I scoured the Net on Sunday for Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz at UFC 106. But every time I thought I had found a copy, something happened that wouldn’t allow me to watch it.

Sounds like Griffin really took control in the final round, and that’s why he won the fight via split decision. I’ll reserve judgment until I see it, though.

Maybe a bigger shocker was Josh Koscheck beating Anthony Johnson. I thought ‘Rumble’ was going to walk right through him.

So after three straight weeks of MMA and boxing, MMA takes a backseat while HBO returns with Lucien Bute and Librado Andrade in a fight I’m sure only diehard fans know who either guy is.

We are a sick bunch.

***

After watching the replay of Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, it’s actually going to be tougher than I thought to continue watching that fight.

The first four rounds are outstanding. They live up to what they were in my head when watching it live.

However, at the end of the sixth round when Pacquiao buckles Cotto on the ropes, it’s game, set, match.

I guess I’ve earned so much respect and admiration for Cotto that it’s extremely tough to watch those final rounds. Outgunned but still fighting.

Doesn’t take anything away from what Pacquiao did, and I still can’t wait until PacMan and Floyd Mayweather fight. But I won’t be watching those final rounds too much.

Coming off his best victory in his young career in the Ultimate Fighting Championship back in August, former Oklahoma State wrestler Jake Rosholt couldn’t follow up on it.

Rosholt tapped out to a triangle choke in round one against Kendall Grove at UFC 106 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Rosholt scored a takedown and was able to get into the mount position, but Grove maneuvered his way out of trouble. Not too long after, Grove was in control and forced the submission with 1:01 left in the first round.

With the loss, Rosholt is now 6-2 in his Mixed Martial Arts career and 1-2 in the UFC.

***

This loss hurts as Rosholt was really gaining some momentum after his win vs. Chris Leben. Now it’s back to the drawing board.

He should get another shot, but the road just became that much tougher for the former OSU star. Friend and Team Takdedown member Johny Hendricks fights at UFC 107 in Memphis.

***

Getting ready for a bevy of goodies right now. We have UFC 106 in 35 minutes with Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin as well as Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler in the Super Six super middleweight boxing classic on Showtime. Fun time to be a fight fan. Back later tonight or early Sunday.

Former Oklahoma State wrestler Shane Roller scored a third-round submission victory at the World Extreme Cagefighting event in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Down early, Roller worked himself back into the fight before making Danny Castillo tap out to a rear-naked choke in the third round.

It is the second consecutive win for Roller, who is now 7-2. Roller also earned a $10,000 bonus for “Submission of the Night.”

The victory has put Roller in line for a potential WEC lightweight championship bout in the future.

***

I give Roller a lot of credit, both in this fight and his career. I had all but counted him out once he was 5-2, but he’s made some real strides in the last year.

Watching this fight late late Wednesday, thought Castillo was going to win. But Roller stuck with it and absorbed the early blows.

Now that Roller has won, it’ll be interesting to see if former OSU wrestler Jake Rosholt can earn a win at UFC 106 on Saturday to keep the good times rollin’ for the Team Takedown members.

***

The story from WEC 44, of course, was the dismantling of Mike Brown by Jose Aldo. Wow, what a showing. Never thought it would happen like that.

Aldo was just too strong all night for Brown. Too slick, too. Impressive display.

When UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar pulled out of UFC 106, I wasn’t sure how the promotion was going to make me care about the card.

Job well done when it was announced Tito Ortiz’s return to the Octagon would be against Forrest Griffin in a rematch from their bout several years ago.

Griffin needs this win…badly. He’s a very popular figure among the Average Joe, but back-to-back losses (albeit against some of the best in the world) have hurt his marketability.

How much does Ortiz have left? No idea. He says he’s in great shape and all the time off to have surgeries has him ready to go. That might be true in training, but what is going to happen when he takes a hit?

I’m just not sure how Ortiz can come back after such a long layoff and win this one. If he does, hey, it adds to his all-time credentials. But that is really asking a lot.

I hate to say Ortiz can’t win this fight, but I do believe that his best chance is if Griffin hasn’t mentally recovered from his last two fights, and he’s the one that makes the mistake.

Also very interested in seeing if one of “my boys” Anthony Johnson can deliver against Josh Koscheck. Johnson is one heuckva entertaining fighter, and it seems like he should be ready to take that next step. A win Saturday will certainly help his cause.

