Tito Ortiz claims UFC 180 did 80k PPV buys, fought Bonnar with one eye

Asked for his reaction to the ratings to Bellator 131, Tito Ortiz couldn’t help but have a little fun.

“Ah, that’s it? Jeez,” Ortiz (18-11-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) joked about the fight card he headlined opposite Stephan Bonnar (15-9 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) that drew a peak viewership of 2.2 million for their fight.

“I was happy with it,” Ortiz continued. “I thought the PR I did prior, I thought (that would help) the number be at least two million.”

The Nov. 15 event at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center was not your average event for Belabor. It was the first so-called “tentpole” event driven by the promotion’s new figurehead, former Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker. It was a pivotal statement on the Bellator’s health after a lot of bad press and so-so ratings under old CEO Bjorn Rebney.

Spike TV executives were deeply invested in the ratings for the event, and by all measures, it was a success, however short-term the strategy of promoting aging stars is for the Viacom-owned promotion.

In turn for his work inside and outside of the cage, UFC Hall of Famer Ortiz made a princely sum, taking home a total disclosed purse of $300,000, or almost half the card’s talent budget.

Ortiz’s explanation for such a vast disparity between he and other fighters is “you get what you pay for,” which means he worked tirelessly to promote Bellator 131 on MMA websites and TV shows. What Viacom paid for, in this case, was a shot across the bow of Belabor rival UFC.

On the same night the Viacom-owned promotion went live on Spike TV, UFC 180 aired on pay-per-view from Mexico City, where Fabricio Werdum won the interim title in a bout against Mark Hunt, who replaced injured heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez.

Velasquez’s injury was a devastating loss for the industry-leader, which made him the centerpiece of its push into Mexico. The card scratch was expected to reflect in the estimated PPV numbers that surface after events.

A widely cited estimate given by the Wrestling Observer said UFC 180 drew between 185,000-200,000 buys, but part of Ortiz’s satisfaction comes from the figure he heard for the event.

“It’s nice to know that we went nose-to-nose with the UFC, and they only did 80,000 pay-per-view buys,” he said. “I guess it was being on free cable — not free network — but free cable, and we blew everyone out of the water.”

Ortiz did not say where he obtained the figure from, and the UFC does not disclose pay-per-view buyrates. It’s impossible to verify what he says, and he is notorious among MMA fans and observers for stretching the truth.

But with Ortiz, it’s all part of the promotion. There is always a storyline that comes along with the story of his fights.

It’s not surprising, then, that Ortiz has another story about the circumstances surrounding his fight with Bonnar. It’s his explanation for a split-decision victory and a performance he thought wasn’t all that great.

“I had a blood vessel that broke in my eye three weeks prior to the fight,” he said. “I thought it was going to go away, but it didn’t go way, and I couldn’t spar for three weeks.

“I just went out and fought with my heart. I was in good enough shape to do my cardio and my focus mitts, and we wrestled a little bit, but that was it.”

Ortiz watched the fight and said he was “un-normally slow,” adding he would need to pick it up for a possible title fight against champ Emanuel Newton, with whom he’s trained earlier in his career. He said Bellator is currently deciding whether the matchup is his next step.

When asked whether he might have been slow due to the fact that he’s been fighting professionally for 17 years, a staggeringly long period compared to others of his fighting generation, he was skeptical.

“Yeah, I guess people think that way,” Ortiz said. “I don’t personally think that way. I don’t want to slow down. It really comes down to what you do in camp, and for this camp, I was able to do enough to win.”

In other words, there are certain stories he doesn’t buy.

“I fought great enough to get enough to get a win, and that’s all I had to do,” he said. “I kicked Stephan Bonnar’s ass with only one eye.”

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.