Morning Report: Chael Sonnen says Tito Ortiz verbally tapped at Bellator 170

By Jed Meshew@JedKMeshew Feb 24, 2017, 8:00am EST

Last weekend, when Matt Mitrione was forced to withdraw from his headlining bout against Fedor Emelianenko, Tito Ortiz volunteered on Twitter to step in on less than a day’s notice to keep Emelianenko on the card. It was an unexpected turn of events considering Ortiz had retired from MMA a month ago after beating Chael Sonnen at Bellator 170. And while ultimately, Ortiz wasn’t taken up on his offer, his willingness to end his retirement has had one notable effect: Chael Sonnen is calling him out again.

On the most recent episode of his podcast You’re Welcome!, Sonnen discussed Ortiz’s offer to Bellator as well as why he would like a rematch with Ortiz now that it might be on the table. In so doing, he also claimed that Ortiz’s win of him was suspect because Ortiz tapped out before Sonnen did and explained why he didn’t bring this up earlier.

“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.

“He then make-believes that he’s gonna come back for Fedor. Now, Tito was nowhere near the Fedor fight. He didn’t offer his services, he had nothing to do with it, but the bottom line was, he then took himself out of retirement by pretending that he offered to fight Fedor, which he did not do. If Tito ever wanted to come back and play, I’ll tell the whole story of what happened in that fight.”

As was covered in great detail before their fight, this wasn’t the first time Sonnen and Ortiz competed against each other. Sonnen manhandled Ortiz on the collegiate wrestling mats back in their younger days, a loss which stuck with Ortiz and motivated him for this “rematch.” With Ortiz now potentially amenable to returning to the cage, Sonnen is now looking for a third match between the two of them to settle the score once and for all, and Sonnen says the third time would be more like the first bout than the second.

“And yeah, we are one apiece. I never got going. That guy is easy work for me. I would put that guy away in less than two minutes. It would be a completely different fight. It bothers me. It bothers me to come out here and say that I’d clean a guy up in two minutes that just tapped me out. I realize how insane that sounds but the guy was gone.”

Sonnen also says Ortiz knows he tapped and wanted to make clear that he doesn’t blame Ortiz for doing so and that he has done the same thing.

“I would’ve taken it to my grave. It was between Tito and I. He gave me a look after the fight. Tito, we’re good man. I tapped fair and square. The ref called my tap, he didn’t call your tap, we’re good. You think I’ve never ran a tap back before? Sure I have. You’re in there, you do anything you can. I had absolutely no problem with it.”

Sonnen has his own shaky history with submissions. Sonnen lost while fighting Paul Filho for the WEC middleweight championship when he yelled after getting caught in an armbar and the referee stopped the fight, taking the scream as a verbal submission. Sonnen also, after losing to Anderson Silva by fifth-round submission at UFC 117, famously said that he thought tapping only meant you conceded the round, not the entire fight.

That bit of promotion, combined with personal attacks, helped Sonnen eventually earn a rematch with Silva and there is every likelihood that Sonnen’s attempting the same thing here. Aside from the verbal submission claims, Sonnen also made sure to take personal shots at Ortiz of the same kind as the ones he levied before their fight, saying that it’s only a matter of time until Ortiz returns because he “broke” and “there’s nothing else that he can go out and do.”

And those attacks may well be working. Ortiz ostensibly responded to Sonnen on Twitter today for his remarks on his podcast.

.@ChaelSonnen You're my BITCH!
— Tito Ortiz (@titoortiz) February 24, 2017

If Ortiz does end his retirement, Sonnen will be quite happy since it will give him an opportunity to lose his newly adopted title of “worst fighter in the sport” and avenge his worst defeat all in the same fight.

“Tito’s the worst fighter in the sport. We were fighting for title. I took his title. I am now the worst fighter in the sport. Whoever I fight next, if I win that fight, he then becomes the worst fighter because I’ve officially got the crown, and that’s tough.

MUST-READ STORIES

Heat. Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson engaged in a heated back and forth on the UFC 209 conference call.

New. Georges St-Pierre says the new GSP would beat the old one.

Suit. Bellator files a lawsuit against the UFC to block “confidential” information from being released.

Boxing. Anderson Silva and Roy Jones Jr. have begun campaigning for a boxing match.

Break. Cody Garbrandt says he thinks he “broke” Dominick Cruz at UFC 207.

MEDIA STEW

The MMA Beat.

UFC 209 Conference Call.

A Nick Diaz highlight for no particular reason.

And a Derrick Lewis highlight.

LISTEN UP

Jack Slack.

JRE with Dominick Cruz.

Bisping and Malki Kawa chew it up together.

TWEETS

Khabib is embracing the spotlight.

This is just the beginning. Enjoy the journey. Thank you to all of the media on the call @ufc @danawhite
— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) February 23, 2017

GSP.

#GSP on coming back to the #UFC - "The @georgesstpierre now would beat the old @georgesstpierre.." #hayabusaphilippines #hayabusaph #teamhayabusa #hayabusa #mma #gspisback #teamgsp

A post shared by Hayabusa Philippines (@hayabusaphil) on Feb 22, 2017 at 11:44pm PST

If they do make MayGregor and don’t make this, that seems wrong.

