...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
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.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
