Early buy rate numbers are coming in for UFC 106, and they aren’t good. More shocking than the some of the UFC’s recent judging is the disappointing buy rate for UFC 106. Fingers are being pointed, blame is being shifted, and heads are spinning as skeptics are wondering whether these early numbers suggest the first chapter in the decline of the UFC.

It is amazing as to how quickly things can change in the sports and entertainment business. Just five months ago, UFC 100 set records with over 1.5 million buys and was the darling of the media. The UFC president, Dana White’s arrogance was at an all time high and he immediately started making claims about surpassing the NFL in terms of popularity in a few years. Five months later and UFC 106 is estimated to have sold a mere 300,000 pay-per-views. At this rate, Dana White would be lucky to keep pace with the UFL in a few years.

The numbers are truly shocking. For one, it was just a month ago that the UFC generated over 500,000 buys with UFC 104. The show featured a title match between Shogun Rua and Lyoto Machida that looked very unappealing on paper. Neither man had the star power that Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin carry to the mass MMA audience. Yet a fight with these two UFC superstars featuring a rematch of a classic fight did almost half as many guys as two non-American fighters in a one-sided match on paper? It just doesn’t make sense…or does it?

I have a few theories as to the huge decrease in numbers, and they are huge. The number one theory is something I wrote about right before the UFC 106 and it centers on the ridiculous decisions that have come down in recent main-events since UFC 104. Over 500,000 people paid $50 to watch a guy get robbed of a title and a win. Even worse, over 1 million people watched arguably the wrong guy win a fight on the judge’s scoring card again at UFC 105. Take recent fights on The Ultimate Fighter into equation, and you have a scenario where you are expecting people to pay $50 to watch fights that are coming down to bad decisions. More than exciting fights or star power, I firmly believe that credibility counts more than anything else when promoting your sport. The UFC has lost a ton of credibility recently and that is exactly why casual fans are passing on the UFC.

Another popular argument these days amongst fans and journalists is overexposure. Can too much of a good thing hurt in the long run? I definitely believe that the UFC is suffering a case of overexposure right now. Big shows are coming as little as a week apart, as UFC 105 aired on free TV the week before UFC 106. Add in the UFC Unleashed shows and The Ultimate Fighter, and there is just too much UFC going on these days to follow. The short timeline between shows is fine, when you are following great fights. The risk you take is that you run into a couple of bad decisions in a row and fans are going to be just as quick to turn it off as they were to jump on UFC 100.

Yet another argument has been the diminished star power of Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. A lot of people are pointing the finger at Griffin, feeling his poor showing against Anderson Silva turned fans off to Forrest. I don’t believe that at all. Here is a guy that is on the cover of one of the most successful video games of the year. Tito Ortiz has turned into a mainstream celebrity between his appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice and his public romance with Jenna Jameson. In terms of star-power, these two guys should have easily sold 500,000 buys. Plus, this was a rematch that fans have wanted to see for years. I don’t buy the star-power argument, although it has to be humiliating for someone like Tito Ortiz who prides himself on being one of the biggest stars in MMA.

Dana White has also started a war with boxing that he is beginning to lose. White has been running his mouth since the UFC blew up a couple of years ago. White has constantly ranted about how bad boxing is, and how the UFC has taken over boxing’s place in combat sports. That may have been true in the short-term but times are changing, and boxing is fighting back.

White has purposely run UFC shows head-to-head with the two biggest boxing events of the year in recent months. To say that boxing slaughtered the UFC would be an understatement. White should be humbled and embarrassed after all of his ranting about how much better the UFC is than boxing. UFC 103 generated an estimated 400,000 buys going head-to-head with Mayweather-Marquez which sold over 1 million. UFC 106 also had a head-to-head, going head-to-head with Pacquiao-Cotto. While UFC 106 did a mere 300,000 buys, Cotto-Pacquiao sold 1.25 million buys. Ouch!

It gets worse for Dana White and the UFC. It is looking very likely that the much anticipated Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather match is finally going to happen. Chances are that the agreement between these two almost assuredly includes a rematch, and a third match if necessary. The first match is expected to shatter records and could sell over 2 million pay-per-views. Numbers like that will make Dana White look like a moron anytime he criticizes boxing in the future. Additionally, there are a lot of older sports journalists that hate the UFC and are openly rooting for boxing in this war. Once this super fight happens, it will dwarf anything that Dana White or the UFC promotes for a long time.

