Chael Sonnen On Tito Ortiz Fight: There’s Not An Excuse

Chael Sonnen made his return to mixed martial arts in the main event of last Saturday’s (Jan 21, 2017) Bellator 170 from Inglewood, California, but it didn’t play out in his favor, as he was submitted by Tito Ortiz in the first round.

To make matters worse, some have criticized the loss, saying that the choke wasn’t completely locked in. Sonnen, however, recently told MMAFighting.com that it was indeed a choke, although he admitted it was embarrassing:

“It was a choke. It was an oxygen issue, not a pain issue,” Sonnen said on The Luke Thomas Show. “And somebody had asked me that … after the fight, and I had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Didn’t you see it? I got put in a rear-naked choke.’ And then I got home and people were saying that it didn’t look like it was on. I don’t even know how to respond to that.

“All I can tell you is I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t respect it went on. I thought we were going to get into scramble and I was going to come on top, and I was stuck. It’s really hard to give up your back, ever. You give up your back in the first round before you have that sweat going, man, it’s just a tough spot. And it’s embarrassing, it’s all those different things. But to answer your question head-on, yeah, it was a choke, it was not a crank.”

In addition to fans criticizing the legitimacy of the choke, some have also claimed that the fight was fixed. Sonnen, however, disputed these accusations, also saying that he had no excuses for his performance:

“I can tell you, if you’re ever in a contest and somebody thinks that you threw it, like some of my fans in this case, like ‘he wasn’t trying’ — no, the hard reality is I got put in a choke,” Sonnen said. “I was trying and he squeezed the choke better than I defended it, and as much as I appreciate you guys trying to give me an excuse, man, I’m a guy who hates them.

“It’s fun to be a good winner, it’s hard to be a good loser, but it’s the process. It’s protocol and procedure, and if you get beat, you’ve got to tap and surrender, man. You’ve got to own it forever. You can’t go back and say, ‘well, I didn’t try.’ So as much as I appreciate supporters offering an excuse for me, there’s not an excuse, man. I got put in a choke and I had to tap.”

What do you make of Sonnen’s comments?