Tito Ortiz Has Not Evolved as an MMA Fighter

I swear I didn't write this... when I saw it I thought Sam Caplan took the words right out of my brain and planted them on CBS' website. Caplan uses the word 'evolve' as I have with regard to Matt Hughes and I often use the word evolve in reference to fighters and their fighting styles as I cannot agree with Caplan more when it comes to the modern day Mixed Martial Artist, Tito Ortiz.

From CBS Sportsline:

"Tito Ortiz could be in store for his second consecutive loss if he ends up fighting Rashad Evans at UFC 71 in May. Evans, while being less experienced than Ortiz, is a superior standup fighter. Ortiz is noted for his ability to take down fighters and beat them with his superb ground and pound game. But he did a poor job of setting up his takedowns against Chuck Liddell at UFC 66 and could struggle to get Evans, a former amateur wrestler at the collegiate level, to the ground. This could be the beginning of the end for Ortiz, who has failed to evolve as a fighter or earn a notable win since 2002.

One could counter and say that Ortiz's split-decision victory against Forrest Griffin last April at UFC 59 qualifies as a "notable" win, but many felt Griffin was the true winner of that fight and Griffin was TKO'd by Keith Jardine at UFC 66. Few fighters are more dangerous than Ortiz when it comes to striking from someone's closed guard, but his standup is still suspect and his submission ability is questionable, at best."

There has been a trend with 'balls against the wall' MMA writing as recent as the CBS article and also the Sherdog piece by Jake Rossen which 'outs' what Jake believes to be 9 tired and washed-up MMA fighters.

I love it. I've taken heat for writing with passion and honestly, I don't give a shit. When you are a fan of MMA and expect to see the top fighters in the world (ready for this one..) fighting the top fighters in the world and not fighting against some marketing tool fighter just to bring in PPV buys then AMEN!!!

As a fan, I want to read the real shit and not some reworded piece of crap article that I read three times prior. Give me passion, intensity and a desire to let it all hang out just like the attributes us fans expect from the fighters we pay to see fight.

We aren't writing about Lawn Bowling ya know!