Ortiz confirms retirement following Bellator 170 win over Sonnen

Following his first-round submission win over Chael Sonnen at Bellator 170 on Saturday in Inglewood, Calif., 19-year MMA veteran Tito Ortiz confirmed during his post-match interview that he has fought for the last time.

Ortiz brought his son Jacob into the cage to assist him in the ceremonial gesture of leaving his gloves in the cage.

"Tonight, January 21, 2017, I'm going to let my son lay my gloves down in the cage, because this is the last time I’ll be fighting," said Ortiz.

"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" wraps up his professional career with a record of 19-12-1, with the majority of his bouts coming in the UFC. Ortiz reigned as that promotion's light heavyweight champion from April 2000-September 2003, becoming one of the sport's biggest stars as MMA grew into a legitimate mainstream attraction.

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The 41-year-old Ortiz first stepped into the Octagon in May 1997, which was also his professional debut. He won a vacant UFC championship with a unanimous decision win over Wanderlei Silva on April 14, 2000, and then went on to successfully defend it against the likes of Evan Tanner, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Ken Shamrock.

His legacy was cemented with a trio of bouts against the esteemed Randy Couture and bitter rival Chuck Liddell. While Ortiz would lose to Couture and twice to Liddell, the battles between the three of them made the 205-pound weight class the marquee division in the UFC for a time and together they generated PPV numbers that the promotion had never seen before.

Ortiz wrapped up his career with a 3-1 stint with Bellator, which included wins over former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko and original "Ultimate Fighter" finalist Stephan Bonnar.