Published by Zach Arnold on November 19th, 2009 in Current Events
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Before we get to a transcript below of the UFC 106 Countdown show that aired this week on Spike TV to hype up this Saturday’s fight between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin, I wanted to point out a few characteristics that each fighter has that makes them superstars in the eyes of fans. They understand the nuances and intricacies that it takes to get people not only interested in them but interested in paying to see their fights. Ortiz, in particularly, really knows how to sell himself and sell his opponent while managing to mock his rivals.
The five golden rules that separate Tito and Forrest from other MMA fighters in terms of knowing how to sell a fight:
1. The act must never get stale. (Always make things interesting.)
- Tito coming off of back surgery and his last two draws/losses were to Rashad and Machida… guys who went on to become champions.
- Forrest is coming off of a devastating loss to Anderson Silva. Did it show a lack of heart or was Anderson Silva just that good?
2. Be able to connect or draw emotions out of the fans.
3. Name and recognition ID.
4. Create a history. (Forrest had his one match with Tito, Tito has his history with Dana and also with Forrest. Both faced Evans and Tito drew, Forrest lost his belt.)
5. Despite fans thinking they know what to expect, always create some doubt in their mind as to what will happen in fights.
Now, keep these golden rules in mind when you read the transcript of the Countdown show.
START TRANSCRIPT
Narrator: “For three years, he ruled the Light Heavyweight Division.”
Tito: “I came with ferocity and anger.”
Narrator: “Dispatching all challengers with ruthless force.”
Tito: “Guys couldn’t stop my double-leg, they couldn’t stop my ground-and-pound.”
Narrator: “But contract squabbles sidelined him and injuries nearly ended his career.”
Tito: “Getting back surgery just so I could fight more for my fans.”
Dana White: “Tito belongs here. He should retire here. That’s the way it should be.”
Narrator: “For the first time in 18 months, The Huntington Beach Bad Boy returns.”
Joe Rogan: “He’s more motivated than ever and better shape than ever and he’s 100% injury-free.”
Tito Ortiz: “I want to be a world champion again. Let’s make another run at the title again. Let’s make it happen.”
Narrator: “Three years ago, Tito Ortiz earned a controversial split-decision over rising star and future Light Heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin. Now, Forrest seeks revenge. The countdown to UFC 106 starts now.”
Forrest Griffin: “You know when you watch a movie and things happen and you know that this bad guy’s going to pop up again at the end? Well I always knew that with Tito, I knew he was just fooling around and sooner or later, we’d fight again.”
Tito Ortiz: “I feel the same way. It’s kind of funny. You look behind my Octagon and you see the guy who I’m punching his face? Wow, that’s Forrest Griffin. This fight was meant to happen for a reason.”
Forrest Griffin: “This is definitely a fight that I’m really excited for, it’s probably good that I only have six weeks to train for it because I’d probably kill myself. You know, I might still kill myself getting ready for this fight.”
Tito Ortiz: “He said he beat me the last time. Well, here’s his chance one more time again.”
Joe Rogan: “For Tito Ortiz, if he can get past Forrest Griffin, it shows everybody that 2006 fight where he won on a very close split-decision over Forrest was due to the fact that he wasn’t in the best condition because he was fighting injured.”
Tito Ortiz: “He’s going to get the same Tito Ortiz, just a little tougher. A little faster and a lot stronger.”
Joe Rogan: “Forrest has had some tough losses in his career, he’s had some real exciting fights and he’s still one of the most popular fighters in the history of the UFC. Every single time he gets into that Octagon, the audience goes nuts. They love Forrest, but this is a pivotal moment in Forrest’s career.”
Dana White: “All that fight really showed is how great Anderson Silva really is. Forrest Griffin has consistently fought the best fighters in the world for the last two years. From Shogun to Rampage Jackson to Rashad Evans and then Anderson Silva. When you lose the way that he lost, you got to jump right back on the horse and get back in there.”
Forrest Griffin: “I got burned for an 80-yeard touchdown, you have to come out the next set of downs and think you’re still the shit, you have to have a short memory.”
Joe Rogan: “If Forrest can beat Tito, especially if he can beat him in dominating fashion, it will let everybody that no only has he recovered from the loss to Anderson Silva but that fight has improved him as a fighter.”
Saul Soliz: “They both want to finish the other guy, they’re not going in to take it to the third round, they want to finish it in one or two.”
Joe Rogan: “For Tito Ortiz, it’s his return to the UFC.”
