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Bellator 170 recap: 'Ortiz vs Sonnen' .gifs, video highlights and more!

By stevejuon
Bellator MMA

Bellator 170: "Ortiz vs. Sonnen" took place last night (Sat., Jan. 21, 2017) at The Forum in Inglewood, California. And after months of trash talking and posturing on both sides, two mixed martial arts (MMA) legends finally had to settle the beef inside the cage. "American Gangster" Chael Sonnen -- who makes as many friends as enemies with his "Bad Guy" persona -- found an old foe from his college wrestling days waiting to spoil his Bellator fighting debut -- "Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz.

When the smoke was clear, Chris Daughtry was done singing, and all the talking was done, Sonnen rushed to the center throwing rights and Ortiz went for a single-leg takedown. Sonnen swept and went for a guillotine and couldn't get it. Ortiz took full mount, took the back and sunk in the rear-naked choke until Sonnen turned purple and tapped out little more than two minutes into the first round (watch highlights here). In fact, the official time was 2:03 of the first round in the final fight of Ortiz' MMA career.

"Huntington Beach Bad Boy" spoke with Jimmy Smith about getting one more win on his way out the door:

"It felt really really good. Everything that went on through this whole fight, all we did through camp. Raphael Davis, one of my sparring partners, one of my best friends -- we started this together. We wrestled at Cal State Bakersfield together. We had this whole camp together. Scott Carr from Gracie-Barra Jiu-Jitsu, we worked this mount position, we worked this pass position, we worked the defense to the guillotine. We knew he had a guillotine. We worked position from the back. I knew I'd get the choke because I know he doesn't want to be pounded by me. I know he doesn't want to be on the bottom taking elbows from me. Jason Parillo got my hands working super fast, got my feet moving really super fast. I knew if I shot on Chael he was not going to be super strong, so I knew I could fight out of positions. We worked on the guillotine position, getting out of it. He never had me, thumbs up, I'm good. It was never tight. I'm happy that I'm able to do this in a respectful way in front of my home town. Los Angeles, thank you guys very, very, much. ORTIZ RULES!"

Two potential future Welterweight contenders met to see if one could elevate to the No. 1 spot - Paul "Semtex" Daley and Brennan Ward. Fans came into this fight expecting a short and brutal exchange of hands between the two. As expected we didn't need more than one round to settle this fight. Despite Ward surprising some expectations by scoring several takedowns, the second of which coming off a left hook that seemed to hurt "Semtex." Daley's response was to stand up, spin the elbow, and throw an INSANE FLYING KNEE to end Ward's night at 2:27 (watch highlights here).

Daley spoke to Jimmy Smith after scoring the 29th knockout of his MMA career.

"First off I want to wish Brennan Ward's family and friends that are here, I hope he's okay. Me and Brennan, we are tight, this was a difficult fight for me because I genuinely like the guy. We spent a lot of time together here in Bellator so I just wanna get that out there I hope Brennan Ward is okay after this fight. I'm looking at everybody, marquee names and champions. Rory MacDonald's come over from the UFC, thinks he can do his bullshit over here, it ain't gonna happen. Rory MacDonald gets in this cage with me he's getting knocked the {*expletive} out."

A complete styles clash came to Inglewood as Metamoris founder Ralek Gracie put his undefeated record and Brazilian jiu-jitsu background on the line against "Mr. Excitement" Hisaki Kato -- a Japanese fighter who loves to go out and bang. Kato threw occasional leg kicks. Gracie threw kicks and fell down a lot, stomped on the mat a lot, then got caught with a "Superman" punch late and survived. That was the story of the first round. Both men got a warning for inactivity and that was the story of the second round. Gracie had virtually no discernible offense for 10 minutes.

Gracie finally did something in round three -- he secured a takedown halfway through then passed to side control and quickly to full mount with under a minute left. He could do nothing with it but he clearly won round three. One judge didn't care and gave the entire fight to Kato 30-27. The others gave him 29-28 for a unanimous decision.

Bellator followed up that lackluster fight with the announcement of Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson -- part two -- March 31 -- location to be determined (more details here).

Smith went to interview Lawal first. He said, "Really man, when it comes to it, I'm 1-0 against this man. I'm fin' to be 2-0." Jackson was quick with a response.

"What's up with this man he think he won that fight? How you think you win a fight by humping King Mo? Nah nah, let's keep it real. How you think you win a fight by taking somebody down and just jumping on their leg? I got a lot of respect for King Mo even after I fought him because honestly I thought I was going to put his ass to sleep. I couldn't do it! I got kind of close. But one thing I like about King Mo he will fight anybody. He just went to Japan and fought Cro Cop. He fought my brother Kongo. He'll fight anybody so I got respect for him, but don't be saying you beat me in the first fight homey. You know you lost that fight Mo. I wanted to put you to sleep ever since we had that first argument in the back of the van."

Recently-retired "California Kid" Urijah Faber appeared to be enjoying himself at the show.

In another quick turnaround fight for a man looking to stake his claim at a Featherweight title shot, Georgi Karakhanyan, went for his third straight win against split decision specialist Emmanuel Sanchez.

Karakhanyan was the aggressor for most of the first round, but that means a lot of takedown attempts and the occasional brief period of dominance on the ground. He got over-aggressive though and gave Sanchez his back for a possible rear naked choke with 30 seconds left -- Sanchez couldn't get it though.

Round two was a mess. Karakhanyan threw an upkick as both men were on the ground and got a warning but Sanchez said he was good to go and made referee Blake Grice restart them in the same position, then he threw two BLATANTLY illegal knees when Karakhanyan was on his knees and earned a one point deduction in response.

Karakhanyan got a takedown 16 seconds into the third round and never let go, leaving fans with the very real possibility they had just witnessed a draw, but instead Sanchez eked out a majority decision of 28-27x2. Instead of interviewing the winner, new interviewer, Jenn Brown, spoke with Matt Mitrione about his fight with Fedor Emelianenko coming up Feb. 18, 2017, in San Jose.

"You know really that's not that difficult for me. It's a guy that I'm going to punch in the face for money, you know that's what it is. He's a legend yeah right on man but it's my time. His time was already, it's my time to get down. I respect him a ton but that won't effect how hard I'm going to try to hurt him."

Derek Campos was also looking for a third straight win but so was "Barbaric" Derek Anderson, and only one man would walk away from this main card fight satisfied with the outcome. At the early morning weigh-ins this fight was changed to a catch weight of 161 lbs.

The first round saw the smaller Campos respond to the challenge by repeatedly testing Anderson's chin with lefts, dropping him to his knees at one point, but Anderson made a strong comeback in the last two minutes.

Campos was the superior striker in round two, getting out of the way as Anderson whiffed on overhand rights, then dropping Anderson for a second time and nearly mounting him on the ground.

The third round was as close as the first, although this time Anderson was accruing damage with left hands that opened up Campos' face. Campos got a takedown when he got tired of that, Anderson swept on top with 30 seconds to go, and they both stood up with short time and left it up to the judges -- they saw it 29-28x3 Campos.

Campos spoke to Jimmy Smith after an fun opener on Spike.

"Yes sir Jimmy. I wanted to come out here and knock Derek out but uhh, much respect given he's one tough son of a gun. We came out here and we started it off right. I think this win definitely puts me up in the top three, top four. There's still guys I need to contend with -- Brent Primus, Adam Piccolotti, Benson Henderson, Josh Thomson. The champ wants a piece of Josh Thomson so let's see if that fight happens. Until then you know I want the top guys."

These bouts were paired with exciting "Prelims" action that aired exclusively online.

For complete Bellator 170 results and coverage click here.

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