Tito "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Ortiz returns to the Octagon tonight after an 18-month absence from competition. He will face an old foe, Forrest Griffin, in the UFC 106 main event, pitting two former light heavyweight champions now on the fringe of the divisional title picture.

The main card of UFC 106 is about to kick off at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, which means that the preliminary bouts are officially in the books.

Let’s get right to it.

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) alum, George Sotiropoulos and Jason Dent kicked off the night of action. The scrappy lightweights opened the first round with tentative feeling-out process on the feet and then quickly turned up the heat with brisk exchanges of punch combos.

As the stand-up battle continued to unfold, Sotiropoulos forced an abrupt change in gear with a double-leg takedown. The Aussie wasted no time passing to side control and keeping busy with elbows to Dent’s face and eventually securing mount. In the dying phase of the opening frame, Sotiropoulos successfully passed to a mount and hammered away at Dent, forcing Dent to cover up and cling to mercy for the bell.

The second stanza kicked off with both fighters bent on banging. 

After a vigorous exchange of strikes, Sotiropoulos snatched Dent’s leg off a kick to look for action on the mat. Sotiropoulos worked patiently from half-guard, moving to Dent’s back, and then to a north-south position. After Dent scrambled back to feet, Sotiropoulos powered him back to the mat where he moved to a mount and rained down a barrage of punches and strikes.

With less than a minute left in the round, Sotiropoulos grabbed Dent’s arm and rolled over for an arm bar. Forcing Dent’s arm to a breaking point, TUF season 6 alum earned his second victory at lightweight at 4:36 of round two.

The venerable lightweight veteran, Caol Uno, again failed to earn his first UFC victory in seven years against the UFC newcomer, Fabricio Camoes. If there is any consolation for Uno, he did not incur a loss in the three-round battle that raised the specter of Ortiz - Evans.

The first round saw Uno attack with a series of leg kicks and fend off Camoes’ offense on the ground. Uno allowed two takedowns from the Royler Gracie pupil, but survived the positional exchange after giving up his back and being forced to extricate himself from the submission peril. 

Camoes pursued ground battle after landing a nice right hand to start off the second round. He slammed Uno to the mat but ended up on his back: In the game-changing instance of the fight, referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the action to penalize Camoes for an apparent illegal upkick with a point deduction.

Undeterred by the unforeseen mishap, the Brazilian persisted with his offense, threatening with an arm bar and landing several nice hooks on the feet. Toward the end of the round, he ended up on his back after scoring a takedown but controlled Uno well from the guard and displayed a nice reversal. He ended the round with knee strikes from the clinch.

In the final round, both fighters dug deep into their gas tanks for a busy exchange on the feet and on the mat. Uno kept busy with leg kicks and right hands. Both fighters landed strikes in and out of the clinch and Uno followed up with a takedown. On the mat, Uno displayed attempts at guard-passing and landed several punches from the top. Camoes managed to keep Uno at bay in his guard and tried to lock up a kimura and scissor lock.

After the final bell, the judges unveiled the following scores: 29-27 for Uno, 28-28, and 28-28.

Much to Camoes’ chagrin, the accidental upkick cost him a victory over a high-profile name. Until next time for the UFC newcomer… 

With both men coming off losses in their last UFC appearance, Brock Larson and Brian Foster stepped into the Octagon to stay afloat in the sink-or-swim quest for relevance in the stacked division.

Larson utilized his brute muscularity and wrestling to tie up Foster in a clinch and take the fight to the mat in the opening round. Foster showed a nice reversal on the mat and proceeded to dish out relentless ground-and-pound on Larson. 

The seemingly overzealous Larson incurred a whopping two-point deduction in the first five minutes of the fight: Once with an illegal upkick to Foster’s eye that forced a brief stop in the action and then a knee strike during a guillotine choke attempt while Foster had one arm squarely on the mat.

To check out the rest of the UFC 106 results, including round-by-round, blow-by-blow action of the Spike TV and pay-per-view (PPV) broadcasts, click here.