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Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen are two of the UFC's most legendary stars. The pair only fought once during their long and illustrious MMA careers. However, Sonnen and Ortiz did face each other once during their college wrestling days.
The duo headlined the Bellator 170 fight card in Inglewood, California in January 2017. The bout ended with Ortiz submitting Sonnen via a rear-naked choke in the first round.
Watch Sonnen and Ortiz debate it out before their fight:
Tito Ortiz is a former UFC light heavyweight champion, having held the title from April 2000 to September 2003.
Meanwhile, Sonnen has challenged for the UFC championship on three occasions. He faced Anderson Silva twice for the middleweight belt and Jon Jones once for the light heavyweight title. 'The American Gangster' was unsuccessful on all of those occasions. Chael Sonnen is widely regarded as one of the greatest UFC stars to have never won a UFC title.
Both Ortiz and Sonnen are currently retired. Since hanging up his gloves, Chael Sonnen has comfortably transitioned to an MMA analyst and YouTube personality.
Meanwhile, Ortiz made a comeback in boxing in 2021 against Anderson Silva but was knocked out in the first round.
The Sonnen-Ortiz rivalry: When Chael Sonnen accused Tito Ortiz of verbally tapping
During an appearance on The MMA Hour in 2017, Chael Sonnen spoke to host Ariel Helwani about his Bellator 170 bout with Tito Ortiz. Sonnen stated that his opponent verbally submitted during the fight:
"He yelled 'Tap!' and that's hard. And my coaches even said that you don't stop until the referee steps in. And it's like man, I understand that and I’m not gonna give the guy any more mercy than somebody else. But there are some rules you know, when a guy says stop, it's one of the only rules we go by."
Watch the full podcast below:
In 2017, when Ortiz offered to come out of retirement to face Fedor Emelianenko in Bellator, 'The American Gangster' saw a possibility for a future rematch between the two.
The feud between the fighters reignited when Ortiz, in an interview with Rich Eisen, said that Sonnen had achieved nothing in MMA besides talking a lot.
Watch the full interview below:
Sonnen was quick to respond to Ortiz on Twitter:
"You've got a 'fight' coming up in, like, 3 weeks & you're STILL talkin' about ME??? Just admit you tapped. Get it off your conscience"
According to 'The Bad Guy', both fighters had a win against each other, Ortiz in MMA and Sonnen from their college wrestling days. He believed that a rubber match was required to settle their fued.