Forrest Griffin: “People love Tito Ortiz. Everybody wants to fight Tito Ortiz.”
Joe Rogan: “Love him or hate him, Tito puts asses in seats and people get pumped up for Tito Ortiz fights.”
Narrator: “From April of 2000 to September of 2003, Tito Ortiz was the UFC Light Heavyweight champion, successfully defending his title five times.”
Tito Ortiz: “I was ferocious. Guys couldn’t stop my double leg, they couldn’t stop my ground-and-pound. Elvis Sinosic, I cut him open so deep in his forehead with an elbow I almost ended his career. Ken Shamrock, the first time I gave him a beating, his face was like somebody painted him with a purple brush.”
Narrator: “But Tito’s contract expired in May of 2008 and when negotiations broke down, he and UFC President Dana White engaged in a heated war of words.”
Tito Ortiz: “I’m here for the fans, no matter what I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and Dana can sit there and yell at me and yell at me.”
Dana White: “I didn’t think the relationship with Tito and I would ever get fixed and be civil again, I really didn’t.”
Narrator: “For 18 months, Tito Ortiz sat on the sidelines battling privately and publicly with UFC President Dana White. Then in July, Tito signed a long-term contract to return to the only organization he’s ever fought for.”
Dana White: “We had a mutual friend and he put us together, got us talking, and the reality is you know I’m 40 years old now, you know, Tito’s 34, we acted like little kids for a long time and I just said, you know what? If Tito can come in and we can act civil to each other, we can talk about this, for us to have him finish his career somewhere else would be stupid.”
Tito Ortiz: “UFC’s the brand, everybody knows the UFC, everybody knows that the toughest guys in the world are in the UFC. Why would I want to go anywhere else? I want to fight in UFC.”
Dana White: “Tito belongs here, he should retire here. I really am 100% done in my feud with Tito Ortiz.”
Tito Ortiz: “It’s great to pick up and be able to go, hey Dana, what’s up man? What are you doing? Let’s make another run at the title.”
Narrator: “Tito used the break to mend a nagging back injury.”
Tito Ortiz: “I’ve been dealing with it over six years now, ever since I fought Randy Couture it just got worse and worse every single fight.”
Saul Soliz: “It was a bulging disc. It had inflamed to the point where he could barely move. He spent most of his time laid up.”
Tito Ortiz: “Eating vicodins every single day just to get up, just to walk around. You lose all emotions when you do that and that’s what I started doing, so I went to a company called Nuvasive out of San Diego and I watched how they do this new least-invasive way to the spinal cord and to the disc to take them out and fuse them together. After surgery, I was walking around really really injured, you know, I had a back brace. It was challenging, there was a few times that I’d wake up and I get out of bed and I’d be like, is this ever going to go away? Am I ever going to be 100% again? I had tears in my eyes because of it because I want to compete.”
“Day one after back surgery. To the other Light Heavyweights, Tito Ortiz is back!”
“It was nice to kind start feeling myself getting stronger and stronger. When I got released from physical therapy, I had a big smile on my face. No more lower back problems at all and it’s nice to be competing at the best I could be at this time.”
Joe Rogan: “For the first time in a long, long time, he’s 100% injury-free and healthy.”
Tito Ortiz: “These next six fights I have with the UFC, I have to give my whole heart and soul to it. I want to be a world champion again. I’ve been there, I loved the feeling. I’ve been it five consecutive times. I want to do that again.”
Narrator: “When Tito and Forrest met three years ago, Tito was the former Light Heavyweight champ, arguably the most famous fighter in the world.”
Forrest Griffin: “Tito was the first guy that I fought that was really something.”
Tito Ortiz: “I know he had in his own mind that he’s fighting a legend.”
Forrest Griffin: “He’s Tito Ortiz, you know.”
Narrator: “Forrest had gained his fame from winning a reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.”
Tito Ortiz: “In my mind, I knew I wasn’t going to let a TV champion beat me at all. I just wanted to prove that I was the better man in the Octagon.”
Narrator: “But Tito’s preparations had been limited by his mounting injuries.”
Tito Ortiz: “That was at a time I think where my back was at it’s worst. Even when I jumped and stuff I wasn’t getting the same height.”
Narrator: “When the fight began, Tito took the offensive.”
Tito Ortiz: “I kind of noticed that he drops his right hand a lot in a lot of the fights.”
Forrest Griffin: “He got me all panicky up top and, as soon as he brought up my hands nice and high I knew I wasn’t think shot he shot.”
