Cardio Freak MMA News Report 11.23.09: 100 Percent Healthy

Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 11.23.2009

This week in Cardio Freak: A review of UFC 106 with thoughts on all the fights, where fighters go from here, and my new found hate for Tito Ortiz. Plus news and thoughts on Coleman vs. Couture, Karo Parisyan's exit from the Octagon, and a late review of WEC 44 featuring Jose Aldo being a bad man. It's healthier than Tito Ortiz, it's Cardio Freak on 411.



Headline News

I currently have an inflamed vagina but because I love my fans I'm pumping out this column for you guys. I'm putting my heart on the line for you guys. Can you do this shit? I hope you enjoy it.



Forrest Griffin avenged his UFC 59 loss to Tito Ortiz by picking up a split decision victory and spoiling Ortiz' Octagon return. The fight went how most expected it to go until the third round. The first two rounds were Griffin outstriking Ortiz on the feet, Ortiz getting a takedown and doing some damage, and Griffin getting to his feet. I scored the first two rounds for Griffin because he easily won the fight on the feet and I didn't think he took too much damage on the ground, especially in the first round. The second round Ortiz cut open Griffin on the ground and did a better job punishing Griffin but Forrest ended the round very strong and again won the fight on the feet. You could easily say that the second round was a draw.

Then we had the third round. I don't know what happened to Tito Ortiz in this round but he just didn't show up. He threw maybe five punches compared to the 100 strikes Griffin seemed to throw with plenty of them landing clean. Griffin was never close to finishing Ortiz, mainly due to his lack of power, but that shouldn't change the fact that he dominated the fight on the feet while his opponent didn't do a single thing. I scored the fight 10-8 and if I didn't try judging fights like I believe actual judges judge fights, I would have given that round 10-0 Griffin because I don't think Ortiz earned a single point.

In the end judges got it right (meaning they agreed with me) and Griffin won. I'm actually shocked at how many people thought Ortiz won the fight. I know the first two rounds were close and you could give the second round to Ortiz because he cut open Griffin and got two takedowns but the first round was clearly for Griffin in my eyes. And I have perfect vision.

This was the type of fight and performance that Griffin needed to show that the Anderson Silva fight is a distant memory. I think a lot of people put too much stock in the Silva fight and counted out Griffin, forgetting that Griffin was a perfect style fight for Silva and Griffin just fought a dumb fight. Ortiz was a great style fight for Griffin because Ortiz has never shown power in his hands, his striking isn't even close to the level of Silva, he was coming off a long layoff, and Griffin's sprawl/guard was good enough to deal with Tito's wrestling/ground and pound. Griffin now moves himself back into title contention even though he's still a fight or two away from getting the shot. Also, major credit to Forrest Griffin for coming out to the most appropriate walk in music in UFC history.

I don't know where Tito Ortiz goes from here. He's 0-3-1 in his last four fights and he looked horrible in the final round of the fight. I honestly don't care if I ever see another Tito Ortiz fight ever again. He's claimed to be 100% healthy for every fight since his second contest with Chuck Liddell, he hasn't won any fight in that time, and it always comes out after the fight that he wasn't 100% healthy. If Ortiz didn't make such a big deal out of his health, it wouldn't be a big deal when he claims that he wasn't healthy. No one is 100% healthy heading into a fight but nobody makes a bigger deal out of their health than Tito Ortiz. Maybe if he would just admit that he gassed in the third round and Forrest out-worked him, people wouldn't boo. Don't make excuses and bring up injuries moments after you lose. Let it come out days later through the media. People will respect you a lot more.

I also question if Ortiz' cardio is as good as advertised. Much like his health, the announcers bring up how great the cardio of Ortiz is and yet once again he gassed out in a fight. He gassed out in this fight, he gassed in the first Griffin fight, he gassed in the Evans fight, Couture had better cardio than him, and he got dropped with a body shot late in Machida fight, which can be related to poor cardio. Oh. I forgot. Ortiz wasn't 100% healthy in those fights and couldn't do much cardio training.

Unfortunately it appears that Ortiz and Griffin will be the coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 11 and have the rubber match in July of next year. I'll admit that Ortiz and Griffin should make for entertaining TV but I do not care one bit about a third fight between the two. I don't think Griffin gains anything from it should he win and it's just not a fresh fight. It'll be the exact same as the first two except Ortiz will have a different excuse lined up after the fight for why his performance wasn't as good as it could have been.

And can someone please ban Mike Goldberg from using the word "classy." Yeah Mike, it was a classy move for Tito to dedicate the fight to Frank Fertitta. Too bad he did so after trying to take away from Forrest's win by bringing up injuries and then yelling at the fans for booing him. That's one classy individual. I'm so glad his classiness has returned to the UFC.



Someone who isn't classy and has no problem admitting so is Josh Koscheck. He has some class though and that class would be called "acting" class. Get it? That's comedy people.

