Consider former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz among the many fighters interested in throwing down with mixed martial arts (MMA) legend Fedor Emelianenko, who returned to combat sports back on Dec. 31 to smash Jaideep Singh.
But not yet.
Even though Ortiz will be ready to go in March, you can’t possibly expect him to challenge the “Last Emperor” in his first fight back from injury. That’s why “The People’s Champion” told MMA Fighting the best move Bellator can make is to first give him a warm-up fight.
His words:
“I’m a machine, man. I’ll be good. I’ll be good in about a month. I’ll fight this year, 100 percent. I won’t take Fedor my first fight. I’m coming off an injury, you know. I want a warm-up first. Let’s do a warm-up first and let’s make it a big warm-up, so that everybody wants to watch it.”
Ortiz was sidelined after having bone spurs removed but insists he’s pain free.
The UFC hall-of-famer came up short in his bid to capture the light heavyweight crown when Liam McGeary choked him into submission at Bellator 142 last September. It was the first loss on Spike TV for Ortiz, 41, who is undoubtedly in the twilight of his career.
Perhaps he can warm up by fighting the winner of this bout.