With a nickname like "Da Spyder" you'd think fighters would be afraid to go anywhere near Kendall Grove. But that hadn't been the case in some recent fights against the likes of Jorge Rivera and Ricardo Almeida. Once those fights got into clinch situations, Grove was manhandled and easy to takedown. Last night at UFC 106, it looked like Grove turned the corner. In the opening minutes, he was being thrown around like a rag doll and taken down often by Jake Rosholt. The difference this time? Grove was actively looking to stand right back up and making Rosholt work hard to maintain position.

"I just gotta work with it. I can't freak out when I'm down there," Grove told Cagewriter shortly after the win. 

Rosholt, a three-time national champion wrestler at Oklahoma State, is still learning the nuances of submission defense. Grove is pretty slick with his triangle and d'arce choke. The matchup worked in favor of the 6-foot-6 Hawaiian:

"Me and my jiu-jitsu coach Justin McCully right here, we just was working on that same exact triangle from that same position back in the lockerroom right before we went out."

Rosholt slipped for a split second and Grove locked on the choke. He said it was tight and there was no way for Rosholt to escape. Grove was a little emotional during the postfight while remembering his grandmother who passed away on Nov. 12.

Dana White couldn't say enough good things about Josh Koscheck and his dominating win over Anthony Johnson. He even matched his mouth with his money by giving both the Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night bonuses to Koscheck. That's a hefty $140,000 double-bonus check on top of his fight night salary of $106,000 ($53,000 to show and $53,000 to win). Koscheck likes the money but a title shot would be even nicer. That's a bonus White isn't willing to pony up. White confirmed there is no turning back now, Georges St. Pierre against Dan Hardy is etched in stone (2:45 mark).

Koscheck was resigned to towing the company line (2:10 mark):

"Thanks to the UFC. I love to fight. Hopefully in 2010, if I'm not fighting St. Pierre next, I'll fight every month. Dan Hardy's the next guy in line. We'll let him fight for the title and then we'll see what happens after that."

His tune, sober or not, was a bit different this morning.

White was floored by the performance especially since Koscheck had an excuse to bow out of the fight after being poked in the eye as Johnson threw an illegal knee:

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Even after spending much of the UFC 106 postfight press conference complaining about how he got robbed in losing a split decision to Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz sent out one last tweet in the late Las Vegas night.

It may have been ring rust and fatigue that did in Ortiz in his comeback fight aftr 18 months away recovering from back surgery, but Tito still had his best tool, his mouth,  working in peak condition.

Watch Tito Ortiz in all his glory during the UFC 106 postfight press conference:

Ortiz said he got robbed at least 10 times during the postfight presser at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. He opened the conference by saying Dana White robbed of his Fight of the Night bonus:

"How the [expletive] are you giving him Fight of the Night," asked Ortiz when White announced the winners were Josh Koscheck and Anthony Johnson.

White responded, "Here we go again. We're back!"

Ortiz went to explain why he won the fight (1:50 mark):

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It was another frustrating mixed martial arts main event to score at UFC 106. Forrest Griffin got a split decision win over Tito Ortiz 29-28, 30-27 and 28-29. Ortiz scored more takedowns and did some solid damage on the ground, including opening a nice cut over Griffin's left eye. Griffin threw more shots throughout the fight and was most effective in the final two minutes of the fight when he landed often. Before that, how many headshots did he actually land?

A look at the photo gallery provided by Getty Images shows an awful lot of blocked shots. Getty uploaded 11 photos of Griffin throwing a kick or punch at Ortiz' head. Tito is shown blocking 10 of them. This is only a small sample but it certainly proves the fight is worth another look.

UFC president Dana White said the 30-27 for Griffin was "crazy, outrageous and insane," and anyone who saw it that way was "out of their mind." Griffin asked Ortiz in the cage right after the fight if he had been on his back too often to win the fight.

Meanwhile over at Bloody Elbow, writer Mike Fagan suggested Glenn Trowbridge, the judge who scored it 29-28 for Ortiz, was incompetent:

Someone needs to take away Glenn Trowbridge's judging license. A card of 29-28 Ortiz is atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. I personally had the fight 30-26 Griffin (pictured on the right), though I find 30-27 and 29-28 Griffin acceptable as well. 

This makes it three straight main events where fans walked away split on a definitive winner. UFC 104 featured a close win by Lyoto Machida over Mauricio Rua (48-47 on all cards) and at UFC 105 Randy Couture edged Brandon Vera (29-28 on all cards).

It was a close decision but the UFC escaped fan outrage because they agreed with judges who sided with Forrest Griffin. It was a fight that could've gone either way but Tito Ortiz is still clearly a heel in the minds of many fight fans. He probably added to their dislike even more when he complained about multiple injuries as part of the reason he lost the fight. The fight was even on two judge's scorecards but the younger Griffin played target practice with Ortiz' face and won a split decision 30-27, 29-28 and 28-29 in a light heavyweight bout to close UFC 106 in Las Vegas. More than a few folks along press row scored it 29-28 for Ortiz.

