Tito Ortiz was on Submission Radio to discuss his latest fight with Stephan Bonnar and his Pro Wrestling future.
The full interview can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btSjZ90tCMM&list=UUNrEHIf8QmKK-cAag4YxIXQ
Below are some interview highlights:
On TNA shutting down and him wrestling in the future:
“My home at TNA was great. They treated me really well. Dixie Carter was really, really good to me.”
“During the time I was there I got a chance to meet Hulk Hogan. I was really happy with that, but I mean either WWE either TNA, but I mean right now my main career is fighting. I mean I love to fight and that’s what I wanna do. That’s with Bellator.”
On Stephan Bonnar’s issues with steroids:
“The fact of him getting burned for steroids not once but twice. I mean the guy is a phoney, the guy is a fake, the guy is, you know he’s just a cheater, and my whole career I stuck to the game plan of training hard and getting the best out of it.”
“How someone could be so disrespectful and have such a shitty career and be a shitty person.”
On how Tito feels about the Stephan Bonnar match up:
“You know, talk about disliking a person my whole career. That’s 17 years. I don’t think I’ve ever hated anybody as much as I hate this person. For a person to talk about my family and to talk about my fans the way he did, I just find it very disrespectful, very childish and fake.”
“He really ticked me off a lot. I mean, he got very personal Like I said, and I’m gonna take it out on him on November 15th. I can’t wait.”
Thoughts on Stephan bringing out Justin McCully and on his relationship with Justin:
“No. I had no clue that Justin was gonna be there, and for one; Justin actually started training with me back in 2001 or about 2002, and I treated him like a brother. You know, under my wing. I brought him to many places where he didn’t have to pay for anything. You know, privet jets around literally the world, took him to Iraq with the USO, brought him along with some great opportunities to get exposure that no other fighter would have the exposure that he did, and I did have my kindness as being a friends towards him. And then all of us a sudden this guy comes and says that I owe him something. That I owe him money or something and he’s gonna make me pay back by training Stephan Bonnar, and I come to realize that it’s just him trying to get his notoriety. It’s him trying to get a little bit of 15 seconds of fame, and I guess he got it last Saturday night.”
“I feel sorry for the guy. To see how fake and how two-faced a person can really be. You know, zero loyalty at all, and I feel sorry for him, and I’m gonna take it out on Stephan Bonnar on November 15th.”
“Stephan Bonnar brought out a gimp. To me he’s no more than a gimp. I no longer have a friend and I think as that Justin “The Gimp” McCully. I feel sorry for him as a person because I don’t see how he could have another friend at all just because of how fake he truly is.”
On if the brawl was real:
“I never hated anybody as much as I hate this guy. Ken Shamrock, yeah we had hate towards each other, but you know animosity settles down. We fought it out and we shook after and now we’re good friends. There ain’t gonna be no handshakes after this fight. I ain’t gonna shake his hand, I ain’t gonna look him in his eyes, nothing. like I said, I’m just gonna beat his ass and I’m going on to get my world title fight.”
“No, I had no prior knowledge at all. I was like ‘what the hell is going on right now?’ I thought we were just going to do a face off and so forth and I was gonna have to slap him or something, but all of a sudden there’s some guy with a mask walking in. I’m like ‘what the hell? I was like okay, he’s got bodyguards, he knows I’m gonna put my hands on him’, and then all of a sudden he revealed the gimp and I was like ‘oh ok. Great, here we go’, and I just, like I said, the anger was built up so much I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t get a sentence out right cause I was so angry, and like I said, it wasn’t staged. I don’t even know what was going to happen.”
On if he expected for Stephan to be so disrespectful:
“I really didn’t expect it. I didn’t think of it, but I mean what has the guy done in the sport besides get his ass whipped for his complete career? I mean he’s known for getting his ass whipped”
“I just kind of scratched my head like what is this guy thinking? I mean yeah he’s the American Psycho, I mean more like American Jackass.”
“November 15th it’s going to be 15 minutes of torture. I’m not going to finish him quick. I’m not going to try and knock him out quick. I’m gonna torture him for 15 minutes and I’m literally gonna try to make him quit.”
On brawl at Bellator 123:
“I just couldn’t handle myself. I think when he was just saying the personal stuff about my family and then he made an acknowledgment of the gimp, I just said you can’t talk about my family, you can’t talk about my fans. I just couldn’t hold myself.”
“I felt like a bull just seeing red and I couldn’t even hold, I couldn’t even get my sentence out completely and I just had to put my hands on him. I should have punched him but I know I would have been paying a big fine for that so I didn’t do that. So I had to get my hands on him one way of another and I did get an opportunity to spit on him so I guess that helps out a little bit better.”
Thoughts on latest Dana White criticism comparing Tito to Ben Askren:
“Dana has always tried to make me look bad as much as he possibly can, but I guess I’m still in his head. I haven’t been with him for almost two years and he’s still talking about me, and he can’t stop talking about me. So I guess I’m not that dumb of a guy, and for him to compare me to Ben Askren who’s an Olympic medallist, cool. But I mean fight wise Ben Askren hasn’t done anything close to me in the fight game, but maybe he will in time. You know, Dana is a control guy. He likes to control everything and he just couldn’t control me and that’s why he hates on me so much, but I mean I really look at it as someone’s still talking about you, you’re doing something right.”
On the biggest difference between Coker and White:
“You know one is real and one’s fake and I really think as real as can get is Scott Coker.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
