Bellator MMA had its third biggest TV audience in history on Saturday night for Bellator 170, which featured Tito Ortiz scoring a first round submission victory in the final fight of his career over the debuting Chael Sonnen.
The show averaged 1.374 million viewers on Spike TV, peaking at 1.85 million for the Ortiz vs. Sonnen main event.
Saturday was the biggest audience for Bellator since last February’s show that featured a double main event of Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000, which set the company record at 1.964 million.
The only other Bellator show aside from that to beat Saturday’s mark was the Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock fight in June 2015, which did 1.58 million viewers. The fourth biggest Bellator rating in company history was also an Ortiz fight, his November 2014 bout with Stephan Bonnar that had an audience of 1.24 million.
There was no big sports competition on cable, which no doubt helped the rating, and the show finished second for the night in the 18-49 demo with a 0.55 rating. It was first in the male 18-49 demo on all of cable.
Bellator is back on Spike TV this Friday with Bellator 171, headlined by former UFC fighter Melvin Guillard making his welterweight debut against Chidi Njokuani.
It’s a weekend of big personalities on big stages here in the United States and MMA wasn’t about to be left in the dust on this inauguration weekend.
Former UFC superstars Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz will do battle in Los Angeles, CA, Saturday at Bellator 170, and who better to talk about that show than the man who will be calling the action cageside?
Bellator MMA & Boston Celtics play-by-play man Sean Grande dropped by Josh Nason’s Punch-Out for a 45-minute conversation that hit on the following topics and more:
– The nostalgic feel of Ortiz vs. Sonnen, and how this fight is different than other “fun” fights the promotion has had
– Sean’s first 18 months in the promotion and what he’s learned
– Some surprises that are in store for those watching Saturday, exclusive to JNPO listeners
– Sean’s thoughts on Jimmy Snuka, the Royal Rumble, and more.
Even though he’s on the shelf due to a USADA suspension, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones returned to a different kind of competition Sunday night in the main event of Submission Underground 2.
Jones faced recently retired UFC/Pride/Strikeforce veteran Dan Henderson in a grappling match, a bout originally scheduled for Jones’ UFC belt at UFC 151 but had to be scrapped due to a Henderson knee injury.
The two were jovial in the near 10-minute match that saw Jones controlling the much older Henderson up against the MMA cage they competed in.
With about three minutes to go, Jones got side mount and kept the action on the mat. Henderson tried to stay active from the bottom, but Jones’ size was too much for him. He eventually got full mount and secured an arm triangle for the quick tap and victory.
Jones challenged Chael Sonnen to a grappling match on January 29th that Sonnen accepted.
In the co-main event, recently retired Miesha Tate took on current UFC fighter Jessica Eye and defeated her on “escape time” after they went the distance and into overtime.
The show aired live on FloGrappling from Portland, OR, and is the brainchild of Sonnen and FloSports.
Chael Sonnen has an opponent for his Bellator debut.
It was announced on Tuesday night’s edition of SportsCenter that Sonnen would make his debut for the company against Tito Ortiz in the main event of Bellator 170 on January 21st at The Forum in Inglewood, CA.
After completing a two-year suspension for failing multiple drug tests, Sonnen announced last month that he was returning to mixed martial arts and had signed with Bellator. Sonnen had mentioned Ortiz as a possible opponent for his debut fight, framing it as “The Bad Guy vs. The Bad Boy.”
Sonnen’s last fight was in November 2013 at UFC 167, where he concluded his UFC career in a loss to Rashad Evans.
Ortiz, formerly a longtime mainstay in the UFC, has had three fights since signing with Bellator in 2013. He began his career in the promotion with wins against Alexander Shlemenko and Stephan Bonnar before losing his latest fight against Liam McGeary over a year ago.
After telling anyone that would ask that his in-cage career was done, 39-year-old Chael Sonnen will return to the action with Bellator MMA, announced via the Associated Press Thursday night.
A Bellator press release says Sonnen will fight at 205 pounds, but in a quote in the release, he says he’s not sticking to one weight class. Sonnen and his new boss Scott Coker will hold a conference call Friday while Sonnen is expected to be on screen at Bellator’s Friday night show on Spike.
Sonnen, who signed a multi-year, multi-fight deal, told the AP, “I’m a heel. Heels lie.” He also told the AP’s Greg Beacham that he wants his first fight to be in November: “The Bad Guy vs. The Bad Guy.” The second Bad Guy in that equation is assumed to be fellow Bellator signee and one-time Sonnen opponent-to-be Wanderlei Silva.
