The Flog!

The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 is really based on opposite attitudes toward training. GSP has brought great coaches with him and wants to act as a training partner toward the guys on this team. He said it was a “time for the guys to shine” and that they would be better MMA fighters when they leave the house. He wants them to learn to be better fighters. Koscheck‘s attitude is that of “mindless training”, for the fighters to do what he says in order to learn and “to win”. Very different approaches.

The first fight of the preliminaries was between Alex Caceres and Jeffrey Lentz, Alex’s pick. Dana White said he would not have had the fighter pick the opponent.

Koscheck’s strategy for the fight was to go for the knock out and, if that did not happen, the ground and pound. Lentz wanted to break Caceres, hurt him so badly that he would have to go home the next day.

Caceres (Bruce Leroy) was ready for anything, was planning on being calm, relaxed and letting things flow.

Round 1 had both men kicking.  Lentz got the clinch and held Caceres against the fence many times. He applied knees and twisted his hips several times in anticipation of an harai goshi, which didn’t quite happen. Caceres climbed on Lentz and tried a guillotine, unsuccessfully. Lentz managed a take down and then tried a guillotine of his own. Just before the buzzer Lentz threw Caceres with a very strong harai goshi.

Round 2 had both men throwing high kicks. Lentz had Caceres against the fence again. Caceres tried the guillotine and had a take down of his own. While on the ground, Caceres manoeuvred Lentz into a triangle choke. Tap out.

Although Lentz was the stronger, Caceres used his long limbs to great effect and won the match.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 is on Spike on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST.

ayjay

September 29, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 – Episode 1 aired last week. Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck are the coaches of these light weight fighters. As with last season, there will be seven preliminaries and the eighth fight will be between two losers to get the last slot.

The episode consisted of elimination fights, some shown in detail, others given the outcome only.

We had several rear naked chokes (hadaka jime), including one standing version:  Jeffrey Lentz, Alex Caceres (calling himself Bruce Leroy), Kyle Watson and Dane Sayers (the standing version)  all won by this technique. Alex Caceres came out in a yellow one-piece jumpsuit, looking like Bruce Lee in one of his movies. Koscheck said that Caceres looked like a banana, but he most likely didn’t get the point. Dane Sayers fought against a Gracie student who had a 76 1/2″ reach. Sayers over-extended himself  early on, but managed to complete the standing hadaka jime to win.

Cody McKenzie won his match with a guillotine.

Mike Budnik, a former pro-skater, threw his opponent, Nam Phan, with a kneeling seoi nage, not something we see often and one of my favourite throws. Phan won the match, though, with a painful-looking body shot.

Jeffrey Lentz, who won by rear naked choke, also threw his opponent with an harai goshi. We love those judo throws.

Andy Main won his match with a juji gatame.

In addition to these matches, we had a knock out, wins by ground and pound, and by decision for the remainder of the competitors.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 is on Spike at 10 p.m. Wednesday.

ayjay

September 21, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 Finale had Court McGee fighting Kris McCray for the title.  Prior to the main event, we had Jamie Yager fighting Rich Attonito to TKO with the win going to Attonito. Spencer Fisher fought Dennis Siver with Siver doing unusual kicks to the face and winning by unanimous decision.  Chris Leben fought Aaron Simpson with round 1 going to Simpson accomplishing huge take downs. By round 2, Simpson was gassed and Leben much fresher. Leben won by TKO. 

Keith Jardine then fought Matt Hammill. Jardine changed stances, switched from striking to kicks, looked fantastic. Round 3 had Hammill plodding, with hands low. He attempted take downs late in the match, but had limited success as Jardine avoided the ground. Hammill won by majority decision, mostly due to an inadvertent eye poke which caused injury in round 2; this resulted in a point being taken away from Jardine.

Kris McCray came into the finale undefeated at 6-0 and Court McGee was 10-1. From the beginning of round 1, McGee dominated the match. He achieved single and double leg take downs, none huge (unlike Aaron Simpson‘s take downs against Chris Leben), but all effective. After the TDs in round one, McGee applied some ground and pound.

