<div class="Article" style="float: left;">
<table>
<tr style="vertical-align: bottom;">
<td>
<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=447174" target="_blank">
Bonnar responds to 'stupid' critics of brawl
</a></h3>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a href="/go=news.detail&gid=447174" ><img class="photo" src="http://img.mixedmartialarts.com/method=get&rs=54&q=75&x=7&y=4&w=310&h=165&ro=0&s=stephan-bonnar-cat-tito-ortiz.jpg" /></a>
<div style="clear: both; line-height: 1px;height: 1px;"> </div>
</div>
<p>At the close of Bellator 123 Stefan Bonnar and Tito Ortiz entered the cage to hype their fight at Bellator 131. "The People's Champ" is a master at pre fight hype, so everyone expected some fireworks.</p>
Very few people expected what happened. Bonnar was accompanied by a man in mask, wearing a mask, who ended up being an estranged former training partner of Tito's named Justin McCully. There were shouted charges of "you killed my master now I must kill YOU," and the predicted shoving match ensued.
Fans blamed Spike and new Bellator president Scott Coker for the exasperating foray into pro wrestling. However, Bonnar appeared recently on The MMA Hour, and took sole responsibility for the fiasco, sort of.
"I can't believe people are this stupid," said Coker as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr for MMAFighting. "They have all these conspiracy theories. Scott Coker had a show to run. This was Scott Coker's first show as Bellator president, he had a lot of stuff going on. This was part of it. 'Hey, let's bring Bonnar and Tito out.' The way our contract works, when we go out to stuff like this, we get a plus one. 'Let's get them in the ring, ask a question to each guy.'
"People think that they got us all in an office together with SPIKE TV and the Bellator brass with me and Tito to plan out this elaborate plan. No. No one knew I was training with Justin McCully or that he was here in Vegas. No one knew that.
"I mean, come on, I'm a guy who adores guys like Andy Kaufman, or Borat, who pull fast ones on people. I wanted to pull one on Tito. Personally, that disdain for him is completely true, and that's the reason I didn't introduce Justin because it didn't really matter to the crowd. It was for Tito to see.
"Look, this guy knows you really well and he's got a a lot of dirt on you, and he's in my corner. That was or him, I was pulling this on Tito. I live for stuff like this. When they said they were going to do this, I was excited and I asked Justin what we were going to do. And I knew exactly what I was going to say."
Coker said unequivocally and convincingly that he had no part in. Tito clearly did not know what was going on. So responsibility for what happened, or credit, belongs to Stefan Bonnar.
<div style="clear: left; line-height: 1px;height: 1px;"> </div>
