Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin to settle trilogy at UFC 148

Tito Ortiz will face Forrest Griffin at UFC 148 according to the UFC  website earlier this morning. This will be the rubber match between the two former UFC light heavyweight champions that’s set to take place on July 7th, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The event will be headlined by the UFC bantamweight title fight with champion Dominick Cruz looking to defend his title against Urijah Faber for the second time. Faber defeated Cruz when he was the WEC featherweight champion back in 2007.

Tito Ortiz (16-10-1) is coming off a devastating TKO loss to former PRIDE standout Antonio Rogerio Nogueira back at UFC 140. Ortiz is (1-6-1) dating back to his UFC 66 title bout with Chuck Liddell which took place in December 2006.

The lone win came last year at UFC 132 when Ortiz was able to stun TUF 8 winner Ryan Bader and score a huge upset submission win in the first round. He then took an extremely short notice fight at UFC 133 a couple of weeks later where he suffered a TKO loss against former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans.

The two had fought to a draw in their initial encouter in 2007.  He first faced Forrest Griffin at UFC 59 which was Ortiz’s first fight back in the UFC after signing a new contract. He was able to dominant Griffin in the first round, but Griffin rebounded to make it a close fight which ultimately went to Ortiz via split decision.

Forrest Griffin (18-7) is coming off a first round TKO loss to former UFC light heavyweight champion Shogun Rua back at UFC 134. Griffin has been sidelined with injuries and been relatively inactive since losing his title to Rashad Evans at UFC 92 in 2008.

Griffin is (2-2) since then with both losses coming via devastating TKO’s against Anderson Silva and the aforementioned Rua. Griffin was able to take the rematch against Tito Ortiz via split decision which took place at UFC 106 in November 2009.

The fight was similar to the first bout  in that Ortiz won the first round, but Griffin was able to take the final two rounds, in particular the last round in which Tito Ortiz was totally gassed.

Tito Ortiz will reportedly retire after this fight as it’s the final fight on his current contract. Both fighters kn0w the game plan of their opponents very well, and this third fight will probably look a lot like the first two fights. Does Ortiz have one more win in him, or does Forrest have a little more left in the tank at this point?