Tito Ortiz stepped into the cage for the last time at “Bellator 170” earlier this year and walked out with a win after submitting Chael Sonnen in just the opening round. Even though this moment should be cemented in the minds of Ortiz and his fans for years to come, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding the main event weeks after its conclusion.
Not only did the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” hold on to the choke for too long after Sonnen submitted, but Chael has decided to reveal his truth about Ortiz submitting just moments earlier in the round. Sonnen stated on the “You’re Welcome” podcast:
“The score is one-one between Tito and I and you always go into a rubber match. Everyone knows that. The only reason I kept my mouth shut at the Tito fight — look. Tito tapped in that fight. I knew Tito tapped when he tapped. I heard Tito verbally tap and I’ve never said a word about it privately to Tito at the press conference or to you guys. I never said anything and the reason is — First off, when you lose, you just take your loss. It’s not a tap if the referee doesn’t call it a tap so therefore, Tito didn’t tap. I thought he tapped, and I let a move go. He verbally tapped, and I never said anything about it and the reason was, he quit the sport five seconds later. He quit the sport five seconds after I tapped and he quit the sport a minute and five seconds after he tapped. There was no rematch. There was nothing to build and no reason to tell the real story.”
