It's still hard to believe an accord was reached between the warring factions from UFC 84. Tito Ortiz is back making money from and for the UFC and president Dana White. He's in the main event of UFC 106 tomorrow night against Forrest Griffin.

Eighteen months ago he showed up at the weigh-in for his fight against Lyoto Machida wearing a t-shirt that said "Dana is my bitch." After the fight he was nearly removed from the MGM Grand by Las Vegas Metro Police when he and his wife Jenna Jameson pushed past MGM security into the postfight press conference. Ortiz fielded questions as the UFC P.R. staff repeatedly asked him to leave, and for the media to stop asking questions. Jameson barked about freedom of speech just a few feet away from the stage. And now White, Ortiz, Jameson and the UFC are one big, happy family. It was a wise move for all involved but you have to wonder if there's still some underlying animosity.

If Tito wears another t-shirt to the weigh-in, what will it say this afternoon? You can watch the UFC 106 weigh-in from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas at 7 p.m. at UFC.com. 

"I don't know why I cuss so much. I'm around gyms all the time. Damn, dirty apes," Griffin told the gathered media at UFC 106 workout day.

He told the scribes that his bad language gave him an idea for his next book: 

"The preface of my new book is 'My mother told me when I was a kid that cussing is a sign of low intelligence and low vocabulary. Well, [expletive] her.' I don't care. Maybe I have low intelligence and low vocabulary."

The discussion turned to whether you can be a role model with a filthy mouth. Could Phil Baroni fill that role:

Griffin laughed and said, "I don't want to be like Phil Baroni. Would you want your kids to be like Phil Baroni? Maybe I should quit cussing."

Josh Koscheck is a promoter's dream. He'll fight anyone, anytime, even with less than eight weeks to prepare for a fight. When the UFC needed a major fight to fill the gap left by Brock Lesnar at UFC 106, matchmaker Joe Silva brainstormed and came up with an excellent fight featuring Koscheck against Anthony Johnson. Frankly, Kos should've said no unless he was guaranteed a UFC welterweight title shot with a win. But he didn't do that and he's taking all the risk against a guy who's biggest wins have come against Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Kevin Burns and Luigi Fioravanti.

Koscheck (13-4, 11-4 UFC) was originally scheduled to fight Michael Pierce at Ultimate Fight Night 20 in January. He took that fight which was even more of lose-lose situation but jumped at the chance to get on this card on pay-per-view.

"The 106 card was falling apart and pretty [expletive]. I told Bob [Cook, Koscheck's trainer/manager], 'you know Bob, call Joe Silva and see if there's a chance we can get on that card and fight anybody.'"

That was only five weeks away from the fight card. Koscheck said at anytime he's just three weeks of training from being ready to fight. Koscheck wants to test Johnson's heart. He has some doubts after seeing Johnson (8-2, 5-2 UFC) tap back in 2007 at UFC 76 against Rich Clementi, who is now fighting down at 155 pounds. 

If he gets the win, Koscheck says he deserves the title over Dan Hardy, who beat his teammate Mike Swick last week at UFC 105. He also said he's done talking about a potential Matt Hughes fight, saying the former champ "doesn't want to get his ass whipped by a kid."  

It's been a long road back to the UFC for Phil Baroni. The former light heavyweight is now down at welterweight. He served time for a steroid suspension back in 2007 and fought in organizations like EliteXC, Icon Sport, Cage Rage and Palace Fighting Championship. So when Baroni got an offer to return to the big leagues after five years away, he wasn't about quibble over his opponent. Fellow gym member Amir Sadollah from Xtreme Couture was offered up and Baroni jumped at the chance.

"You take what you can get. We're professionals. Fight first, friends later. I'll fight anybody, it doesn't matter. Anyone who can move my career in the right direction."

With Sadollah at Xtreme Couture, Baroni chose to leave his home base of Las Vegas and train in San Jose at American Kickboxing Academy. Baroni will be involved in same odd twist if Randy Couture fights Mark Coleman February. Coleman and Baroni are longtime buddies. Baroni said he got more sparring in at AKA and really needed to get back his attack dog mentality.

"I haven't been that way in my last couple fights but I'm going back to my old ways. I'm gonna blast him out of there. I'm going straight ahead. Bulls go forward, I'm coming with my horns."

He lost badly to Joe Riggs his last time in June at a Strikeforce event out so it was surprising Baroni was brought back to the UFC where he was 3-5 from 2001-2005. He does fight for knockouts and Sadollah is a pretty solid striker. It should make for a stand-up war. Sadollah, the winner of season eight of "The Ultimate Fighter," has a lot on the line against Baroni. He was stopped quickly at UFC 101 by Johny Hendricks and can't afford another loss.  

Josh Kosheck and Anthony Johnson stepped up on less than a month's notice to hep the UFC rebuild this card. There's a wild scenario right now at Las Vegas sports books. Some houses have Johnson as a healthy favorite while others have Koscheck tabbed as the guy. Which means, an astute gambler can get both fighters at a plus number.

Watch RawVegas' Dave Farra breakdown some of the top fights with Cagewriter and Ben Fowlkes from CagePotato: 

UFC 106 odds (Courtesy Venetian Resort Casino Hotel)
Official picks after tonight's weigh-in

Pay-Per-View Bouts:
Forrest Griffin (-130) v. Tito Ortiz (Even)
Josh Koscheck (+140) v. Anthony Johnson (-170)
Paulo Thiago (-330) v. Jacob Volkmann (+250)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (-130) v. Luis Cane (Even)
Amir Sadollah (+150) v. Phil Baroni (-180)

Spike Television Preliminary Bouts:
Ben Saunders (+150) v. Marcus Davis (-180)
Kendall Grove (+130) v. Jake Rosholt (-160)

Non-Televised Preliminary Bouts:
Brock Larson (-400) v. Brian Foster (+300)
Caol Uno (-250) v. Fabricio Camoes (+200)
George Sotiropoulos (-500) v. Jason Dent (+350)

LAS VEGAS (AP)—Manny Pacquiao is a box office hit, selling 1.25 million pay-per-views for his fight with Miguel Cotto in a performance that could set up the richest fight ever against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

 

The fight not only made the top 10 of best-selling pay-per-view boxing events, but beat the 1.05 million figure notched by Mayweather for his September comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.

