Ladies and gentlemen, we have your semi-main event for UFC 106. Before we get to see Shane Carwin steal Brock Lesnar’s title belt from him, we’ll get to see “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz return to ring against Forrest Griffin. Here’s the news from MMA Weekly.

Tito Ortiz won’t have to wait until Mark Coleman is healthy to make his return to the Octagon. The former light heavyweight champion will keep his scheduled return date of Nov. 21 at UFC 106, as he rematches another former champion in Forrest Griffin.

The bout was confirmed by Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole on Thursday, citing UFC president Dana White as the source.

Ortiz will return to action nearly 18 months to the day he last stepped foot in the Octagon, dropping a unanimous decision to current 205-pound king, Lyoto Machida.

Since his exit from that fight, Ortiz flirted with several organizations after having back surgery to repair injuries he had been dealing with for years. In the end, Ortiz and UFC president Dana White put an end to their longtime feud, and the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” re-signed with the promotional giant.

Just days ago, Ortiz lost his original opponent as Coleman dropped out of the fight due to a knee injury. The former champion was boastful about staying on the November card against another fighter.

The last time that we saw Forrest Griffin, he was getting slaughtered by Anderson Silva at UFC 101. After he was knocked out at UFC 101, Griffin fled from the cage, never spoke to press, and ran all the way out of the arena. Since then, he’s done a couple of interviews, but seems to have gone out of his way to make sure that no one knows that he is alive.

Here’s the main question about this fight: Did this fight need to be on a card that already had MMA’s top draw Brock Lesnar on it? Wouldn’t this be better suited on a card like UFC 107 that is still in search of a semi-main?

None the less, I’m excited to see this rematch on November 21st. Last time these two met, Tito Ortiz pulled out a three round decision. This time, I have a feeling that it might end differently.