Ortiz and Griffin: two more of the UFC’s walking wounded

Last night, as I sat in a bar with some friends watching Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin battle to a mildly controversial split decision – a mirror result to their first bout three years ago, with Griffin having his hand raised this time – all I really kept thinking was “we should be watching Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin right now.” The UFC 106 poster in the bar even had Lesnar vs. Carwin and Ortiz vs. Mark Coleman as the co-headliners. The UFC that never was.

Instead, we got Ortiz vs. Griffin II, which saw Griffin overcome Ortiz’s strong takedowns to pick him apart with stiff jabs, crude rights and lefts and the occasional front kick to the jaw that sent Ortiz’s mouthpiece flying. For the record, I saw Griffin winning all three rounds, although the opener was a close call. I’m sure a rubber match is in the future – Ortiz even pitched himself and Griffin as Ultimate Fighter coaches at the post-fight press conference – but I have no interest in seeing it (or Ortiz and Griffin on TUF).

While I didn’t care about the outcome last night, I’m glad Griffin has gotten over his embarrassing loss to Anderson Silva and Ortiz, well he’s back and I still dislike him, especially after his less-than-gracious post-fight interview. He was obviously a sore loser and claimed he was suffering from bulging discs in his back and a broken orbital bone heading into the fight. Excuses, excuses, excuses. I’d rather he ran from the cage in tears. As for Griffin, he claimed to have a broken foot suffered during training.

And that says a lot about the state of the UFC. Would either Ortiz or Griffin still fought if the UFC 106 card, and the UFC in general, weren’t already decimated with injuries and illnesses? Would the UFC have allowed them? A broken foot and orbital bone both sound serious enough to prevent a fighter from fighting and – not knowing the severity of either injury – fighters have backed out of fights with lesser injuries. But the UFC needs all the big-name fighters it can get right now.