On Saturday night, the co-main event of UFC 148 will feature a battle of former light heavyweight champions, as Tito Ortiz will square off against The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner, Forrest Griffin.
Tito and Forrest have met twice before, with the two splitting a pair of split decisions. Ortiz took home the win at UFC 59, and Forrest at UFC 106.
Tito has announced that this will be his final fight and that he will retire, win or lose. Good news for Tito, though—it’s going to be a win.
Tito will have an incredible amount of emotion backing him for this fight. The last time he had this much riding on a single bout, he was fighting Ryan Bader with the risk of being cut if he lost.
In case you don’t remember, he submitted Bader in the first round, salvaging his career.
Tito is 1-6-1 in his last eight fights, but if you look more closely at it, it isn’t quite as bad as it seems. Tito was fighting Top 10 light heavyweights and was staying competitive.
He wasn’t being completely outclassed; he wasn’t being totally dominated. He had a chance to win in every fight.
Meanwhile, Forrest’s last fight saw him get demolished by Mauricio Rua, as he lost by first-round knockout.
Prior to that, Griffin earned a unanimous decision over Rich Franklin, in which he used his superior size to dictate where the fight took place. He was able to control Franklin because of that. Then the fight before that was the second fight with Ortiz.
Tito’s last fight against Griffin was a split decision. If one judge scored one round differently, Tito would have won the fight. That’s how close it was.
This time, Tito will come out with his hand raised and will become the first UFC Hall of Famer to finish his career with a victory.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
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