Round 2 had McGee in full mount trying a choke. McCray flipped over with McGee on his back, but still managed to get up. McGee then did a double leg take down. While on McCray’s back, near the fence, McGee got one hook in, unable to get the other in due the proximity of the fence. He stretched McCray’s leg out with his own leg and worked on a rear naked choke until tap out.

Court McGee is the new Ultimate Fighter.

ayjay

June 23, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 Episode 10 brought us Rich Franklin and pals Forrest Griffin, Grey Maynard and Tyson Griffin to work with Kris McCray in his semi-final bout. The coaches analyzed McCray’s techniques and tapered his training before the match.

In the first match-up, we had Court McGee versus Brad Tavares. Tavares stated that he expected Court to try to take him down. Instead, he planned to stop the take down attempt and win by standing  with a straight right knock-out. Joe Henle said that McGee had better wrestling and better jiu jitsu than Tavares.

Their fight went to three rounds with round three being the most interesting: McGee tagged Tavares, who almost went down. Tavares then threw a knee to McGee’s face. Tavares was successful with his kicks but got tagged again and again. McGee used te guruma(which he’d used previously) to do a big take down. He was then on Tavares’s back with an instant body lock. He used a  rear naked choke and choked Tavares out.

Dana White went up to Tavares afterward and was very complimentary, saying this match was worthy of a final fight in The Ultimate Fighter.

The second match-up of this episode was between Kris McCray and Josh Bryant. The semi-finals are three rounds, so this went the distance, but had it been a two round fight, there would have been no third round. Josh Bryant was quite hesitant in the first two rounds. He was taken down and at the receiving end of many strikes. He attempted single leg take downs, but was unsuccessful. He seemed also not to be able to find his reach. McCray, on the other hand, followed the direction of his coaches to the letter.

Round three, though, had Bryant rocking McCray with a counter and then an uppercut. He then countered with leg kicks and strikes. After a  failed Superman punch by Bryant, McCray tried a take down. McCray spent most of this round with rubber arms and was actually wobbly. 

The decision went to McCray.

The final will be between Court McGee and Kris McCray.

The Ultimate Fighter is on Spike on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST.

ayjay

June 16, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 Episode 9 showed Jamie Yager‘s fight against Josh Bryant. Wrestler Bryant went into the fight undefeated. He stated that he likes to get inside and throw punches from there. His game plan was to hit Yager first and take him down.

Yager’s background is jiu jitsu, and at 6’2″  he had a substantial height advantage. Kyacey Uscola commented that Yager had good punches, good kicks and talent and speed.

Despite the height advantage which Yager had, both men had the same reach.

Round 1 had Yager coming in fast, but Bryant tagged him. Yager then attempted a head kick and succeeded with his other kicks. Bryant caught Yager’s leg and tried a take down and then clipped Yager again. Yager hit the ground and Bryant was in his guard.

Round 2 began with Yager’s kicks again. As with round 1, Bryant caught a leg and Yager went down with Bryant to his side. After some elbows by Bryant, Yager fence-climbed; then Bryant attempted a front guillotine. Yager’s hands were extremely low as Bryant threw strikes. They then leaned against each other, both exhausted. When, later on,  they were on the ground, Bryant in side control, Bryant applied ground and pound and then attempted ude garami.

The fight was to go to a third round, but Yager refused to answer the bell for the round despite Ortiz’s saying many times,”Don’t quit! Don’t quit!”. Yager had sustained some muscle damage to his neck.

Ortiz walked out after the match and was subsequently fired from the coaching position by Dana White. Since Ortiz couldn’t/wouldn’t fight Liddell due to his back injury, White wanted a coach who would fight. Rich Franklin was then introduced to the team as their new coach.

ayjay

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 is on Spike Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST.

June 8, 2010

Episode 7 of The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 covered lots of ground. Right off, we had the Wild Card fight between Kyacey Uscola and Kris McCray, both fighters having lost in their previous matches.

Since both men were from Ortiz‘s team, Ortiz said he would sit on the sidelines and “let the better man win”. McCray felt he was the underdog and Uscola talked about taking his opponent’s head off.