Koscheck returned to his wrestling roots in this fight showing that he can takedown a bigger guy with a wrestling background and dominate him on the ground. Koscheck was even able to handle his own on the feet, tagging Johnson a couple of times. Of course the big story out of this fight was Johnson's phantom knee to the head/eye of Koscheck. Johnson hit Koscheck with an illegal knee as Koscheck was on the ground but Johnson's knee connected with the arm of Koscheck and not the head. After he finished the knee Johnson did catch Koscheck with a finger to the eye but it was the right of Koscheck, not the left eye that Koscheck was wincing out of the whole time. The strike caused a long break in the action and it appeared that the fight would be stopped as the doctor who checked on Koscheck even told the ref, "he has blurry vision and I won't let him continue." In the end, the doctor did let Koscheck continue and magically Koscheck's eye went from nearly swollen shut to looking just fine as the second round started. Koscheck, being a Cheick Kongo disciple, knows that if you get poked in the eye that common courtesy is to poke your opponent in the eye and return the favor.

The end came when Koscheck was able to get the fight to the ground, secure the back of Johnson, and finish him out with a rear naked choke. It was a very good performance by Koscheck and hopefully silenced any critics who thought Koscheck was neglecting his wrestling for his striking.

After the fight Koscheck called out Dan Hardy to try and set up a #1 contenders fight between himself and Hardy. I don't blame Koscheck for trying this. Koscheck's wins over Frank Trigg and Johnson were far more impressive than Hardy's victories over Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. The only problem with UFC doing Koscheck vs. Hardy as #1 contenders fight is the fact that they've already promised and promoted Hardy vs. St. Pierre for the Welterweight title. It sets a bad precedent if they promise a guy a title shot and then take it away from it. Not that they haven't done it before. Still if you had a choice would you rather see St. Pierre vs. Hardy or the winner of Hardy/Koscheck vs. St. Pierre? The choice seems obvious to me



Paulo Thiago beat Jakob Volkmann. This fight was scheduled as a preliminary fight and I'm sure most of the viewing audience wished it stayed a preliminary fight. It wasn't a boring fight but it came at a bad time. The live crowd had just seen a fun stand up battle between Baroni and Sadollah followed by a quick KO by Nogueira and they were ready for the two big fights of the evening. Thiago turned in a good performance but nothing that set the world on fire. I'm just happy for him that he finally got a rather easy opponent instead of another top five Welterweight.

Rogerio Nogueira made a successful UFC debut with an impressive performance against Luiz Cane. Nogueira just tagged Cane at will with the left hand before finally dropping him with the left and finishing him. Cane is no joke in the Light Heavyweight division and Nogueira made short work of him. The scary thing about Nogueira is that he has the striking to hang with anyone in the division and his jiu-jitsu is the best in the division. I don't know who Nogueira will fight next but I sure as hell wouldn't want to fight this man.

Phil Baroni made an unsuccessful UFC return although I give him a lot of credit for knowing how to take a beating. Amir Sadollah put on a striking clinic against Baroni connecting with punches, kicks, knees, and anything else he decided to throw. Baroni fought how you would expect him to fight. He came out swinging, rocked Amir early, and then gassed out. Once he gassed out, Amir just picked him apart en route to a decision victory. If you're a fan of Amir then it might have been disheartening to see Amir not be able to finish Baroni but just remember that Amir is Forrest Griffin-lite.



Quick Thoughts on the Preliminary Fights:

*I might have been the happiest person in the world to see Ben Saunders KO Marcus Davis. The only bad thing about Saunders this past Saturday was that he said he wanted to be like Davis in 10 years. So I guess he hopes to be a mid-level fighter. Aim high Ben, aim high.

*Good performance by Kendall Grove although he's still going nowhere in the division.

*What happened to Brock Larson? A lot of people considered him a top Welterweight and he's been very unimpressive in his UFC run. Good job by Brian Foster.

*Someone please get George Sotiropoulos a good opponent. I need to know just how good he really is.

*Well Caol Uno's UFC return certainly hasn't lit the world on fire. Hopefully he's given one more chance to stick around.



Full Results:

*Forrest Griffin defeated Tito Ortiz by Split Decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
*Josh Koscheck defeated Anthony Johnson by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:47 in Round Two
*Paulo Thiago defeated Jakob Volkmann by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
*Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeated Luiz Cane by KO at 1:58 in Round One
*Amir Sadollah defeated Phil Baroni by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

*Ben Saunders defeated Marcus Davis by KO at 3:24 in Round One
*Kendall Grove defeated Jake Rosholt by Submission (Triangle Choke) at 3:59 in Round One
*Brian Foster defeated Brock Larson by TKO at 3:25 in Round Two
*Caol Uno fought Fabricio Camoes to a Majority Draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
*George Sotiropoulos defeated Jason Dent by Submission (Armbar) at 4:36 in Round Two

Major UFC/WEC News



On November 17, Sherdog.com reported that Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman will co-headline UFC 109 on February 2nd.

You want to know what I'm most excited for in this fight? During the introductions Bruce Buffer will introduce both fighters as a, "LEGENDARY. U-F-C. HALL OF FAME. OCTAGON. WARRIOR." I get excited every time Buffer yells out that line when introducing Randy Couture and now I'll get to hear it twice within a matter of minutes. It's the little things that keep me happy in fighting.

