Y! Sports Blogs  - Steve Cofield

Author: Steve Cofield

  • Robbed was the word of the night for Tito Ortiz following his loss to Forrest Griffin but deep down he thinks he's the one who pulled off the heist. That's right, he won the long war against UFC president Dana White. Ortiz pulled a fast one on the big guy when he got the UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta to overrule White in favor of him. 

    Tito blurted out that he "won" between the two of them during the press conference (8:25 mark) and also said it during an interview with DC and The Sunshine Man on ESPNRadio1100 on Thursday. Maybe it was an unfair fight. Adam Hill from the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote:

    The insults hurled at former friend and manager and current UFC president Dana White? The shots at the company's pay structure? The joke about Chuck Liddell's speech? Even the shirt with a derogatory term about White that Ortiz wore to the weigh-ins before his most recent fight? All part of the plan.

    How did Ortiz win? Because he's smart:

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  • Forrest Griffin was pretty grumpy the first time he had to answer questions about his crazy behavior following his UFC 101 loss to Anderson Silva. During an interview with MMA30's Dave Farra, he wondered aloud why anyone even cared and went on an odd rant about not being a role model. As time went along, he came to grips with his postfight antics and addressed them at length last Wednesday before UFC 106.

    Any lingering questions about his mental state were finally answered on Saturday night, first with his win over Tito Ortiz and then officially when  Griffin sought out Silva following the UFC 106 press conference:

    "I’m sorry I ran out on you, it was no disrespect," The Las Vegas Sun heard Griffin saying to Silva towards the back of the media center. "I just wanted it to be a great fight and I was really disappointed when it wasn’t."

    Griffin trainer Jimmy Gifford said the Ortiz win was huge physically and mentally for Griffin. Sun writer Brett Okamoto pointed out that Griffin had pinched a nerve in his neck, a rib injury and broken foot in the weeks leading up to the fight. 


     
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  • The momentum builds with each close fight. Many fans and media members are looking for answers on how to fix what they think is a problem, inconsistent judging in mixed martial arts. That's if there is a problem. Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz engaged in a back and forth fight for two rounds before Griffin rolled in the third at UFC 106. The decision (30-27, 29-28 and 28-29) went to Griffin. Frankly it wouldn't have been outrageous had it gone to Ortiz. When fighters don't try to finish fights these things happens. Boxing has a long history of close fights and close decisions don't always mean they're controversial, yet for UFC president Dana White the complaining hurled his way is getting old (2:15 mark):

    "I don't even know, I'm so exhausted by this whole thing," White said during the postfight press conference. "It's tiring. It's terrible. These athletic commissions need to start looking at this and figure out what they're going to do."

    White said fans should contact the head of the nation's leading commission, Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

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  • Dana White's weigh-in day video blog takes you through the Friday before UFC 106. It's interesting to see the fighters standing in line to enter the Mandalay Bay weigh-in area. Josh Koscheck is standing with no Anthony Johnson present (3:40 mark). When asked where he is, Koscheck says he heard Johnson passed out trying to make the weight. When you finally see Johnson (4:45 mark), he does confirm that he had some issues and says he was "dehydrated."

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  • With a nickname like "Da Spyder" you'd think fighters would be afraid to go anywhere near Kendall Grove. But that hadn't been the case in some recent fights against the likes of Jorge Rivera and Ricardo Almeida. Once those fights got into clinch situations, Grove was manhandled and easy to takedown. Last night at UFC 106, it looked like Grove turned the corner. In the opening minutes, he was being thrown around like a rag doll and taken down often by Jake Rosholt. The difference this time? Grove was actively looking to stand right back up and making Rosholt work hard to maintain position.

    "I just gotta work with it. I can't freak out when I'm down there," Grove told Cagewriter shortly after the win. 

    Rosholt, a three-time national champion wrestler at Oklahoma State, is still learning the nuances of submission defense. Grove is pretty slick with his triangle and d'arce choke. The matchup worked in favor of the 6-foot-6 Hawaiian:

    "Me and my jiu-jitsu coach Justin McCully right here, we just was working on that same exact triangle from that same position back in the lockerroom right before we went out."

    Rosholt slipped for a split second and Grove locked on the choke. He said it was tight and there was no way for Rosholt to escape. Grove was a little emotional during the postfight while remembering his grandmother who passed away on Nov. 12.

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  • Dana White couldn't say enough good things about Josh Koscheck and his dominating win over Anthony Johnson. He even matched his mouth with his money by giving both the Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night bonuses to Koscheck. That's a hefty $140,000 double-bonus check on top of his fight night salary of $106,000 ($53,000 to show and $53,000 to win). Koscheck likes the money but a title shot would be even nicer. That's a bonus White isn't willing to pony up. White confirmed there is no turning back now, Georges St. Pierre against Dan Hardy is etched in stone (2:45 mark).

