Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin 2 lived up to the hype (photo: Sherdog.com)
After some great early fights on the main card, the two co-main event fights that everyone was looking forward to finally went down. As expected, the didn't disappoint.
Josh Koscheck submits Anthony Johnson by rear naked choke: When I wrote my prediction piece, I said that the only thing that would derail Koscheck from his path toward another welterweight title shot was his chin. I felt he was a better wrestler and at least as good a striker as Johnson, but he's been caught a few times. The story of the first round was what looked like an illegal knee to Koscheck's eye while he was on the ground. One camera angle showed that the knee never contacted his head, but Koscheck was having trouble with his vision. It looked like it was actually a finger poke that did the damage. After a few minutes, the fight commenced and Koscheck finished the round with a take down and an attempt at getting a rear naked choke. In the second round, Koscheck poked Johnson in the eye a couple of times, but they finally got things rolling. Both fighters connected with hard strikes and Koscheck wisely decided to take it to the ground. After landing a few shots from the top, he took Johnson's back and got the fight-ending rear naked choke.
Forrest Griffin defeats Tito Ortiz by split decision: I predicted a Forrest win in this fight simply because I felt there were more unknowns on Tito's side than his. The truth is that both of them had a lot to prove in this fight. Forrest was absolutely overwhelmed by Anderson Silva back in August, but Tito had major back surgery since his last fight a year-and-a-half ago. It was a great fight on paper, but that was assuming that both guys came in 100% mentally and physically. The first round put all concerns aside as both fighters engaged in a great back-and-forth battle. Ortiz got a take down and looked pretty sharp on his feet, while Forrest landed some of his trademark leg kicks. Forrest was sharper on his feet, but Tito got another couple take downs in the second round and controlled more of the time. He also cut Forrest next to his right eye with an elbow from the top. Forrest reversed right at the end of the round, but I definitely had Tito winning the second. The third round was all Forrest on the feet, so from where I was sitting, the whole fight hinged on how the judges scored the first round. I would have given it to Tito, but he looked worn out in the third round and that may have made an impression on the judges too. It must have, because Forrest won a split decision.
Comments
tito looked rusty in that fight, he should of got a tuneup fight but imo he is so overrated, i thought his standup was gonna be better since he was training with freddy roach, but his standup looked just as bad as it did b4, then like always he always have some type of excuse on why he did so bad and i am glad the crowd let him hear it. Josh was straight up faking that knee to the face and milking the eye poke. then he hits rumble in the eye twice and it took rumble less time to recover from both than it did for josh, josh totally blocked that knee, it doesnt take that long to recover from a crappy poke in the eye. lmao at josh calling hardy out, i would love to see josh get KTFO by gsp again and maybe josh is right cause i see hardy getting beat even worse by gsp than josh either way gsp is gonna remain champ, i dont see hardy or josh giving gsp any trouble.
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