Chael Sonnen has never been one to hold back when it comes to speaking his mind. And the same applies for the rest of the free world where the Bellator star is concerned.

That said, some scenarios create circumstances in which offensive strikes are launched without a clear motivation being intact. Those are the situations Sonnen finds perplexing and precisely where the former UFC title challenger filed his tension with Tito Ortiz at Bellator NYC back in June.

"The American Gangster" was minutes from throwing dukes with rival Wanderlei Silva when Ortiz began barking at Sonnen from outside the cage. Sonnen paced during his introduction and turned to acknowledge the former UFC champion after the chatter became too much to ignore.

Nevertheless, Sonnen went on to defeat Silva, but the strangely timed encounter with Ortiz -- who retired after submitting Sonnen at Bellator 170 in January -- left a curious impression on the main event winner in the aftermath at Madison Square Garden.

"I thought his behavior was bizarre," Sonnen told FloCombat. "Tito (Ortiz) is a drug addict, and it's kind of hard to imagine he's going to be rational. I could see his eyes that night, and his pupils were the size of Easter eggs. I knew he was high and didn't know what he was going to do.

"I did find it peculiar because Tito won. Tito beat me, and it's just being a poor sport. I know poor sports because Wanderlei (Silva) pushed me after the fight, and he's a poor sport as well, but I've never heard of a poor winner before. Tito won the fight, and he's over here shouting at me. I just thought it was strange, but then I looked in his eyes and saw he was cranked out of his mind. I thought to myself, 'OK... this is going to be interesting.'

"Dan Henderson and Randy Couture were right next to him, which makes me think he might have wanted to pick his audience better. I had my hands full with the fight, but Henderson even gave me the look at one point. And I knew what the look meant because I've known Henderson for 20 years. That look said, 'You want me to handle this?'

"Now I don't like Tito, but I don't hate Tito enough for that because that isn't going to go well for him when Dan Henderson gets involved."

And even though Sonnen has no want for any type of peace with Ortiz, he also sees no reason for further conflict either. Ortiz defeated the former UFC two-divisional threat back in January, and Sonnen believes he should let things go.

"I've known Tito since 1999," Sonnen said. "Even if we are fighting, we've been in this thing together for two decades, and we're stuck with each other. We've competed a few times, and we each have a win over the other. But Tito doesn't look at things for what they are. He sees himself as a legend not what he really is, and that's a guy who beat people up who sucked at the time.

"His manager was running the sport and did his matchmaking. Come on, Tito. You're garbage. And I lost to a guy like you so that's really embarrassing for me. Could you just let it go?'"