There’s a lot of great MMA highlights. This is one of the best.

Produced by GY via Bloody Elbow

Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani interviews Dana White, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Josh Koscheck, Amir Sadollah, George Sotiropoulos and Kendall Grove following UFC 106.

At the UFC 106 post-fight press conference, Tito Ortiz basically gave the press the long-version of his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. He was injured, couldn’t spar during training, thought he won the fight, thought he was robbed and thought he won the Fight of the Night bonus.

“I thought I won the first round and I thought I won the second round. I got two takedowns you see the damage on his face. I got him good. In the third round I was gassed. After 18 months off, I want to see another fighter come in after back surgery and do what I did. And for me not getting Fight of the Night, I’m taken back by it.”

Koscheck’s look at the 2:30 mark pretty much sums up what everyone was thinking. Tito may have a point about the Fight of the Night bonus, but he didn’t win that fight and he definitely wasn’t robbed. Even if you give Tito the edge in the first two rounds, does anyone actually think Tito deserved to be called the winner after a third round spent doing practically nothing other than impersonating a punching bag? Well, I don’t, and it’s just another illustration why the 10-point must system needs to go in mixed martial arts, at least in it’s current form.

What’s next for Tito? Well, he wants the rubber match, which Dana says is a possibility, and he even floated the idea of him and Forrest coaching season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter to build it. It would make for interesting television I suppose, but do we really need the rubber match as soon as next summer? There’s also been rumors floating around about Chuck Liddell and Tito coaching next season. That would make more sense if you ask me. Forrest bounced back well last night, and I think he deserves the opportunity to start climbing the ladder once again. Many writers and fans are already talking about Forrest vs. Lil Nog. I don’t know about you, but I’m down for that.

Despite calling out Dan Hardy and declaring himself the welterweight division’s true number one contender in front of millions of people, Josh Koscheck won’t be getting the next title shot. Dana says Kos is in the mix like he always is, but they’ve already announced the GSP-Hardy fight. Koscheck was a little disappointed, but kept his spirits up and says he just wants to keep fighting, every month if he has his way, and keep getting paid.

And getting paid he did. Dana awarded him $140,000 in bonus money for his performance against Anthony Johnson. Koscheck said he wanted to weather the early storm and use his wrestling to take Johnson down and submit him, which was exactly what happened. Meanwhile, Johnson said the eye pokes took him out of game giving Koscheck the opening to take over the fight.

“I didn’t hit him in the head, I hit him in the arm. I don’t know why he would act like [that], I guess he was gassing. That’s the only thing I can think of, [him] trying to find some kind of excuse to complain. I know I didn’t hit him in the head. I thought I timed it perfect but I didn’t and that’s my fault. After him poking me in the eye it made a big difference. Then he did it twice and got both eyes the second time because when he swings, he jabs with his open hand and the right didn’t even hit me, it was just the open palm strike and my eyes, my eyes are burning like hell right now. After I hurt him, he needed that, he needed some kind of excuse to recover, but it’s all good.”

It was a weird night, but with everything going on with the UFC these days, I guess we should have expected it.

HT: UFC.com

In the night’s main event, Tito Ortiz returned to the UFC in a rematch against Forrest Griffin.

Anthony Johnson and Josh Koscheck stepped up on short notice to take each other on in a welterweight match-up.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira made his UFC debut against Luiz Cane.

Phil Baroni returned to the UFC to take on TUF 7 champ Amir Sadollah.

Paulo Thiago and Jacob Volkmann met in a welterweight contest.

Results, thoughts, bonuses and live gate (when available) after the jump.

Results

• Forrest Griffin defeats Tito Ortiz via Split Decision
• Josh Koscheck defeats Anthony Johnson via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) in Round Two
• Paulo Thiago defeats Jacob Volkmann via Unanimous Decision
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeats Luiz Cane via TKO (Strikes) in Round One
• Amir Sadollah defeats Phil Baroni via Unanimous Decision
• Ben Saunders defeats Marcus Davis via Knockout (Knee) in Round One
• Kendall Grove defeats Jake Rosholt via Submission (Triangle Choke) in Round One
• Brian Foster defeats Brock Larson via TKO (Strikes) in Round Two
• Fabricio Camoes vs. Caol Uno declared a Majority Draw
• George Sotiropoulos defeats Jason Dent via Submission (Armbar) in Round Two

Thoughts

Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni: Holy smokes, Amir Sadollah absolutely ate Phil Baroni alive with his Muay Thai. They started out pretty even, Amir weathered the storm and edged Baroni out in the first. Baroni was out of gas by the time the second round started. Amir really took over at this point. He damaged him with knees and elbows in clinch and destroyed Baroni’s leg with kicks. It was a very impressive display of striking from Sadollah. Baroni showed a lot of heart, but once again fell short.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Luiz Cane: Lil Nog just put a whoopin’ on Luiz Cane. He drew Cane in with his jab and repeatedly drilled him with his left straight. Nog rocked Cane twice with it and the knocked him out with the third. I don’t know if there was a little too much hype behind Cane or what because Nog made that look easy. If Shogun beats Machida in the rematch, Shogun-Lil Nog 2 would make for one hell of a title fight. If Machida wins, let’s just hope they’re willing to fight.

Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann: Jacob Volkmann didn’t seem too comfortable standing with Paulo Thiago, but he held his own with him on the ground. Thiago knocked Volkmann down several times throughout the fight, but couldn’t put Volkmann away when he got on top. Volkmann was very resilient and manged to turn the tide a few times on the ground. he just couldn’t stay in a dominant position long enough to take the rounds. Thiago earns the decision.

Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson: What a crazy fight. At the start it looked like these two were going to stand and trade until someone got knocked out. Then it got weird. Anthony Johnson illegally kneed Koscheck in the face and fell over holding his left eye. Funny thing was on the replay the only thing that actually hit Kos’ eye was his own forearm. After a discussion between the doc and the ref about how much time Kos actually had to recover, they restarted it. Then in the second, Kos poked Johnson in the eye twice. I don’t know if it took him out of his game at that point or not, but Kos was able to take Johnson down pretty easily. Johnson almost survived till the end of the round, but Koscheck was able to sink in the rear-naked choke for the win. In the post-fight interview, Koscheck tried to stick himself right in the middle of the GSP-Hardy title fight. Koscheck says he’s the real number one contender in the division and Dana needs to make a number one contender’s match between him and Hardy. He has a point I think, and if it wasn’t going to keep GSP out of action for even longer, I’d be all for it. GSP needs to fight though, and quite frankly GSP already dominated Kos, so give it to Hardy if you ask me.

Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin: Through the first two, it was as close as their first fight. Tito scored a few takedowns and unleashed his ground-n-pound. Forrest scored on the feet with leg kicks and punches. Then in the third, Forrest took over picking Tito apart on the feet. I don’t know if Tito was too tired at that point or what, but Tito didn’t do anything but cover up and go for a couple weak takedown attempts. Forrest earns the decision and offers Tito the rubber match in the post-fight interview.

We’ve been hearing for months how Tito was 100% now. He really didn’t look too much different than we’ve seen him in recent years. His stand-up is still poor and he’s not the terror on top that he used to be. In the post-fight interview, he revealed he was in fact injured coming into this fight, apparently a bulging disc and a cracked skull (the black eye). That didn’t go over well. The fans booed him, he yelled back and Forrest grabbed the mic to back him up. Odd night.

Bonuses $70,000

Submission of the Night: Josh Koscheck
Knockout of the Night: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Fight of the Night: Josh Koscheck & Anthony Johnson

Live Gate & Attendance

Live gate: $3 million
Attendance: 10,529

UFC

— Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama was expected to headline UFC 110 in Sydney, Australia, but now Dana White says that may change. “That’s my groundbreaking info on that fight. That one might change. We’re moving some things around and doing some stuff.” Yesterday, Dana said GSP vs. Hardy would take place in February, but says it won’t happen at UFC 109 as Silva-Belfort is expected to headline that card, so many are speculating that GSP-Hardy could replace Silva-Akiyama in the Australia main event. Dana did however say earlier this week that GSP-Hardy would “probably” happen in Vegas, so your guess is as good as mine.

— There were talks to put on a potential interim heavyweight title fight between Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez at UFC 110, but Shane Carwin and his wife are expecting their baby in February, and Carwin refuses to fight during that time. Everything is still up in the air with that whole situation.

— Matt Serra says he will be making his return to the Octagon at UFC 109 against Frank Trigg. Will the loser retire?

— Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen was penciled in for UFC 110 in Australia but it appears that match is being moved up a few weeks to UFC 109.

— Dong Hyun Kim vs. Chris Lytle at UFC 110.

— Mexico has now been ruled out for an April show, but the UFC may still hold an event in Mexico City in 2010. Dana says the UFC will “absolutely” hold an event in Boston sometime next summer.

Strikeforce

— MMA Mania is reporting that a Strikeforce lightweight title fight is in the works between Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez for Strikeforce “Evolution” on December 19. If the fight happens, it will likely headline the card.

— Strikeforce announced their Jan. 30 Showtime event earlier this week for the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida (same Miami venue Seth Petruzelli knocked out Kimbo Slice). Cris Cyborg will make her first title defense on the card. Her opponent wasn’t announced, but in all likelihood it’s going to be Marloes Coenen. Also, football legend Herschel Walker is scheduled to make his MMA debut on the card. No opponent was announced for him either.

UFC 106 kicks off in a few hours. The event airs live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada at 10PM ET/7PM PT on pay-per-view. Also don’t forget a portion of the preliminary card will air live on Spike TV at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

All the UFC 106 videos to hit YouTube are in the playlist above, and if you’re looking to put down some cash on the fight, BetUS has the latest odds below, plus they’re offering a $75 sign-up bonus when you deposit $200. Good luck and enjoy the fights!

Dana answered a handful of questions at yesterday’s UFC 106 Fight Club Q&A. Here’s the video via Fanhouse and a few notes.

— Dana says he want to get that “fat little bald guy” Fedor in the UFC, but he turned down the UFC’s “respectable” offer.

— The UFC will never split the heavyweight division.

— Matt Hughes fighting in early 2010. After Chuck does his final dance on DWTS, Dana will talk to him about his future.

— Zuffa signed a new deal with Versus yesterday for WEC according to Dana (MMA Junkie says it’s not finalized yet), so the WEC isn’t going anywhere for awhile. Didn’t they just sign a new deal with Versus a few months ago or am I losing my mind?

— Rampage vs. Rashad if Rashad beats Thiago Silva. Has Dana run this by Rampage yet?

— Not enough talent for women’s division or women’s season of TUF.

A few more notes via Sherdog:

• He had a meeting with Shane McMahon but declined to discuss what was talked about. White said he is a good friend and “you never know.”

• He offered Gina Carano a fight when she was with EliteXC. There was a loophole in her contract that would have allowed her to leave but she declined.

• 10-point must system will “probably” need to be changed.

• The UFC is going to Hawaii for sure, and it will be the company’s first stadium show.

• GSP-Hardy will be in February.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira makes his UFC debut on Saturday, Nov. 21., against Luiz Cane at UFC 106.