***

In a prelim bout to UFC 106, former Oklahoma State star Jake Rosholt will be taking on Kendall Grove. Normally these bouts aren’t shown on PPV depending on time restrictions.

However, this one will be different. Spike will show a select number of bouts and this looks like it will be the unofficial ‘main event’ for Spike.

Rosholt is coming off the biggest win of his career in August while Grove has won two of his last three fights.

***

Good to hear Brock Lesnar is home from the hospital. Who knew how sick he really was? It’ll be a while before he’s healthy, but he’ll be a force once he gets back.

***

Bored on a Wednesday night? Former OSU wrestler Shane Roller is competing tonight on VS. during the WEC 44 card.

Mike Brown, twice the conqueror of Urijah Faber, is taking on Jose Aldo in the main event.

Roller is taking on Danny Castillo in a bout that all the sudden looms large for the former Cowboy. The division has no clear-cut star, and a win here might put Roller in line for a title shot.

***

Saturday will also mark the rubbermatch between boxing and MMA (Boneman’s note: Slip up there). Strikeforce won round 1 with Fedor’s KO of Brett Rogers totally destroying a boring boxing match with Chad Dawson beating Glen Johnson.

Boxing turned it around the next week with Manny Pacquiao’s 12th-round TKO of Miguel Cotto against a rather pedestrian decision win for Randy Couture at UFC 105.

Now we get UFC 106 against the final bout of the Super Six: Andre Ward vs. Mikkel Kessler. As a fight fan of all styles, November has been very very good to me.

I like to think I’m not naive. I get it, sometimes the best things in boxing – the most logical things – don’t ever actually happen.

If it did, Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad would have had a rematch in 2000. Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins would have met in 2002. The list goes on and and on and sadly, on further.

But if Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather don’t fight within the next 6-12 months, something is seriously wrong with the sport.

The blame would be everywhere. It would be with the egos of the fighters, the promoters being unable to hammer out a deal. It would be devastating in trying to earn that common fan back.

Boxing is riding a high right now after back-to-back PPVs that put up monster numbers with Floyd Mayweather’s wipeout of Juan Manuel Marquez and Pacquiao’s legendary outing Saturday vs. Miguel Cotto.

Strike while the iron is hot. Heck, you don’t know when it will be this good again.

There is no doubt in my mind that Pacquiao wants this fight. None. You look at his resume. Believe me, if he wanted to avoid a fight, he would have done it by now. Three fights with Erik Morales, two with Marco Antonio Barrera and Marquez. Battles with De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and now Cotto.

The ball is in Mayweather’s court. I won’t say it is in PacMan’s.

Pacquiao can fight anybody he wants because he won’t duck anybody, but if Mayweather wants anyone to take him seriously again, his options are: retire or fight Pacquiao.

Even Shane Mosley has taken a backseat in the Mayweather stakes. It has to be Pacquiao. And it has to be within the next year.

Everyone loved Pacquiao before Saturday but after the Cotto fight, all the sudden these all-time pound-for-pound lists are being released.

I don’t have enough boxing knowledge to say anything like that, but I’ll say don’t count out Mayweather. There isn’t a smarter fighter in the ring. I don’t know the last fighter who has the type of intelligence that Money Mayweather has.

I don’t think Mayweather would knock out Pacquiao, but I’m not sure if PacMan would ever find Mayweather with his shots. I get giddy just thinking what could be, though.

This is as close to the biggest fight we could possibly see. It would easily be the biggest fight of the decade…easily. I actually think, age-wise, both guys are a year or two removed from their prime. No biggie, you can’t notice it because they’re so much better than everyone else.

It would also be a personal conundrum as not only would I be torn on who I think would win, I would be just as torn on who I want to win. I’ve been a huge fan of each guy for a long, long time. I remember the Pacquiao with the hilites in the hair and the No Fear gear. I remember the baby-faced Mayweather against the likes of Genaro Hernandez.

So half-jokingly I say give ‘em each $30 million. I don’t care about how bad the economy is when it comes to this fight. Pay ‘em, and let’s see who really is the best fighter of the generation.

***

Seems I struck a chord with a reader or two regarding showing Miguel Cotto’s wife and son Saturday night. Let me clarify my stance: it’s all about the context when you’re doing something like that. All about context.

