THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Mark Coleman has pulled out of his scheduled bout with Tito Ortiz at UFC 106 according to a tweet from Ortiz himself on his Twitter page.
Per Ortiz - "Coleman, coleman, coleman to bad he sissies out!!! Who's next??? I’m kicking someone’s ass on Nov 21st!"
It's unknown the reason for Coleman's exodus from the event, but MMAJunkie.com reports that it is believed to be injury related, and that Coleman has given notice to the UFC that he's unavailable for that date.
The fight was set to be Ortiz's first since a decision loss to current Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida in May of 2008. He split from the UFC and and teased possible signings with Affliction and Strikeforce before ultimately squashing his feud with UFC President Dana White and returning to the UFC.
Penick's Analysis: This sets up a likely more difficult opponent for Ortiz now depending on who they find as a replacement. The match up with Coleman was not the most exciting, but would have been a solid test to find out where Ortiz is after back surgery and such a long layoff. Now, they're likely going to need to break up a planned fight to get Ortiz a replacement. Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans are looking to fight in January, but either of them could be good choices outside of the fact that Rashad holds a victory over Ortiz already. If Forrest Griffin was in shape to return a rematch would be a good one, though Griffin is busy with a honeymoon and expects to return later than next month. Rich Franklin just got beat by Vitor Belfort and might need a bit more time to recover. One name they could throw in there is Keith Jardine, as he's always game for a fight but isn't an elite level light heavyweight. It again wouldn't be the most exciting bout, but people aren't going to be tuning in for his opponent, they're tuning in for him and for Brock Lesnar on November 21st. Hopefully the UFC locks in a replacement soon.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
The headlining bout between Phil Davis and Rashad Evans averaged 6.1 million viewers, meaning the peak number for the event will still come in somewhat higher than that. The opening bout between Demian Maia and Chris Weidman was seen by an average of four million viewers...
I am very nervous that Carlos Condit will win on Saturday night, and that I won't be able to fight Nick Diaz this summer. Carlos Condit is a very good fighter, he can strike, he is aggressive and he has submissions...
Georges St-Pierre is the only logical choice for Sonnen, since he's made it clear to the world at large that Anderson Silva wants nothing to do with him. And since everything that comes out of Chael's mouth when hyping a fight can be taken as gospel...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP