In the main event of Bellator 170 Tito Ortiz tapped Chael Sonnen with an unusual rear naked choke variation. There were immediate cries that the fight was fake. Sonnen explained he couldn’t breathe, turned purple which he did visibly, and tapped out before he went out. The comlaints are f@$%ing ridiculous explained Ortiz. But, setting aside all the corroborating factors like Sonnen’s remarkable resemblance to Barney’s skin tone, if it was fake the fakers would say it was real.

However, people went to their gyms and found out the choke is real. Referee John McCarthy said he would like to put the complainers in the “fake” choke, and squeeze. And now support for the fight has come from an unexpected quarter. During a recent appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, White said he watched the fight.

It was my first [time watching a] Bellator event, said White to hosts Jim Norton and Matt Serra, as transcribed by MMAjunkie. I watched it, and both guys are 40-something years old. It was basically a retirement fight, and a lot of people were calling it a fix. There’s no way.

Here’s one of the things a lot of people don’t realize about Tito Ortiz. Tito Ortiz – this f***ing guy is so strong. He put me in a neck crank one time and almost popped my f***ing neck off my shoulders. This guy is physically very strong. And I think his ground game is very underrated because Tito would always get that top position and ground-and-pound people.

I don’t think Chael has fought or won a fight since 2013, or that ballpark somewhere. … You take that much time off, and that’s what a fight’s going to look like. … There’s no way in hell that was a work. I’d love to come on here and s*** all over Bellator, but there’s no way that was a work. The thing you’ve got to remember, he’s a good wrestler, never was Chael some big jiu-jitsu guy. And when Tito Ortiz is cranking your f***ing head off, you’re 40 f***ing years old … maybe I should tap out here.