TUF 13, Episode 3, April 13th, 2011

No excuses this time.  I've just been distracted.  I have several episodes still in my DVR to watch.  I better speed it up, though.  At this rate I will have finished posting about this seasons episodes around the time that Season 14 starts.   Actually, I am so far behind that one might ask, "Mike, why even continue?".  Well the simple answer is I don't like to leave things unfinished.  Better late than never I always say.  So for posterities sake, here is my take on Episode 3 of The Ultimate Fighter, Season 13.


Fight Selection
Team Lesnar has control.  Brock picks Len Bentley (Lesnar's first round pick) to fight Ryan McGillivray.  An in episode interview with Junior dos Santos reveals Junior's belief that Len is the better wrestler, but Ryan is a better striker.


The Drama
The drama from Episode 2 was the departure of Keon Caldwell.  Keon has now been replaced by Justin Edwards.


Episode 3's drama revolves around two issues with Team Lesnar, and one with Team dos Santos.  


The first is with Brock himself.  In my post on Episode 2 I mentioned Brock's comments, post fight, in their back room.  This is where his chicken shit to chicken salad tirade was made.  In the very beginning of Episode 3 Brock's team talk about how they were offended by being referred to as chicken shit.  Brock hears about it from his assistant coaches and decides to meet with his team and explain.  "Before you guys got on this show you were one in 2 million people.  You were just another fighter.  Just another 170 lb chicken shit, but now you guys are chicken salad.  Alright?  That's what I am trying to say here."  Not sure that works for me.  It takes some measure of guts to step inside the cage, and all of these guys have done that.  But, okay.  That's Brock's take on it.


The second drama is Chris Cope.  Chris was the winner of the fight in Episode 2.  He defeated, much to everyone's surprise, Javier Torres.  Now Chris has been labeled the snitch.  The double agent.  The one you should be careful discussing tactics, because he is too friendly with fighters from the other team.  Never mind that the fighters are all living together, and have to try and get along with each other.  Always with the knowledge that when the competition gets down to the final fighters you will potentially have to fight, and defeat anyone, no matter what team they are from.  Even if they have already been defeated, because injury or the psychological stress (quitters) could create opportunities for anyone to come back, and have a second chance.  The main proponent of this is Len Bentley.  As mentioned in the fight selection, Len has been picked by Brock Lesnar to fight Ryan McGillivray at the end of this episode.  Len approaches Brock about his concerns, and that he doesn't want his game plan discussed where Chris can overhear.  This is one situation where I feel Brock gave good advice.  "All my opponents study my fights, etc... don't get caught up in that (gesturing to Chris, but clearly indicating the house drama and mind games).  Your here for one reason only.  To fight!"  No actual subterfuge from Chris is discovered, but Len did review the final game plan the day before the fight with just the coaches.  This is good common sense anyway.  As I mentioned, anyone is a potential future opponent.


The drama with Team dos Santos actually rests on the shoulders of one of the assistant coaches.  Lew Polley, who was brought in as a wrestling coach, decides that Junior and the other assistant coaches are being too easy on the team.  Lew believes that a stronger coaching style is needed.  He briefly discusses this with the team, and then once training starts he is yelling at the fighters.  "Why are you on the cage?  Your losing right now!"  Not sure that I completely disagree, but his approach to the change was so abrupt.  The team members were looking at him like he's Jekyll and Hyde.  Also, the heightened intensity immediately causes injuries.  Shamar gets a bad cut over his eye during training.  Lew tells him to get taped up and be ready to come back.  Luckily Shamar has had his first fight, so he has some time to heal before the next one, but a recent cut over his eye could reopen.  Not good.  Junior is not happy with his style, and trying to take over the head coach responsibilities.  Junior takes the coaches aside and calmly explains that he does not approve.  Lew is a wrestling coach.  Focus on that.  Junior will decide how the overall coaching will be handled.


Pre-Fight Suspense
Ryan is weighing in at about 180 lbs a couple days before the official weigh in, so he will need to cut 9 lbs in a day.  Cutting weight is common, but it can be a factor in your fight conditioning.  If cutting the weight taxes your body to much, you can get gassed if the fight goes the distance.  Will this be a factor?  Let's see!


Round 1
No touching of gloves as the fighters meet in the cage.  Both fighters come out throwing heat.  About 25 seconds in Len connects with two hard jabs and drops Ryan.  Ryan is on his back, but not out.  Len goes in for the finish.  He tries to work his ground and pound, and Ryan defends.  With 4 minutes 18 seconds left of the round Len gets a full mount.  Len again tries to work his ground and pound, but Ryan keeps his head.  Ryan shrimps to his side and is able to work into half guard.  Len throws several short elbows.  Ryan defends as best he can, and works his way into full guard.  With 2 minutes 56 seconds left Ryan is able to get back to his feet.  Ryan gets a good front hook strike in.  Then a good right cross connects.  Another front hook and Ryan drops Len.  Ryan goes in for the kill, but Len defends and gets Ryan into full guard.  Ryan connects several body shots while in Lens guard.  Now with 1 minute 20 seconds left Len rolls and gets Ryan in a possible armbar.  Ryan does a good job of defending, but then with 54 seconds left Len gets the armbar in really tight.  Ryan's arm is slightly hyper-extended, but he does not tap out and successfully fights it off and gets free.  Ryan then attempts a guillotine with a possible, if he rolled, anaconda choke.  Len fights it and lasts the final seconds of the round.


Round 2
Round 2 starts with Ryan connecting right away with a quick jab.  Then a glancing cross.  A couple more jabs, with one really connecting hard.  Then Len starts coming back  Len throws a low rear round kick to Ryan's inside leg.  Then a front round to the body.  Len then connects with a strong jab.  He then attempts a spinning back fist, but misses.  There are several strong exchanges with neither fighter getting the upper hand.  Len throws a wild front hook.  Then Ryan starts throwing heavy hands and backs Len into the cage.  They clinch and Len goes for a guillotine.  No good.  Ryan goes for the double to sweep out both of Len's legs and take it to the ground.  He almost gets there, but no good.  They clinch again and Len starts throwing knees.  No damage given.  The cage side ten second warning goes off and Ryan goes wild with a flurry of strikes all connecting.  End of round.


The judges score cards get tallied and Ryan is the winner.  Ryan takes out Team Lesnar's first pick and regains control of the fights for Team dos Santos.


This was a great fight.  Both fighters represented themselves well.  At the end of the episode Dana makes a point to meet with Len and give him props for a great fight.  


Did you see the fight?  What did you think?  What was your take on the drama?

TUF 13, Episode 1, March 30th, 2011

The first episode of The Ultimate Fighter is under the belt, so to speak.  Not a bad start.  The first episode is usually subdued anyways.  The fighters meet at the UFC gym.  Dana White gives a speech to remind them of the opportunity they have.  Teams get split up between the coaches and they start training.  How all this happens always gets tweaked a little bit from season to season.

In past seasons potential competitors fought to see if they would make it in the house.  In season 13 the fighters were evaluated before the start of the season.  The evaluations were mini training segments.  No fights.  At the start of this season the final competitors were brought in, got their speech from Dana and then were told that they would not have to fight to get in the house, but would now be evaluated by the coaches.  The original evaluations did not have the final coaches for the season.  Only Dana White, trainers picked to evaluate and the producers of the show were there to decide.  I watched a video of the early evaluations and while interesting in itself I have always loved the fights to get in the house.  I found this season's process a little lacking in excitement.

The coaches evaluation was interesting, as you got a sense of the coaches styles.  Brock Lesnar focused on testing their cardio/conditioning, while Junior dos Santos put them in sparring scenarios to see what their skills were.  What were their strengths?  Also, Brock met and interviewed everyone, while Junior, although able to speak English (He is from Brazil) didn't feel he had the fluency with English to make that strategy meaningful.

After evaluations Dana met with the coaches and had them choose the teams.  Dana did the traditional coin toss to give one of the coaches their choice of either first pick for the fighter, or to pick the first fight.  Brock won the toss and picked the first fighter.  Here is a breakdown of the top pick for each team and the final.

Team Lesnar

1st - Len Bentley

7th - Nordin Asrih

Team dos Santos

1st - Shamar Bailey

7th - Keon Caldwell

As usually happens the first picks get the confidence boost, but high expectations from the coaches.  While the last picks now have something to prove.

Okay, teams have been chosen, now on to the Vegas mansion that the fighters will call home for the next several weeks.  Team Lesnar is stationed on the 2nd floor.  Team dos Santos is on the 1st.  Everyone is now trying to get comfortable.  The best comment during this acclimation was from the resident Brit, Mick Bowman.  In wonderful british accent.  "Our team will be in one room, the green team (Team Lesnar) will be upstairs in their bedroom.  We're not here to make friends, really?  Are we?  We're here to beat each other up."

Training begins, and early on we find out that TUF has already claimed its first victim.  In the coaches evaluation Myles "The Fury" Jury (Team Lesnar) injured his knee.  The doctor thought it was fine at the time, but decided to be safe and had X-Rays done.  Unfortunately, Myles completely tore his ACL and the back part of the lateral meniscus.  Medical opinion-Myles can't fight.  Out of the competition, and out of the house before its even begun.  Last minute replacement, Chuck O'Neil steps in to fill his shoes.

As Lesnar got to pick the first fighter, dos Santos got to pick the first fight.  I personally think its better to pick the first fight, because if you can take control early, and maintain the control you can ride it through a good part of the show.  Past coaches have shown that - George St. Pierre, Chuck Liddell & Rashad Evans to name a few.  For the first fight dos Santos picks Shamar Bailey (dos Santos first round pick) against Nordin Asrih (Lesnar's last pick).  Playing it safe?  Most definitely.  Shamar is a strong wrestler, and Nordin's only strength is striking.

This was a very one sided fight.  Shamar took it to the ground early in the first round and there it stayed.  Nordin had zero take down defense and once on the ground a sloppy guard.  Shamar was able to pass guard pretty much at will.  Nordin was only able to get a couple strikes in from his back and did no damage.  In the second round Nordin put himself on his back within the first ten seconds with a wild high kick.  Nordin did get a good reversal and almost had Shamar in a guillotine, but after that Shamar was in control, yet again.  Shamar got full mount twice, took Nordin's back and had excellent ground and pound in the last 40 seconds.  However, Shamar did not take any advantage to finish the fight.  He had several openings to attempt submissions, but never took them.  Dana White even commented that Shamar basically laid on top of Nordin for five minutes of the first round and then 5 minutes of the second round.  "Not the most exciting fight you will ever see, in Ultimate Fighter history."

In his defense, Shamar had this statement.  "Our game plan worked in my favor 'cause I didn't show the other team everything that I have in my arsenal.  So I do whatever my coaches tell me at this point.  Um, I trust them and really happy to be on Team dos Santos."

What did you think of the first fight?  Does Shamar have what it takes?

Don't leave it to the judges.  Will Shamar show that he can finish a fight, or will all his fights go to decision?