Tito Ortiz is coming back to the Bellator cage. And so is the tournament format.
Ortiz will challenge Liam McGeary for the Bellator MMA light heavyweight title in the main event of a Bellator-GLORY hybrid show Sept. 19 in San Jose, Bellator announced Friday afternoon at a press conference. Also on the card will be a four-man, one-night light heavyweight tournament and three GLORY kickboxing matches.
The event will be branded “Dynamite,” as an homage to past MMA-kickboxing cards in Japan.
The one-night tournament will feature new Bellator signee Phil Davis, Muhammed Lawal, Emmanuel Newton and Linton Vassell. Joe Schilling and Paul Daley will be involved in the GLORY kickboxing matches, Bellator MMA president Scott Coker said. There will be a cage and a ring inside the SAP Center for the card.
For the tournament, Coker said the first round will be two, five-minute rounds and the finals are three, five-minute rounds. No first-round matchups have been announced yet. Reserve bouts are also expected to be added.
“That’s how I grew up, competing in martial arts tournaments,” Coker said. “That’s just how it was.”
Ortiz said Coker offered him bouts with Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice, the two men who will fight at Bellator 138 on Friday night in St. Louis, but Ortiz, the UFC Hall of Famer wanted a crack at the title.
“I just think that’s behind me,” Ortiz said of bouts with guys like Shamrock and Slice.