    Koscheck was resigned to towing the company line (2:10 mark):

    "Thanks to the UFC. I love to fight. Hopefully in 2010, if I'm not fighting St. Pierre next, I'll fight every month. Dan Hardy's the next guy in line. We'll let him fight for the title and then we'll see what happens after that."

    His tune, sober or not, was a bit different this morning.

    White was floored by the performance especially since Koscheck had an excuse to bow out of the fight after being poked in the eye as Johnson threw an illegal knee:

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  • Even after spending much of the UFC 106 postfight press conference complaining about how he got robbed in losing a split decision to Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz sent out one last tweet in the late Las Vegas night.

    It may have been ring rust and fatigue that did in Ortiz in his comeback fight aftr 18 months away recovering from back surgery, but Tito still had his best tool, his mouth,  working in peak condition.

    Watch Tito Ortiz in all his glory during the UFC 106 postfight press conference:

    Ortiz said he got robbed at least 10 times during the postfight presser at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. He opened the conference by saying Dana White robbed of his Fight of the Night bonus:

    "How the [expletive] are you giving him Fight of the Night," asked Ortiz when White announced the winners were Josh Koscheck and Anthony Johnson.

    White responded, "Here we go again. We're back!"

    Ortiz went on to explain why he won the fight (1:50 mark):

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  • It was another frustrating mixed martial arts main event to score at UFC 106. Forrest Griffin got a split decision win over Tito Ortiz 29-28, 30-27 and 28-29. Ortiz scored more takedowns and did some solid damage on the ground, including opening a nice cut over Griffin's left eye. Griffin threw more shots throughout the fight and was most effective in the final two minutes of the fight when he landed often. Before that, how many headshots did he actually land?

    A look at the photo gallery provided by Getty Images shows an awful lot of blocked shots. Getty uploaded 11 photos of Griffin throwing a kick or punch at Ortiz' head. Tito is shown blocking 10 of them. This is only a small sample but it certainly proves the fight is worth another look.

    UFC president Dana White said the 30-27 for Griffin was "crazy, outrageous and insane," and anyone who saw it that way was "out of their mind." Griffin asked Ortiz in the cage right after the fight if he had been on his back too often to win the fight.

    Meanwhile over at Bloody Elbow, writer Mike Fagan suggested Glenn Trowbridge, the judge who scored it 29-28 for Ortiz, was incompetent:

    Someone needs to take away Glenn Trowbridge's judging license. A card of 29-28 Ortiz is atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. I personally had the fight 30-26 Griffin (pictured on the right), though I find 30-27 and 29-28 Griffin acceptable as well. 

    This makes it three straight main events where fans walked away split on a definitive winner. UFC 104 featured a close win by Lyoto Machida over Mauricio Rua (48-47 on all cards) and at UFC 105 Randy Couture edged Brandon Vera (29-28 on all cards).

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  • It was a close decision but the UFC escaped fan outrage because they agreed with judges who sided with Forrest Griffin. It was a fight that could've gone either way but Tito Ortiz is still clearly a heel in the minds of many fight fans. He probably added to their dislike even more when he complained about multiple injuries as part of the reason he lost the fight. The fight was even on two judge's scorecards but the younger Griffin played target practice with Ortiz' face and won a split decision 30-27, 29-28 and 28-29 in a light heavyweight bout to close UFC 106 in Las Vegas. More than a few folks along press row scored it 29-28 for Ortiz.

    During his postfight conversation with UFC color analyst Joe Rogan, Griffin mentioned that he broke his right foot (during training camp). That set off Ortiz. He initially gave credit to Griffin but mentioned that he couldn't spar before the fight suggesting that beyond a badly blackened eye, he also had a bulging disk in his back. That's bad news from a guy who just missed 17 months recovering from back surgery.

    Attempting to shutup Ortiz, Griffin returned to grab the microphone and say all fighters get hurt in training camp.

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  • UFC 106 hit a little lull with that fight. You have to really appreciate ground work and scrambles to enjoy the battle between Jacob Volkmann and Paulo Thiago. Volkmann, a former wrestler at Minnesota, got outgrappled by Thiago losing a unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

    Thiago (12-1, 2-1 UFC) did land the best shot of the fight. As the horn sounded to close the first round, the Brazilian nailed Volkmann (9-1, 0-1 UFC) with a left and then a huge right. Volkmann's body locked up as he fell to the ground and then it appeared that the fall jarred back his consciousness. Two seconds later the round ended and Volkmann sprang to his feet.

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