Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz recently stated that he would now be willing to fight another former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion in Chuck Liddell for a third time in the UFC.
Chael Sonnen and Ortiz fought each other under the Bellator MMA banner, but now Sonnen is shredding Ortiz apart for wanting to return to the UFC for a potential Liddell encounter.
“That’s where I’m saying it’s a scumbag move,” Sonnen said on Beyond The Fight. “It’s like ‘Tito, after all Scott Coker did for you – I mean they ran you around, you were the face of the company, you were main eventing, you were making a bunch of money – that’s your response? You’re gonna come out of retirement, and you’re gonna fight Chuck in the UFC? You don’t give that to Coker? You’re gonna do it in the UFC? You finished your career at Bellator. You got treated great at Bellator. You come to the Bellator shows. Whether I like Tito or not – and I don’t – but he is a great face of the sport, people recognize him.”
If Ortiz would return to the organization he once dominated, it would be the first time the former champion fought there since a loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 148.
Sonnen also believes that Ortiz’s recent comments could get him in trouble with both Bellator MMA and the UFC.
“First off, unloyal, scumbag move, my opinion,” Sonnen said. “Second off, from a PR perspective, how stupid could you be? You’re not gonna get that fight in the UFC. That isn’t gonna happen. So now, you’ve showed your loyalty, you’ve showed your cards, and you’re not gonna get it. So now you’re gonna get rebuted by who you’re apparently trying to impress, and you’re gonna piss off the other side. I just didn’t get any part of it. I don’t understand how or why he would do it, I resent that he did it from a loyalty standpoint.”
It would seem highly unlikely the fight happens in the UFC, as UFC President Dana White recently said the promotion wouldn’t house a third fight between Ortiz and Liddell.
