Tito Ortiz on Chael Sonnen fixed-fight accusers: They're anti-Donald Trump or anti-me

Tito Ortiz had to have known the question was going to come, and he was ready with an answer.

After Ortiz (19-12-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) forced Chael Sonnen (29-15-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) to tap to a choke in Bellator 170’s main event this past Saturday (watch the highlights above), some viewers said the only way to explain Ortiz winning as a 2-1 underdog is that something shady must’ve been going on.

On Wednesday, the fight’s referee, John McCarthy, told MMAjunkie Radio the claims are outlandish. And on Thursday, Ortiz himself told MMAjunkie Radio he thinks he knows why people want to say his win over Sonnen was anything but legitimate.

And like just about every headline dominating the news these days, Ortiz, a Donald Trump supporter, thinks the new U.S. president might have had some kind of influence on the public perception of his win.

“It frustrates me because those are the people, either A) They don’t like Trump and they see that I support Trump, or B) They voted for (Hillary) Clinton and they don’t like Trump, or C) They’re not a Tito Ortiz fan and never believed what I’ve been doing over the past 20 years in this sport,” Ortiz told MMAjunkie Radio.

A little out there? Maybe, save for the part about non-believers just not being Ortiz fans. It seems slightly unlikely someone would accuse Sonnen of taking a dive merely because of Ortiz’s political leanings. Then again, in 2017, stranger things have happened already.

Still, Ortiz acknowledged the reasons why people didn’t think he’d win – even though Sonnen had been out of action for roughly two-and-a-half years before the headliner at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., which aired on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

“In this fight against Chael Sonnen, I was a 2-1 underdog,” Ortiz said. “Everyone said he was going to outwrestle me, he was going to outstrike me, I’m too old, I’ve had injuries, and I’ve had surgeries. But people didn’t see the hard work I put in. It’s been 14 weeks (of training camp). I killed myself with this camp. There was not one rock unturned this whole camp. … The only day I had off was Sunday (each week), and that was my rest day. But everything we did, we did in the fight.”

Ortiz had to survive an early choke from Sonnen and reverse things to get a choke of his own. He cinched it in after one elbow from the top was enough to make Sonnen quickly give his back in the first round of the light-heavyweight fight between UFC veterans.

But Sonnen’s choke didn’t come entirely without harm, Ortiz said. The UFC Hall of Famer and former light-heavyweight champ, who was fighting for the final time, said he may have suffered some damage and will await a doctor’s assessment to see if a potential injury might be just his latest in a lengthy career list of reasons for surgeries, especially involving his neck and back.

“I’m lucky I strengthened my neck (before the fight) because my neck’s really, really sore,” Ortiz said. “My left arm’s completely numb right now. I’ve got to, tomorrow or later on today, get a CT scan to make sure the disc isn’t bulging or pressing on my spinal cord. Hopefully I don’t need another surgery.”

Regardless, that was the end for his fighting career, Ortiz said. He hopes to remain active in the sport in other capacities, but he goes out with a win against a three-time UFC title challenger after a lengthy run of trash-talk with Sonnen, and his resume is peppered with big-name fights going back to the sport’s early days.

His legacy is that he seems to have regularly been the fighter his opponents were able to prop themselves up on to become stars, themselves, from Lyoto Machida to Rashad Evans to Vitor Belfort to Ryan Bader, he said.

“I always got put in with the best people they could possibly put me in with,” Ortiz said. “Every time, they tried to build a name off me.”

As far as legacies go, it probably could be a lot worse.

For more on Bellator 170, check out the MMA Events section of MMAjunkie.

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