There is really only one answer that the UFC has to answer Pacquiao-Mayweather and that is Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar. As of today, this is the biggest fight that can be made in MMA. While Fedor has never been a great draw on pay-per-view, Brock Lesnar has and this is a match that even the most casual MMA fans talk about. The big problem here for Dana White is that he has blasted boxing for years for not giving fans the match that they want to see (Pacquiao-Mayweather), and now it is he that can’t deliver the big match to his fans.  Pacquiao-Mayweather has to put a ton of pressure on Dana White to get Fedor vs. Brock done no matter what he says. He had the chance to get it done and he didn’t. Fans don’t want to hear his excuses about the Russian mafia or promotional deals. Fans are tired of excuses and just want to see the freaking fight. The fact that Bob Arum and Golden Boy can co-promote, completely dismisses just about all of Dana White’s excuses.

The bottom line here is that the UFC is facing a steep uphill climb in 2010. Even worse, a lot of this all comes back to Dana White writing checks with his mouth that he can’t cash. Sure, the UFC has been bit by injuries but they will get all of their top stars back at some point next year. Beyond the injuries, the UFC desperately needs to fix their judging methods and that needs to happen immediately.

More than anything, Dana White needs to keep his mouth shut and start delivering matches the fans want to see. Boxing is making a comeback and with no UFC super matches on the horizon, the UFC is in danger of being the “Fad of the Decade.” Fix the judging, spread out the shows, and deliver the fights that fans want to see, and the UFC will be just fine by the end of 2010.

Commissioner Goodell, I think you can sleep easy.

Thanks to Heavy.com for the UFC 106 numbers.

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Once again, former UFC light heavyweight champions Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz have gone to a split decision. After six-rounds and two fights, no fighter has yet to decisively finish the other. The UFC 106 main-event lived up to its hype and then some. This time it was Forrest Griffin that won a tight, yet controversial split decision in their rematch.

The fight lived up to all of my expectations coming out of the first match. It was almost as if Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz remained in the ring and the bell rang for Round 4 when it started. Ortiz entered the fight with a black eye from training, while Griffin looked to be fully recovered from the Anderson Silva loss. I would have no problem whatsoever with seeing Griffin-Ortiz III after seeing this fight.

The first round played out a lot like their first match in Anaheim. Forrest seemed to be hitting early on with some beautiful leg kicks. At the same time, you just had a feeling that Ortiz would time them and shoot the takedown. Like clockwork, Ortiz timed his takedown perfectly and resumed where things left off in Anaheim. Ortiz controlled Griffin on the ground and laid in the ground and pound on Forrest. Like their first right, Griffin survived the ground attack of Ortiz. Griffin peppered Ortiz a bit with leg kicks and jabs, but in my opinion Tito dominated most of the round.

Round 2 started off a little bit of the same. Unlike Round 1 and their previous fight, Forrest had much better defense against the takedowns and on the ground. Forrest used a butterfly guard to prevent Ortiz from fully mounting him and unleashing more ground and pound. Griffin seemed to grow more confident and started to dominate the striking game between the two fighters. The high drama came when Ortiz opened up Griffin badly with an elbow on the ground. Griffin remained composed and wound up sweeping Ortiz and reversing positions on the ground. The round ended with a bloody Griffin on top of Tito and some pushing and shoving.

The final round was a little bizarre to me. Ortiz came out fired up to start the round but was completely exhausted. Ortiz wound up becoming a punching bag for five minutes. Ortiz barely moved and had no reflexes to counter Griffin’s jabs and kicks. Griffin nailed a high kick at one point that rocked Ortiz. Ortiz seemed to be saving his energy for a takedown. He tried two towards the end of the round and Griffin blocked them both. It was very odd to see Ortiz go from dominating the first round, pounding Griffin in the second round, to doing absolutely nothing in the third round. The entire round saw Griffin just constantly strike at an immobile Tito Ortiz.

