Bellator 131: Stephan Bonnar vs. Tito Ortiz Full Head-to-Toe Breakdown

This Saturday, two UFC Hall of Famers will square off at Bellator 131 when former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz faces Stephan "The American Psycho" Bonnar.

Ortiz last fought in May, submitting the then-Bellator middleweight champion, Alexander Shlemenko, in a light heavyweight matchup.

Bonnar is coming out of retirement for this fight, as his last appearance came in October 2012 against the then-UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, in a light heavyweight matchup.

There has been a lot of trash talk between these two leading up to the fight, so let's see who has the edge in this head-to-toe breakdown.

Striking

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Bonnar has spent his career as a brawler. He is known for his iron chin and absolute tenacity. He and Forrest Griffin put on one of the greatest fights in UFC history, and it is because of their fighting styles.

In his later fights, Bonnar began to utilize his grappling more, earning decision victories over Kyle Kingsbury and Igor Pokrajac.

Ortiz has earned eight career wins by knockout, but many of those came from ground-and-pound, and none have come since 2006. Also, he has been stopped with strikes in two of his last four fights.

Edge: Bonnar

Grappling

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This is the one area that Ortiz is known for. As a powerful wrestler, Ortiz uses his grappling extensively. He once defended the UFC light heavyweight title with a knockout win from a slam.

Bonnar should be able to hold his own, as he is a good grappler and is even bigger than Ortiz, but Ortiz is powerful and could definitely bring this fight to the ground.

Edge: Ortiz

Submissions

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Bonnar is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has earned seven of his 15 career wins with submissions, but none since 2007. In addition, he has never been submitted despite facing some of the top fighters in the sport.

Ortiz has shown more submission chops in the past four years than he had in the previous 14, earning his last two wins by submission. However, that isn't enough to prove that he could submit Bonnar if the opportunity presented itself.

These two are unlikely to submit one another, but Bonnar still gets the edge.

Edge: Bonnar

Intangibles

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Stephan Bonnar

Both of these fighters have a lot to deal with in the intangibles department. Bonnar has been out for 25 months now, lost his last fight embarrassingly and tested positive for Drostanolone after the fight. He'll have to be ready to make a serious comeback.

Additionally, there has been a lot of trash talk between the two leading up to the fight. Bonnar tends to fight more aggressively when he is emotional, but that doesn't always mean he fights better. He needs to keep a level head against Ortiz.

Tito Ortiz

Ortiz last fought in May against a middleweight. Prior to that, he had lost three straight, dropping fights to Forrest Griffin, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Rashad Evans. Dating back to 2006, Ortiz is just 2-7-1, having been TKO'd in three of those losses.

He needs to fight cautiously and be conscious of the fact that he is not as young as he used to be. He needs to use good head movement to avoid big shots and look for the takedown when he can get it.

He also needs to make sure not to let the trash talk get to him, as he frequently fights worse when upset.

Prediction

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Ortiz may have fought more recently, but his track record as of late just does not instill much confidence. Bonnar is younger, bigger and not 2-7-1 in the last eight years.

If Bonnar shows up in good shape and hasn't missed a beat, then he should be able to beat Ortiz just the same way as Evans and Nogueira did.

There doesn't appear to be any situation where Ortiz can beat Bonnar in the manner that Jon Jones, Mark Coleman or Anderson Silva did, which means this fight is Bonnar's for the taking.

Prediction: Stephan Bonnar def. Tito Ortiz by second-round TKO.