T. Ortiz (photo) beat Sonnen in his farewell fight; Photo: Twitter/Bellator
Tito Ortiz ended his career in style. The former UFC champion submitted his rival Chael Sonnen with a rear naked choke in the first round of the main fight of Bellator 170, an event held this Saturday night (21), in Inglewood (USA). In addition to the triumph, Tito had the pleasure of ruining Sonnen's debut at the event. The former UFC middleweight title challenger hasn't fought since 2013.
Brazil had three representatives at the show. On the preliminary card, Guilherme Bomba, boyfriend of singer Demi Lovato, beat John Mercurio by technical knockout in the second round, while Chinzo Machida, Lyoto's brother, defeated Jamar Ocampo, also by knockout.
See too
The fight
Despite ending in the initial round, the fight between Tito and Chael was full of twists and turns. Ortiz started better and soon got the takedown. Chael Sonnen, however, landed a guillotine choke that almost made his opponent give up. Tito managed to reach half guard and free himself from the pin. Soon after, still on the ground, Ortiz reached mount, took Sonnen's back and locked in a rear naked choke, which clamped the “American Gangster's” chin and made him give up.
With the triumph, Ortiz reached the 19th victory in his career. He also recorded 1 draw and 12 defeats
“Retirement hasn’t sunk in yet. Before the fight, I looked at my son and he was crying, and I cried too. Thank you to everyone who supported me, a boy who had nothing and achieved what I achieved. Thank you”, commented Tito, who spoke about specific training for Sonnen.
“Everything I trained during my camp worked. We worked on the mount throughout the training period. I was very strong, and I trained a lot on guillotine defenses and chokes. Everything happened according to plan”, he concluded.
Daley wins with spectacular knockout and Ralek Gracie loses
In the second most important fight of the night, a devastating knockout ended the fight between Paul Daley and Brennan ward in the first round. The Englishman Daley dominated the entire fight and, after a spinning elbow, came the flying knee that erased Ward. The American had to leave Bellator's round cage on a stretcher.
Before that, the event promoted the debut of Ralek Gracie. Son of Rorion, creator of the UFC, Ralek hadn't fought since 2010 and took a while to get into his rhythm against Hisaki Kato. The Japanese dominated the first two rounds, mainly with hard low kicks. In the final round, the Brazilian managed the takedown and mount, but never attempted a submission. In the end, victory for Kato, who is close to qualifying for the middleweight belt – currently, the title is held by Raphael Carvalho.
In the first two fights of the preliminary portion of Bellator 170, excellent fights and victories for Emmanuel sanchez and Derek Campos over Georgi Karakhanyan and Derek Anderson, respectively. “Matador” Sanchez surprised and managed to dominate Georgi on the ground in the first two rounds, and not even the loss of a point for an illegal strike took away his victory. In the fight between Dereks, Campos was more aggressive than Anderson and deserved the victory by decision.
BELLATOR 170 RESULTS:
Light heavyweight: Tito Ortiz won Chael Sonnen via submission (rear naked choke) at 2m3s of R1
Welterweight: Paul Daley won Brennan ward by knockout at 2m27s of R1
Midfielder: Hisaki Kato won Ralek gracie by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Pain: Emmanuel sanchez beat Georgi Karakhanyan by majority decision (28-28, 28-27, 28-27)
Lightweight: Derek Campos defeated Derek Anderson by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Pain: Chinzo Machida beat Jamar Ocampo by technical knockout at 3:48 of R3
Welterweight: Guilherme Bomba beat John Mercurio by technical knockout 41s into R2
Pena: Henry Corrales beats Cody Bollinger by knockout at 4:28 of R3
Midfielder: Kevin Casey tied with Keith Berry (majority) (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
Bantamweight: Alex Soto beat Demarcus Brown by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Mild: jalin turner beat Gabriel Green by knockout at 36 seconds
Comments