Both fighters acknowledged injuries following the fight. Forrest claimed to have a broken foot, while Ortiz claimed to have a neck injury which prevented him from sparring. I hate excuses but I tend to believe Ortiz. It was obvious he was gassed in Round 3. Say what you will about Tito, but his cardio conditioning is legendary. I had a feeling well before he said it that there was something physically wrong with him because I have never seen Tito that tired in a fight. Although, how did he get a black eye in training if he couldn’t spar for two weeks? The crowd did boo because quite honestly, it seems that Tito has an injury excuse every time he loses a fight.

The match once again came down to a split decision. Forrest Griffin got the win and already asked for a third match with Tito Ortiz on the post-match interview. I don’t think anyone was robbed here, but I can’t comprehend Forrest winning Round 2. Ortiz opened up a huge cut with elbows, took him down, grounded and pounded him, and yet somehow Griffin got the round. Once again a UFC main-event ends in controversy and a questionable judgment. To be fair, I don’t think it was impossible to fathom Griffin winning the round. However, all I saw was Forrest dominate one round of a three-round fight.

Tito Ortiz tied Chuck Liddell with a record 21 appearances in a UFC octagon. Physically, Ortiz looked great other than the black eye. I was also impressed with his efforts considering his age, his long layoff, and recovering from back surgery. Tito lost, but he definitely kept himself relevant on the top of the UFC cards. I think the UFC stumbled onto a gem here with a third Ortiz-Griffin match. I honestly can’t see how and why you would avoid it. Forrest Griffin won the fight at UFC 106, but I think everyone will win in the end with Ortiz-Griffin III.

Full UFC 106 results:
Forrest Griffin defeated Tito Ortiz via split decision
Josh Koscheck defeated Anthony Johnson via submissiono
Paulo Thiago defeated Jacob Volkmann via unanimous decision
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeated Luiz Cane via TKO
Amir Sadollah defeated Phil Baroni via unanimous decision
Ben Saunders defeated Marcus Davis via KO
Kendall Grove defeated Jake Rosholt via submission
Brian Foster defeated Brock Larson via TKO
Caol Uno fights Fabricio Camoes to a majority draw
George Sotiropoulos defeated Jason Dent via submission

Place your UFC and MMA bets on BetUs.com by clicking here.

New Items Marked Down! Shop the UFC Sale at the UFC Store.

Order Forrest Griffin’s book Got Fight?: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat by clicking here.

Tito Ortiz’s autobiography This Is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion by clicking here.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns this weekend with UFC 106. The UFC 106 presented this weekend will be much different than the original UFC 106 plans. While MMA fans lost one big match, another match change turned out to be better than the original. Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin meet in a long awaited rematch to highlight UFC 106.

This is a rematch that I have always wanted to see. I am actually surprised it took this long to make it happen. Ortiz announced his UFC return over the summer and indicated that he wanted to wait until he was 100% healthy to return to action. He signed to face Mark Coleman in his first match back at UFC 106. Frankly, this was nothing I was excited about and it just seemed like a set up for an easy Ortiz win. Coleman got hurt, Ortiz needed a new opponent, and there will be nothing easy about his new opponent.

The last time MMA fans saw Forrest Griffin, he was awkwardly running out of the cage after being embarrassed by Anderson Silva. He gave a new meaning to the phrase, “Run Forrest, run!” Griffin’s behavior after the match immediately cost him a lot of popularity amongst UFC fans. Griffin went into hiding and the usual media-loving jokester was nowhere to be found. The day Dana White announced the new match was the first anyone had even heard of Forrest since the Silva fight.

Griffin and Ortiz’s first match at UFC 59 has been a forgotten classic. You couldn’t have scripted a better match for a Hollywood movie. Griffin was the underdog, a fan favorite who had just won a reality show. He was truly in a position of being the Rocky of the UFC. Fans loved his courage and his brawling style, but nobody really took him seriously as a threat. Like Coleman, most speculated this match was a tune up to re-introduce Ortiz back to the UFC. To put this into perspective, Ortiz was paid $200,000 for the fight while Griffin was paid $16,000.

