Jones warns Ortiz to 'stay in his lane,' proposes grappling match

It's a good thing Tito Ortiz is finished with MMA, because he's drawn the ire of one of the sport's most dangerous fighters.

Jon Jones issued some threatening tweets in Ortiz's direction after fans asked him why "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" was slinging mud at his name in an interview with FightHype prior to Ortiz's successful retirement bout against Chael Sonnen at Bellator 170 this past Saturday:

While Ortiz is no longer planning to compete in MMA and Jones is currently serving a drug suspension, that does not preclude them from meeting in a grappling-only matchup at a Submission Underground event. Jones made an appearance with that promotion in December, submitting Dan Henderson via arm-triangle choke in the first round.

Oddly, Jones' stern words have been misdirected. Ortiz's quote was as follows (transcription by Ben Kiely of SportsJOE.ie):

He says he is the greatest, he was never the greatest. He's never done anything. He says he calls himself a legend. What kind of legendary stuff has he ever done - nothing. ... People call me a legend, I don't need to call myself a legend because I've done legendary stuff in my career. I've set the bar. I set the stage for every one of these MMA guys - Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor ... myself.

Those comments were made in the midst of a rant aimed at Sonnen, though they came immediately after Ortiz mentioned he and Jones' respective places in the UFC's history books, which could have led to the confusion.

During his time with the UFC, Ortiz was one of the promotion's earliest stars, and his five consecutive light heavyweight title defenses were a promotional record until Jones shattered it with eight.