Fight Night Lives Up To All The Hype: Kessler Dominated by Ward in Super Six Tourney; Griffin Gets Sweet Revenge Against Ortiz In UFC 106 Main Event

Posted on | November 21, 2009 | No Comments

POST FIGHT REPORT ON SUPER SIX MAIN EVENT AND UFC 106 CARD

By: Rich Bergeron

WARD WINS BY WIDE MARGIN VS. KESSLER

Mikkel Kessler watched his WBA belt get taken away by what he clearly saw as hometown favoritism and excessive holding and headbutting, but give Andre Ward all the credit for taking it to Kessler Saturday night with potent hand speed and dominating style throughout the fight. Despite the post-fight gripes of Kessler, Ward’s win in the Super Six Boxing Classic opening round is a career defining moment cemented by a new addition to his trophy case and a berth against Jermain Taylor in the next round. Ward secured the upset in the Super Middleweight title fight by a landslide after too many cuts opened by head clashes forced a doctor looking at Kessler to stop the match in the 11th round. The judges scores were 98-92, 97-93 and 98-92.

This was a fight where Kessler never seemed to put any real rhythm together, though he did catch Ward with some great shots. Ward seemed to learn a lot from the Pacquiao fight, though. He used a speedier style and defensive maneuvering to remain out of range of the hardest shots from Kessler. He managed to put together a spectacular in and out offensive attack by constantly moving his body well, using the whole ring, and scoring lightning fast jabs at will. Kessler’s European 1-2 stalking and orthodox style was no match for Ward’s inventive southpaw switches and punching from all angles. Over the whole fight there were only a few moments where the announcers would even debate about whether Kessler won any of the rounds. Ward had the correct game plan and the determination and confidence to get the job done. Though Kessler didn’t go down, he seemed close a few times.

The next stage now puts Arthur Abraham up against Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch against Mikkel Kessler, and Andre Ward facing Jermain Taylor. This fight was a nice distraction during the early UFC fight card.

UFC 106 FEATURES FULL RANGE OF OUTSTANDING FIGHTS

There didn’t seem to be a dull moment at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas Saturday as every fighter on the UFC 106 card gave the fans everything they had in a slate of incredible match-ups ending with Forrest Griffin dominating Tito Ortiz.

Ortiz heard the boos in his post-fight commentary when explaining his in-training injuries and inability to spar much leading up to the fight. He said he endured a cracked skull which gave him the pre-fight black eye he sported in the cage. Wearing his signature “Punishment” gear into the UFC Octagon Saturday night, Ortiz didn’t seem to know how much that P-word would define the fight ahead. Griffin had a shaky first round, and Ortiz seemed hesitant off the bell but well capable of winning again after the first successful takedown and ground and pound session. Forrest scrambled back to his feet and made a round of it later on, but it looked like Tito’s game plan did more damage in the first frame.

The second round was the most competitive of all the rounds with Forrest winding up getting the edge because of really pushing Tito. This is the round where Griffin really began setting Ortiz up to fight the boxing match only Forrest could win. Ortiz opened up a nasty cut over Forrest’s eye when he finally did get an advantage in the round, but Forrest flipped his way back to the top position and ended the round in control.

Round 3 was Tito’s UFC return wake-up call as he realized he just didn’t have enough in the tank to get past Forrest’s superior stand up in the final five minutes. Forrest didn’t land any real thumping head or body kicks, but his relentless leg kicks looked suspiciously like Amir Saddollah’s punishing leg kicks against Phil Baroni from the opening fight of the PPV card. Forrest really let his hands go in this round and laid the pain on thick. He didn’t give Ortiz as much as an opening to land any hard shots of his own or take the fight to the ground. Before a hand could be raised, the two fighters were already making the informal arrangements for a third fight in the trilogy. One judge had Tito winning somehow, but the other two judges gave the split to Griffin and deservedly so. Griffin really needed the win it seems, as he admitted that Anderson Silva “broke me” in his last fight.

Now, speaking of the opening PPV bout of the night, Amir Sadollah put himself on the map with a 3-round war with Phil Baroni. The return to the UFC after a long absence for “The New York Badass” ended with Baroni a bloody mess after suffering one of the worst one-sided beatings of his career against a relative newcomer to the sport. Baroni displayed tremendous heart and actually opened up the fight with an overwhelming offensive attack. If Sadollah’s granite chin didn’t save him, Baroni could have knocked him out in that first round. Instead, the adrenaline rush sapped Baroni of all his speed and power. His body began to slow down, his hands dropped, and Sadollah teed off over the course of the rest of the fight. Baroni’s gassed out attempt to stay in there and slug left his face a bloody pulp at the final bell. Yet, Baroni somehow stayed on his feet after a vicious succession of punches, elbows, and knees from Sadollah.

Sadollah might have seemed overmatched going into this one with such little cage fighting experience, but he showed great focus and ability to adjust to any style of fighting. Baroni wanted to slug and street fight, but he couldn’t get Sadollah down to the mat for ground and pound or at the right range for his wide hooking haymakers. Baroni never recovered from that burst of fury in the first, and Sadollah proved to be the more well-rounded fighter with better conditioning and a few extra tools beyond dirty boxing and half-ass wrestling.

Josh Koscheck and Anthony Johnson turned out to be an incredible fight with Koscheck turning the tables on the oddsmakers in the end. Controversy marred the start of the fight when it appeared Koscheck might bow out due to an eye poke after an illegal knee to the head from Johnson. Instant replay during the hiatus and confusion revealed that Koscheck didn’t even get kneed in the head at all since his elbow and arm blocked the shot. A glancing finer in the eye appeared to be the only way his eye could have been injured at all. Regardless of whether Koscheck milked the clock or not, Johnson got his rest, too. Johnson also later got more time to rest and a chance to recoup from some hard punches after a Koscheck poke later in the fight that came in the midst of attack that might have ended it by KO had the poke never happened. Instead, Koscheck used superior stand-up and outstanding wrestling to bait Johnson into being more aggressive than he had to be in the second round. Koscheck caught him for every mistake he made and wound up securing Johnson’s back and getting the hooks in late in the second round. Johnson only had a few seconds to pry Koscheck’s fingers apart and prevent the grip from locking the rear naked choke into place. It wasn’t nearly enough time, and he didn’t have the energy to prevent the inevitable. Johnson tapped out and put Koscheck back in title contention again.

In other action Ben Saunders used his big frame to impose his will on Marcus Davis, who left the cage looking like an “Irish Hand Grenade” had blown up in his face. Davis was unprepared for the long range knees and heavy hands of Saunders. The end came at 3:24 in the first after a masterful attack from Saunders ended with some vicious knees that left Davis with a heavily swollen face.

Paulo Thiago squeaked out a tough decision against Jacob Volkmann in a fight that went all over the cage and seemed to be the most competitive match-up of the evening. Both fighters could have ended it at times, and this was a great fight to make up for the unpredictable backing out of Karo Parysian due to substance abuse issues. Volkmann showed he can bang and roll with the best of them and Thiago proved the experience factor is still his major edge. There was a lot of scrambling in this fight, and the main reason nobody could get a KO was because both fighters were so good at getting out of trouble when they had to.

Other fights saw Kendall Grove winning by triangle choke in the first, Brian Foster winning by TKO against Brock Larson at 3:25 in the second, and Jason Dent going down by arm bar against George Sotiropoulos.