Breaking: Forrest Griffin Steps in to Fight Tito Ortiz at UFC 106
by Zak Woods on Oct 8, 2009 10:55 PM EDT
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Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports breaks the news.
In a surprise move Forrest Griffin (16-6) will fight Tito Ortiz (15-6-1) at UFC 106.
Tito Ortiz was slated to fight Mark Coleman as the co-main event of the upcoming November 14th fight card. Coleman was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a torn MCL. Since then the UFC has been looking for an opponent for Ortiz that would also serve the dual purpose of bolstering the UFC 106 fight card.
These two have met before at UFC 59 where Ortiz won by a narrow split decision. Tito dominated the first round of that fight then faded in the third round, making the close second round the determining factor. Many observers saw this fight as Griffin's coming out party as he stood toe-to-toe with a former champion. Yet Forrest would drop his next fight to Keith Jardine before reinventing himself into a more cerebral tactician as oppose to the brawler that fans grew to love on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Griffin later upset Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and followed that shocking victory with another over Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to become the UFC light heavyweight champion. Forrest would lose his first title defense to Rashad Evans. Later, at UFC 101, Griffin fought UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, and suffered a vicious knockout defeat in which fans saw him run outside the Octagon back to his dressing room. Since that incident Forrest has been noticeably absent from the MMA public though he was planning a return for early 2010.
This will be Tito Ortiz's first fight in the UFC since 2008, where he dropped an unanimous decision to Lyoto Machida. That fight looked to be Ortiz's last inside the UFC as his ongoing feud with Dana White appeared to be the principle roadblock to the former champion re-signing with the UFC. Yet in August of this year Ortiz signed a new contract with the UFC.
UFC 106 is set for November 14th in Las Vegas, Nevada and will feature a headline bout between heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin.
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Called it
This will be a good fight and to me better then Tito vs. Mark.
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I love Forrest and his willingness to take fights.
I can almost see him being like, “Yeah, sounds cool. I’ll do it”
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