Ortiz dangerously holds choke after tap because of 'ill will'
Retiring MMA champion Tito Ortiz has admitted to holding onto his choke against Chael Sonnen because he has 'ill will' towards him.
During the main event at Bellator 170, Ortiz submitted his opponent via rear naked choke, or face crank.
However the action didn't stop when Sonnen tapped out, as 42-year-old Ortiz held on for a few good seconds after referee John McCarthy signaled him to stop.
Watch in the video above.
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Ortiz was slammed on social media for the despicable act.
Tito Ortiz holds onto the CHOKE submission after the bell, and the @BellatorMMA crew say nothing. Absolutely disgusting. #MMA #Bellator
— Daley~ (@HashtagDALEY) January 22, 2017
Ortiz holds on to the choke a little longer after the tap for good measure. Quite the way to end a legendary career.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 22, 2017
Looked like McCarthy scolded Ortiz for holding on to the choke. "I'm sorry," Ortiz said. McCarthy had to seperate them via Ortiz's neck.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 22, 2017
Amazingly, Ortiz was happy to accept he held on to the hold for too long.
"When he was tapping, I thought he was trying to grab my hands, but I kind of held on to it because I have ill will towards him," Ortiz explained.
"But that’s just me, when someone talks about my family, when someone talks about my character, I have bad will towards the person.
"And I’ve never done that before, but it was just something in my mind saying, if I let go and they stop it and restart it again, I couldn’t let that happen.
"I apologize to the athletic commission for holding on to it a little longer, but I did hold on to it longer.
Ortiz holds on to the choke a
little longer after the tap for
good measure.Quite the
way to end a legendary careerpic.twitter.com/z5qPCNe991— World of MMA (@CM_fights) January 22, 2017
"I just had that ill will, I felt like an animal, I felt like a lion, and this lion roared how I said I was going to. This was my fight, no matter what, this is what I was going to do."
Even more surprisingly, Sonnen didn't seem to worried about the dangerous act.
"I tapped and he didn't let go. I'm not upset about it. I don't have any ill feelings towards him," Sonnen said.
"But yes did he hold the choke after I tapped? Sure."