The fight turned into a real life Rocky vs. Apollo Creed. Ortiz talked a lot of trash before the match which turned Forrest into a bigger fan favorite. Ortiz started round one with a flurry and overwhelmed Griffin with his attack. At one point he bloodied Forrest and it looked like the fight would be over. Like Rocky, Forrest fought back and as the fight progressed, Forrest got stronger and more confident. By the third round, Griffin was the man in control blocking Tito’s takedowns and strikes. When the bell ended Griffin said he was ready to go two more rounds while Ortiz looked done. The crowd was frenzied as they expected to see the biggest upset at the time in MMA history. Unfortunately, fans and quite arguably Griffin were robbed of that upset. Ortiz won the fight on a very controversial split decision.

Oh how so much has changed since that fight in 2006. Griffin has gone on to win and lose the UFC light heavyweight championship. On top of that, Griffin has become one of the biggest superstars in the UFC. Ortiz tumbled backwards winning two easy matches against Ken Shamrock, yet hasn’t won a fight since. Ortiz wound up out of the UFC, in a public fight against Dana White, and was practically wiped out of the UFC’s history in the Top 100 show. Things changed for the Huntingdon Beach Bad Boy when he and Dana White patched things up, came to terms, and announced his return to the UFC this summer.

This will be anything but an easy fight for Tito Ortiz. I am really surprised that the UFC would risk such a huge investment in Ortiz with this fight, yet I love it as an MMA fan. I love the hype surrounding a Tito Ortiz fight but that is where it ends for Ortiz. I hate to say it, but I really think Tito’s best days as a fighter are long behind him. He hasn’t put anyone away decisively other than Ken Shamrock in a long time. I give him credit and I do think he gave Lyoto Machida a hell of a fight. Yet he hasn’t decisively beaten a big name in eight years since  he beat Evan Tanner at UFC 30. Ortiz has done a better job of creating the myth that he is a great fighter than he has done of actually being a great fighter.

I don’t know what to make of Forrest Griffin. It is really hard to take anything away from the Anderson Silva fight. I can’t say a guy is a fraud who got handled by arguably the greatest fighter to ever step into the UFC. Griffin is coming off of back-to-back losses for the first time in his MMA career. It is quite amazing since he came off consecutive wins over future Hall of Fame fighters, Rampage Jackson and Shogun Rua before his loss to Rashad Evans. I think Forrest Griffin is a very dangerous man right now. You could see the change, the anger, and the frustration in his face during the countdown special. He is probably the last guy I’d want to fight right now if I were Tito Ortiz.

As for the fight itself, I think it really comes down to how healthy Tito Ortiz is. Tito claims he is the healthiest he has been in years. That is fine in training, but it will be real interesting to see how his back holds up during a real fight. The key for Forrest is to keep his distance. If Forrest can avoid takedowns and frustrate Ortiz with leg kicks and jabs, he could set himself up nicely for an opening in the later rounds. At the same time if Ortiz could time Griffin’s strikes and shoot the takedown, he could just as easily frustrate Griffin. Griffin does not want to go 0-3 and he could make a costly mistake if he feels he is getting into trouble and deviates from his game plan.

In the end, I am more excited about this fight than anything in the last several months. These are two guys that don’t have boring fights. I’d expect more of a slugfest early than a slow, grinder on the ground. I think in the end, Forrest takes the fight via TKO or knock out. I just think Tito is too old and too rusty to hang with someone as good Forrest right now. I also think that Forrest is going into this much hungrier and meaner than he has ever been in the UFC. I look for three rounds here, with Forrest getting the win and making a lot more than $16,000 for the fight.

BetUs.com has Forrest Griffin as a -145 favorite while Bodog.com has the fight a little more even with Forrest as a -110 favorite.

Forrest Griffin UFC 59 post-fight interview on the split decision with Tito Ortiz

The entire scheduled UFC 106 fight card is…
Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann
Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni
Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis
Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
Brock Larson vs. Brian Foster
Caol Uno vs. Fabricio Camoes
George Sotiropoulos vs. Jason Dent

Thanks to MMAFanhouse.com for the tip!

Place your UFC and MMA bets on BetUs.com by clicking here.

New Items Marked Down! Shop the UFC Sale at the UFC Store.

Order Forrest Griffin’s book Got Fight?: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat by clicking here.

Tito Ortiz’s autobiography This Is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion by clicking here.

