The following are highlights of a new Tito Ortiz interview from The Fight Network’s “The MMA Report” show:
On the situation with Stephan Bonnar and Justin McCully at Bellator 123 last Friday night:
“There was a little bit of confusion just because of the way Bonnar was saying the thing he was saying, the setting was staged. But when he started talking about my family and past relationships and personal stuff I think I blinked and saw red. And then the unveiling of the gimp (Justin McCully), it was just anger once again of seeing someone who I treated like a best friend, like a brother and brought him around everything I went through. Through his success, through losses, taking him to Necker Island, taking him to the Kentucky Derby, first class tickets, those suites, free bottle service at all clubs, all his food paid for, actually like my brother. And that was Justin, the guy who’s underneath the mask, to pretty much back stab me and say that I owe him money, to say that I owe him this, I owe him that. I guess when you get successful and a person doesn’t ever succeed at what he could in life, he’s eager to point the finger at others because he didn’t do what he could’ve done with all the opportunities that he had in his life, that I gave him those opportunities. When he got an opportunity to fight in UFC. An opportunity to go to the USO in Iraq, I went like four times with him and I brought him with me. The free promotion I gave out of my own kind heart just as a friend. To stab me in the back and do what he did on live TV, I was like ‘I don’t owe you anything. I don’t owe you money; I don’t owe you nothing at all.”
On the end of his relationship with Justin McCully
“The last conversation I had with him was I asked him to come help me out for the Matt Hamill fight and he said ‘Alright cool, ya I’ll come up, I’ll come up,’ and all of a sudden four weeks before the fight I’m like ‘I need you up there man, please come up to Big Bear’. And he’s like ‘Well I’ll come up this week, I got these things to take care of with my family.’ Ok cool, I’ll wait. And a week goes by I’m like ‘Justin, I need you up here’. All of a sudden he’s like ‘Well, I need 10% of your purse’. And you gotta understand I make a fairly decent amount of money and for him to get 10% of my purse for three weeks left in my camp, I could not do it. I’m not gonna do it. I’m like ‘No way, I can’t do that’. He’s like ‘Well alright, well give me this amount’. And it was still a huge amount and we had three weeks left I was like ‘Justin, I can’t afford doing that dude,’ and he’s like ‘Alright whatever then dude’. I end up losing to Matt Hamill. I get a text from him saying ‘Haha that’s what you get for not bringing me to camp. You deserved to lose’. And I just scratched my head and I said I call you a best friend? And that’s when I wrote him off. I said you know what, I don’t need this guy around me because he’s out for only himself, that’s all he’s out for, he’s training for himself and he’s not out for me and to help my future. And there’s a few times during my career that happened over and over again. And I always just kind of forgive and forget, forgive and forget. And a long time ago my ex Jenna told me that he’s out for himself and I was always a helpful guy, I always want to help someone, I always want to bring him in and make his future better and I guess it all pays off in the end and it shows the type of person he is and why in the interviews that he’s done so far I just scratch my head and he’s getting his fifteen minutes of fame now. He’s a nobody who never was who has always had all the opportunity in the world to do something and never did anything with it. And I feel sorry for him; my anger is only about the deal. I just feel really sorry for him to show what type of person he is. And Stephan Bonnar, I don’t feel sorry for him cuz he’s gonna get an ass whoopin’ no matter what. And the anger I built up for that guy, I just have fuel in my fire and my tank to push myself for eight weeks. I’m healthy and I really just want to hurt him. I don’t care about the sportsmanship, I don’t care about this being a sport, I don’t care about this just being win, lose. I just want to go in there and just hurt him and I want to make his face bloody. I don’t care about winning, I don’t care about getting my hand raised. I just want to go in there and really, really hurt him, put on a show for the fans and just demolish this guy, to make his day brutal and I think he deserves it.”
You can check out the complete interview at FightNetwork.com.
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