Mixed Martial B0nes

The UFC Fight Night 13 has come and gone. I’ve been able to watch it, watch it again, and then re-watch it for good measure. I’ve come away with a few thoughts. The match ups were actually not too bad. There was a really good mix of fighters this time out and very few couch potatoes if you don’t count Tim Boetsch who got dropped in the second round of his fight. Our Ultimate Fighter Alumni fare ok although some of them could have done much much better. I’m talking to you Farm Boy! Just don’t hurt me or try to find me or… hey, how about I buy you a few beers buddy old pal! We also got to see the debut of the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. Was it everything we hoped and dreamed for?

Joe Lauzon was handled without mercy by Kenny Florian late into the second round of their fight. They were pretty even for a while there. This match easily scores as best of the night. That is, unless of course the un-aired Clay Guida or Manny Gamburyan fights were as action packed as this one. I remember Joe on the Ultimate Fighter 5 and he was one of the short listed guys to win it all. It’s funny that he headlines this event while the guys that advanced further than him are second and even no-billed at all.

Tommy (The Farm Boy) Speer was handed an embarassing loss to Anthony Johnson. It wasn’t a good sign when we saw Matt Hughes in his corner. Hughes probably handed Speer a Bible and his patented “gameplan” for Johnson. It was obvious that Tommy was going to try to take this one to the ground and then do some pounding or submitting from there. He did so by charging in with his head wide open and just got rocked by punches that kept coming. He ended up in a little ball on the side of the Octagon. He should have abandoned the gameplan when he discovered that his head was hurting a bit. I hope Tommy does better. He certainly was my pick to win last season. Of course, the mad Vegan Big Mac Danzig had something to say about that.

Nate Diaz is the real effing deal. As much as I can’t stand the guy and believe that he walked away with a fake win on the Ultimate Fighter 5, he is proving himself to be one of those elite fighters. His match with Kurt Pellegrino really proved that he can’t be beat even when he is soundly getting beat. Kurt controlled and layed the beat down on Nate for almost his entire match. Then somehow, he found himself in a triangle complete with double birds for good measure. Manvel the Anvil won his match as well. I will scream at the top of my lungs until it happens: NATE DIAZ VS MANNY GAMBURYAN MUST HAPPEN NOW!!!!

After all this bone crunching goodness, we got to see the new season of The Ultimate Fighter unfold. In a word best used by Forrest Griffin: Garbage. This was just the preliminary fights. 32 guys started shuffling into the gym and none of them had a clue what was going on. “Uh… usually there are only 16 guys on the show but all these other dudes kept walking in the door. We were all like, ‘WTF??!’” Hmmmm… you signed up for a show called “The Ultimate Fighter” and you know only 16 guys are on the show? Duh. So we saw some more fights by guys that were really really raw or “garbage.” So if they drag this part of the show out more, we’re looking at 2 more weeks of this junk. I can’t believe I’m jonesing for an upper-decker or a foosball table in the pool right now!

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Mac Danzig brought it to Tommy Speer last night on the Ultimate Finale.  It was a result that was hard to fathom going into the fight.  Tommy had shown no signs of giving up at all on The Ultimate Fighter.  That Mac was able to submit him shows that all the brooding talk (from Mac himself) of how he was better than everyone else was true after all.

The featured fight of the night was Roger (El Matador) Huerta vs. Clay (The Carpenter) Guida.  As predicted in my rant, The Carpenter hammered away at El Matador but in the end, Huerta won out.  It was a truly exciting match and from all appearances, Guida looked like he was going to win it all.  Huerta never lost composure, however, and came away with a victory by rear naked choke.

The fight between Ben Saunders and Dan Berrara didn’t match the bloodfest that was their fight in TUF6.  Both came back stronger and better trained but Saunders long legs helped to defeat Berrara in both the standup and ground games.  Ben didn’t finish it like he wanted but he got the decision which is really all that matters.

