Dana White Granted Fighter Release To Beat Up Tito Ortiz, Bellator Takes Shot At Tonight's UFC 177?

- As noted earlier, former Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Soto will be making his UFC debut and face UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw for the title at UFC 177 tonight. Soto is a late replacement for former champion Renan Barao, who was forced to withdraw from tonight's main event after suffering an injury while cutting weight yesterday. Barao, who cuts a lot of weight for each of his fights, fell and was knocked unconscious in his hotel bathtub. Bellator MMA seemed to take a little dig at the new main event today, as they today posted the video above of Joe Warren knocking Soto out at Bellator 27 to win the Bellator Featherweight Championship.

- As noted earlier, UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar signed with Bellator MMA earlier this week. Immediately after signing, Bonnar called out fellow UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.

"I want everyone to know I'm coming out of retirement because it's time to free the MMA world of the virus that's known as Tito Ortiz," Bonnar said. "We've been suffering through his boring fights for too many years, and it's about time that someone beats it out of him once and for all."

UFC President Dana White noted to media yesterday that he granted Bonnar his release from his UFC contract to join Bellator.

"What he told me is that he wants to beat the s–t out of Tito, and I'm always down for that," White said (props to ESPN for the transcription). "So, I released him."

Moongoose McQueen contributed to this article.