Tonight UFC 61: Bitter Rivals in Las Vegas did not disappoint... unless of course you were hoping Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock would last a few rounds. In that case, you just may have been a little disappointed. It seemed the fight almost ended the moment Bruce Buffer was finished announcing the the start of the fight. The bad blood was evident in the eyes of both fighters, but it would take a mere 1:18 seconds into the opening round for the fight to end in favor of Tito Ortiz.

At the start of the round, Shamrock leaped into attack mode throwing a flurry of punches. Tito answered back with- punches of his own. In a clinch up standing against the fence, Tito showed superior strength by picking up Shamrock
and putting Shamrock to the canvas on his back.

It didn't take long after that. With Shamrock's head and neck up against the bottom of the fence of the Octagon, Ortiz threw 4 to 5 elbows to the head that went unanswered by Shamrock. Shamrock was defenseless and the Ref stepped in and called a halt to the fight.

Some in the Audience booed the Ref's decision to halt the bout.

Shortly after the fight, Ortiz told Randy Couture (who was working the mic) that he would give Shamrock a rematch if Shamrock wanted one.

I dont understand the stopage, please explain the difference between the 10 secs Shamrock was on his back and the entire first round of the Griffen vs Ortiz fight. That fight was a work, very obvious imo. The entire event was terible, not a single decent fight.

Ever been repeatedly elbowed in the face by an angry man trying to kill you? My guess is no. After the first 2 elbows his hands fell and were no longer protecting his face. Which is where Tito was hitting. (alot of people seem to have missed it.) As for the Griffen fight yes he got hit a lot but never stopped his defending. That is the key.
If he's not blocking or actively moving to improve position, then the ref has no choice. Fight over.:2 cents:

I'm not convinced, different refs continually let fights go on longer. McCarthy in particular, he reffed Ortiz vs. Griffin. Flailing your hands in the air isn't an intelligent defense and that's what Griffin did. He also reffed the Leben vs. Silva fight a few weeks ago when Leben appeared to be knocked out and he let it go. I recorded the fight and just rewatched it in slow motion, his hands never fell to the side. He was flailing, did the elbows land, yes. But there was no damage done. Griffin defended the same way as Ken the difference was Ken was pinned against the cage. It was a bad stoppage.

it needed to be stopped, i agree..... he was defenseless.

doh! where's all you tito haters now?? hahahaa

I just love all these noob TUF fans. They know better than the ref, and if the disagree with the call, it's a work.

Lance is an actual MMA fighter, and I agree completely with him, and the call.

You have no idea what damage a 220 to 230lbs man slamming an elbow repeatedly into your face can do. Yes, 220 to 230, that's how much weight they gain back after their weigh in at 205lbs.

KEN DID NOT DEFEND AT ALL. Good stoppage.

Im 235 myself, Im well aware of the damage that can happen. If you think the fight wouldnt have gone on longer with JM reffing you are the fool.

I also did not say he didnt defend, I asked what was the difference between his deffence and Griffins. They bothed flailed their hands, so how is one different from the other.

Are you dense? That fight would have ended just as quick with Big John as it did with Herb Dean. Both are the best at reffing and taking care of the fighters.

We must have been watching 2 different UFC's. Ken did not flail, nor did he defend.

Missed the fight due to coaching wrestlers at Midwest Nationals! Which in a few matches turned into UFC fights! Unreal shit happened! So who won the rest of the fights??
Theater

From what I saw Ken wasn't flailing very much. He was clearly stunned and wide open for more. There is no need to continue unless you are a Gladiator. And that would get the FCC and sanctioning bodies pretty riled up and then boom, no more UFC.
Not to mention these guys mostly resect each other and have no real interest in seeing one of thier own get permanantly injured. If they do they have no place in fighting. :2 cents:

Just explain to me what an inteligent defense is from that postition please. Thats all I want to know, Im a boxing fan not an mma fan and when I watch these fights I dont understand what inteligent defense is. It seems to vary fight to fight. They let some guys take beatings and others are stopped very quickly.

You have to make an attempt to gain a better position or defend from the position you're in.
When Forrest was on the bottom he was atleast trying to scramble and block/dodge the elbow attacks.
After Tito hit Ken with the first solid elbow, Ken's hands dropped to his sides and Tito landed 4-5 more with Ken doing NOTHING to try and stop them. Had Kem simply put an arm up or did anything other then just lay there the fight would not have been stopped.

Don't let Kens action after the stoppage full you. He's a man that recovers very quickly. He did the same thing after the Sakurba fight. But there's no 10 count in MMA.

he will win tho

Good points Martin3.
Whatever you may think an intelligent defense is, it certainly isn't laying there half concious, getting smashed. Ken was no longer cognizant of anything. In MMA so you have to recover through the onslaught. If you can't do that then it's over. There is no 10 count.

Sleeves,

Big props for asking, Martin gave an accurate description to intelligent or cognizant defending.

A really good board/community to get immersed into mma is MMA.tv/tuf

You'll find alot of discussion about this fight there.

that fight was fucked right up...should've kept going

5 or 6 clean elbows that were not being blocked or answered back to.... shamrock lost the fight. Now they are both bitches who could kick all our asses

My .02

1) Tito's bitching about the weight is just another mind game, something I'd say he's rather good at. There's no doubt he got into Ken's head long, long ago and he's still there.

2) The fight should have been stopped, no doubt. Perhaps if it wasn't at that moment, Ken would've lasted another 10, 15 seconds ... but it was over, one way or another.

Unfortunately, a bit of a let-down as it was over so quickly, but nothing compared to Arlovski-Sylvia fight which was horrid. Absolutely, The Maniac deserved to hold onto the title - Andre did nothing in that fight to prove he should get it.

Anyone have a clip of the tito/shamrock fight? I heard it was like 1 1/2 minutes long. Someone post a link.

I saw that fight. Shamrock took 5 succesive elbows to the face with practically no attempt at defending himself..



Sorry, I got no clip of that here though.

good lord, you're clueless about NHB too?

if someone's smashing elbows in your face and you're not at least putting a hand up to block them you're obviously incapacitated and about to get seriously fucked up. That ref was Shamrock's best friend.

hehehehehhehe