Morning Report: Tito Ortiz takes shot at Chael Sonnen, Sonnen responds

Tito Ortiz has made peace with many of his former foes, but there’s still one previous opponent who sticks in his craw: Chael Sonnen.

Ortiz will battle Alberto Del Rio at Combate Americas on Dec. 7 and in advance of his fight, Ortiz has been making the media rounds. On Wednesday, while speaking with Rich Eisen, Ortiz was asked about some of his previous opponents, and the former UFC light heavyweight champion was very complimentary of two of his biggest UFC rivals – Randy Couture and surprisingly Ken Shamrock.

“The toughest fighter I’ve ever faced would have to be Randy Couture,” Ortiz said. “I was 30 years old and I thought I was invincible and he outwrestled me and just beat me round after round…

“Ken Shamrock, I’d have to say,” Ortiz continued when asked who he like to talk crap about the most. “That was true hate. But it’s just one of those ideas, it happens in all schools, when kids fight each other they end up being best friends at the end of the day because they hash out all their problems by putting their dukes up. Me and Ken Shamrock, it was a hate, it was a true hate. There was nothing built upon, there was no fakeness at all and we battled out three times and all three times I got my hand raised but he pushed me every single time we competed against each other. I always thought that I was fighting The World’s Most Dangerous Man and I had to be The World’s Most Dangerous Man and that’s how I got my hand raised.”

Shamrock and Ortiz had a notoriously heated feud in the early and mid 2000’s, incited in large part by Ortiz’s disrespect of Shamrock’s Lion’s Den MMA team. The two fought three times (once for the light heavyweight title) and coached a season of The Ultimate Fighter against one another but all the bad blood is now water under the bridge for Ortiz.

That’s not the case with Chael Sonnen though.

Ortiz and Sonnen had a brief but memorable feud in Bellator for what was supposed to be Ortiz’s retirement fight. The feud built off of the time they wrestled each other in college and Sonnen won but, as with many Chael Sonnen endeavors, things took an ugly turn when Sonnen began talking trash beforehand. In the end, Ortiz submitted Sonnen when they fought but apparently Ortiz has still not forgiven “The American Gangster.”

“Chael Sonnen. That guy he just . . . I dislike that man,” Ortiz said. “He’s just something else. Some who talks and talks and talks and has never done anything in this sport besides talk. That’s what he does for a living. He should’ve stayed to that and I guess he is staying to it [since] he’s retired now.

“He said some very personal things about me and I’m a very emotional man, I’m a very loyal man, and when you talk about a person’s family I take it to heart. It’s my blood and I kind of let him have it a little bit. If people go on YouTube and watch Tito Ortiz Uncaged, he said a couple things about me and was talking about me putting on my championship belt and I had to let him have it, full bore. It wasn’t just a little, it was full bore. I put him out for who he really was and he never said another word about me.”

That’s not entirely accurate. While Sonnen did retire earlier this year after getting knocked out by Lyoto Machida, Sonnen has fairly regularly taken shots at Ortiz and called for a rematch, saying in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that Ortiz actually tapped to Sonnen before he locked on the fight ending submission. And true to form, Sonnen even responded to Ortiz’s interview with Eisen, once again calling into question Ortiz’s win over him as well as the legitimacy of his fight with former WWE champion Alberto Del Rio.

With Ortiz now fully unretired, perhaps this is just the incentive Sonnen needs to step back into the cage himself.

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Charged. Suspect charged with kidnapping Walt Harris’ stepdaughter denied bond, ordered to submit to DNA testing.

Semi-retired. Luke Rockhold: ‘Right now, I’m just happy not fighting’.

Boxing. Jason Knight, Paulie Malignaggi interested in boxing match rather than bare-knuckle brawl.

Rematch. Michael ‘Venom’ Page wants Douglas Lima rematch ‘as soon as possible’.

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The A-Side Live Chat.

Volkanovski fight camp.

Randy feeling okay after the heart attack.

Alberto Del Rio talking Tito.

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Heavy Hands. Discussing the all-time GOATs in each division and UFC Sao Paulo.

Mookie & Crookie. Recapping UFC Sao Paulo and discussing Rich Franklin.

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Jon doing MMAth.

Henry Cejudo.

Poor Aljo. He really thinks he’s getting the title shot.

Felice Herrig.

Gokhan Saki.

Dana and Floyd being buddies.

This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

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Levy Marroquin (12-3) vs. Enrique Gonzalez (8-3); Combate Americas, Dec. 7.

Brett Johns (15-2) vs. Tony Gravely (19-5); UFC Raleigh, Jan. 25.

Sara McMann (11-5) vs. Lina Lansberg (10-4); UFC Raleigh, Jan. 25.

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Tito Ortiz is a genius. He’s still a pretty great athlete for his age and so now he’s just gonna go around beating up fighters who haven’t aged as well as he has. They may have won the battles, but he’s winning the war. It’s legitimately brilliant stuff.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts

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