While Tito Ortiz is currently gearing up for his Bellator 170 scrap with Chael Sonnen on January 21st, Ortiz has kept the fact that the fight will be his last under wraps, until now.
Earlier this year, Sonnen celebrated the end of his two year suspension handed down by the NSAC. Following the end of his suspension, it didn’t take long for Sonnen to announce that he was ending his retirement, and had signed an exclusive multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA. In addition, it didn’t take long for Sonnen to call out former UFC champion Tito Ortiz for a fight, which was eventually booked for January 21st in Inglewood California.
While the UFC had their UFC 208 event scheduled for the same night, which would also take place in California, earlier this week they released a statement on the fight card being rescheduled, saying:
“UFC® announced today that its Jan. 21 Pay-Per-View event at Honda Center in Anaheim, California has been rescheduled to Aug. 5. The event will remain a Pay-Per-View broadcast. UFC 208 will be shifted to the Feb. 11 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.”
That worked out quite well for Ortiz, who revealed on Twitter that the fight would be his last, and the UFC’s cancellation of their card would mean that he would get the night to himself, with the eyes of MMA fans fixed solely on his fight with Sonnen.
I want to thank @DanaWhite and @UFC for not putting an event the same night of my final fight!👍🏼 #Bellator170 @BellatorMMA @TheForum 1/21/17
— Tito Ortiz (@titoortiz) December 2, 2016
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Ortiz will be entering the bout coming off a loss, the first of his Bellator MMA career, which saw him drop a first round submission loss to Liam McGeary in a failed bid for the Bellator light heavyweight championship back in September. The loss snapped Ortiz’ two fight win streak that had seen him defeat Alexander Shlemenko and Stephan Bonnar in 2014.