UFC 73: Ortiz-Evans Preview!

Just thinking of the Ortiz-Evans fight gets my blood going. Fresh up and coming talent vs. relatively old talent, Ortiz gets to step in the shoes of Ken Shamrock for this one. You have Rashad Evans, the younger, perhaps hungrier, fighter of the two holding an unblemished record of (10-0), stepping in the ring with the Huntington Beach Bad Boy himself, Tito Ortiz (15-5).

Tito Ortiz recently stirred up some controversy with UFC President Dana White. Ortiz and White were set to participate in a boxing match, but Tito Ortiz bailed last minute and the fight never went down, but that didn’t stop SpikeTV from airing a special on the whole situation. The "Bad Blood" SpikeTV special, allegedly filmed to document the preparation behind the boxing match, but instead was twisted into a thirty-minute Tito Ortiz bashing session. White took advantage of this special dropping some F-bombs here and there and bitched and moaned about how he trained vigorously, blah, blah, blah. All in all, both Dana White and Tito Ortiz came off like genuine knob-rockets and the middle school drama was over.

Love him or hate him, "he's [Ortiz] here to stay." There's no doubt that Ortiz's wacky antics get fans and more specifically "Sherdoggers" riled up, where nearly every thread is somehow bashing Tito. I for one am apathetic towards Ortiz, but really believe that he hasn't shown any impressive wins in the past, like what 7 years? He's had three wins over a 40 something year old Ken Shamrock, split decisions with Vitor Belfort and Forrest Griffin, two KO losses to Chuck Liddell, and a decision win over Patrick Cote. I don't question Ortiz's work ethic, because the man seems to train like an animal, but can't always effectively show his abilities in the Octagon.

Rashad’s side of the world seems a bit brighter than Ortiz’s. Rashad Evans is coming off two highlight reel knockout victories over Jason Lambert and Sean Salmon, whose head he nearly knocked off with that kick. Evans has also defeated Stephan Bonnar, Sam Hoger and Brad Imes inside the UFC Octagon. However, I’m not entirely convinced with Evans quite yet. I don’t think he’s been tested with a good enough fighter and Tito Ortiz is quite the mountain to climb for Evans. Hoger isn’t exactly the most polished MMA artist, and coming off a split decision victory over him doesn’t exactly make me scream hot panties! Yes, Evans has showed much improvement since then in his striking and may be a better wrestler on paper, but Ortiz certainly showed that he can overpower pure wrestling skills, displayed in his match against Vladimir Matyushenko, and Ortiz displayed much improved striking skills in his last match with Chuck Liddell.

Ortiz does a damn good job of having his way with the clinch and his traditional ground and pound, so I’m thinking that Evans’ is going to have to step it up on the feet to win this one over in a decisive fashion. If Evans wins or if Ortiz pulls off a lackluster win, it will place Evans in the Light Heavyweight spotlight and Ortiz’s future in the UFC would begin a rapid downfall followed by approximately 2,340,932,049,323+ threads on Sherdog.com explaining how he’s overrated.

As far as predicting the outcome goes…
I think Ortiz will be victorious only by sort way of decision, I don’t see him knocking out Evans or submitting him, considering Tito has one submission win by way of neck crank…

PREDICTION: Tito Ortiz over Rashad Evans by decision

The Lianger