While their main event fight at Bellator 170 on January 21st will be the first time that Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen face each other in a professional fight, it will not actually be the first time they’ve competed against each other one on one. On Friday, as a special treat for the holiday weekend, Flo Wrestling uploaded the above video of Sonnen making quick work of Ortiz in a January 23, 1998 collegiate wrestling match. 19 years before their fight is scheduled to take place, almost to the day, Sonnen pinned Ortiz with a headlock in just 44 seconds.
Back in November at a press conference for Bellator 170, Ortiz fielded a question about the 1998 match, when he was asked if he was going to try to out-wrestle Chael to prove a point:
I’m gonna be the bully in this fight. I’m gonna push him around. He doesn’t realize how big a 205 pounder I really am. You gotta understand: This is a juiced-up 185 pounder. I’m a true 205 pounder. I walk around [at] 225 solid. He gets the takedown? I’m gonna submit him. People don’t understand my jiu jitsu is great, my submissions are great. I understand that. I know what I need to do in this fight. But when he doesn’t get the takedown, and it’s after the first round, and he’s like “I’ve taken three years off. [inhales deeply] Where my oxygen? My big muscles aren’t working!” That’s when I just start warming up. This fight? I’m gonna expose every one of his weaknesses.
Bellator 170 will be the promotion’s debut at the Los Angeles Forum. Paul Daley fights Brennan Ward in the co-headliner, which is a likely welterweight title eliminator, plus the style clash that is Hisaki Kato vs. Ralek Gracie has also been announced for the main card.
