I love these UFC Primetime shows. The current installment, for Rashad Evans v. Quinton Jackson on May 29, promises to be the best yet because of the history of trash-talking between the two parties. Episode 1 was exactly what I expected, full of training highlights, ego-massaging, and a whole lot of shittalking.
Head over to MMAWeekly and check it out.
“I don’t really like to say I hate people, hate’s a strong word. But I dislike that motherf—er.” – Rashad Evans
Despite what ended up being a very decisive loss to Minotauro Nogueira on Saturday night at UFC 102, Randy Couture proved that he still belongs in a UFC Octagon. At an astonishing age 46. After the fight, the UFC endorsed the notion that Couture still has ’it’ by extending his contract, leaving him with a six-fight commitment and 28 months of service remaining on his deal.
In other words, Captain American is going nowhere, and we can look forward to seeing him throw down for a few more years. Right up to age 48.
More after the jump!
So this is it, the last episode of the season, the episode that determined an opponent for Damarques Johnson at the Ultimate Finale.
The show opened with Henderson having a rib dinner with Team US and talking war wounds with Frank Lester. Lester says he doesn’t want cauliflower ears, but Henderson says he likes them.
Bisping also has dinner with his team, though on a different night it seems, and after he leaves Andre Winner tosses some curry at Dean. Dean proceeds to toss Winner in the pool, and then Dave Faulkner hits him with a face full of flower. Everyone had a good English laugh, but that toss into the pool seemed rough on the ribs and could have turned out poorly.
The episode revolves around Frank Lester, who is fighting James Wilks in a rematch of the fight that cost him his front teeth.
More after the jump!
It was week two of the semi-final fights, and I must say it was a fun but simple episode all about the fights.
This week saw two of the last three fights to determine who would compete on the season finale.
First up was Cameron Dollar from Team US vs Andre Winner from Team UK. The fight saw Andre Winner win due to the fact that he was simply better than Dollar in all aspects, his striking was crisp and he was able to repeatedly stuff Dollar’s shot. The end came when Winner was taken down but landed in the mount and rolled it into a triangle choke to finish in the first round.
The second fight was Ross Pearson of Team UK vs Jason Dent from Team US. I must say the editors fooled me this week. When we saw Ross dislocate his shoulder in practice and have it fixed Martin Riggs style, I assumed it would factor into the fight.
It did not.
This week was the beginning of the semi-finals and started with the coaches meeting with Dana about the fights. Both guys didn’t see a need to meet with the fighters since they could agree on all the fights, but Dana wanted to anyway. All the discussions went fine and then Cameron Dollar said he wanted to fight his teammate, Jason Dent.
This gives Dana the idea that they should have teammate vs. teammate to ensure the finale is guaranteed US vs UK. The coaches disagree completely, Bisping says “they” are worried about not having a guy in finale, which causes Hendo to laugh and say he must mean Dana when he says “they”. Dana tells them not to say anything to their guys.
Dana announces the fight and decided to leave it with US vs UK, to Dan Henderson’s obvious surprise. The semi-finals are Damarques vs Nick, Cameron vs Andre, Ross vs Dent and Wilks vs Lester.
I know I have missed a few weeks, but let’s get caught up before the semi-finals.
So if you haven’t been watching, you have missed: the steady rise of Damarques Johnson as Team USA captain, Michael Bisping getting under his skin, Team UK getting along great and Team US’s feelings towards one another changing after every loss or win.
In Episode 5 Andre Winner from Team UK beat Santion Defranco in convincing fashion. Once the fight moved to the ground Santion turtled the same way he did in the qualifier, but this time Winner didn’t let up and the red stopped the fight in the 1st round.
Following this fight Team US’s morale was at an all time low, and when a fight almost broke out in the van after training, Henderson had to be called in to lay down the law as if they were children. In contrast to this, Team UK had a fun day playing on the trampoline back at the house.
The second fight of the episode was Damarques Johnson vs Dean Amasinger and in a weird twist, Bisping didn’t show up to corner Amasinger. Johnson won the fight with a triangle choke in the first round. If you recall from the elimination bouts, Dean was almost caught in a triangle repeatedly in his fight.
I know I have missed a few weeks, but let’s get caught up before the final qualifier to the semi-finals.
So if you haven’t been watching, you have missed: the steady rise of Damarques Johnson as Team USA captain, Michael Bisping getting under his skin, Team UK getting along great and Team US’s feelings towards one another changing after every loss or win.
In Episode 5 Andre Winner from Team UK beat Santion Defranco in convincing fashion. Once the fight moved to the ground Santion turtled the same way he did in the qualifier, but this time Winner didn’t let up and the ref stopped the fight in the first round.
I’ll start by apologizing for missing last week: I’m sorry, let’s get caught up. The younger Browning may be worse than his brother, since he started being a jackass before he even earned his spot in the house. The upside was that it sparked a discussion in which everyone else agreed that people would respect one another and their things, and that the use of bodily fluids was off limits.
Frank Lester KO’d himself going for a takedown, which earned Kiel Reid his spot in the house. Post fight we got to watch a groggy Lester trying to trash talk Kiel Reid who was celebrating like he had just beat Fedor.
Thankfully Jason Dent only took a couple minutes to feel out Rob Browning’s skills before just beating him up until the ref stepped in. Dent utilized some fantastic knees to the body on the ground.
So our teams are now set as we begin the first regular episode of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK.
More after the jump!
Welcome to week two, in which we find out who will be joining Team U.S. coached by Dan Henderson.
Right away team U.S. looks foolish in comparison with Team U.K. when Jason Pierce faints during Dana’s initial speech. This wasn’t the result of simple overwhelming excitement; Pierce had just cut down from 180lbs to 169lbs.
Christian Fulgium is forced to quit before he even gets near the octagon when he is unable to make weight, which Dana kindly lets him know he will regret forever.
However the most unfortunate setback is for David Shackleford, who has a herpes legion on his forehead and is sent home by the doctor.
The fights begin once Dana White gives a final angry and bewildered speech about not being prepared and how hungry the U.K. guys are.
More after the jump!
Hey, it’s been a while. Get ready to sit down with me for the 9th season of The Ultimate Fighter. The spin this season is based in some good old-fashioned nationalism. I say if it is good enough to start a couple of World Wars, it should be enough to get us all fired up.
This season, lightweights and welterweights from Team America (coached by the man of many nicknames) “Dangerous,” “Hollywood,” Dan “Hendo” Henderson will square off against Team UK, coached by season 3 winner Michael “The Count” Bisping.
Our first episode is set inside the Wolfslair, Michael Bisping’s gym, where 16 men fight for a spot on Team UK. With 8 fights and only one shown in montage, it was an entertaining episode.
We start with Andre Winner (9-2-1) beating Gary Kelly (2-1-1) with a big knee from the clinch 2:45 into the first round. Poor Gary Kelly was not only the first man to lose a fight on the episode; he was also the first guy to be subtitled while speaking English.
He definitely was not the last though.
More after the jump!
