Category — TUF

Demian Maia is the number one reason I’ll be watching Saturday’s Ultimate Fighter Finale. That and the fact that I’ve got nothing better to do on a Saturday night. What? Strikeforce? yeah, right.

The jiu-jitsu guru faces Kendall Grove, which presents an interesting match-up. Grove is tough on his feet but he’s also got miles of arms and legs for Maia to latch onto and twist into a submission. And Maia’s striking is definitely improving. After the Maia-Grove fight, I’m probably most curious to see how TUF semi-finalist Nam Phan does against Leonard Garcia at 145 pounds.

I haven’t written anything about season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter until now. Primarily because I was bored with the series (i.e. sick of the frat house antics and lousy fights) and had avoided watching Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck entirely. Then I sat down last weekend and plowed through the whole season. And I have to say that it was the best season since four or five.

I have no idea what this guy is talking about, the fights were good (at least, nowhere near as bad as the previous two seasons), the drunken stupidity was kept to a minimum, and only a couple of fighters (Bruce Leroy, for example) were particularly annoying. Above all of that, Georges St. Pierre was able to remain classy in the face of Josh Koscheck’s baiting high school-level douchebaggery, and his coaching staff was able to actually show to audiences what the training involves, from the workouts to the mental preparations to the way to carry yoursef as a professional mixed martial artist.

Add to that guest coaching from boxing great Freddie Roach (who’s helping GSP prepare to knock out Koscheck at UFC 124), legendary kickboxer (and drinker) Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, Greg Jackson as well as welterweight contender Jon Fitch and jiu-jitsu ace Dave Camarillo (both of whom Koscheck brought in) and for the first time in a long time TUF made it seem like learning to be a better fighter was actually one of the goals of the show.

UFC fans will get their first taste of the new lighter weight divisions at Saturday’s Ultimate Fighter Finale when WEC 145-pounder Leonard Garcia will take on TUF semi-finalist Nam Phan, who drops down from lightweight to featherweight.

While it might seem a tough introduction to the octagon to throw Phan in alongside the 14-6-1 Garcia, Phan is actually a 16-7 vet who’s fought in Strikeforce, the WEC, K-1 Dynamite, Sengoku and King of the Cage against the likes of Josh Thomson, Gesias Cavalcante and Michihiro Omigawa.

Of course, the TUF Finale bout with the UFC contract on the line will see Jonathan Brookins square off against Michael Johnson. Brookins (11-3) is no stranger to the big stage either, as he fought in Bellator and also faced WEC and UFC featherwight champ Jose Aldo at WEC 36. Johnson, meanwhile, is 8-4 and has been kicking around promotions you’ve probably never heard of.

Why does it feel like Strikeforce has completely dropped off the radar into the Bunyanesque abyss of utter irrelevancy? Does anyone still watch Strikeforce? Live, I mean, and not downloaded the next day or the Youtube highlights.

More importantly, does anyone still follow Strikeforce? It’s one thing to tune in when a card is on – although I can’t recall the last Strikeforce event I watched top to bottom. I saw Sarah Kaufman lose her title to Marloes Coenen but don’t remember much else from that card. I think I’d have to go back to June and Fedor vs. Werdum to find an event I actually sat all the way through; the rest I’ve just cherry-picked the fights that interested me. It’s quite another thing to follow the fighters and rankings and to pay attention to who’s moving into or out of title contention and to actually give a damn about who’s fighting whom and who wins or loses.

Strikeforce is not on equal footing with the UFC. It’s not a feeder promotion for the UFC – the rare acquisition/defection a la Jake Shields aside – so it’s not like anyone pays attention to Strikeforce because it’s where you’ll see the stars of tomorrow. It’s not AAA Syracuse to the UFC’s Major League. It’s the WNBA to the UFC’s NBA. Plain and simple.

And yeah, Strikeforce has a few big names, a very few big names, but not a whole lot of talent in the pipeline, at least not compared to the UFC. And that’s the thing. I’ll pay far more attention to smaller promotions knowing that the best fighters there could someday be in the UFC. It’s not like I watch a Shine or Shark Fight card and think, “He could be the next Strikeforce champion.”