Welcome to my weekly article for the Camel-Clutch Blog. This is The Full Mount; your one-stop-shop for big mixed-martial arts news, rumors, upcoming cards, results and predictions. MMA is a passion of mine and is something that I follow 24/7. Enjoy third edition “The Full Mount.”
Anyone stay awake during UFZzZzZz 105?

UFC 105 will make just as many headlines as the second consecutive card with a questionable decision in its main event as it will for being one of the worst cards that the UFC has ever put on. UFC is very lucky it was free for the simple reason that, had I paid for it, I would have felt relegated to watch it. Since it was free, I didn’t feel bad making multiple switches to Notre Dame get smacked around again or the Manny Pacquaio/Miguel Cotto undercard.

Not only did this card lack names, but it lacked substance. Every fight on the card went into the second round or further. I don’t have an issue with that. I enjoy a competitive match. I don’t, however, enjoy two grown men hugging against the cage for 15 minutes. In fact, this card was so bad that I don’t even feel like wasting the energy typing about how boring it was when I could be talking about other big MMA news from this week. Keep an eye out later in the week for my article here on the Camel Clutch Blog on why “The Natural” deserves all of the accolades that he has received during his bland MMA career. So, next topic…

Lesnar Shelved Indefinitely

First it was swine flu. Than it was mononucleosis. Now, whatever it is that is bugging Brock Lesnar is either unknown or just simply hasn’t come to the surface yet. Dana White made it known during the UFC 105 press conference that Lesnar has something serious and it will prevent him from fighting in the foreseeable future. White did not elaborate other than to say that Lesnar was currently hospitalized in North Dakota.

Here’s what we do know. After finding out that the newly rescheduled UFC 108 bout with Shane Carwin was cancelled due to Lesnar’s on-going illness, Lesnar took a trip to his home in Canada to rehab. While there, Brock collapsed. “He [expletive] dropped,” White explained about the situation. “He went down, and he had to go to the hospital. They ran every test on the planet on him, and they ended up finding out something else was wrong with him.”

“He doesn’t want to talk about it publically, but he’s in bad shape. He’s not well and he’s not going to be getting well anytime soon,” White stated of Lesnar at the press conference. “He has other problems too. He is not good. He is very, very sick and he’s going to be out for a while. I am worried about it. You know, I can’t really talk about it right now, but he’s in rough shape. He’s in really bad shape … and we’re going to have to do some stuff to take care of this guy. He is not well and he’s not getting any better.”

You can tell just by that quote that White is genuinely worried about Brock’s health. Dana knows what is wrong with Brock and clearly knows that it’s serious. Brock’s camp released a statement this morning downplaying the incident by saying that Brock’s issues are simply complications of his current illness and that they are not life or career threatening. Whatever the case, we wish Brock the best and hope for a speedy recovery.

UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship Bout in the Cards

Dana White has stated that the UFC is now looking at potential interim heavyweight title candidates now that Lesnar is out indefinitely. There seem to be four prime candidates to consider: Shane Carwin, Antonio Nogueira, Cain Velasquez, and Frank Mir. Let’s break down these four.

Shane Carwin: You would think that since Carwin is the number one contender for the belt that his inclusion would be a given. Well, unless the UFC wants to wait 4-6 months before having this interim title match, Carwin cannot be included. One he found out originally that the January 2, 2010 event was cancelled, he opted to have a minor knee surgery. Carwin is on the shelf until March at the earliest.

Antonio Nogueira: Big Nog and Cain were just named as the new main event for UFC 108 last week. On Friday, however, news came out that this matchup would now be cancelled as well due to Nog having a major staph infection. It is said to be severe and will require a stay in the hospital to treat. This means that Nog is also out until March or April at the earliest.

Cain Velasquez: After his absolute dismantling of “Big” Ben Rothwell in which he barely broke a sweat, Cain accepted the UFC 108 main event against Big Nog with the winner of that match facing the winner of Lesnar/Carwin. With both matches now cancelled, Cain is awaiting word on whether he will have a new opponent or have his match cancelled altogether. Whatever the case, UFC 108 has now been through 4 main events and all have been cancelled. It may be a smart career move to just not have anything to do with the UFC 108 main event at all. However, my guess is that he will be fighting at UFC 108 and it will be against…..

