Chael Sonnen returned to mixed martial arts (MMA) action for the first time since Nov. 2013 last night (Jan. 21) at Bellator 170. Sonnen made his Bellator debut against Tito Ortiz. It was “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s” final bout.
Ortiz was able to reverse a choke and got to full mount. Sonnen gave up his back and Ortiz finished the fight with a rear-naked choke. It was Sonnen’s second straight defeat. The fight barely lasted two minutes.
At the post-fight press conference, Sonnen said he felt confident going into the bout, but in the end it wasn’t his night:
“I thought I was going to have good minutes tonight. I thought I could beat Tito. I thought I had good positions on him and he had a good position on me, and I accept the result. It was a fair contest. I wanted to get out there and get the experience. I fully expected to win this. I had great coaches and a great camp, and I got caught in a position that I couldn’t get out of.”
Sonnen’s choke attempt early on wasn’t tight enough to stop Ortiz from getting top control. Sonnen admitted he believed it would have success.
“I thought that a guillotine would be a good option. I worked on it a lot. Tito’s also had his neck bother him. He talked about that, I thought maybe that was a good opportunity, but I couldn’t get my leg on the right side. I had my hand where I wanted it, it just didn’t work out and he reversed it.”
Sonnen has gone 1-4 in his last five outings. He has been finished in all of his losses in this stretch. The loss to Ortiz was the first time he was submitted since his first title bout with Anderson Silva.
