Tito held on to that choke way too long #Bellator170 pic.twitter.com/UrRlSqShh9
— Fancy Combat (@FancyCombat) January 22, 2017
One of the more accomplished mixed martial arts (MMA) careers of all time came to an end last night (Sat., Jan. 21, 2017) at Bellator 170 live on Spike TV from inside The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., as the legendary Tito Ortiz made his final walk to the cage opposite Chael Sonnen, who was fighting for the first time in over three years. After months of bitter trash talking and personal insults, the two light heavyweights let the leather fly in one of the promotion’s biggest main event tilts of the year.
The first round began as most would expect. After a few brief punches on the feet, Ortiz leaped in for a takedown. In the transition to the ground, Sonnen would reverse and threaten with a D’Arce choke. Ortiz would reverse position and gain full mount and Sonnen tried to buck him off. In a defensive effort, Sonnen turned over and gave up his back. That did little to stop Ortiz, who quickly tied up a rear-naked choke to earn the first-round stoppage. Ortiz even held on a little longer after referee John McCarthy went in to stop the action to make up for some of the ill words Sonnen sent his way before the fight.
The full video highlights can be seen above.
While it was a solid performance for Ortiz, who leaves the sport behind on a memorable finish, Sonnen hadn’t competed in roughly 40 months. Sonnen offered some solid transitions on the ground and looked to be in relatively good shape, but this was Ortiz’s night from the opening bell. With this victory, Ortiz wraps up his career with a 19-12-1 record.
For complete Bellator 170 results and coverage click here.