Frank Mir: Mir is currently scheduled for a UFC 107 match against Cheick Kongo. The logical move would be to take Mir out of this fight and move him into a match with Cain as the main event of UFC 108 for the interim heavyweight title. Both Mir and Cain are currently training and could be making that idea a reality. I would put my money on that fight happening at UFC 108.

There doesn’t seem to be any other heavyweights to consider. Junior Dos Santos isn’t ready yet and guys like Kongo and Gonzaga just don’t deserve the shot. The injury bug has decimated the UFC in every division from top to bottom.

Ochocinco at UFC Cien y Ocho?

No. Not a chance. And, as long as Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco is in the NFL, I can’t imagine any NFL team allowing him in the octagon. Even for charity. Earlier this week, Ochocinco contacted Dana White via Twitter to beg for a match to help a charity. His entire twitter message read:

“Dana this Ocho Cinco, I want to fight your #1 and #2 best fighters ASAP, exhibition to raise money for a charity of choice!!!!!! … matter of fact I want Anderson Spider Silva-please don’t ignore me or you’ll have to fight me yourself!!! Sincerely Esteban … Mr. White this a serious matter, we can help alot organizations with this fight, I have a good chance at winning against Silva.”

White responded, “If you are really serious @OGOchoCinco, contact me. We’ll put a fight together for charity…. I need a Jan 2nd fight. Ocho Cinco vs Anderson Spider Silva. PS – I’m too old to fight anyone.”

Ochocinco responded back with: “Awesome! I’m fighting Anderson Silva-I can’t wait to throw my child please combo with a kiss da baby leg kick,Silva can shut the front door! … oh I’m dead serious, this will be one that goes down in history, Ocho defeats Silva in surprising upset, it’s on!!!”

There are many reasons why Chad Ochocinco is my favorite professional athlete. The guy is talented and entertaining. I can only hope that he does some work in broadcasting when he’s done. If you don’t follow Chad on Twitter, you must do it now. The guy is extremely awesome to his fans. He communicates with them very often. He is one of the few guys on Twitter that is like that with his followers.

UFC 106 Predictions

I finished at 2-3 at last week’s UFC 105 event. We’ll chalk it up as just reading the card had me so bored that I began to daze out into space. I’ll rebound this week with UFC 106. The picks….

Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz
Prediction: Forrest Griffin via Decision

Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
Prediction: Anthony Johnson via KO

Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni
Prediction: Phil Baroni via TKO

Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Prediction: Luiz Cane via Decision

Karo Parisyan vs. Dustin Hazelett
Prediction: Karo Parisyan via Decision

I hope you enjoyed the third edition of ‘The Full Mount”. If you have any questions that you would like answered in the next edition, please e-mail me at Brettley916@aol.com. Thanks.

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

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Check out this interview with former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz up at his Big Bear training facility. Tito talks UFC 106, but his comments about UFC 104 are really the highlight of the interview. Tito has no love for Lyoto Machida as he perceives Machida’s “elusiveness” as running and tells Machida to be a man. Ortiz is never at a loss for words, and has some interesting thoughts on the UFC 104 controversy between Mauricio Rua and Lyoto Machida.

On a side note, I think Ortiz looks great considering the long layoff. He looks to be in the best shape of his career and is taking this fight very seriously. Ortiz is arguably the only man happy about Brock Lesnar pulling out of UFC 106 as he gets to reclaim his main-event status. Whether Ortiz wins or loses, he definitely has a long career after fighting as an analyst in my opinion.

Thanks to MMAConnected for the tip.

Place your UFC and MMA bets on BetUs.com by clicking here.

New Items Marked Down! Shop the UFC Sale at the UFC Store.

Order The Ultimate Fighter: Season 3 – The Ultimate Grudge on DVD by clicking here.

Tito Ortiz’s autobiography This Is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion by clicking here.

The much-anticipated November 21 showdown between UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin is going to have to wait. The major announcement came today from Dana White via Yahoo! Sports. White stated that Lesnar has been sick for approximately three-and-a-half weeks with some type of flu like illness. It has been rumored that Lesnar has been suffering from the H1N1 virus; however, White stated today that he does not believe this to be the case.