During his postfight conversation with UFC color analyst Joe Rogan, Griffin mentioned that he broke his right foot (during training camp). That set off Ortiz. He initially gave credit to Griffin but mentioned that he couldn't spar before the fight suggesting that beyond a badly blackened eye, he also had a bulging disk in his back. That's bad news from a guy who just missed 17 months recovering from back surgery.

Attempting to shutup Ortiz, Griffin returned to grab the microphone and say all fighters get hurt in training camp.

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In one of the weirder fights of 2009, Josh Koscheck submitted Anthony Johnson at 4:47 in the second round of the bout that has huge title shot implications at welterweight.

The bizarre nature of the fight began in the first round. When Koscheck was down on both knees, Johnson threw a huge knee, sending Koscheck to the canvas. Johnson was immediately apologetic, as he knew that he had screwed up, but that didn't help as Johnson was deducted a point. After quite a few minutes and a check by the fight doctor, Koscheck returned to the fight to immediately take over the first round, and win the round using wrestling. 

The fight continued to get weird as Johnson, who was reported to be fighting at 200 lbs., was then on the receiving side of two unintentional eye pokes. Johnson is especially sensitive to eye pokes, as he was on the bad end of a terrible eye poke against Kevin Burns, and had to have surgery to correct eye problems.

When Johnson returned to fight, the two started the slugfest fans were expecting until Koscheck took Johnson down and started to ground and pound. He took Johnson's back, and sunk in a rear naked choke with just seconds left in the second round.

After the fight, Koscheck said that he did not believe that Dan Hardy had earned a welterweight title shot. 

"He aint fought nobody like me," Koscheck said after the fight, calling out Dan Hardy, who recently beat Koscheck's teammate, Mike Swick. "Koscheck-Hardy in March! That's the card that sells."

UFC 106 hit a little lull with that fight. You have to really appreciate ground work and scrambles to enjoy the battle between Jacob Volkmann and Paulo Thiago. Volkmann, a former wrestler at Minnesota, got outgrappled by Thiago losing a unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

Thiago (12-1, 2-1 UFC) did land the best shot of the fight. As the horn sounded to close the first round, the Brazilian nailed Volkmann (9-1, 0-1 UFC) with a left and then a huge right. Volkmann's body locked up as he fell to the ground and then it appeared that the fall jarred back his consciousness. Two seconds later the round ended and Volkmann sprang to his feet.

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Antonio Rogerio Nogueira had big shoes to fill when he made his UFC debut. After all, his twin brother Rodrigo was once the UFC heavyweight champion. "Little Nog" had no problem in his first time in the Octagon, though, as he won over Luis Cane at 1:56 in the first round by TKO.

Nogueira stalked Cane around the cage, landing strong lefts and clinching. He finished Cane off with a series of lefts in short order. That sort of quick ending puts Nogueira in good position to win the "Knockout of the Night" bonus.

"This was a big chance for my career," Nogueira said after the fight. "I love to be in the best promotion and to be here in America."

Though this was Nogueira's first time in the UFC, he has an impressive career with PRIDE and Affliction, where he put together a 17-3-0 record. Cane was viewed as an up-and-coming light heavyweight prospect, making Nog's win more impressive.

Phil Baroni made his return to the Octagon after four years away. He got a standing ovation at the completion of his battle against Amir Sadollah, but that was the only place he won the fight. Sadollah cruised to a unanimous decision victory 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. Baroni, introducing himself to new set of UFC fans, was a bloody mess by the end of the fight.

It's the kind of fight fans love but it's hard to walk away thinking the "New York Bad Ass" belongs in the UFC at this stage of his career. His career-long bugaboo, conditioning, reared its ugly head early in the second round. Baroni (pictured) dropped his hands often throughout the final two rounds, proving to be target practice for Sadollah knees and kicks.

"I knew I'd have to weather the initial storm. The guy would not go down," said Sadollah. "My strategy was to set him up with body shots. It felt good to get back on the winning track."

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Marcus Davis (16-6-0) is known for wanting to stand up with his opponents, but they may have done him in at his UFC 106 bout with Ben Saunders (8-1-2), as Davis was knocked out by Ben Saunders at 3:24 in the first round. 

From the first bell, Saunders used the clinch to control Davis. He used his long legs and considerable size advantage to land brutal knees. Davis sustained a cut near his eye early in the fight, and at 3:24, Saunders landed the final knee to send Davis to the canvas.

In his postfight interview, Saunders apologized to the fans for losing his last fight, a TKO to Mike Swick. This win gets the tall, lanky Saunders back on track. This is Marcus Davis' second loss in a row, after losing a split decision to no. one welterweight contender, Dan Hardy.