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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator Middleweight Champion Alexander Shlemenko on Thursday night released a short video, wherein he called out former UFC Champ Tito Ortiz for a fight. That came in response to a Tweet from Ortiz saying he'd been cleared to fight, and Bellator is going ahead with that matchup, according to a report from Sherdog.com.
"Tito Ortiz, you say you want to fight May 17 on the Bellator PPV. I will fight you. I will beat you," Shlemenko said Thursday (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com). "Tito, I respect you but I must beat you because I am the Champion. I know Tito Ortiz is in a different weight class. I know Tito Ortiz is a light heavyweight, but it's not a problem for me. [I'm] ready to fight at light heavyweight no problem. Bjorn, make this fight for me because I am the champion. I am the best. I will make a good fight. Fight of the night."
Bellator signed Ortiz last Summer, booking him against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in the headliner of their first pay-per-view attempt. He then suffered yet another injury, the fight was scrapped, and Bellator ran the show on Spike TV instead.
Ortiz is 1-7-1 over his last nine fights dating back to 2006, with his sole loss in that stretch being the surprising submission win over Ryan Bader at UFC 132 in July of 2011. He lost his final three fights, getting stopped in two of them before retiring and entering the UFC Hall of Fame in July of 2012. He decided to come out of retirement and signed with Bellator/Viacom last year.
In that same seven and a half year stretch in which Ortiz fought nine times to that 1-7-1 mark, Shlemenko went 28-2. He's won 13 straight fights coming into this bout.
The Shlemenko-Ortiz fight is the latest addition to Bellator's May 17 pay-per-view outside of Memphis, joining the rubber match between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, as well as the light heavyweight tourney finals bout between "Rampage" and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal.
Penick's Analysis: I don't have a problem with the booking. Shlemenko should roll, despite fighting at middleweight for most of his career. It gets Ortiz a fight, it won't be a headliner, and if he loses, perhaps it will finally be the end of it for him. For Bellator, it's a chance to give Shlemenko a bit of a rub further after he dispatched yet another challenger with relative ease in his last fight.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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