MMA Peaks Again with Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen

The biggest fight of the year takes place on Saturday in Los Angeles. This fight is so big that it forced the UFC to cancel their original UFC 208 event, which was also scheduled for this Saturday. The UFC wanted no part of the biggest fight this decade. They knew that it didn’t matter who they put on the card, whether it be Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey, that it wouldn’t be enough to draw the attention away from the biggest fight of all-time.

Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen goes down this Saturday.

When Bellator first announced this fight, the whole MMA world was abuzz. Two of the biggest names in the sport, two former champions, two of the best trash talkers to ever touch a mic. Both fighters, in the prime of their careers, fighting for the most reputable MMA organization in the world. It didn’t get any bigger than this.

Bellator started by hosting a debate. In this debate, Tito claimed that Chael had, “Gas. Coming out of his ass. And it’s not hit butt.” Harsh words from The Huntington Beach Bad Boy. But not quite as harsh as his decision to crush a juice box with his bare hands. That poor juice box did nothing wrong. But Tito saw it, thought to himself, “this reminds me of Chael,” drank it or pour out the juice to ensure that nothing would spill on him, and then crushed it. HARSH!

This debate was so successful and monumental that the United States copied them and hosted three debates of their own between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Following the success of the debate, Bellator followed up with a press conference. This is when Tito talked about his world famous “ju-jits,” told the story of how he set up the fight ten years ago when he told Chael to “keep talking,” alerted us to the fact that there are “no W’s amongst those wins,” and lost his train of thought at least 274 times. There was also a guy in the audience who served as Chael’s hype man.

In the span of two weeks, Bellator had delivered the two greatest face-offs in MMA history.

And then, they went Ronda Rousey silent. No more debates, no more interviews on shows, no more press conferences. Sometimes, you don’t want to run a good thing to the ground. But you can never put a mic in front of Tito too many times. A mic should be in front of him at all times and at all costs because he’s going to give you gem after gem.

Their media silence ended this week when they got back to press conferencing. And press conference they did. Both men made up for lost time and traded classic insults like, “I think everybody’s starting to believe your lies now. Finally, your lies aren’t becoming truth, huh buddy?”

As a bonus, there was a Jenna Jameson joke.

Then straight out of the Mike Goldberg playbook, Tito started saying how classy he is. But then he cursed, and Chael called him out for not being all that classy. Everyone knows all you have to do is sip with your pinky out to be classy.

Speaking of Mike Goldberg, rumor (that I’m starting right now) has it that he may call this fight on Saturday, because a once in an ever fight needs the greatest MMA announcer of all-time. Who else can correctly let us know that “Tito has one more shot in him” or that Chael “embraces the grind”?

That’s what this fight comes down to. Who will embrace the grind more. Tito has already said that this will be the last fight of his career. Unless, he wins. Then, rumor (that I’m starting right now) has it that Chuck Liddell will enter the cage and we’ll finally get Liddell vs. Ortiz 3. Chael has already said that he’s looking past Tito and is still looking forward to a fight with Wanderlei Silva.

It’s possible that neither man has embraced the grind as much as they should. We all know that hard work beats talent when talent refuses to work hard. And we all know that when talent works hard, that’s Georges St. Pierre. But what if past their prime talent decides they don’t want to word hard because they know that their opponent isn’t working hard?

That question will be answered on Saturday in the co-main event when Paul Daley takes on Brennan Ward.

Soak it in, folks. The look will be back in the eyes of The Bad Guy and The Bad Boy. Both men are in excellent shape. They’ve both put in the work. They’ve busted their ass, not their butt, in the gym to deliver a main event worthy of Trump’s America. They’re primetime fighters on the primetime stage fighting for a primetime organization and at this time are in their prime.

Sonnen vs. Ortiz. This, is what MMA is all about.