After Chael Sonnen’s Bellator signing late last week, he immediately sought for a marquee fight. The main man on his hit list is former UFC light heavyweight champion and fellow veteran fighter Tito Ortiz.
“The American Gangster” says his history with Ortiz dates back decades ago when they were wrestling in college. While there are no grudges between the two men, Sonnen feels there is a score that needs to be settled.
“Every time we’re in the same room together, it’s like this big alpha male contest,” Sonnen said during the recent Bellator conference call. “And he knows it’s going on, and I know it’s going on. So if the Bad Boy wants a piece of the Bad Guy, all you gotta do is say my name. I said his name. All he has to do is say mine.”
Ortiz did say Sonnen’s name through Twitter, bearing the threat of “slapping the gangster out of him.” Now that the two parties have recognized each other’s call-outs, Sonnen has penciled in a date for their fight, which marks his Bellator debut.
“I am on a legends ass-kicking tour and I’m starting with Tito Ortiz on November 19,” Sonnen told Ariel Helwani in his appearance on The MMA Hour. “All I need is a contract. This could not be any more of an official callout. I don’t have the linguistic ability to call someone out more articulately or clear.”
“If Tito does not want to accept, I will never bully him again. I’m not here to pick on him. I will take a ‘no’ as a default and I will move on. But for right now, my message for you is that on Nov. 19, ‘The Bad Boy,’ vs. ‘The Bad Guy.’”