What did we learn from Saturday's UFC 106 event? The more things change, the more they stay the same. For example, Tito Ortiz is going to whine after losing, no matter what; Anthony Johnsons' eyes seem to have finger magnets in them, and Josh Koscheck says what he thinks.
Ortiz VS Griffin
In his long awaited return to the Octagon, Tito Ortiz looked like 2/3 of the old Tito. Tight and rigid boxing, good takedowns, good top control, and good stamina, for two rounds anyway. Come the third round, Tito did nothing, and I mean nothing. Unless you count blocking Griffin's punches with his face as "doing something". It was as if Tito didn't know it was a 3 round fight and he only trained for 2. Then again, Griffin is no easy fight for someone that hasn't been in the cage for 18 months and is coming off of major back surgery.
The first two rounds were close,Griffin had the edge in the stand up while Tito was able to manage a takedown in each round, holding Griffin down for a while and working his famous ground n' pound before Griffin was able to work back to his feet. In the second round Ortiz was able to open a major cut on Griffin's face with his trademark elbows before Griffin worked a nice sweep.
The third round however was a different story. It was all Griffin.Tito had no stamina to keep up with Griffin, and Griffin knew it as he started to let loose with combination after combination. Ultimately Griffin was too much for Tito, and he took a split decision setting up a possible rubber match (which I'm not sure anyone cares to see).
After the judges decision was announced Tito made his combeback complete by rattling off a list of excuses including his "cracked skull" and proclaiming he was only able to spar "one round" in preparation for this fight due to bulging discs in his neck (somewhere around S1 to Q5 and maybe even Z17). Surprisingly, as the crowd showed their disgust for Tito's excuse, Forrest came to his rescue by grabbing the mic and letting the crowd know that "when you train to fight someone you get hurt".
From the fan perspective, I think we all realize fighters are prone to injury during training, but I also think we don't care to hear excuses after a loss. Especially after all the talk leading up to the fight. Let it out in a post-fight interview outside the cage, but inside the cage give your opponent his due credit, let the fans know you fought your heart out, and call it good. If you were hurt badly enough to make excuses, you shouldn't have stepped in there.
Koscheck VS Johnson
This was bound to be a good fight. Two explosive wrestlers with strong stand up and KO power, not to mention Johnson is a HUGE welterweight. So the questions coming in was whether or not Koscheck and his experience could deal with Johnson's size, power and athleticism.
After a bizarre first round, Koscheck got Johnson to the ground in the second round and unleashed some brutal ground and pound. Johnson had never been bullied or pressured like that, and it showed. Koscheck beat him up for a while before taking his back and sinking in a fight ending rear naked choke.
As for the first round, each man was poked in the eye (and you could almost hear the "oh here we go again" when Johnson took one to the eye and fell to the mat), and Koscheck took an apparent knee to the head while down on both knees. As action was stopped for Koscheck to recover the replays seemed to show that the knee did not hit Koscheck's head (as it was deflected by his arm). So we came to the next conclusion that maybe he took a finger to the eye, however during his recovery he was squinting with the opposite eye which seemed to be hit in the replay. As the fans saw the replay over and over again, boo's began to reign down sensing that Koscheck might be faking. Ultimately, we don't know what actually happened, but if Koscheck were looking for "a way out" of that fight for fear of Johnson's power, he would have taken it. So I think it's safe to say he was legitimately hurt.
Koscheck looked amazing in this fight, like a man on a mission. You could almost sense that he was looking ahead to GSP as his goal and just had to get Johnson out of the way first. He went so far as to call out Dan Hardy in the post fight interview stating that he's not the real #1 contender and that he hasn't fought anyone. As an aside, I'd love to know what the agreement is between Koscheck, Fitch and Swick regarding comments and trash talking. Koscheck basically called Swick a "nobody" after stating that Hardy hadn't fought anyone, and let us know who he thinks is better between he and Fitch as he stated clearly that he was the #1 contender.
Nogueira VS Cane
Nogueira is a beast. He looked amazing. An instant threat to the light heavyweight title. Enough said.
Sadollah VS Baroni
Amir looked good. His stand-up was crisp and his combinations were good. He weathered an early storm from Baroni and withstood Baroni's power, then pressured him and beat him up the rest of the fight. I think this is a quality win for Amir given he's still relatively inexperienced in MMA, but then again, Baroni looked pretty bad. Like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. New employer, same old New York Badass.
Thiago VS Volkmann
Paulo looked good in this fight and his stand up seems much improved. Remember, he really wasn't doing much with his hand prior to catching Koscheck with one punch. Volkmann impressed me in his debut on short notice. Research this guy, he's an impressive person. I hope to see him back in the UFC. As for Thiago, I'd like to see him challenged again.
you hit my every feeling on the head...awesome recap!
Posted by: Andrea | November 24, 2009 at 06:37 AM
Oh God you are a genius person and a good photographer i like your pics thanks.
Posted by: Angels Paintings | May 23, 2011 at 02:57 AM