Saturday, January 21 2017 will go down in history as the last time MMA legend Tito Ortiz competed in a mixed martial arts contest. Was it a true athletic competition or was it more like Pro Wrestling with a pre-determined outcome? I, like millions of people around the world tuned in to Spike tv to watch Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen engage in pugilistic combat, or at least I thought I did. Early in the fight Sonnen had Ortiz in a front choke and later changed his grip to what is called a darce choke. Everything seemed fine and on the up and up as I watched Ortiz reverse the choke and mount Sonnen. Ortiz had just started delivering his signature “punishment” ground & pound when Sonnen gave up his back to Ortiz. Quickly and effortlessly Ortiz took Sonnen’s back and applied a rear naked choke or “RNC”. Normally you need to have your arm under your opponent’s neck to successfully finish a fight with this choke technique. However, since Ortiz is so strong it was believable that he could finish off Sonnen by squeezing his chin tight enough to stop the blood flowing to Sonnen’s head. As Sonnen’s head turned purple he began to fade and just before he lost consciousness he tapped out and conceded defeat. Everything seemed storybook, this MMA pioneer and legend just won his last fight in front of his hometown fans. False, nothing could be further from the truth. After re-watching the moment when Ortiz reversed Sonnen’s darce choke you can clearly see where Ortiz taps Sonnen’s hand and at that exact second Sonnen inexplicably let’s go of the darce choke and Ortiz mounts him. This is called Pro Wrestling not MMA, and if I want to watch wrestling I will tune in Monday night to watch WWE Raw. Needless to say, this is devastating for the sport that I love MMA. See for yourself. Link below. 
http://smackhisface.com/2017/01/22/footage-was-tito-ortiz-vs-chael-sonnen-a-fixed-fight/

-Mike Straus