All a dream needs to be accomplished is someone who believes that it can be done. . Tudo o que um sonho precisa para ser realizado é alguém que acredite que ele possa ser realizado. . #JonesJrVSSilva #SilvaVSJonesJr

A post shared by Anderson Silva (@spiderandersonsilva) on Feb 22, 2017 at 11:29pm PST

T.J. has embraced it fully.

A post shared by tjdillashaw (@tjdillashaw) on Feb 23, 2017 at 11:14am PST

Masvidal is angry these days.

#estoydepinga #ufc #easymoney #makeufcgreatagain

A post shared by Jorge Masvidal (@gamebredfighter) on Feb 23, 2017 at 7:21am PST

Cold.

This is just increasingly embarrassing. https://t.co/WEz1urEbAO
— Ryan Hall (@ryanhall5050) February 23, 2017

#wouldwatch.

. Let's make this thing official and sign some papers, what do you say @FrankieEdgar ? @ufc #may #mma
— Ricardo Lamas (@RicardoLamasMMA) February 24, 2017

He’s a bit busy at the moment.

Well that was a first, just had to take a duece w the usada guy right next to me looking on. AWKWARD!
— Frankie Edgar (@FrankieEdgar) February 23, 2017

Krylov seems happy about the move.

Nikita Krylov, the first interview after contract with EFN: "4 fights in contract and I want the belt!" #mma #fightnights pic.twitter.com/uegckhkRMu
— Alexey Safonov (@from_safonov) February 23, 2017

Talkin’ ish.

JoJo: 'Im broke & want a fight'

Me: 'Let's fight'

JoJo: 'That was a terrible callout'

Me: *shrugs and sits pretty with my 50 grand bonus*
— Angela Hill (@AngieOverkill) February 23, 2017

Good for him.

.@Marc_Diakiese makes history as the first ever @ufc star to pose for a gay mag. We're glad he's on our side... https://t.co/iixbhgDmU6 pic.twitter.com/I5Qofly1hP
— Gay Times Magazine (@GayTimesMag) February 19, 2017

Lol.

Spinnin' shit incoming

A post shared by Lando Vannata (@groovylando) on Feb 23, 2017 at 11:08am PST

Beef.

Olha o que acontece quando eu luto contra o 13º do ranking! Olha o que acontece quando o Bisping luta contra o 13º do ranking! . Soube que o medroso do Bisping andou falando algumas besteiras sobre mim, mentindo porque não tem mais desculpas para não subir no octógono comigo, exatamente como fazem os covardes. Disse que eu parecia um amador lutando em pé contra o 13º do ranking (Tim Boetsch), mas todos nós lembramos como ele saiu da luta contra o 13º do ranking (Dan Henderson). Foi moído! Você é um burro, Bisping! Depois de ser nocauteado com uma mão direita brutal do Hendo, você teve 7 anos para aprender e quando lutou novamente não conseguiu se defender da mesma mão direita que te fez dormir. . Falou também sobre o tamanho do meu corpo. Esquisita sua mania de ficar reparando os outros atletas. Você pode trabalhar na USADA e fazer meus testes, só assim você chegaria perto de mim sem medo. E é melhor investir na carreira como blogueiro ou escritor, porque lutador de verdade você não é! #TimeJacare . Look what happens when I fight the #13 in the ranking! Look what happens when @mikebisping fights the #13 in the ranking! . I heard that the scared Bisping talked some crap about me, lying, because he doesn't have more excuses not to step inside the Octagon with me, exactly how cowards do. He said I looked like an amateur standing with the #13 ranked middleweight (Tim Boetsch), but we all remember how he left the fight against the #13 ranked middleweight (Dan Henderson). You were beat up! You're stupid, Bisping! After getting knocked out by Hendo's brutal right hand, you had seven years to learn, and when you fought again you couldn't even defend the same right hand that put you to sleep. . He talked about my body, too. This weird thing about noticing other athletes' bodies. You can work for USADA and do my tests, that's the closest you'd get to me without being afraid. And you'd better invest in your career as a blogger or writer, because you're not a real fighter!! #TeamJacare . #BeMoreHuman @reebok @reebokbrasil #UFC @ufc @ufc_brasil

A post shared by Ronaldo Jacaré (@ronaldojacare) on Feb 21, 2017 at 2:24pm PST

The kids love DL.

I tried to surprise my little brother at school today

A post shared by Derrick Lewis (@thebeastufc) on Feb 23, 2017 at 12:38pm PST

Fun.

Eat your heart out Shogun pic.twitter.com/fLB3a3lZj2
— MEGATON (@BasedDongeezus) February 23, 2017

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Albert Morales (6-1-1) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (11-3); UFC 209, March 4.

Cynthia Calvillo (3-0) vs. Amanda Cooper (2-2); UFC 209, March 4.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk (13-0) vs. Jessica Andrade (16-5); UFC 211, May 13.

Enrique Barzola (11-3-1) vs. Gabriel Benitez (18-5); UFC 211, May 13.

TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2007: Dan Henderson knocked out Wanderlei Silva to become the Pride middleweight (light heavyweight) champion at Pride 33. Also that night, Nick Diaz submitted Takanori Gomi with a gogoplata.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Chael saw the numbers he and Tito did and now he realizes running that back after a Wanderlei fight is likely his best course of action. Smart promoter ol’ Chael P. is.

That’s all for today folks. Have a good one and see y’all on Monday.

If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting because we post dope things and you should enjoy them.