What I didn’t like was this was like at the end of the ninth or 10th round in a fight Cotto was taking a beating. I don’t need to be reminded of something like that during that particular moment.

If it was a back and forth battle and you could still see Cotto perhaps winning, I think I would have been OK with it. Like after the third round would have been fine with me, the fight was still up in the air at that point.

***

Been fun riding the PacMan wave and the buzz he’s created. But now it’s time to look ahead to the final matchup of the first round of the Super Six between Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward. I’ll also have some UFC 105 thoughts as well as some thoughts on UFC 106 this weekend featuring Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin.

Well, I’ll be honest. I did not expect Fedor’s fight to be all that competitive or exciting. It was both, so score one for Strikeforce.

Fedor stopped Brett Rogers (as if you didn’t know that by now) with a thunderous right hand in the second round of their heavyweight bout Saturday night on CBS.

I think if I watched it again that I wouldn’t say it was all that competitive. But watching it live, seeing Fedor’s face a crimson red probably swayed my opinion.

Because if you take out the left jab by Rogers that appeared to break Fedor’s nose, Rogers really didn’t do anything. Of course, you can’t take that out because boy, did that add drama to the contest.

Almost looked like Rogers was gassed with about 1:30 left in the first round, though. He tried some ground-and-pound tactics and looked like he had nothing left in him after that.

Once Fedor landed that right, I initially thought referee Big John McCarthy stopped it too soon. No, that was a good stoppage. Rogers was spent and was defenseless at that point.

Great US national TV debut for Fedor.

Over on HBO, light heavyweight boxer Chad Dawson nearly put me to sleep with his win over Glen Johnson.

I get that it was a very efficient performance from Bad Chad. It’s just not one that is going to make a casual viewer say ‘hey, I need to see that guy again.’

Dawson controlled everything and negated Johnson’s offense. But the bout never really escalated into anything, and I think a comfortable 117-111 or 116-112 decision sounded about right.

Not sure where Dawson goes from here, but I still like the kid. I just can’t convince anyone else to like him after his last couple of bouts.

***

It’s here. Less than a week away from Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Does this have Fight of the Year written on it? Boy, I hope so.

MMA counters with UFC 105 with Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera as the two sports duke it out all month. Last week’s edge goes to MMA.

And of coure, Thursday is the boxing event from Remington Park, featuring cruiserweight Eric Fields and Oklahoma lightweight champion Noah Zuhdi.

It was a busy Saturday night in both boxing and MMA. I’ll have more thoughts on Fedor’s big, exciting win over Brett Rogers and Chad Dawson’s sleep-inducing decision against Glen Johnson on Monday.

This week is another big one in boxing and MMA. There is UFC 105 featuring former Oklahoma State star Randy Couture and of course, the huge boxing PPV between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.

But before that, we have a night of boxing at Remington Park on Thursday. I had a chance to catch up with Oklahoma lightweight champion Noah Zuhdi and cruiserweight contender Eric Fields last week.

Here is a short video with Zuhdi. The one with Fields will run later this week as will a story on how Fields started his boxing career.

This weekend begins three straight weekends of major MMA events going head-to-head with major boxing fights.

Very interesting to see who will win these mini-wars. Boxing picked up a big W with Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez going up against UFC 103.

This week, I’ll give the edge to MMA. I’m pumped to see a Fedor fight live when he takes on Brett Rogers on CBS. I’ve watched so many on the ‘Net that it’ll be great to see what all the rage is about.

Rogers is talking a big game, which I like. I’m glad he’s got the confidence and as a fellow Chicago boy, I can appreciate that. Still don’t think he has a chance of beating Fedor, but things change quickly in MMA and boxing. One punch can turn a career around.

The buzz has been great and CBS has done a good job in trying to promote it as much as possible. I think they can hook a lot of viewers Saturday afternoon with the Alabama-LSU football game.

Over on HBO, we have the light heavyweight rematch between Chad Dawson and Glen Johnson. Dawson won a close unanimous decision the last time these two hooked up.

Most thought it was a draw and maybe Johnson pulled it out. Kinda the same old story for Johnson.

You know I’ve been a Dawson supporter, but my support expires Saturday night if he doesn’t do more than what he’s been doing.

Maybe I want him to be better than what he really is. I just feel like he should be able to put all the pieces together and become not only a huge star but a great fighter, too.

Either way, prob watch Fedor live and catch Dawson on a replay. Or actually depending on when the fights happen, should be able to see both live.

Also getting closer and closer to Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. I’m salivating at this one. This is going to be fun. Still on the fence. I got a week to make up my mind.

***

Put in the Noah Zuhdi video to NewsOK late Thursday night. Hopefully that will be posted later today or this weekend. Saving the Eric Fields video for when his story comes out Thursday.

Zuhdi and Fields will be a part of the Remington Park boxing card Thursday night. Tickets are still available. For more info, head on over to www.catboxentertainment.com.

***

And of course if you haven’t heard by now, UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar has mono and has been forced out of UFC 108 in January against Shane Carwin. Hey, hope Brock gets better. Still one of my favorites to watch.

Here in a few short hours, I plan on going to a sparring session with Ardmore cruiserweight Eric Fields and Oklahoma lightweight champion Noah Zuhdi.

No, they’re not sparring each other.

Fields has breathed fresh life into the Oklahoma City boxing scene. Names like Zuhdi, George Tahdooahnippah and Carson Jones have been around for a while. Each has had a fair share of success, but Fields might have a chance to eclipse them all.

Fields is an interesting story in that I know he didn’t have much amateur experience, yet he is a two-time National Golden Gloves champion.

I’m interested in learning why Fields decided catBOX Entertainment was the best option to go to. It was a real shot in the arm for the promotional group to get such a world-class boxer.

Bringing along my trusty video camera to get a little one-on-one time with the two of them and that should be posted late this week or early next week.

Fields and Zuhdi are among the fighters with bouts at Remington Park next Thursday (Nov. 12). Tickets are still on sale. For more info, head on over to www.catboxentertainment.com.

***

With Kelly Pavlik out, looks like it’s been confirmed that Paul Williams will take on Sergio Martinez.

If styles make fights, this should actually be tougher for Williams. Pavlik was a straight ahead, no nonsense-type of fighter. Martinez is a crafty lefty who isn’t afraid to box, box, box, to get the job done.

***

Received a couple of e-mails as to why Brett Rogers will beat Fedor on Saturday. But this one says it all: “Because he’s American.” Nationalistic pride runs deep with me in boxing and MMA, so though not the most articulate, I like it. But I still don’t give him a chance vs. Fedor on Saturday night on CBS.

I didn’t watch the live telecast of Joseph Agbeko and Yonnhy Perez, too busy watching Oregon destroy USC. As a Notre Dame and Oklahoma fan, always nice to see the Trojans get touched up.

But I caught the West coast replay. Boy, am I glad I did. I have to watch it again to fully dissect it, but it was one heck of a scrap.

For the record, I gave it to Perez because of the questionable 10th-round knockdown. I didn’t give him a 10-8 round because of it, but it did switch a 10-9 to Perez instead of Agbeko for a finaly tally of 115-113.

Those 117-110 and 116-111 cards for Perez were crazy, but you just shrug your shoulders at this point.

What I loved most about this fight was both men from the opening bell decided it was going to be a war.

Nobody was going to give an inch, and we were going to be in that proverbial phone booth for 12 rounds. Agbeko looked so dominant against Vic Darchinyan this summer, but Perez was ready to go toe-to-toe.

My only complaint is that nobody was ever really hurt, so it can’t be an all-time classic. It can’t be something like Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo or Irsrael Vazquez-Rafael Marquez. Instead, it’s more going to remind me of Paulie Ayala-Johnny Tapia.

A great fight, maybe Fight of the Year. Great shots landed by both fighters but none of them actually making an impact. In a fight like that, you can always make an argument one way or the other. Hope it leads to a rematch. They’ve earned the payday.

Regardless, a pleasant surprise on a night where I wasn’t looking for an entertaining tilt.

Unlike this weekend where I am expecting Chad Dawson to bring the goods against “the ageless wonder” Glen Johnson. If Dawson wants to remain “one of my boys,” I need to see a complete performance from him. He’s got so much potential, just want to see him put it all together.

***

Get that clicker hand busy as to go along with that bout will be Fedor against Brett Rogers on CBS. CBS has hyped this up pretty good in the last week.

As of today, I think Fedor wipes the floor with Rogers. But I’m willing to listen to a Rogers fan as to why I should give their boy a chance.