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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The light heavyweight bout between Tito Ortiz and Alexander Shlemenko is official for Bellator's May 17 pay-per-view event.
Bellator officials confirmed the booking on Friday in a press release, and the bout will be a part of the pay-per-view broadcast.
"Tito Ortiz says he is healthy and he wants to fight. So now he has a fight. Me," Shlemenko said. "I will fight Tito, and I will beat him. I have a great respect for Tito Ortiz, but I have wanted to fight Tito for a long time, and this is my chance. I am moving up to light heavyweight for this fight, and I will win. When I am done with Tito, I will continue to defend my middleweight belt in Bellator."
Shlemenko called Ortiz out in a short video earlier this month, and the fight was reported shortly thereafter. Now it's official, with Ortiz making his Bellator debut and a return to the cage for the first time in nearly two years.
"This fight really came out of nowhere and it took me by surprise, but it took me about three seconds to accept the fight," Ortiz said. "I'm healthy, I feel great, and I'm ready to do this. I knew I wasn't going to get any easy fights in Bellator, it's never what I wanted, and they delivered with a great fight for May 17. Shlemenko is a tough guy, he's the Middleweight Champion, but he's fighting at my weight class, the weight class where I have beaten some of the best in the world, and it's going to be a very bad night for him."
"Shlemenko's one of MMA's greatest champions, he's riding a 13 fight win streak and he's got an incredible level of confidence he can beat anyone in the world. When I saw the immediate fan response following the callout, I knew this was a fight I wanted to make provided we received commission approval," Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said. "Of the thousands of opinions that came out when this was announced, half think Alexander destroys him and half think Tito does the same. This will be a great fight."
The May 17 pay-per-view card will be headlined by the Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler rubber match, and also features the season ten light heavyweight finals bout between "Rampage" Jackson and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal.
Penick's Analysis: Yeah, I don't think half the people giving an opinion on this fight think Tito Ortiz destroys Alexander Shlemenko. Let's be serious here. Ortiz hasn't fought in nearly two years, is coming off yet another neck surgery, is 1-7-1 over his last nine fights while Shlemenko is 28-2 during that same time period. This is a fight designed to get Shlemenko a big name win, nothing more, nothing less.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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