UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin 2 Re-Cap

UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin 2
11/21/09
Mandalay Bay
Las Vegas, Nevada

Welterweight Fight- Amir Sadollah (2-1) vs. Phil Baroni (13-11)

Sadollah was the winner of TUF 7 but lost in just 27 seconds in his last fight against Johny Hendricks. Both guys train at Xtreme Couture but Baroni trained for this fight at AKA. Baroni comes out to “Bad to the Bone”. This is Baroni’s first fight in UFC since UFC 51. Sadollah has a 2” height and 3” reach advantage.

R1- Baroni lands some strikes early and knocks Amir off-balance. Baroni lands two good uppercuts. Baroni got a take down about half way through the round but gave up the position after about a minute. Baroni tried a guillotine but couldn’t get it and Amir landed a good knee and barely missed with a big haymaker. Amir is coming on towards the end of the round. Baroni comes out of the round with his face bloodied. Baroni 10-9 but Amir could have stolen that round after Baroni gassed towards the end.

R2- Baroni looks really tired and Amir comes out as the aggressor in this round. Not a real exciting round but I’ve got Amir taking this one to even it up 19-19.

R3- Amir lands some good strikes in the first minute of the round. Amir is doing a good job changing levels in this round and he buckled Baroni against the cage with a good onslaught. Amir wins this fight 29-28 on my score card. Amir did a good job weathering the storm early and then it was all Amir in the last two rounds after Baroni ran out of steam.

Judges score cards: 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28

Winner: Amir Sadollah by Decision (Unanimous)

Light Heavyweight Fight- Antonio “Minotouro” Nogueira (17-3) vs. Luiz Cane (11-1)

This is a battle between two Top 10 Light Heavyweight Fighters that fly under the radar. The winner of this fight jumps up into title contention with another win under their belt after this fight. Big Nog and Anderson Silva are in lil Nog’s corner for the fight. Cane comes out to some Jane’s Addiction. Cane is coming off of a decision victory over Steve Cantwell at UFC 97.

R1- Nogueira starts to land some strikes and hits a good left and then another and Cane is on his heels. Nogueira is landing some good strikes and lands some lefts and then connects with a big left that knocks Cane to the ground. Lil Nog jumps on top and this fight is over. Really impressive debut for Lil Nog and he jumps right into the Light Heavyweight Title picture after the Machida/Shogun re-match.

Winner: Antonio “Minotouro” Nogueira by TKO (Strikes) R1 1:56

Chuck Liddell is at the fights tonight to check out Tito/Forrest. New WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is also at the show and they show some highlights of his championship win over Mike Brown from earlier in the week.

Welterweight Fight- Paulo Thiago (11-1) vs. Jacob Volkmann (9-0)

This is the UFC debut of Volkmann. Thiago is coming off of a decision loss to top contender Jon Fitch at UFC 100. Volkmann comes out to some AC/DC. Thiago has a 3” reach advantage to counter Volkmann’s better entrance music. Volkmann’s nickname is “Christmas”.

R1- Thiago got a take down into side control after the first minute of the round but Volkamann quickly got back to his feet. Thiago got a take down and mounted mid-way through the round. Thaigo lands some strikes but Volkmann got back to his feet without taking any major damage. Thiago landed a big combination right at the buzzer that floored Volkmann. Thiago 10-9.

R2- Thiago caught a Volkmann kick and chopped his other leg to floor him but didn’t follow up on the ground. Volkmann got a take down into side control in the first minute of the round but Thiago got back to his feet without taking much damage. Volkmann got Thiago down again but Thiago flipped him over and took top position. Thiago landed a big shot on the ground towards the end of the round. This round was very close. Could have gone either way.

R3- Thiago caught Volkmann coming in with a right and floored him. Volkmann tried a take down but Thiago avoided it but shortly thereafter Volkmann was able to get on top. Volkmann worked Thiago into a crucifix position and landed some good elbow strikes before Thiago was able to get out of the move. Volkmann slipped of Thiago’s back and Thiago once again assumed control. Volkmann grabbed a choke from the bottom but somehow Thiago slipped out. Thiago landed some good elbows on Volkmann at the end of the round.

Rounds two and three were virtual toss ups. Thiago clearly won the first round. I’m going to say the judges will give Thiago the win via decision. Volkmann really didn’t show much other than his wrestling, he really needs to work on his striking.

Judges score cards say: 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27

Winner: Paulo Thiago by Decision (Unanimous)

Welterweight Fight- Josh Koscheck (15-4) vs. Anthony Johnson (8-2)

This should be fun. Anthony Johnson is coming off of a destruction of Yoshiyuki Yoshida less than a month ago at UFC 104. Koscheck stopped Frank Trigg in the first round of their UFC 103 fight. The winner of this will move way up the rankings in the wide open Welterweight Division. Cung Le is in Anthony Johnson’s corner. Johnson has the most knock downs per minute in the UFC. Johnson has a 4” height and 5” reach advantage.

R1- Long feeling out process with a few strikes landing for each fighter. Koscheck came in at the two minute mark and got caught and knocked off balance and cornered. Koscheck clinched him to get out of the corner but Johnson defended it and ended up in the superior position. Koscheck was on his knees and Johnson landed a knee to his forehead, which is illegal, and the fight was stopped by the ref. On the re-play it didn’t look like the knee hit him in the head but Koscheck did get poked in the eye at some point. They re-start the fight. Koscheck went for a single and Johnson sprawled and landed hard on the cage and Koscheck finally took him down. Tough round to score as there wasn’t a ton of damage done and the Koscheck take down at the end of the round might have swung the round to him. I believe Johnson had a point deducted so it could be Koscheck up 10-8 at this point.

R2- Koscheck returned the favor with an eye poke early in ths round. Koscheck started to land some good shots but on the re-play the big shot was a poke right into Johnson’s eye. Johnson has a bad history with getting poked in the eye. Johnson landed some good strikes in an exchange and Koscheck may have landed a shot as well. Koscheck got a take down two minutes into the round. Koscheck landed some elbows. Koscheck landed a Rear Naked Choke and Johnson tapped out. Big win for Koscheck.

Winner: Josh Koscheck by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R2 4:47

Post-Fight Josh Koscheck calls out Dan Hardy. Says Hardy hasn’t fought anybody and says he’s the real number one contender.

Vince Vaughn is at the show tonight.

Light Heavyweight Fight- Tito Ortiz (16-6-1) vs. Forrest Griffin (16-6)

This is a re-match from their fight at UFC 59 that ended up a Split Decision victory for Tito Ortiz. Forrest comes out to Chumbawamba’s “I get knocked down, but I get up again”.

R1- Tito got a take down in the second minute of the fight after some brief stand up. Forrest was able to get back to his feet after taking some shots. This was a close round. Forrest won the stand up in the round but Tito got the take down.

R2- Tito got a take down in the first 30 seconds of the round. Forrest got back to his feet without taking any significant damage. Forrest hit a front kick to the face that sent Tito’s mouthpiece flying. Tito got another take down about half way through the round. Tito cut Forrest open really badly. Forrest turned Tito over with about 30 seconds left in the round. Probably 19-19 at this point.

R3- Forrest is the aggressor early in this round. Tito shot in but it was stuffed by Forrest. Tito looks a bit gassed in this round and Forrest is scoring all the points with about a minute and a half left in the round. Forrest stuffed another take down with about 40 seconds left. Forrest wins this round and I’ve got him taking the fight 29-28.

Judges score cards say: 29-28 Ortiz, 30-27 Griffin, 29-28 Forrest

Winner: Forrest Griffin by Decision (Split)