Ortiz Stops Shamrock in First Round

For all the extended hype that surrounded the light heavyweight fight between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock at UFC 61 last night -- years of personal barbs exchanged between two of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's most recognizable fighters -- their second meeting ended in a swift fury.

Ortiz, the former 205-pound champion, stopped Shamrock 1 minute 8 seconds into the first round of their bout before a sellout crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

In the co-featured event, Tim Sylvia retained his heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Andrei Arlovski , whom he defeated for the belt via knockout in April.

Ortiz nailed a double-leg takedown shortly after the opening bell, slamming Shamrock to the ground and then employing his signature ground-and-pound technique while Shamrock lay against the fence. After a succession of unanswered elbows, referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the bout.

"I hit him with one elbow, and he went completely limp," Ortiz said in a telephone interview after the bout. "Herb Dean made the right decision."

In all likelihood, the fight should mark the end of a rivalry that has simmered for nearly seven years, one that appeared dead after their first fight in 2002 -- a thrashing by Ortiz that ended in a third-round stoppage -- and rekindled when the two fighters served as coaches on Spike TV's reality show, "The Ultimate Fighter."

Though Shamrock appeared visibly upset afterward that Dean had stopped the fight so quickly, a third fight between the two would seem counterproductive at this point, given that the 42-year-old Shamrock has now lost five of his last six fights while Ortiz, 31, eyes a title shot.

In his second fight since returning from a year-long hiatus, Ortiz finds himself back in contention to regain the belt he held from 2000 to 2004. Should champion Chuck Liddell defeat Renato Sobral at UFC 62, the logical scenario would have Liddell facing Ortiz early in 2007.

Of course, those plans may have been clouded with the announcement last night that, in November, Liddell would face Wanderlei Silva , the light heavyweight champion of the Japan-based Pride Fighting championship, should he beat Sobral.

"To me, my career right now is right where I want it to be," said Ortiz, who lost to Liddell in 2004. "If Ken wants to do it again, we can do it again. I want to make the fans happy. . . . If they want me fighting Liddell again, I'll fight whomever they have in front of me."

On the undercard, Joe Stevenson was successful in his lightweight (155) debut, defeating Yves Edwards via second-round stoppage; Josh Burkman won a unanimous decision in his welterweight (170) fight against Josh Neer ; and former heavyweight (265) champion Frank Mir won a unanimous decision over Dan Christison .

-- Andrew Levine