Onto the bigger picture. This is smart booking by Joe Silva. Randy Couture seemingly wants to fight every 3-4 months because he knows he doesn't have many fights left given his age (or he's trying to blow through his contract so he can leave and fight Fedor in a fight that will be presented by M-1 Global) and UFC wants to give Couture one last title shot as soon as possible. Unfortunately with Machida vs. Shogun 2 not happening until March and Couture looking rather unimpressive in his win over Brandon Vera, UFC had no choice but to give Couture at least one more fight (and win) before giving him a legit title shot. So of course the solution is to give Couture a winnable fight over a guy who is coming off a win over a tough opponent, a guy who took current #1 contender Mauricio Rua to the limit (lets not let logistics get in the way of my sell job), and a Hall of Famer. It makes perfect sense.

This is a fight that Randy Couture should win. He'll be in better shape, he has better striking, and I'd even give Couture a slight advantage in the wrestling department because his Greco-Roman wrestling is going to give Coleman more fits than Coleman's amateur wrestling will give Couture. The only way I can see Couture losing this fight is if he officially doesn't have it anymore, which means he should retire. Maybe I'm underestimating Coleman's wrestling against Couture's takedown defense but Couture was able to get to his feet with Brock Lesnar on top of him so I don't think he'll have a problem getting up with Mark Coleman on top of him if he does indeed end up on his back.



On November 19, Dana White tweeted that Karo Parisyan had pulled out of his UFC 106 fight with Dustin Hazelett and that he had been released from the company. It was later reported that Karo pulled out because he was afraid of failing a drug test for pain pills.

This is just proof that God does answer prayers. I'm sorry that Karo has a pain pill addiction and I hope he fixes that but it's his own doing. I'd feel a lot more sorry if he wasn't such a prick and didn't have this coming. He knew he had a problem but instead of going to Dana White and admitting his problem, he took a fight, forced Dustin Hazelett to train for the fight, and then backed out two days before. Not only that but he then lied about why he pulled out of the fight. I can only have so much sympathy for him in this situation. I hope he beats his addiction but I honestly don't care if I ever see him fight again.

Let me put this out there right now so I can look smart when it gets announced in the coming days: Dustin Hazelett will fight Jon Fitch at UFC 107.



WEC 44 took place last Wednesday, November 18. Here are the results:

*Jose Aldo defeated Mike Brown by TKO at 1:20 in Round Two to become the new WEC Featherweight Champion
*Manny Gamburyan defeated Leonard Garcia by Unanimous Decision
*Karen Daradedyan defeated Rob McCullough by Split Decision
*Shane Roller defeated Danny Castillo by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:32 in Round Three
*Kamal Shalorus defeated Will Kerr by TKO at 1:26 in Round One

Breaking News: Jose Aldo is a bad man.

We knew he has speed and explosive power but he was able to bully around Mike Brown like no one expected. The scariest part is that as good as his striking is, his bread and butter is his jiu-jitsu. There's only one fighter in the division who can match him in terms of speed but even if Urijah Faber nullifies the speed, Aldo will still be the stronger fighter and we saw how Brown used his strength against Faber. On paper I don't see anyone beating Jose Aldo for a long time. He is not only the best Featherweight in the world but pound for pound he's one of the best fighters in the world. Maybe he hasn't beaten the competition of someone like St. Pierre or Silva but when you just look at their skills, strengths, and weaknesses; it's tough to find anyone who can match up with Aldo.

Is it too early to give up on Leonard Garcia? I know he hits hard but he clearly isn't a top Featherweight and I think his win over Jens Pulver had more to do with Pulver being finished than Garcia being any good. It was a good win for Manny Gamburyan and he put himself one win away from a title shot. He's not beating Jose Aldo though.

Karen Darabedyan turned in an impressive performance against an always game Rob McCullough. He has good hands with power in them and he didn't even get to show off his judo and ground skills. Darabedyan looks like he can be a contender at 155 in the WEC as long as he doesn't follow in the footsteps of Karo Parisyan, get lazy, and let his talent go to waste.

Shane Roller looked good in defeating Danny Castillo. He dominated the second round and almost finished him a couple of times but credit Castillo for surviving. Castillo had Roller's back in the third round and then just decided to stand without much fight from Roller. That proved to be costly as immediately after Roller ducked under, got the back of Castillo, took him down, and finished him with a choke. Roller's only WEC loss is to Benson Henderson and I'm sure he wants a chance to avenge that loss in the near future. Knowing WEC booking, they'll probably pair up Roller vs. Darabedyan down the line.

Kamal Shalorus made short work of Will Kerr and that was that. He hits hard but I don't know if he's any good. You can say he has sloppy striking because of his wide punches but once he rocked Kerr early he was throwing nothing but power punches and looking for the KO so who knows how good his striking is.

It was WEC. It was a good show.

No More News

That does it for me folks. I'll be back next week with something new. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Take care.

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