Round 1 had the men trading kicks and strikes. One of Uscola’s kicks was to McCray’s knee and looked painful. McCray took Uscola down twice  and Uscola achieved one take down. Very little time was spent on the ground although near the end of the round McCray controlled Uscola’s back and applied some elbows.

Round 2 began with McCray taking Uscola down and while in side control he applied a Kimura (ude garami) for tap out.

Ortiz looked a bit surprised at the outcome.

The quarterfinal fight announcements were made by Dana White. In addition, Nick Ring told White that he could not continue due to his torn ACL, which required surgery. White told the men in the house that he would be picking a replacement. Hammortree immediately went to White and told him that he wanted to fight. Joe Henle, unfortunately, was too slow to say anything and missed out.

The next fight, a quarterfinal, was between Hammortree and Court McGee. Hammortree said that McGee was one of the most well-rounded and tough guys in the house. He also said that he would let his hands go a bit more than the previous fight.

Round one began with McGee catching Hammortree’s leg and, while on his back, took Hammortree down. Hammortree eventually rushed McGee, but got taken down again. While standing, they traded strikes and kicks. McGee attempted a variety of techniques, including a rear kick. He took Hammortree to the floor and was in side control at the buzzer.

Round two began and ended quickly by Hammortree’s rushing McGee and exposing his neck. McGee put him in a standing front naked choke (guillotine) for tap out.

White said that McGee looks better every time he goes out there. He certainly controlled Hammortree and deserved the win.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 is on Spike on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST.

ayjay

May 20, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 had its last preliminary fight. Joe Henle fought against Seth Baczynski. Henle is relatively new to MMA, having only been professional for six months, with not much experience striking . Liddell said that he had the right attitude and that Henle wanted to show people what he could do. Henle has trained in MMA for seven years and won all his previous fights by submission.

Baczynski has been given a second chance in this season having been brought back due to McKinley‘s shoulder injury. Court McGee said that Baczynski has good hands.

Although Henle was the shorter of the two, he had a four inch reach advantage over Baczynski.

Round one began with Henle rushing Baczynski to take him down, ending in Baczynski’s open guard. He accomplished a second take down after which Seth attempted a front guillotine (hadaka jime). Henle stayed in the submission attempt for a long time, fighting it, and then passed to north/south. Henle then tried the anaconda on Seth and was very close to achieving it, causing Seth to turn purple for  a while. Henle then grapevined Baczynski and rolled, losing the grapevine and ending on the bottom with Seth in his guard. Baczynski then applied ground and pound.

Round two began with Baczynski trying a flying knee, but Henle connected with his own knee. Baczynski got his own take down. After some manoeuvring, Henle grapevined Baczynski, but he was too high up on the body and Seth rolled  out of it. Later on in the round, Baczynski tried a rear naked choke (hadaka jime), but it was far too loose to be effective.

Round three was the deciding round. Henle was exhausted and completely dominated by Baczynski. He spent most of the round on the bottom and could not accomplish anything from there. When he was on top, he was competent and had more skills than Baczynski.

The decision went to Baczynski. Dana White said that he was surprised at Henle’s abilities and thought that Baczynski was a far better fighter in his previous match. Liddell stated that for Henle’s limited professional experience, he did very well.

The Wild Card Announcement followed the fight. Kyacey Uscola is to fight Kris McCray. The winner of their fight gets back in to the mix. In addition, since Rich Attonito is unable to fight with his broken hand, Court McGee can continue to the next round.

This season of The Ultimate Fighter has far more injuries than previous seasons: we have a broken jaw, resulting in the fighter’s elimination, a broken hand, a shoulder injury requiring surgery and, in this episode, a knee with ligaments requiring surgery – Nick Ring‘s. During training, Ring’s knee gave out, a not uncommon occurrence for him. Ortiz manoeuvred Ring’s knee and the whole thing wiggled. The next episode promised someone else’s injury would cause another elimination. Is Ring out as well?

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 is on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST on Spike.

ayjay

May 16, 2010

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 Episode 5 had Ortiz picking the fighters, since his team member, Jamie Yager, won the last fight. He chose Kris McCray from his own team to fight Josh Bryant from Liddell‘s. McCray had an undefeated record of 9-0 as an amateur and 5-0 as a professional. Bryant also was undefeated at 10-0 going into this fight.