Sonnen also told Beacham that the reason he signed with Bellator and not UFC: “Zeros apostrophe S”.
“Chael is an incredible athlete that has competed at the very highest levels of the sport,” Bellator MMA President Scott Coker said, “I know that he is going to continue to do just that here at Bellator. When we were in the process of signing him, Chael was adamant that he wants to compete in three divisions here.
“He already has unfinished business with Wanderlei Silva, but he also wants to fight guys like Tito Ortiz, Fedor Emelianenko and even Rory MacDonald at middleweight. These are all fights that I’d be very inclined to watch, so hopefully we can put some, if not all of these matchups together starting before the end of the year.”
The longtime UFC middleweight contender came to prominence in 2009-10 during a run that saw him win three in a row en route to a shot at then-middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Sonnen had called out “The Spider” in promos and interviews as he evolved into a true character that was beloved by some and reviled by others.
After losing in heartbreaking fashion to Silva during their first 2010 meeting, Sonnen was put on the shelf for a year due to testing for elevated testosterone levels. He fought his way back to a big money rematch with Silva and was bested via 2nd round TKO.
The final three fights of his UFC career were at light heavyweight where he went 1-2 with a light heavyweight title shot and loss against then-champion Jon Jones in that mix. Sonnen was last seen getting beat by Rashad Evans by first round TKO in November 2013.
This summer, Sonnen completed a two-year ban from the Nevada State Athletic Commission due to testing positive for multiple drugs.
An interesting name has surfaced in the latest update to the UFC/USADA drug testing program database, updated weekly as more fighters are tested. That name: the “American Gangster” himself, Chael Sonnen.
Sonnen retired from MMA competition following a failed drug test prior to his UFC 175 bout, which was scheduled to be originally against Wanderlei Silva, and then against Vitor Belfort after Belfort replaced Silva, who fled from a drug test himself. He was later suspended from competition for two years by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for failing multiple drug tests for five different substances.
As a retired fighter, Sonnen was not subject to random testing under the new UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which came into effect last year. Had Sonnen not officially retired, he could have, and likely would have, been tested multiple times. However, if a retired fighter intends to return to competition, they must go through drug testing for four months before the date they intend to return.
With Sonnen’s name now being in the testing protocol, it opens him up for returning to action in four months which happens to be around the time the UFC makes its debut in New York at Madison Square Garden for UFC 205.
Sonnen last fought in November 2013 at UFC 167, a loss to Rashad Evans.
Sonnen recently confirmed his intentions of staying retired during an interview with our own Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez, but as he has so often proven, you never know what he’s up to. Now that he’s entering the testing protocol, never say never on the chance of him returning.
Former Pride Grand Prix Champion and 12 fight UFC vet Wanderlei Silva was released today from his UFC contract. Silva last fought in March 2013, knocking out Brian Stann in the 2nd round of a Fuel TV show from Japan. He was then scheduled to fight Chael Sonnen in a fight stemming off the two of them coaching on TUF Brazil. The fight was put off several times due to injuries and then drug testing issues with both fighters.
In Silva’s case, he was approached at his gym by drug testers and famously ran out the back door to avoid the test. He was eventually given a lifetime ban by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That ban has since been rescinded and both sides are currently in negotiations for a more appropriate punishment. In the meantime Silva has still been at odds with the organization he’s under contract to, including accusing the UFC of fixing fights.
This morning, word actually came out that Silva was taking back those claims, saying that he’d been misunderstood. A few hours later, word came out that Silva had been released.
For several years in the early 2000’s, “The Axe Murderer” was one of the most feared fighters in any weight class. After losing to Tito Ortiz at UFC 25 in April 2000, Silva had a stretch of 18 fights in a row where he didn’t suffer a loss before losing a split decision to the much larger Mark Hunt on the 2004 Pride year-end show. 14 of those fights ended with Silva KO’ing his opponent, most in the first round.
Silva returned to UFC in December 2007 after Zuffa bought Pride and absorbed the fighter contracts. He went 4-5 after his return with 3 knockouts. All but one of those fights was in the Main Event or co-Main event position. He leaves the UFC with an overall record of 35-12-1 and would almost certainly be highly sought after by either Rizin Fighting or Bellator MMA.
