Tito: I think Rousey vs. Cyborg only happens at catchweight

Tito Ortiz recently appeared on Submission Radio and discussed Bellator 131 (you can’t beat free), Stephan Bonner (did his part), King Mo (talks like a street hood rat), Rampage Jackson (can’t go back ot UFC), title plans (wants title shot), Mike Dolce, and Ronda Rousey (Cris Cyborg fight will only happen at a catchweight).

Bellator131– You can’t beat free

I did a lot of work. I did a lot of PR. I did PR for the whole two months, every single radio I possibly could across the United States, Canada and even in Australia. I did a lot of PR, I mean in Mexico. Across the world I did as much PR as I possibly could to promote this fight. I mean this is what I do best, is promote. I know how to do it, I’ve been doing for such a long time.

Bonnar did his part in selling the fight and talking about me, giving me some ammo to fire back on him. I mean we did ESPN, we did Sportsnet; pretty much from here, to Canada, to Mexico, we killed it. I mean I was on the phone all the time. I was travelling, I was doing the things being needed for the fight and it turned out the viewership on Spike.

Well, it all comes down to name recognition, and Spike TV has a huge fan base, and they had my name on there, Bonnar’s name on there, the other guys that fought on the card; Schilling, Manhoef, everybody that fought on the card. It’s just amazing that we could do those numbers against the UFC, against the World Series of Fighting, but name recognition is what is comes down. I’ve been in this game for 17 and a half years. People see fighting, they see my name on the front. They’re either gonna wanna watch me get beat, or they’re gonna wanna watch me beat somebody, and that’s what they tuned into. They got to see a great fight, all down the whole card of Bellator. You know Scott Coker did an amazing job with the card in general.

“So I guess the ratings really proved that of course Pay Per View you can’t really go head to head with somebody who has a free fight on the same night. What do we want to watch? Do we want to fight something free? Or do you want to pay 65 dollars in payperview for it, and if it’s not an exciting fight they’re going to watch it free.

Rampage – Not going anywhere

I’d love to fight against Rampage, but it’s just in Rampage’s hands right now; and I know Bellator’s working on that fight to make it happen, but until they can make it work I want the world title. The winner against Newton and McGeary, I believe they’re fighting in February, so I’d like the winner against them.

If I get an opportunity to fight for the world title I want to put a good six months solid camp in, and get my hand raised. You know, world title. I want to make one solid run at that world title and get the gold around my waist one more time.

This is not solid, push, kill myself training. This is train every day, do everything I possibly can to get my body in shape as much as possible. I looked at my last fight and I wasn’t in the best shape I could have been.

I know (Rampage) has a pretty iron clad contract with Bellator so I don’t believe he’s going anywhere anytime soon. So I just think he’s going to have to work it out and just stay with Bellator.

King Mo– He’s a journey man, it’s a dumb fight

I mean, right now it’s all about my career. I have two more fights left on my contract and I think King Mo is just stepping down in my career of fighting somebody, I want to fight somebody with opportunity to fight for a world title. Why would I fight somebody like King Mo. I mean there’s no reason to it. It just doesn’t make any sense. I have an opportunity to fight someone like Rampage Jackson who beat King Mo. Why would I waste my two fights on somebody who doesn’t make any sense. It’s a lose/lose situation. If I beat him, I’m supposed to beat him. I lose to him, look I lost to King Mo. It’s a dumb fight. The guy is a nonsense fighter, he’s a journeyman. It doesn’t really matter.

Making King Mo relevant

Fight a light heavyweight that he could really beat, you know. The last two fights were guys who I don’t even know their names. The last guy, he fought on the same card as me he was a 185 pounder, and he wasn’t even ranked at 185 pounds. I mean I don’t want to talk trash on King Mo. You know King Mo was a good fighter in his time and you know right now with him; just saying the things he says about me during the press conference, I was just scratching my head. I’m like, how far back have we gone back in history now? I mean this guy is just talking so dero, and just so trashy. I mean he just talks like a street hood rat. This guy just didn’t make sense to me. And I kind of understood after I looked at the pay checks where he got 10,000 dollars for fighting, and so then you understand why. For him to get paid is to fight someone like me, and I’ve worked too hard in my career. Let him beat somebody great and then he can come in and fight me, but until then, I want to win the world title. I want to become the world champion. I want to fight someone that’s going to make me great. I don’t want to fight somebody who’s going to be ‘okay’.