Liddell said Bryant was a tough, great fighter, although one of the housemates said Bryant was not the fighting type. One of Liddell’s coaches told Bryant to punch and feint. Although Bryant has a longer reach than McCray, as with most of Liddell’s team, he is shorter than Ortiz’s team member. Once again Liddell would miss the actual bout due to conflicting schedules.

This match-up seemed even during round 1, with both men attempting take downs. McCray was more efficient and successful at the take downs than Bryant, although when Bryant managed the TD, he tried a rear naked choke ( hadaka jime) on McCray.

The men switched positions and stood up, leaning against the fence and each other and did nothing for about half a minute. They were totally gassed. During the break, both corners were trying to get their guys to breathe.

In round two, the men were once again leaning against each other. Bryant got a take down, trapped McCray’s arm between his legs and attempted a Kimura (ude garami).

When standing again, Bryant swung wide shots and had a huge take down, totally controlling McCray.

McCray stood up and got his own TD by swinging Bryant’s body around and ended in Bryant’s guard. Bryant applied elbows from the bottom.

Round three had the men leaning against each other again. Bryant tried a TD with a leg pick and then threw a couple of strikes. McCray threw a knee and then tried the leg pick himself. After the referee split them up, Bryant threw some punches and McCray sort of fell. Bryant had side control and then was on McCray’s back, trying a rear naked again, but very slowly, enabling McCray to move the hand away.

Unanimous decision in Bryant’s favour. This time around, Ortiz did not rip doors off hinges. His only comments were regarding McCray’s cardio. During the training sessions, Ortiz had the men working extremely hard and he felt there was nothing else he could have done to make McCray’s cardio any better.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 TUF11 is on Spike on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST.

ayjay

May 5, 2010

UFC 107 contained some very strong submissions, stunning knock-outs and so-so fighting:

Frank Mir versus Cheick Kongo – Mir struck Kongo, partially putting Kongo out and then, from his back, applied a front guillotine. Mir had to tell Herb Dean that Kongo was unconscious. Dean lifted one of Kongo’s arms and watched it fall.Hadaka Jime – Front Naked Choke

When Kenny Florian fought Clay Guida, Florian struck a left and right and Guida went down. Florian grapevined him and applied a rear naked choke. Hadaka Jime – Rear Naked Choke

Damarques Johnson almost lost his match against Edgar Garcia when Garcia applied what is commonly called a Peruvian Necktie, a variation of a front guillotine. In this case, Garcia had his head to the floor, face down, and his legs at Johnson’s upper chest. Johnson fought the choke amazingly and managed to escape it. Later in the round, Johnson applied his own choke, Sankaku Jime – Triangle Choke, from the guard. He first up-kicked Garcia’s head, rocking him, and grabbing an arm, did a figure-of-four with the legs and Garcia tapped out. Submission of the Night.

The Knock Out of the Night went to T. J. Grant in his bout against Kevin Burns. Burns came close to knocking Grant out early in the round, but just before the buzzer for the end of round 1, Grant kneed Burns several times and then struck him on the jaw to knock him to the ground. Grant jumped on Burns and struck him four more times.

The B. J. Penn match against Diego Sanchez had the potential for fantastic ground game. Penn almost ended the match seconds on as he rocked Sanchez with a heavy strike, just as Joe Rogan talked about Penn’s striking abilities. He rocked Sanchez again near the end of the round. Sanchez was determined to take Penn to the ground, but Penn stuffed every attempt, and there were many – so many that the audience booed eventually. The single-leg take down attempts were consistently unsuccessful, but Sanchez continued to try them.

By the fifth round, Sanchez had many facial wounds, one of which was a vertical cut on the bottom lip. As with all the other rounds, Sanchez tried the single leg take down. He also dropped, but Penn sprawled his way out of the take down. When standing, Penn threw a kick to Sanchez’s face, striking him on the left forehead. This opened a huge gash, causing blood to gush down his body. TKO referee stoppage.

