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First Fight View: Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz put on Fight of the Year
The light heavyweight division has always been full of colorful and exciting characters. Two of the most iconic in the UFC’s history happen to be the Hall of Fame tandem of former champions, Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin.
Ortiz and Griffin would compete against one another on three separate occasions throughout their careers. For The Ultimate Fighter season 1 winner in Griffin, the trilogy bout with Ortiz would end up being the last of his great career. But to get there, they had to break even in their two preceding bouts.
They first met inside the Octagon on April 15, 2006, as the co-main event of UFC 59. For Griffin, Ortiz was the man to hand him his first career defeat under the UFC umbrella. However, it didn’t come without some controversy in a rather close affair. Either way, we got what was awarded the 2006 Fight of the Year thanks to their efforts.
In the aftermath of their first meeting, Griffin would only lose once more to Keith Jardine before capturing the UFC light heavyweight crown. Meanwhile, Ortiz dispatched of his bitter rival Ken Shamrock in two consecutive grudge matches before going on the final stretch of his UFC tenure.
This is First Fight View with Drake Riggs. The video series where we go back and watch some of MMA’s most controversial decisions … for the very first time! I will be watching the fights in their entirety and providing commentary throughout as I score the rounds as they happen. And although the majority of these bouts will likely be under the old version of the unified rules of MMA, scores under both sets of the new and old will be tallied to maximize perspective. The global ruleset is also thrown in just for a little bit of extra fun.
Check it out in the full video above.