Mike Dolce

Well strictly in my opinion on Mike Dolce, I think that everything he does is a fad, and that’s strictly my opinion. I’ve been cutting weight since my sophomore year in high school, and what you put in your body is what you weigh, and of course it’s how your body’s gonna burn. All these guys are just putting in protein for energy. Well your body doesn’t burn on protein for energy, it’s called carbohydrates. Complex carbs. Things you do stay away from is white bread, white rice, white pasta. Everything should be wheat, and whatever you put in is what you’re going to gain, because you’re burning so many calories. This type of diet is not for a person who’s an average person, and not a weight cut for an average person. We’re burning 3500 calories a day. You gotta intake 3500 calories just to keep the weight on, and this is just strictly talking about myself. And I watch a lot of wrestlers do it, and during the weight cut I’ve watched so many guys that have worked with Dolce; and by one I mean BJ Penn. During the time that he cut his weight and when he lost to Frankie Edgar, he was weighing 149 pounds the week of the fight. I was like 149 pounds the week of the fight? What? You gotta at least be 10 pounds a week before the fight above the weight. Not 4 pounds. And he [BJ Penn] goes Yeah yeah I know. It’s just I didn’t understand. He [Dolce] had him eating berries, had him eating nuts. That’s fine and dandy if you’re a track runner or a distance runner or something like that. You want to put in carbohydrates in your body so that you have energy to really push yourself during the rounds. That’s a conversation I had strictly with BJ too, of him telling me that the day of the fight he felt flat, he didn’t eat. And Dolce had that – what was it? UFC Expo – and he was trying to get back to feed BJ and he didn’t get back in time and he was giving BJ like salads, and I mean that’s after the weigh-ins. After a weigh-in I’m eating carbohydrates. I’m eating pancakes, I’m eating bread, I’m eating as much as I possibly can, to burn my body; and yes you can eat too much, get too overweight, and be slower, but I mean you gotta weight up to normal to get to the 10-15 pound range and that fine, that’s great.

“I mean Pedialyte is one of the big things I want to drink, and anybody that’s ever seen me when I weigh in. The first thing I do as soon as I get off the scale, I don’t turn and face the guy, I’m reaching for the Pedialyte. ‘Cause I’ve got to feed my body, and my body wants something to drink right then. And that’s what’s really important, is people trying to keep their weight down and make that weight cut easier for them turn in as in a wrestling attitude. I mean we cut 13 pounds, 15 pounds. That’s a two-day cut, it’s no problem. It’s a two day cut sacrifice. As soon as the weight comes off, as soon as you make that weight, put that weight back on as fast as possible, and that’s most important.

“I’ve been doing it like I said for 17 and a half years, and the only weight cut I’ve ever had problems with was when I fought Nogueira. And that was probably the worst cut I ever had. Of course I came in really heavy. I came in about 239. I did – what was it – 28 pounds in three days. I thought I was gonna die, and that was the worst weight cut I’ve ever done. I’ll never do that again, but I wasn’t prepared for that fight plain and simple. That’s how it was. But the weight cut, it really comes down to what you eat is what you weigh. Of course I’m not going out eating cheese burgers, or Taco Bell, or fast food. No. You treat your body like a machine. You have to feed it like a machine. If you want it to train like a machine everything has to be super clean. I mean as far as brown rice, chicken, fish. Steak should only be up to the week before. The week of is a little harder to break down steak during the weight cut. After the weight cut happens, steak is great for your body because it’s high in protein and it’ll take a good 9 to 10 hours to digest, but if your body is used to doing it, it won’t have a problem doing it.

Dolce says ‘well I’ve had 20 fights and this and that’ and ok that’s fine, but when I hear someone who’s a former world champion and questioning the weight cut, and saying how bad his fight was because he had no energy – and it showed in his fight that he had to no energy – BJ Penn. I question that. And someone like BJ who’s a close friend of mine, I don’t want to see his career be over because someone made the mistake of not feeding him the right things, and all of a sudden he’s making millions off of the fans in general by saying that ‘Dolce Diet is the way to do it’. And this is my opinion, strictly my opinion. I’m not saying about no facts, I’m saying about what I have heard and what I have seen, and that’s the way I think of it. And if you’re going to cut weight the right way. I guess the right way is do it yourself.

Ronda Rousey

I’m still very close friends with Cris. She was at my last fight, and I’d seen her after her last fight, and trying to get her down to 135 is almost impossible. As I said a long time ago that they would try, they would try, and it’s going to be very hard for her to do it. And she’s tried, and she’s tried and it’s almost impossible for her to do it. And if Ronda made it catch weight; I know Ronda doesn’t want to do it because she doesn’t want to lose. I see – I mean this is strictly my opinion – I just think that’s the only way that fight is ever going to happen, is if it’s at a catch weight. Because Cris is not gonna make 135. She’s never made 135. She’s always made 145 and that’s been her weight her whole career. I mean that’s like me trying to get down to 185. I mean I would never make that happen. No possible way. I could never do that. So I think that’s the only way that will ever happen, and time will tell. Let’s see if Ronda will get pushed into pressure so much [that] she has to fight Cris. If that happens, I think that’s the only way that that it will happen. I mean she wanted to fight Gina Carano at 145 so what’s the difference of fighting Cris Cyborg at 145?