This is all a roundabout way of asking who will be watching Saturday’s Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Sobral card? The headliner feels like a non-event, with Dan Henderson clinging to relevancy, which is kind of sad considering how he’d become an important gatekeeper in the UFC until he bailed for greener pastures.

Scott Smith and Paul Daley promise to be volatile (what else would you expect with two guys nicknamed “Hands of Steel” and “Semtex,” respectively?), but I can wait for the highlight reel knockout to show up online. Injury has denied us another Herschel Walker spectacle, although there’s always Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva vs. Mike Kyle. Really, though, Strikeforce is making it awfully easy to change the channel to The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale on the same night, and that’s saying a lot when the TUF Finale’s main event is Stephan Bonnar vs. Igor Pokrajak. At least Demian Maia is on the card so there’s hopes of seeing some slick submissions.

The idea that former UFC light heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida is taking fight tips from Steven Seagal makes me giggle. I mean, I’m sure those backfists and wrist locks will come in handy when he faces Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at Saturday’s UFC 123. Of course, this isn’t the first time Seagal has handed out advice to UFC fighters. When you’re watching the video, pay attention to the expression on Machida’s face.

Evan Dunham catches his breath between rounds of his welterweight bout with Sean Sherk at UFC 119, a bout that Dunham clearly won despite the judges seeing things the other way.

My primary interest in tonight’s TUF Finale card is the main event, Keith Jardine vs. Matt Hamill. I didn’t watch the last few episodes of The Ultimate Fighter. I know, blasphemy, right? But inevitably the Tito Ortiz saga sucked my will to tune in, even though by most accounts the fights were relatively decent and the drunken housemate bullshit was kept to a minimum.

Still, I’m looking forward to the card because 1) most of the fighters need a win if they ever want to see the inside of the octagon again (Techno Viking included), so a lot of leather will likely be thrown, and 2) it’s free.

BTW, here’s the trailer for the movie about Hamill, called – surprise, surprise – Hamill. It’s got a very TV movie-of-the-week sports inspirational feel to it and focuses almost entirely on Hamill’s days as a collegiate wrestler. Nary a shot of MMA in the entire thing, which means they are definitely aiming this toward… who? Red Staters in the middle of the U.S. who know wrestling?

HAMILL – Official Teaser from Hamill the Movie on Vimeo.

There’s a lot to talk about after Saturday’s UFC 112. Much of it to do with Anderson Silva. But enough of him for a moment. Let’s look at the other two big fights at the card, namely Matt Hughes vs. Renzo Gracie in an old-timers match-up and BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar in a David-and-Goliath title tilt. Joining me is Revolution MMA’s Joel Gerson.

JG: UFC 112 confirmed my theory that the events that are the most exciting on paper usually go down like a sinking ship.

How can any MMA fighter, namely Renzo Gracie, go into a match at this point in his career and not know how to check a low kick? That fight was an abomination with two guys completely lacking in kickboxing ability doing just that for 15 minutes (and you paid to watch it, sucker). Neither one showcased their respective specialties: Hughes with his wrestling and Gracie with his BJJ.

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I hate to admit it, but Tito Ortiz isn’t the worst thing about the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. Not yet anyway. To be fair, I’m actually warming to him a little bit. He appears to actually be trying to coach the fighters and he’s doing a pretty good job of it (despite his Mayhem Miller-wannabe douche-fighter losing the first bout official bout of the season). I know it’s still very early, but I’m not ready to write him off just yet.

And the fighters seem to have some skills, a little experience, some raw talent, reasonably tolerable personalities and they’re in shape, which is especially important after the camera-unfriendly heavyweight season (they say the camera adds 10 pounds and they must’ve shot that show with about 20 of them). On the down side, anybody else notice the slightly glazed expression and general jitteriness of Chuck Liddell?

Just came across this interview with Renzo Gracie, who makes his UFC debut against Matt Hughes at Saturday’s UFC 112. The clip is obviously a couple of weeks old (it’s shot at Gracie’s Academy in New York and Gracie is currently in Abu Dhabi for the fight and has been for several days) but it’s worth watching.