George Sotiropoulos completely outclassed Billy Miles with his ground game although he did a great job of trading punches.  Miles has a much better standup game and George was curious as to why Miles brought it to the ground.  Luckily for GeorgieBoy, Miles made that mistake.

Troy “Rude Boy” Mandaloniz vs. Richie Hightower:Upper-Decker Extreme Match1 2K7.  Rude Boy and Hightower traded some fierce blows in this mostly standup game.  Troy came out ahead with a great series of knees and punches.

Upper-Decker Extreme Match2 featured Jared (JRok) Rollins vs. Jon (Warmachine) Koppenhaver.  This was a truly bloody mess of a fight.  The ground and standup games of both of these guys were top notch.  JRok had Warmachine in submissions a number of times.  War just wouldn’t give up and a la Tommy Speers, came up with a bloody win.  Easily one of the best matches of the night.

All in all a great finale.  We got to see all of our favorites from TUF6 come back better and stronger.  We also saw a fantastic UFC match in Huerta vs. Guida.  Be on the lookout for all of these fighters.  They will be forces to be reckoned with for sure.

We are at the end of another chapter of UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter(TUF).  What a show it’s been!  From the drama of Roman not being able to fight, to Dorian flipping out and wanting a piece of the crew, to Paul experiencing the heartbreak of losing a close family member.  These lows have been compelling but the highs have obviously been the MMA action.  We’ve seen some awesome fights, especially from Tommy who doesn’t seem to understand that fighters actually lose sometimes.  Ben revels in combat and has a smile whether he’s pounding on someone or being pounded by someone.

Tonight we find out who will compete in the finals. After tonight, we will have to face another period of time without TUF to keep us company.  It’s clear that in it’s 6th incarnation, TUF shows no signs of fading away but nothing is perfect.  There are still some annoyances that plague this series and what better time to address these issues than before the start of The Ultimate Fighter 7?  Maybe Dana White and crew will take heart so that the next TUF show will be it’s best ever.

1)  Move the show to different venues around the country.  Vegas isn’t the only place with an octagon.  We’d be able to see more fighters and coaches in the UFC/MMA community.  Maybe the fighters would get into less trouble with the locals as well.  The finale should still be fought in Vegas to make the prize that much sweeter.

2)  Give the fighters something to do!  We’ve seen enough pranks and the recent “upper-decker” incident  has really taken us to a new low.  This is a popular show and Dana always stresses that this is an incredible opportunity for anyone lucky enough to make it on the program.  Make them go out into the community and help out someone.  If they based the show in New Orleans or Florida, they could build houses.  The UFC could and should represent itself in a better light.

3)  No more crying!  The sight of a grown man crying is a sad one indeed.  We don’t need Barbara Walter’s moments on a show about fighters.  It’s unfortunate that this makes for great TV but if we have to sit through another tearful rant (see Andy Wang TUF5), we might as well watch some Oprah.  Who knows?  We may get a new car!

4)  On somewhat the same note, no more losers talking about leaving the house.  Everyone knows the deal by now.  The opportunities in the UFC come to everyone in the house, not just the overall winner.  Maybe they need to do some psychiatric evaluations on everyone before they enter the house so they know who will make it the whole way without wimping out (see Joe Scarola) or worse, flipping (see Dorian) out!

5)  This one may be a tough one:  Reduce the chance of injury during training.  I don’t know how you could do this without compromising the quality of instruction.  Still, nicks, bruises, and black eyes are one thing.  Broken bones and herniated disks are an entirely different matter altogether.  The first show denied us the chance to see what Roman may or may not have been able to do.  We’ve also been denied the chance to see the fight that we’ve been sold on this whole season: Serra Vs. Hughes because of injury.  There’s another post devoted to this so we’ll leave it at that.

There you have it.  Five things that could push TUF to the next level.  Will they do any of this?  Probably not.  Oh well, I suppose there are worse things to see on television than a bunch of drunken idiots bashing their heads into walls and throwing foosball tables into pools!