolating a sequence in which he adjusts his grip after trying to set up a D’Arce choke –  Sonnen said there were no choreographed shifts in momentum.

“It’s like, well, you’re close,” Sonnen said. “It was, I heard him tap, and I let go.”

The three-time UFC title challenger’s revisionist claim comes one month after the fight, which turned into a heated grudge match as the light heavyweights went back and forth in the press.

Sonnen, one of the sport’s slickest presences on the mic, got the better of the verbal exchanges. Post-loss, he said nothing about a verbal tap.

Ortiz demanded an apology from Sonnen despite holding his rear-naked choke after the actual fight-ending move – a move that prompted McCarthy to physically intervene. Sonnen demurred when the overseeing California Athletic Commission said it would follow his lead on a potential punishment for the action.

But when McCarthy recently denied his claim, Sonnen insinuated the well-known referee was overstepping his bounds.

“We’ve seen some people that we really like in this industry that are no longer in this industry, from the great Burt Watson – and Stitch Duran is still in the business, but not in the same spot he was – up to the executive director in (Nevada) state, Keith Kizer,” Sonnen said. “One thing that does happen with some gentlemen is that they want to be the star of the show, and that can get you in real trouble when you’re talking about (fights), because this is a television show as much as it is a sport. And when the executive producers are looking to push very specific people in their very expensive time slots and other guys are trying to come in and get any level of notoriety, it’s going to piss people off fast.”

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