Tito Ortiz calls it a career after Bellator 170 win

Tito Ortiz is not known for being eloquent on a microphone. That was part of the whole build up to Saturday night’s fight against Chael Sonnen. On one hand you had Sonnen, one of the best talkers in the business, able to turn a phrase to his advantage seemingly whenever he wanted. On the other, Ortiz, whose default pre-fight mode has not changed in more than  decade. A mix of indignation and heart followed by crude one liners that often make no sense, like “I hope Chael’s in great shape because when I’m on top of him, he’s going to shit himself.”

However, words have little to no advantage inside the cage. Ortiz made Saturday’s main event a quick affair. He took Sonnen to the mat quickly, finding his way to mount after Sonnen tried to scramble to find a guillotine choke. From there, Ortiz forced Sonnen to give up his back and caught him in a half rear naked choke  half neck crank that made Sonnen turn purple and tap at 2:03 of the opening round.

Embed from Getty Images

In his post-fight interview, Ortiz accompanied by his son Jacob, gave a technical breakdown of the fight and a heartfelt goodbye to the LA crowd in what may have been his best on-the-mic moment of his career.

“…We worked this mount position, we worked this pass position, we worked the defense of the guillotine. We knew he had a guillotine, we worked position  from back, I knew I could get the choke, because I knew he didn’t want to get pounded by me. I knew he didn’t want to be on bottom taking elbows from me…”

“…I’m happy I’m able to do this in a respectful way in front of my hometown. Los Angeles, thank you guys very, very much!…”

“…Everyone, this will be the last time I will be in this cage. So, as we do in wrestling, usually you retire your wrestling shoes. Tonight, January 21, 2017 I’m going to let my son lay these gloves down, right here in the middle of this Bellator cage because this is the last time that I’ll be fighting. Thank you guys for the support for 20 years…”

The legend @titoortiz bids farewell. #Bellator170 (@allelbows) pic.twitter.com/DahceHGj3Z

— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) January 22, 2017

If you missed the fight or want to relive the moment, Bellator has already posted the full fight video on their website.

Tito Ortiz ends his pro MMA career with a record of 19-12-1 dating back to May 30, 1997.

This article comes to you via @GavelPro