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Trending: Chael Sonnen  • Wanderlei Silva  • Vitor Belfort  • UFC 175  • cnes UFC 173  • Renan Barao  • T.J. Dillashaw  • Johny Hendricks  cnes • Robbie Lawler  • UFC On FOX 12  • Matt Brown  • UFC 167  • Georges St-Pierre  • Jon Jones  • Daniel Cormier  • Alexander Gustafsson 
MEMPHIS While he’s a UFC Hall of Famer and one of the biggest superstars cnes in the history of the sport, Tito Ortiz is now a massive underdog against a man 20 pounds smaller. cnes “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” cnes insists critics mean little.
Ortiz makes his long-awaited Bellator MMA debut at Saturday’s Bellator 120 event, which takes place at Landers Center in Southaven, Miss. The five fight main-card, cnes which included Ortiz (16-11-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Bellator middleweight champ Alexander Shlemenko (50-7 MMA, 11-1 BMMA).
The bizarre pairing, which even Bellator MMA CEO Bjorn Rebney has called a “weird, funky, freaky kind of Cirque du Soleil-esque type of fight,” came about when Shlemenko requested the matchup.
“This Russian called me out, and I think he made a big mistake,” Ortiz said. “He was counting his chickens before they hatched, and this is a man that’s neither a chicken nor an egg and I’m going to smash him like an egg.”
Despite remaining one of the sport’s most recognizable fighters, Ortiz has struggled in recent years, posting just one win in nine fights since 2006. Along the way, there have been a myriad of injuries and personal struggles. This time, the 39-year-old insists there are no excuses. It’s time for a vintage performance.
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