Tito Ortiz: “I think I dominated him, I was getting the takedown and securing the takedown, working on my ground-and-pound, no one has ground-and-pound like me.”
Forrest Griffin: “He’s not letting me get my feet on the hips, he keeps swirling his hips, he’s not letting me butterfly right there, so strong. Like, wow, why’s my head stuck here? Probably the first time I’ve ever been controlled and elbowed like that.”
Tito Ortiz: “After this first round, I couldn’t believe he survived. I was just like, holy shit, this kid has got some heart.”
Narrator: “When round two started, Tito began to feel the effects of the injuries that have limited his training.”
Tito Ortiz: “At this point I felt like I was walking in mud. I was so damn slow and I could feel it in my legs, I could feel it in my back. I was looking for the takedown. No strength in my legs, my knees, my back, there’s nothing behind it.”
Forrest Griffin: “I said you’re going to respect me after this fight, I just wanted to be respected. I definitely won that round just on activity.”
Tito Ortiz: “I guess you possibly can give him the round just because he threw more punches. It’s not a good feeling to see this guy’s pumped and you’re completely exhausted going, all right, this kid’s still in the fight.”
Forrest Griffin: “It’s the first time to start go head to body, he slipped down to my level which we’re about the same strength and speed now.”
Tito Ortiz: “And there he hit me with a leg shot. I thought I tore my knee but actually it broke my fibula on my knee, broke the bone. This time my body was just ringing, just make it through, just make it through, and just one of those things that you know who wants it more? It came down to this one takedown right here. I get a takedown and it shows dominance. Made me realize right there that I just got to keep moving, keep striking from on top, showing the judges that I know I won.”
Forrest Griffin: “For some reason I thought I got up a lot quicker than this, I was down there quite a while actually. Tell him thank you, touch him a little inappropriately, I don’t know why I always do that. I could change about that myself, I would.”
Tito Ortiz: “We put a fight on, we put a show on.”
Forrest Griffin: “I think the momenum of the finish of the fight definitely favors me and I kind I thought I won.”
Tito Ortiz: “Look at Forrest’s face and look at mine and there’s not a mark on me.”
“I know the mistakes he does and he still does the same mistakes three years later. He still leaves that overhand right wide open, overhand right and left hook.”
Forrest Griffin: “I’ve learned and grown a lot as a fighter, think of the things that I’m definitely a lot smarter than I was, a little slicker on the ground, got a little bit of ability to wrestle.”
Tito Ortiz: “This fight was a split decision, so this next one I got to win decisively.”
Narrator: “For three and a half years, Forrest Griffin has plotted his revenge.”
Forrest Griffin: “It was a good fight the first time, it will be a better fight this time.”
Tito Ortiz: “I’m going to try to hurt him. I ain’t looking for a submisison. I’m not looking for a submission.”
Saul Soliz: “Tito wants to get in there and trade and I think Forrest will be surprised that his boxing has improved.”
Forrest Griffin: “He’s going to come out and try to knock me out and if that doesn’t work, he’s going to go to his wrestling.”
Tito Ortiz: “Every single time he kicks, he’ll be on his back.”
Forrest Griffin: “If he’s going to take me down, I just got to scramble up and not sit down and take a beating, not get pinned.”
Tito Ortiz: “Forrest doesn’t understand, the last time I fought him I was only 60%. I wasn’t running, I wasn’t wrestling, I fought on pure heart.”
Joe Rogan: “He’s got some of the best ground and pound in the business. He can jack guys from inside their guard.”
Forrest Griffin: “I would really like to get on top and just punch him and I like to Tito him a little bit. I’m not the smallest guy in the world and I feel a lot bigger when I’m on top hitting you. I just want to make the dude bleed.”
Tito Ortiz: “Can he defend the shots? Can he get off bottom? That’s going to be a question that Forrest is going to have to answer.”
Forrest Griffin: “I’m certainly not going to listen what he has to say. He’s a bit self-centered and a bit you know egotistical.”
Tito Ortiz: “He can think all he wants, but when he’s defended the world title as many times as I have, he can talk about me as much as possible. I’m a legend. You say UFC, they say Tito Ortiz.”
Forrest Griffin: “This is not going to be one of those, well if I win, I won, if I lose eeehh, I gave it my best. This is, I’m going to win this fight.”
Tito Ortiz: “I’m going to make Forrest a quitter, I’m going to cave his face in. I hope Forrest is in shape. I’m in shape. I’m willing to die for my cause. Are you?”
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