“(Brock) said he’s never been this sick in his life,” White said. “He said it’s been going on for a long time and he just hasn’t been able to shake it.” Here’s where things get interesting. Dana White stated that this fight was simply cancelled and that he was unsure if this fight would simply be postponed or if Carwin will continue to fight on the card.

Carwin reacted to the news via Twitter. “Very disappointed,” he first tweeted. He then seemed to hint that he heard this news via the Internet as well by tweeting, “its disappointing hearing about your career and life through the media. Nothing from the boss’s yet.” An hour later, Carwin stated that he had officially received the news from his management that the fight had been postponed to UFC 108 on January 2, 2010. He added, “I had h1n1 myself and I understand how devastating it can be.”

So, where does this leave UFC 106, 107, and 108? If this fight is simply postponed to UFC 108 on January 2, it would give that card the much needed final piece to the UFC’s annual end-of-the-year extravaganza. UFC 108 would then boast a card of Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin, Anderson Silva/Vitor Belfort, Rashad Evans/Thiago Silva, Gabriel Gonzaga/Junior Dos Santos, and Carlos Condit/Paul Daley. The undercard of this event would feature names like Tyson Griffin, Martin Kampmann, Joe Lauzon, and Cole Miller.

While UFC 108 would be stacked, it would leave a gaping hole in the card of UFC 106. Aside from the co-main event of Tito Ortiz versus Forrest Griffin, this is a rather lackluster card. Since UFC 101, every card has been rather weak. UFC 102 was led by Randy Couture and Antonio Nogueira and UFC 103 was main-evented by Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. Then came the horrendous, scandal-filled UFC 104 that had Lyoto Machida being handed a win that he didn’t deserve and Cain Velasquez being awarded a TKO while punching an opponent who was standing up. Coming up, we have a rather weak-looking UFC 105 free Spike event on November 14. Until this announcement, UFC 106 was going to be the show that changed this abnormal streak of weak events. So, could UFC afford to put out five lackluster cards if it makes up for it with two stacked cards to end the year?

Let’s say Carwin decides to still fight at UFC 106. What are the options? Well, a few that come to mind are Cain Velasquez, Antonio Nogueira, Frank Mir, Cheick Kongo, and Junior Dos Santos seem to make sense. Cain would probably take this fight faster than anyone else, but it is standard for every fighter to receive a minimum of a 30-day medical suspension after a fight. So, that rules him out. Mir and Congo are currently scheduled to face one another at UFC 107. This fight is simply not worth moving up to UFC 106. Dos Santos is coming off a decisive victory over Mirko Cro Cop and is currently scheduled to take on Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 108. This fight won’t move up either. If Carwin decides to fight, my guess is that he’ll either fight Frank Mir or Antonio Nogueira. Those three guys seem to make up the top of the division and there would be a logical reason for each of these guys who fight.

If Carwin decides to take his guaranteed title shot and simply wait the extra 40 days, what are the options for UFC 106? The card is simply not worth buying without an additional fight. One such option could be a number one contender’s match between Frank Mir and Antonio Nogueira. Mir rightfully deserves a third match with Lesnar and Nogueira is coming off a decisive victory over Randy Couture. Nog is also aging, so it is smart to make money off of this guy while you can. One question many people are immediately asking is, “what about Lyoto Machida/Shogun Rua II?” Well, Dana White did say he wants an immediate rematch and both guys have already said anytime, anywhere. Is a rematch in 25 days too soon? Probably so, but UFC 107 or UFC 109 is more likely. The only such reasoning I can see that would merit this match at UFC 106 would be because these guys have already been training for each other over the last 3 months. This simply will not happen, however. No way.

Unfortunately, given the nature of the sport, things like this happen. UFC must develop some type of system that has a match ready to be placed on a card in the case of something like this happening again. Possibly they could take one match from the following card and inform both fighters that it is possible that their fight could be used as a replacement fight for the previous card if needed. Whatever the case, some sort of reform is needed.

Once again, UFC has had a major matchup cancelled, postponed, or blown up with very short notice and very little time to make a suitable change. The only thing we know right now is that Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin will not be fighting on November 21st in Las Vegas. If they do fight, it will now be at UFC 108 on January 2, 2010. At the moment, everything else is up in the air.

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

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