 

HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said Friday the fight grossed $70 million, with 650,000 buys coming from cable television homes and 600,000 from satellite television viewers. It was helped by a record 110,000 buys from Puerto Rico, Cotto’s home.

 

The biggest PPV fight was in 2007—Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya, which was sold to 2.4 million homes.

Payout Perspective:

Not only did Pacquiao-Cotto exceed Mayweather-Marquez in PPV buys, but it apparently also beat the September fight at the live gate by around $2 million.

The results of the fight are said to be good news for boxing, because it increases the likelihood that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao can reach an agreement to fight one another sometime next year. Mayweather had been clamoring for a greater percentage of the fight purse – citing his superior drawing ability – but the latest results should ensure that both men get an equal cut.

The news comes on the heels of comments from Bob Arum, just yesterday, saying the fight did in excess of 1.5 million buys, and was the highest grossing PPV of the year – including the UFC.

While it looks as though the UFC will come out the winner this year – both in terms of gross PPV revenues and the single highest event – all bets are off for next year. If Mayweather-Pacquiao is signed some are expecting well over the 1.3 million mark – perhaps something even as high as the 2.4 million range that De La Hoya – Mayweather accomplished two years ago.

——

Just the other day we talked about the ability of the UFC’s brand-first strategy to hedge against injuries – or an outright lack of star power – on its fight cards. The latest high-profile boxing fights, however, point out the deficiency in a brand-first strategy: there’s only so much you can do to draw people to the brand. The consumer likes being told a story and likes becoming emotionally involved. To that end, the UFC may eventually need to alter the way in which it approaches its marketing strategy.

The organization did not build Brock Lesnar – he was already a star when he arrived – but there are other fighters the UFC hasn’t exactly pushed as hard as they could. The enormous potential of men like GSP, Anderson Silva, and BJ Penn to demonstrate their tremendous fighting skills to a wide audience should not be overlooked. None of them may ever be cross-over stars, but let’s face it, neither are Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather. Nobody would have any interest in these guys if they weren’t great at fighting.

To begin pushing the individual fighters more heavily is dangerous, because the UFC would risk shifting negotiating leverage to its stars. However, the flip side is that if they can make more money as the result of higher grossing events, they can then afford to pay these guys more in the long run anyway.

Episode 10 actually represents a slight increase in the ratings from the previous, and bucks the trend of what was six straight weeks of ratings decline since episode 3 – featuring Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson – did a huge 3.7 HH and 5.3 million viewers. DVR playback would later go on to push those ratings beyond the 4.0 mark.

Here’s a look at the show thus far:

Just a reminder that UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin 2 is tomorrow night.

This will be the next event for Season 6 of the MMA HQ fight camp at MMAPlayground.com, so don’t forget to get your picks and wagers in for the event.

If you want to join the fight camp and haven’t yet, just let me know. Season 6 is nearing the end, but it’s a great time to join and get some practice before the start of Season 7. Also, don’t forget about our FIGHT CLUB 10th Anniversary Blu-Ray giveaway.

Shock was the word of the night at WEC 44. Jose Aldo Jr. came in with a lofty reputation and plenty of quick knockouts but the way he ripped the WEC featherweight belt from Mike Brown's clutches was shocking. Even Brown looked a bit shellshocked during the postfight press conference. The former champ tried to explain what just went down but because it happened so fast he was searching for answers:

"I should've opened up more. I think I was a little too conservative. Maybe more takedown attempts. I really have to see the tape." 

Brown, who likes moving forward, never found his rhythym:

"Maybe that was my fault. My coaches told me I was only throwing one punch at a time."

Aldo's kicks really put a dent in Brown's attack: 

"I said 'I don't want to get hit with too many of those or I'll have trouble walking later on'" Brown was thinking during the fight. A few of those nasty shots caused Brown to see flashes.

WEC 44 POSTFIGHT: JOSE ALDO JR. from Steve Cofield on Vimeo.

The mixed martial arts world isn't the place to be if you're worried about your looks. Between the scars, broken noses and cauliflower ears you're not going to find a bunch of runway model candidates donning the four-ounce gloves. There's been several cases during fight week where Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin have proudly showcased black eyes. But that's where Griffin is different than Tito Ortiz. Tito does have an image he wants to uphold.

Tito has gone with the Stevie Wonder look this week in Las Vegas. No matter how dark the room is, Tito's been wearing sunglasses. Why? He suffered a vicious black eye on Nov. 9 when he was head-butted in training camp. Ortiz talked about it a few days later during his Big Bear media day (VIDEO - 0:44 mark). He was wearing the  sunglasses that day but had to remove them to put on headgear before sparring.

Tito tried to hide the black eye even with headgear on but the Las Vegas Sun got a pretty good shot of the shiner. He said today during the UFC 106 prefight press conference that the eye has gone down significantly but it must be pretty nasty looking, because the glasses were still on this afternoon. Expect the shades to make another appearance at tomorrow's weigh-in.

If it's that nasty, it makes you wonder if Griffin will target the eye on Saturday night.