The Fight of the Night was a slugfest between Alan Belcher and Wilson Gouveia who stood toe-to-toe trading heavy strikes until a right upper cut by Belcher knocked Gouveia out.

My Opinion: If I were awarding the Fight of the Night, I would have given it to Johnson and Garcia. The men showed a variety of skills, standing and ground, were evenly matched and had an exciting bout. After Garcia struck Johnson successfully several times, Johnson actually gave kudos to his opponent during the match. It was fun to watch.

ayjay

December 15, 2009

The semi-finals matches for The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 were between Roy Nelson and James McSweeney and Brendan Schaub versus Marcus Jones.

Dana White said that Nelson had “impressed himself” with his bouts in The Ultimate Fighter. As for McSweeney, White said he was smaller than Nelson (but who isn’t?), but wants the win more and would outwork Nelson.

Rashad Evans commented that Nelson had pretty good stand up and great ground technique, whereas McSweeney had great stand up and not so great ground work.

Nelson’s preliminary bout had been with Kimbo Slice (click here to go to the article about this fight). His quarter final match was with Justin Wren (click here to go to that match).

McSweeney was at the center of the controversy in this episode. He wrote a derogatory comment on Zak Jensen’s head (Jensen was too trusting) and then blocked the bathroom door when Jensen was inside. Jensen told the camera that he was claustrophobic. When he was released from the bathroom, he went after McSweeney, who promptly put Jensen in a front guillotine.  Jensen is the fellow whom all the others had been picking on, who seems to lack social abilities. They even had a pool as to when he was going to go insane. McSweeney treated him poorly, probably thinking it was all a joke.

Click here to go to the articles about McSweeney’s preliminary and quarter final fights.

The semi-final between Nelson and McSweeney began with McSweeney applying a leg kick and Nelson’s countering with a strike. McSweeney changed stances, fired off kicks and strikes of his own. Nelson then rushed into McSweeney’s guillotine at the fence, but popped his head out.

McSweeney did some jabs and another leg kick and then started showboating, indicating to Nelson that Nelson should strike at his chin. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this. The guy drops his hands, struts about, says, in effect, come on, try it. Well, as in all other cases, Nelson did — he hit McSweeney with a hard right and rocked him.

Nelson then slammed McSweeney to the ground and moved from half guard to side control. He used the same technique that defeated Slice, grabbed the far arm, put his giant, fat belly on the opponent’s upper torso and face, trapped the near arm under a leg and used his fist to apply feeble little punches to the bit of head that’s exposed (generally the top of the guy’s head which he has no ability to defend against)  — in this case twenty-two bops. TKO referee stoppage.

White said that Nelson finally impressed him. After McSweeney’s antics, I’m glad McSweeney lost.

The remaining bout was between Marcus Jones and Brendan Schaub. Both these guys had been professional football players, but approached MMA differently: Jones has only been in MMA for two years and is extremely competent on the ground. He is also bigger than most people. Schaub is a tae kwon do and jiu jitsu guy with strong boxing skills.

Evans talked about Schaub’s “explosive punches” and Schaub said he would just let his punches go on Jones. Jones planned to take Schaub to the ground and do ground and pound.

In both of Schaub’s previous matches, he was taken down and worked from the bottom (click here for Schaub’s matches — preliminary and quarter final). The quarter final match was ugly and he should have been penalized for grabbing of the fence and his opponent’s shorts.

Marcus Jones impressed everyone with his preliminary bout against Wessel and quarter final against Schoonover.

In this semi-final, Jones took Schaub down immediately after a strike. He then went from half guard to full mount. Schaub moved from the bottom, managing to return to half guard and then to get up. A knee by Jones looked as though it would end the match, but Schaub struck out with his right hand and Jones hit the ground. Six shots followed while Jones was on the mat and the match was over.

Rampage Jackson went into the octagon to see to Jones, probably the first time he did that for any of the people on his team. He told the camera that if he had been alone, he might well have wept over the loss.

The finals of The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 TUF10 are on Spike on Saturday, the 5th of December, between Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub.

ayjay

December 4, 2009