My Take On:UFC 106 – Ortiz vs Griffin II

This past weekend the UFC brought us another action packed card that saw welterweights go to war in a highly contested battle as well as the debut of “Little Nog”. I am going to share my thoughts on some of the fights. While the card was great, there are some fights that just need to be discussed.

Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt- To me this fight was a must win for Kendall, who has given us some rather lackluster performances  as of late. After a fast start by Rosholt, which centered on his wrestling, he got caught by a beautiful and smooth triangle choke by Kendall.

Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders- I am a big fan of Marcus Davis and was expecting a great performance from him. Saunders used his davastating knees as well as the thai clinch to gain the K.O in round one. I was inpressed that Saunders stopped Davis and in such a dominant fashion. Saunders put the welterweight division on notice with his performance.

Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah-Phil Baroni made me a fan because of the massive amounts of shit talking he does as well his exciting fighting style. I expected him to put Sadollah to sleep early. I was extremely surprised by Sadollah’s muay thai onslaught which was effective to keeping Baroni from getting in close to do any damage. Baroni was gassed by round two. Baroni always starts strong but gets gassed in the later rounds and it always costs him. I admire the heart he displayed in the ass whooping he took, but would have preffered the victory instead.

Anthony Johnson vs. Josh Koscheck-Update: After reviewing some video footage it appears that the poke happened prior to the knee. Nonetheless it still looked suspect but at least now I have a better understanding of what went down. I still like Kos and Johnson though. Both guys are great fighters.

I was really expecting a war between these two awesome athletes, but what I got was eye pokes and a knee to a downed opponent which put a blemish on the fight.  First, I’ll start with the knee that Johnson threw to a downed Josh Koscheck which “allegedly” hit him in the eye. Let’s say that that last time I checked YOU DON’T HAVE AN EYE ON YOUR FUCKING FOREARM!!!! While I admit that the knee was illegal, there was zero contact to the eye and the replays clearly showed it.  Second round saw an eye poke from Koscheck to Johnson which stopped the fight briefly. Koscheck ended up getting Johnson’s back and choking him out. During the post fight interview Kos made it clear he wanted to fight Dan Hardy before Hardy fought GSP. Overall the B.S with the eye pokes ruined the fight for me. I hope Johnson bounces back and gets another shot at Koscheck.

Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz- Tito and Forrest delivered as expected, yet the fight had its’ share of frustrating moments. If you are a fan of Tito’s then you will be frustrated with the fact he got gassed in round 2 and really did nothing in round 3. If you’re a fan of Forrest you will be happy with his performance, yet annoyed he couldn’t finish Tito off. I fall in the category of being a fan of both guys. One thing that tends to get under my skin is the fact that whenever Tito loses he chooses to list any injuries he’s obtained in route to his fight and usually blames them for the loss. While I refuse to believe that he’s lying or bullshiting, it does become an annoyance for fans. I think that if he lost ,well, he lost which is no big deal as both of you are now 1-1. Both of these guys want a rematch to settle it once and for all.

Rumors of course are running rampant with speculation that they will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. I think that the fighters on the show would benefit from the coaching of both of these guys.

Overall the card was enjoyable, minus the issues with Koscheck and the unfinished business between Forrest & Tito. On the bright side though their third fight should be awesome.

Feel free to share your comments below.

Image Credit – UFC.com