Stephan Bonner makes no apologies for the stunt he pulled on Friday’s Bellator 123 card where he was flanked by a masked Justin McCully for an in-ring showdown with Tito Ortiz.
“If you think Scott Coker and Spike TV are writing this material, you’re nuts,” Bonnar said.
The fighter appeared on yesterday’s MMA Hour to explain what happened when he was trying to promote his November 15 fight with Ortiz in San Diego. The incident has received a lot of attention as taking MMA into the dredges of pro wrestling territory and, as a result, has been met with criticism. For his part, Bonnar doesn’t seem to care.
“I cant believe people are this stupid. There are people with all these conspiracy theories,” Bonnar said. “People think like, they got us all in the office with SpikeTV and the Bellator brass and we all planned out this elaborate plan.”
Bonnar said that the stunt was meant in the vein of Andy Kaufman.
“I’m a guy who adores guys like Andy Kaufman and Borat and pulls fast ones on guys,” Bonnar said. “I wanted to put something over on Tito. Personally, the disdain for him is completely true, and that’s the reason i didn’t introduce Justin McCully, because it didn’t matter to the crowd. It was for Tito. It was for Tito to see, like, look, this guy really knows you really well and he has the dirt on you and he’s in my corner.”
