Maybe Rashad Evans camp was telling the truth when they said that he was fighting hurt in his 2007 encounter with Tito Ortiz.
Tons of "Tito!" chants filled the arena early, which possibly helped Ortiz score on his first double-leg attempt.
However, once "Suga" got back to his feet, it was all downhill for "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy."
Evans drilled Ortiz with a huge standing double-leg takedown, and followed up by some solid ground and pound.
Ortiz came extremely close with an arm in guillotine a la Ryan Bader, but Evans gets him into half guard and eventually pops his head out.
After surviving some more ground and pound for Evans, Ortiz went for a sloppy knee bar that wasn't even close, and that was the beginning of the end in a battle of former light heavyweight champions.
Ortiz looked like he was about to get back to his feet finally after getting ridden in side control for a couple minutes, but Evans lands a vicious knee to the body which caused Ortiz to drop down on all fours.
Evans then ended the fight with some ground and pound with less than 20 seconds remaining in the second round.
Afterwards, Ortiz surprisingly gave Evans a ton of credit for the win, calling him the better man on this occasion.
Ortiz is a mere 1-4(1) in his past six fights, but made it clear that he plans to fight again. Finding Ortiz's next opponent could be a head scratcher as it seems that he cannot hang with the light heavyweight division's elite anymore.
Perhaps a rematch with Matt Hamill in a loser leaves town type of scenario is a realistic possibility.
As far as Evans, he solidified himself as the next in line for a title shot likely in early 2012.
The current 205-pound champion, Jon Jones, defends the belt against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson next month at UFC 135.
Make sure to keep checking Bleacher Report for up-to-the-minute UFC 133 odds, predictions, play-by-play results and reactions!
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