Will UFC 106 need a new co-main event?

by Zak Woods on Oct 27, 2009 1:18 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 5 comments

The news that the Brock Lesnar Shane Carwin title fight will be postponed to January and the elevation of the Ortiz-Griffin fight to the main event of UFC 106 has left a hole in the UFC November card.

While Ortiz vs. Griffin II certainly provides enough star power to carry a pay-per view the rest of the card appears a little lackluster.

Main Card
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz
Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Dustin Hazelett vs. Karo Parisyan

Preliminary Card
Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah
Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders
Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
Brian Foster vs. Brock Larson
Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann
Fabricio Camoes vs. Caol Uno
Jason Dent vs. George Sotiropoulos

Will Zuffa need to find a co-main event to help prop up 106?

Cane vs. Nogueira could serve as a co-main event but the UFC would be hard pressed to find two pay-per view worthy fights from their preliminary card to round out the main card.

So what match-up could step in to add some needed lift?

Zach Arnold points out that Shogun, Machida and Velasquez probably wouldn't be ready for 106.

On paper, booking Shogun vs. Machida in the re-match here would have made sense because both men last trained for each other and there’s a desire for a re-match… but there’s no way either could fight due to medical suspensions by the California State Athletic Commission. Same case with Cain Velasquez, as you could have naturally booked him and Shane Carwin for the November 21st show in a #1 contender’s match (but not with the standard medical suspensions).

Cain Velasquez didn't take a lot of damage so it is not hard to imagine a scenario where Velasquez could fight in a pinch. But we can't ignore the standard medical suspensions, which will most likely prevent Cain from being on the November card.

So who does that leave?

The obvious choice would be a heavyweight fight between Junior dos Santos and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Such a fight could be billed as a future number one contender match but then again it would feature two Brazilians, so is there any real difference between that and Rogerio Nogueira vs. Luiz Cane as a co-main event?

Plus the UFC would be potentially sacrificing a future heavyweight contender for a potentially small pay-per view boost.

Is there any other fight out there that could help improve UFC 106?

If there is WKR can't think of it.

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Comments

the idea of having both Nog Brothers on the same card is interesting there is also one other guy who danced his way down to 215 pounds who could be ready

Maybe Liddell Jardine 2 to go with Ortiz Griffin 2 and if both win then well( i know it wouldn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things but it would be a licence to print money)

by davec84 on Oct 27, 2009 3:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Don’t Big Nog and dos Santos train together? I don’t think they would fight each other.

by racebannon on Oct 27, 2009 4:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nog and Dos Santos won’t fight each other – you’re right.

Personally I’d like Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah and
Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders moved to the main card. if they can’t find a co main event. If they do – then at least bring one of these 2 fights up so there’s 5 on the main. I don’t know who they could find on this short of notice though…. Probably nobody.

by Keven on Oct 27, 2009 4:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs