MMA's 3R’s 11.26.09: UFC 106

Posted by Larry Csonka on 11.26.2009

From the eye poking controversy in the Koscheck vs. Johnson fight to Griffin vs. Ortiz not delivering to people offering wrongly placed praise and the prelims on Spike TV delivering again, 411’s Larry Csonka breaks it all down in the latest edition of the 3R’s of MMA!



* The Column Concept *
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the column, here it is. The column will look at events and or happenings in the world of MMA. They will be broken down into the three categories, the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right will be the good and great fights or positive news items of the week. Perhaps even big fight announcements. The wRong will be bad fights, bad booking decisions and the like. Finally, the Ridiculous are the things that were just the worst of the world of MMA. They get grouped in their categories, and for a show, they will get a score from 1-10, based on the 411 ratings scale.


* And now, the 3R's of…



UFC 106*


RESULTS
OFFICIAL RESULTS
* Forrest Griffin def. Tito Ortiz via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
* Josh Koscheck def. Anthony Johnson via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 2, 4:27
* Paulo Thiago def. Jacob Volkmann via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
* Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Luiz Cane via TKO (punches) - Round 1, 1:56
* Amir Sadollah def. Phil Baroni via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
* Ben Saunders def. Marcus Davis via knockout (knees) - Round 1, 3:24
* Kendall Grove def. Jake Rosholt via submission (triangle choke) - Round 1, 3:59
* Brian Foster def. Brock Larson via TKO (strikes) - Round 2, 3:25
* Caol Uno vs. Fabricio Camoes declared majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
* George Sotiropoulos def. Jason Dent via submission (armbar) - Round 2, 4:36

THE RIGHT:

Zuffa Makes Good: Just a quick one here. With Karo Parisyan pulling out of UFC 106, many thought that Dustin Hazlett was totally screwed. While he did lose out on sponsorship money, the UFC stepped up and paid Hazlett his show money AND his win bonus. They did the right thing, and made the best out of what was a bad situation for Hazlett.

THE SPIKE TV PRELIMS SHOW: As usual I will group the Spike TV prelims into one group, which has become the norm for the column.

Rosholt vs. Grove: First up was Rosholt vs. Grove. Many people picked Rosholt, due to the fact that he has looked good and that Grove, for lack of a better term, hasn't live dup to his potential yet. Rosholt looked really good here as he was controlling the fight, and looked to take it as he locked in the wrestler's favorite submission, the head and arm triangle. Unfortunately for him, Grove used his ground skills and long ass legs to escape and lock in a triangle for the victory. Grove survived the storm and took home the win in a very entertaining fight.

George vs. Dent: Next up was George vs. Dent, and this was a great ground battle. Some have questioned the scoring of round one, but 411's Jeremy Lambert was not the only one to score it 10-8 for George. Anyway, this dude is awesome on the ground, and while Dent fought to the best of his ability, it was only a matter of time before he was submitted. This was another fun fight as the night was off to a good start.

Saunders vs. Davis: After all of the ground work, we finally got a fight were guys were trying to beat the hell out of each other in Saunders vs. Davis. They beat on each other, worked the cage, but it was the knee of Saunders that would finish off Davis with the KO. Saunders seems to be improving at a good pace, and this is a big win for him.

Larson vs. Foster: The only real knock on the show was the Larson vs. Foster bout. The fight will be remembered for the continued decline of Larson (sorry dude) and the fact that Larson was penalized two points in the first round. To me that really took away from the fight, even though Foster put in a great performance.

Amir Sadollah defeated Phil Baroni by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27. 29-28): The opening bout for the PPV was Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah vs. the returning Phil Baroni. With Amir being finished early in his last fight, Baroni did have a chance here as he always comes out fast. Unfortunately, if he doesn't win early, he gasses and then has to gut it out to survive. Amir took him to school with superior striking as Baroni just had no gas once round two began. Baroni deserves credit for surviving, but also deserves criticism due to his continued lack of cardio. Amir got the big bounce back win and looked great, although he couldn't finish Baroni. It was a fun way to kick off the PPV portion of the show.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeated Luiz Cane by KO at 1:56 in Round One: For the longest time I have been wanting Rogerio Nogueira, LIL NOG, to get into the UFC and I finally got my wish. He was given a difficult opponent in Luiz Cane, and well, he took him to SCHOOL. LIL NOG controlled the fight with the left hand and basically destroyed Cane. The scary part? We didn't even see his awesome ground game. If you aren't familiar with LIL NOG, get studying.

PuRgatoRy:

Paulo Thiago defeated Jakob Volkmann by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27): I agree with Jeremy on this fight, it was scheduled as an unaired prelim and I think most wished it stayed there. Don't get me wrong this wasn't a bad fight, and over all Thiago looked good in his victory, but it was hard to get into. I love good groundwork, but to me, the bout didn't feature that quick or slick work that gets you excited. And considering that we just saw Baroni nutting up and surviving a brutal fight with Amir and then the awesomeness of LIL NOG, the fight just did nothing for me. I won't give it a wrong because as mentioned it was not bad, but I never got into it.

THE wRong:

UFC 106 COUNTDOWN SHOW: Once the cancellation of the Lesnar/Carwin fight happened, I had a bad feeling that the countdown show would take a hit. The show ended up being a 30-minute show, and it was basically the Tito show. Usually that is not a bad thing, but to me this wasn't the wacky, self-promoting Tito. It was the excuse making Tito. My back was hurt, if I was 100% I would rule, blah, blah, blah. Adding into this there was nearly nothing on Forrest. The reason being is that they filmed stuff, but it was labeled "unusable". With the loss of the Brock/Carwin stuff and that being the case, I really feel that they should have played the rematch deal up more and showed the entire Tito vs. Forrest I fight, and then had clips of them and others discussing it. Unfortunately what they did air did nothing to make me want to purchase the PPV.

WRONGLY PLACED PRAISE: I think most know that I hate when people miss weight, because it is part of your job as a fighter. So when people start throwing praise on someone for MAKING weight, I find it a bit sad. Anthony Johnson came in at weight for his fight with Josh Koscheck, and when the weigh-in results were posted, people were quick to praise Johnson for making weight. That's right, he got praise for doing his job. I wish people would sing my praises for waking up and turning on computer in the morning.

Josh Koscheck defeated Anthony Johnson by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:47 in Round Two: I was really looking forward to the Koscheck vs. Johnson bout. Koscheck is a great heel for lack of a better word and tends to put on exciting fights, and Johnson has been very exciting as well. But in the end I came away disappointed. They started out having this really good fight, one I was digging, and then Johnson throws the illegal knee. While he didn't connect with the head, he did connect with the arm and fact is, it was still illegal as Koscheck was grounded. Koscheck goes into pro wrestling mode, selling the left eye like he had a stick driven into it, and eventually the doctor came in, but the fight would continue. But then we went to round two, and in that round, Koscheck poked Johnson in the eye TWO times. Once is an accident, but two times, well, I think that's intentional. Koscheck eventually took it to the ground and locked in the slowest choke ever, and that was that. The after fight challenge stuff I loved actually, because that's Koscheck, but the first round "injury" and eye pokes just took me completely out of the fight, even if it was a good win overall for Koscheck.

Forrest Griffin defeated Tito Ortiz by Split Decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28): And then we came to the main event of the evening, and I have to admit, I fell for the Tito hype. I believed that he was healthy and was ready to come back and fight. Well, he wasn't, but we'll get to that later. In my opinion the fight was a let down. Tito was Tito, and didn't look any different than he did in the past. The first round was rather close, but I felt Forrest won the round. Round two we can give to Tito. Two takedowns and cutting Forrest was enough for me to give it to him. But come round three, he was gassed beyond all belief and did two things, Jack and Shit. Forrest peppered him with shots for the entire round, and delivered as close as you can come to a 10-8 round without a knock down. So I wasn't exactly thrilled with the fight, it wasn't bad, but I personally didn't get into it. And then the shit hit the fan. Tito went on a tirade about having bulging discs in his neck/back, a fractured skull and a nasty case of Sandy Vaginitis. This killed it for me. I am not saying he is lying, but I hate when guys do this, and it really kills a fight for me.

THE Ridiculous:

Dana White: "Take that bitch!"

* The 411 *

While some have stated that they felt that the UFC 106 PPV was a great event, I just didn't feel that way. The poor countdown show, the lack of delivery of Ortiz vs. Griffin II, the crying after the bout and then the Koscheck vs. Johnson deal, I came away not enjoying the show all that much. I won't call it a bad event, but personally, it was one I didn't enjoy all that much.

OVERALL RATING: 6.0

* TWITTER *

* CSONKA TWITTER! *
* http://www.twitter.com/411mma *
* http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling *
* http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv *
* http://www.twitter.com/411music *
* http://www.twitter.com/411games *


KYRA says goodbye…