Last Week, UFC 106 took place and Josh Koscheck was a big winner, walking away with an extra $70 000 for the Fight of the Night and again another $70 000 for Submission of the Night in his fight with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.   In my personal opinion I would have given Fight of the Night to Amir/Baroni or Forrest/Ortiz.  Dana sometimes like to give these things away as rewards for personal reasons instead of for actually being the best of the night.   Look no further then Matt Hughes/Matt Serra and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua/Mark Coleman 2 and you’ll see I’m accurate since both of those fights won Fight Of The Night honors despite being unworthy.   Antonio “Lil Nog” Rogerio Noguiera  made his UFC debut and impressed many when he won Knockout of the Night with his KO of Luis “Banha” Arthur Cane at 1:56 of the first round.   This was a a good one if you are into standup battles.   Although Roegerio now has another sweet clip for his highlight reel, I may have given the award to Ben Saunders for his knockout victory over Davis with a big knee to the jaw at 3:24 of the 1^st round.   I mentioned last week about the Tito Ortiz/Forrest Griffin fight and how Forrest won both rounds 1 and 3.   I question   how this one ended up even being a split decision.   I’ve watched the fight a second time and nothing’s changed for me, in fact Tito was so gassed and was little more than a punching bag for all of round three, leaving the third round 10-8 in favor of Forrest who continuously landed punch after punch unanswered.   Tito seems to think he won the fight and has now told the media that he was not 100% going into it despite telling everyone before the fight that he was.   Ortiz is a hype machine and it is nice to have him back cause this is the kind of antics that keep Tito looked at as a star despite being 0-3-1 in his last four fights and still making $200 000 for the fight.    It doesn’t matter what you think of Tito, you do have an opinion on him...which is all he wants.

Complete from UFC 106 results

George Sotiropoulous def Jason Dent by submission in the 2^nd.

Caol Uno and fought to a draw

Brian Faster def Brock Larson by TKO in the 2^nd.

Kendall “Da Spyda” Grove def Jake Rosholt by submission in the 1^st.

Ben “Killah B” Saunder def “The Irish Handgrenade” Marcus Davis by KO in the 1^st.

Amir Sadollah def “The New York Badass” Phil Baroni by unanimous decision.

Antonio “Little Nog” Rogerio Nogueair def Luis “Banha” Arthur Cane by KO in the 1^st.

Paulo Thiago def Jacob Vaolkman by unanimous decision.

Josk “KOS” Koscheck def Anthony “Rumble” Johnson by submission in the 2^nd round.

Forrest Griffin def “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz by split decision.

Random News and Rumours

  Tito has been trying to get Dana to sign him on as the next coach for the Ultimate Fighter opposite Griffin.   As much as Tito is a fantastic coach, as is Forrest, this most likely wont happen since an anticipated rubber match between the two will not be run this close from the 2^nd.   I’m still leaning towards Franklin/Griffin or possibly a Camp vs Camp season which could be really cool as Team Jackson, ATT, Dellagrotte, Team Quest, Team Miletich member could be used as the coaches.

Brock Larson was cut from the UFC after his performance Saturday against Brian Foster.   Foster was met with two illegal blows in the 1^st round and was able to finish Larson in the 2^nd.   I am a Larson fan but if you land two illegal blows, with your experience in these fights, then there’s some sort of problem there.   I know people may say “Koscheck did the same in his fight!”   Well finger pokes, whether intentional or not, and I don’t want to be the judge here because I don’t want to accuse Koscheck of anything.   Kicks to a downed opponent are not something UFC allows and Larsons’s been in the UFC for six fights now and knows the rules.   Finger pokes happen a lot even with experienced fighters.   Larson will probably be picked up by Strikeforce and go back to his winning ways.  

Originally DMX was scheduled to fight Eric Martinez on December 12^th but was under the impression the fight would be rigged and he would win but this isn’t professional wrestling so DMX decided against the fight after heavy advertising for it.   How could they rekindle that spark in our eyes of the hope of seeing one of our least favourite B rated rappers getting pummeled?   They bring in Coolio, that’s right Coolio, and I actually want to see this now.   I have always been a Coolio fan, more so then DMX but still don’t think he has a chance.   Also scheduled to fight is   Butterbean “ I knocked out Bart Gunn at WrestleMania” Esche vs Tank “I Should Have Been WCW World’s Champion” Abbot.   This one should be intense with Esche winning by TKO in the 1^st round.   Esche has surprisingly decent cardio considering his size and it’s a miracle Abbott even makes it to the cage these days.   Also scheduled is Travis “Seems to Fight Weekly” Fulton vs Jeff “The Snowman” Monson.

Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga has pulled out of his fight with Junior Dos Santos due to staph infection.   Anderson Silva is recovering slowly from surgery and will no longer be fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 109.   The champ may be out until April.   Everyone continues to get injured as big event are always getting reshuffled.

Could anyone explain to me why there was no Ultimate Fighter episode this week?   So let me get this straight, we get four fights in two hours on Thursday and then a free Fight Night Finale on Saturday.   The real kicker is that we won't know until Wednesday’s episode who will be fighting in the final.   I don’t understand why there was no episode this week.   Most likely because all season the producers have been feeding us hope that Kimbo will fight again and they assumed by letting us know this week that he doesn may make viewers not watch the fnal episode knowing that he’s not competing.   Like I stated last week, Kimbo wont be fighting again until his fight with Houston Alexander next Saturday.  

Next weekend is the Ultimate Fighter finale and I will post my picks before Saturday with more news and notes from around the MMA world.   Take care everyone.