UFC 106 Review

Okay, for those of us that watched the free prelims on SPIKE TV we got to see 2 fights over again, Lucky us.

Overall UFC106 was a decent event, the fights were entertaining and there was controversy yet again, at least this time not from the judges.

Let's see how my predictions went first of all.

1. Amir Sadollah vs Phil Baroni
In the first fight I had Amir Sadollah beating Phil Baroni, and I was bang on with this one. My friend Joel who is my personal MMA encyclopedia on fighters I don't know very well, ensured me that if Amir could last 1 minute he would probably be just fine and my pick would be right. And low and behold Joel couldn't have said it any better, the first minute saw Baroni land a flurry of punches that Amir took like a champ. After that 1 minute was up Baroni looked like he had just ran a marathon he was spent. Amir made him pay for the rest of the fight by physically dissecting him for the remaining 14 minutes of the fight. My friend Brian said it best while the fight was in the third round and said it looked like Amir was fighting a manic-an!! Classic. Amir wins by decision.

2. Antonio Nogueria vs Luiz Cane
This fight lasted all of 2 minutes, not even. My prediction was Little Nog to win and he didn't disappoint me one bit. He rocked Cane with a big left hook. Cane then preceded to back pedal the fastest I have seen anyone do so in the Octagon, but Little Nog kept at him and finished the fight with his big brother and Anderson Silva looking on. Little Nog wins by TKO.

3. Jacob Volkmann vs Paulo Thiago
Let me start out by saying once the introductions were made for this fight I hated Volkmann, your probably asking why do you hate him? Well I can't stand the mans nickname, it's Christmas, I am really that is the best you can come up with? Anyways I went with Paulo Thiago to win this bout and he did. With that being said Volkmann fought very well, you can't take that away from him. He even had Thiago in a crucifix and delivered some nasty elbows that certainly would have made face erupt into a sea of blood. At one point Volkmann from the bottom appeared to have a darce choke on Thiago from his back. But Thiago showed great patience as he managed to survive the raining blows and choke attepmt from Volkmann. Thiago eventually got on top of Volkmann to finish out the fight on top of Volkmann. Thiago wins by decision.

4. Josh Koscheck vs Anthony Johnson
Bring on the controversy. The fight starts out and Johnson begins punishing Kos. Both fighters were on the ground when Johnson got up and delivered a knee that seem to strike Kos in the head (Illegal Strike). Kos fell back and seemed to be reeling from this blow but he was holding his left eye, understandable right? He just got kneed illegally, but the replay shows Kos blocking the knee and nothing ever came close to his left eye. Kos milked the timeout he had to kill all momentum Johnson had built up, at one point the doctor came in to check Kos out and Kos had his eye open until the doctor came to check it out when all of a sudden I guess it hurt again and it was unable to open. So anyways they go to the 2nd round and with 13 seconds to go Kos sinks in a rear naked choke and Johnson has no choice but to tap. Now here is where I show my bias I liked both fighters going in so no matter who won I would be happy, but Kos cheated big time, now I know that Johnson attempted an illegal knee but it never hit Kos. After Kos walked around like an idiot faking his injury for 5 minutes, any momentum Johnson had which was a lot was gone. After the timeout Johnson seemed to no longer be in this fight and ultimately lost because of this. Kos even poked Johnson in the eye twice but Johnson took a combined time of 20 seconds. I think Johnson should get a rematch and Kos should be fined and suspended for taking a dive essentially. If Johnson loses then so be it. I did predict Johnson to win in the 2nd round but I was wrong, Josh Koscheck wins by rear naked choke.

What really pissed me off wasn't the fact Kos faked an injury but he then has the audacity to call out Dan Hardy and say he doesn't deserve a shot at GSP, last time I checked Hardy has won 4 in a row in the UFC and Kos was knocked out 2 fights ago by Paulo Thiago. To add to that he was getting beat up by Johnson before his fake injury. So I am gonna have to side with Dan Hardy on this one. Truth be told with that fake injury I would send Koscheck back to the bottom of the walter weight division.

5. Forrest Griffin vs Tito Ortiz
So I had Forrest winning this by decision in my prediction. This fight was going be interesting, Forrest needed a win big time and Tito had not fought in over a year. The fight in the first round looked like their first fight back in 06 except that Forrest landed a lot more strike via leg kicks and punches. Forrest really began taking over in the 2nd until Tito got a couple of take downs, now no body ever knows whats going on in the judges heads so I wasn't sure if they were in favor of Forrest's striking and good ground defence or Tito's tow take downs. I would have scored the round for Forrest. Forrest did take a nasty elbow from Ortiz and before I could say that is gonna bleed big time, the blood was already flowing out of Forrest's head. It was a pretty even fight after 2 with anyone's guess as to how the judges would score it. But third put any doubt to rest as Forrest picked a tired looking Ortiz apart. Tito looked like a punching bag as Forrest seemed to land shots at will with no threat of retaliation for Tito. The round ended with Tito landing maybe 1 or 2 punches while only attempting at most 6 punches. I had it scored 29-28 Forrest, but my score amounts to jack squat. So for a 2nd time in as many fights it went to the judges, (Tito took the first fight in 06 by split decision) and of course one of the judges fucked it up scoring it 29-28 Ortiz and the other 2 judges scoring it in Forrest's favor with scores of 30-27 and 29-28 respectively giving forrest his much need win by split decision.

In the post fight interview Tito began making excuses he apparently had a fractured skull, I can't see the doctors letting him fight with that, so I call bullshit. He also claimed that he had a bulging disc in his back between the c6-c7, that he originally said was the c10. Oh Tito just admit that you lost and give props to Forrest. My buddy had a good idea when I asked who's next for Forrest? He mention Jardine, (who Forrest has lost to once by TKO) and the loser of that is gone from the UFC, with the winner becoming the new gatekeeper in the UFC. I thought it was a pretty good suggestion myself.

Next up for the UFC is The Ultimate Fighter Finale which is on December 5th in Las Vegas.

In my next blog we switch back over to hockey. I will talk about the Leafs next game which is on Monday November 23rd against the New York Islanders and the 1st overall pick in last years draft John Tavares.