Tito: I was so happy when Bjorn Rebney exited

Tito Ortiz appeared recently on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, and added his voice to the chorus singing “Ding-Dong, the Witch Is Dead” over the June ouster of Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney.

“I was so happy,” said Ortiz as transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMAFighting. “I was real calm. Bjorn Rebney just made empty promises. He promised so much and he never followed through. At all.”

“I’m not going into detail, [but it was] things I had battle for in my contract. He says ‘no, we’re not going to do that.’ [I said] ‘it’s in my contract, you have to.’ It came down to the last two weeks before fight and then he finally came through, he had no choice.

“I would not have fought (vs. Shlemenko). There was a contract in place, it’s business, I’m not 22 years old anymore. I’m not a young kid struggling to get to the top. I’ve been to the top, I gotta look out for my best interests as a businessman in this fight game. At the end of the day, it is a business. I’ve got children to take care of, I’ve got bills to pay. This is my job, that fight.”

Ortiz next fights Stephan Bonnar on November 15 at Bellator 131, and was nothing but positive about new CEO Scott Coker.

“I’ve known him such a long time, he’s always been a straight shooter,” said Ortiz. “He’s always been very, very respectful towards me. He understands the business. He understands marketing and how to push the fighters to make them superstars in a household environment.”