Bellator light heavyweight and UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz seems to have a lot of legitimate hatred toward Stephan Bonnar, his upcoming opponent at Bellator 131 on November 15.
Making an appearance on Submission Radio earlier today, Ortiz ripped “The American Psycho” for his two failed drug tests for anabolic steroids during his career—among other things.
The fact of him getting burned for steroids not once but twice. I mean the guy is a phony, the guy is a fake, the guy is, you know he’s just a cheater, and my whole career I stuck to the game plan of training hard and getting the best out of it … I don’t think I’ve ever hated anybody as much as I hate this person … I really didn’t expect it (the disrespect), I didn’t think of it, but I mean what has the guy done in the sport besides get his ass whipped for his complete career? I mean he’s known for getting his ass whipped.
Ortiz and Bonnar met face-to-face inside the cage for the first time at Bellator 123 last Friday, which ended in the self-proclaimed “People’s Champion” shoving Bonnar after some bizarre antics that left fans some combination of entertained, confused and/or disappointed, per MMA Fighting.
For the record, Ortiz told Submission Radio that he did not know what Bonnar was going to do inside the cage and was clear in stating that the event was not staged.
Bellator CEO Scott Coker, as well as Bonnar, recently expressed the same sentiment to MMAjunkie and on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour (h/t SB Nation, via Yahoo Sports), respectively, although a good number of pundits still aren’t buying it.
Retiring after a close decision loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 148 in July 2012, Ortiz signed with Bellator just over a year later, though he did not compete in the organization until May 2014.
Ortiz had no problem taking down and submitting Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 120, where the titleholder bumped up to 205 pounds for the contest.
Meanwhile, Bonnar hung up the gloves after getting brutalized by then-UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva in a light heavyweight affair at UFC 153 11 months ago.
He failed his post-fight drug test for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone, per MMA Junkie.
Will Ortiz be able to silence Bonnar and his critics on November 15—putting together his first win streak since 2006—or will Bonnar make a successful return to the cage and retire Ortiz for good?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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