Tito Ortiz can still draw a crowd, even if the product isn't pretty

SAN DIEGO — The chant tore through the Valley View Casino Center on Saturday night, as the Southern Californian fans urged on the local hero: "Tito! Tito! Tito!"

There was a wrinkle on this one, though: This wasn't during Tito Ortiz's fight against Stephan Bonnar, which is when most fight chants go down. Like an adoring audience begging a rock star for another encore, Ortiz's name echoed around the arena long after the house lights went up at the end of Bellator 131, with both Ortiz and Bonnar having long since returned to their dressing rooms.

It was the final touch on an evening which affirmed one of the more improbable storylines to emerge in mixed martial arts: Long after he had been written off, two years after his retirement and a year after his first aborted attempt at a comeback, Tito Ortiz, the UFC Hall of Famer, is once again a player in the business as the calendar gets set to flip to 2015.

Let's make one thing clear: No one is claiming Ortiz's fights, at this stage, are works of art. Saturday night's fight, which Ortiz won a split decision (thanks to one card which inexplicably went Bonnar's way), appeared to move in slow motion. That was particularly true of Bonnar, who was fighting for the first time in two years, and looked every bit a shot fighter.

But while Ortiz is plainly a limited fighter just two months shy of his 40th birthday, he also gave the fans everything he has left. From the outset, when the fight was announced back in September, Bonnar attempted to make the fight a pro wrestling-style sideshow. Bonnar insulted Ortiz's personal life and surrounded himself with Ortiz's former training partners.

Ortiz by and large avoided Bonnar's bait. Ortiz refused to get dragged into Bonnar's histrionics and took his training camp seriously. And while the fight won't be remembered as a classic, Ortiz controlled it from bell to bell, constantly pushing forward. The fans in the audience were simply glad for the chance to cheer for their own, the Huntington Beach native who drew many of them into the sport in the first place, and gave Ortiz a pass for moving a step or two slower than he did back in the day.

Once Ortiz was announced as the winner, he finally returned Bonnar's taunts, making vulgar gestures which cost him a $2,500 fine out of his disclosed $300,000 purse.

What did the Bonnar fight mean in and of itself? Well, on the surface, nothing. But that doesn't matter. It's not the point of Ortiz's stint in Bellator.

Saturday night marked the rollout to the new era of Bellator, the one helmed by Strikeforce founder Scott Coker.

Coker was hired by Bellator over the summer to overhaul the brand, which had previously been based around a tournament format. That system, in which fighters competed in eight-man weight class tourneys in order to earn title shots, helped get the company off the ground. It also kept anyone on the roster from really breaking out of the pack.

Bellator already had commitments in place for this fall's series of tournaments when Coker was hired. With those finally out of the way, Bellator 131 was considered the unofficial rollout for Coker's vision of the sport. Coker's fight-card vision is a unique blend. He's big on putting on serious fights for the hardcore fans. Strikeforce's track record speaks for itself, as it produced everyone from Daniel Cormier to Gilbert Melendez to Luke Rockhold to Josh Thomson. He also believes in putting on fun fights just for the sake of seeing how they play out, such as Saturday's slam-bang affair between kickboxers Joe Schilling and Melvin Manhoef.

And Coker has never been afraid to think outside the box in order to draw attention, which is where Ortiz has become so valuable to the company. If the fans tuned in to Spike TV on Saturday to watch a familiar name in Ortiz, they also saw Schilling's dramatic comeback knockout of Manhoef; Will Brooks' well-contested lightweight title victory over Michael Chandler, and solid wins for contenders Mike Richman and "King Mo" Lawal.

It's not like Ortiz is going to contend for titles at this stage of his career. But he doesn't have to. All he needs to do is get matched up with the right foe and help draw a crowd who will also watch the rest of the show.

For his part, Ortiz is looking for a match against fellow former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. That bout was scheduled for last November, but fell apart when Ortiz suffered a neck injury.

"Of course I want that," Ortiz said at the post-fight news conference. "We were supposed to fight a long time ago. I broke my neck in training. I think it would be a huge fight for Spike, for Bellator, and everyone wants to see it."

Lawal, a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, did his best to goad Ortiz into a fight, perhaps sensing his ticket back into the main-event spotlight.

"If you want some, you get some," Lawal said. "I'm just saying. You fought Bonnar and Bonnar has been gone for two years. That's fine. I'll Django your ass. Straight up, Django. I will bust your ass, straight up. I'm serious."

Once again, Ortiz wouldn't take the bait.

"Everyone wants to fight me," Ortiz said. "Get in line."

After a night like Saturday, who can blame Ortiz for wanting to sit back and ponder his options?

Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter @DaveDoyleMMA.