Tito Ortiz New Beginning By Thomas Gerbasi

The UFC 59 fight poster read "Reality Check", and for five minutes, it certainly was for Forrest Griffin, who was battered for much of the opening stanza of his 2006 bout on the card by a man who had reigned over the light heavyweight division longer than anyone else in UFC history, Tito Ortiz. And though Ortiz no longer wore the belt around his waist, he had beaten Vitor Belfort and Patrick Cote in his two previous fights before a year long layoff and was looking at another run at the 205-pound title then held by Chuck Liddell. First he had to get past Griffin, the first winner of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, and a crowd favorite in Ortiz's own Southern California backyard, and he came out guns blazing in order to do so. "The first round, I think I was just fighting on emotions, how I always do," said Ortiz. "When you're fighting with emotion and aggression, the pain kinda gets put out a bit." For Ortiz, the pain centered on a bad knee and worse, a bad back -