Tito Ortiz has come out retirement and signed with Bellator to fight Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on November 2nd at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.
Ortiz retired from MMA after his last bout with Forrest Griffin at UFC 148 in July 2012. It didn't seem as though Ortiz was going to make any sort of comeback into the MMA world until teasing the potential earlier this month on Twitter:
Fighting is starting to sound fun again. 💪👍👊#Peopleschamp #comeback #Positive body is almost healed. @Punishment99 @ufc @Viacom @MTV @espnQuinton "Rampage" Jackson last fought at UFC on Fox 6 in January, dropping a decision to Glover Teixeira. After expressing much discontent with the UFC, Jackson signed with Bellator/TNA in June.
— Tito Ortiz (@titoortiz) July 7, 2013
Both Ortiz and Rampage are former UFC light-heavyweight champions, and have trained with each in the past. They made up the main two-thirds of "Team Punishment" in the early half of the last decade, which the third big member of the MMA team being former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez. Ortiz is 38 years of age and Jackson 35.
The bout on November 2nd will be Bellator's first foray into the pay-per-view market.
Click on the links for quotes by Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson