Grove beats Rosholt at UFC 106
LAS VEGAS – One thing’s for certain. Kendall Grove’s next fight, the sole remaining bout on his existing Ultimate Fighting Championship contract, will be against a formidable opponent and has the potential to be the most challenging of his career.
On Saturday at UFC 106, the Baldwin High School graduate and middleweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter: Season three reality television show defeated three-time NCAA wrestling champion Jake Rosholt of Idaho by triangle choke at 3:59 into the first round; and by doing so, propelled himself back into the spotlight.
In the night’s co-main events at the Mandalay Bay Event Center, Forrest Griffin defeated Tito Ortiz by split decision and Josh Koscheck beat Anthony Johnson by rear naked choke in the second round.
Coming off a decision loss to jiujitsu specialist Ricardo Almeida in August, Grove (11-2) expected a hard fight against Rosholt (6-2) who celebrated a dominating submission win over Oahu’s Chris Leben, also in August.
”He was real strong in certain positions, I’ll give him that,” Grove said after Saturday’s bout. ”But in other spots he was weaker than I anticipated.”
Both fighters came out scrappy at the bell and engaged in a brief standing exchange. Rosholt went for the take down right away, lifting the 6-foot-6 Grove into the air and slamming his back onto the mat. Grove maintained his composure, backed himself against the cage and used it to stand before Rosholt took him down again. This time, Rosholt connected with a flying knee to the face as Grove stood, but Grove shook it off, centered himself and took the wrestler to the mat.
”I didn’t panic,” Grove said. ”I heard my corner (”Rude Boy” Troy Mandaloniz and Justin McCulley) tell me ‘Two minutes,’ so I knew I had time. I told myself not to freak out, because that’s when things get bad in there.”
After working a ground and pound, inflicting heavy right jabs to Rosholt from half-guard, Grove gave up full-mount to Rosholt. Grove baited him by faking going for an omo plata submission before swiftly sinking in a deep triangle choke that had Rosholt tapping within seconds.
”It was weird because right before the fight, we were warming up with that same situation,” Grove said. ”The opportunity was there. I set him up and took it.”
Mandaloniz said that Grove has matured as a fighter and secured his spot as a UFC fighter with the win.
”Kendall has matured 100 percent,” Mandaloniz said. ”The way he trains, cuts weight, prepares for a fight. This match was extremely important. He came off a loss, Rosholt was coming off a big win against Leben and for Kendall to win it the way he did really showed that yes, he does belong in the UFC.”
Mandaloniz believes that Grove’s next fight will be tough.
”The first thing I told him is that he’s in for one hell of a fight,” Mandaloniz said. ”So, all I’m thinking is to get back to Maui and get him back in the gym. We’ll take any fight against anyone. Maybe it’ll be (Michael) Bisping? I don’t know. That’s what I’m kind of hoping. We’ll see. The main thing is we’re taking steps forward and we’re still shooting for, working our way to the top.”
Griffin won his rematch with Ortiz as two judges scored the fight 30-27 and 29-28 in his favor. The third judge had Ortiz, who beat Griffin in 2006, winning 29-28.
Both fighters exchanged blows throughout the first two rounds in a back-and-forth bout. Ortiz was able to take Griffin down to the mat multiple times and opened a cut under his left eye, but Griffin got the better of the stand-up and took over in the third and final round.
Griffin landed multiple kicks and punches to Ortiz and dominated the third round.
* The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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