Category — TUF

I’d all but given up on The Ultimate Fighter following last season’s Kimbo- and Rampage-powered flabbyweight meltdown. It was just a horrible, horrible show full of made-for-TV hype for a fight that still hasn’t happened and a bunch of fat, talentless fighters.

And I’m not convinced that TUF 11 will be any better. Okay, I know it has to be better, but how much better will it be? Sure, the fighters look to have some chops, what little we saw of them in the cage during Wednesday night’s season opener. There were some knockdowns and knockouts and one graphic re-creation of Rich Franklin’s caved-in nose (it was like watching a bridge collapse during an earthquake). So maybe the fighters this season have more skills. Maybe.

But what about the coaches? Last season was all about hyping a fight between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans, a fight we already knew wasn’t going to happen because Rampage (temporarily) quit the UFC to make The A -Team. So their on-screen squabbles weren’t suspense-building, they were fucking annoying and pissed me off the more I had to sit through them.

This time, it’s Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. It’s a fight I wouldn’t mind seeing. Except there’s already strong rumours that Ortiz pulls out of the show at some point for some reason and is replaced by Franklin. There have also been rumours that Franklin will also fight Liddell in the TUF Finale instead of Ortiz. The latest rumour is that Liddell will actually face Randy Couture – for the fourth freakin’ time! – at UFC 116 on July 3. Who the hell wants to see that fight?

More importantly, who wants to watch a whole season of TUF when they’re hyping the hostility between Liddell and Ortiz if the two never fight? Fool me, once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

As a side note, it’s kind of sad that I’m already looking forward to TUF season 12, which could feature Georges St. Pierre coaching opposite the winner of UFC 113’s Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley throwdown and which might also benefit from a little Guida action.

The 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter, featuring coaches Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz (and Rich Franklin?) kicks off tonight following the UFC Fight Night 21 with Kenny Florian and Takanori Gomi in the main event.

Considering tomorrow’s April Fool’s Day, it seems like a good time to suggest ways to make the UFC-meets-Big Brother reality series more fun to watch.

1. Fighters will share the house with people from other reality shows – an addict, a hoarder, a dwarf, people with 19 kids, Paris Hilton, Flavor Flav…
2. There will always be one less bed than fighter. The odd man out must sleep in the tool shed out back.
3. Only winners of fights get any toilet paper.
4. Coaches won’t pick fights. Like American Idol, match-ups are made by the viewers via phone or text.
5. Dr. Drew will be on hand to deal with the Junie Brownings and JT Taylors of the house.
6. Unlike previous seasons, contestants will be able to watch TV. However, they only get one show: The View.
7. Fights that go to the judges will be decided by a game of Red Rover, Red Rover.
8. Fighters are told the house will be co-ed. The female fighters will actually be actors paid to mess with their minds.
9. The house will double as the Liberace museum.
10. The Situation and Snooki will be assistant coaches.

So it’s a neck injury that forced Tito Ortiz to withdraw from coaching duties on The Ultimate Fighter and a subsequent fight with Chuck Liddell. Not the flu or partner Jenna Jameson’s miscarriage or any of the other theories that floated around the internet this week. At least, that’s the story right now. Ortiz is out and Rich Franklin has stepped in as coach, although he won’t be fighting Liddell.

Ortiz has a history of back problems so maybe this is in some way related. Or maybe he got dropped on his head by an overzealous TUF contender. Short of being in a wheelchair, though, I have to wonder what would keep him from coaching the show. It’s not as though it’s a physically demanding job. The most Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did during his stint on the show is tear apart a cardboard door.

Who the hell was the casting director for season eleven of The Ultimate Fighter? My guess is David Lynch, because this is the freakiest, douchiest, crash-test-dummiest group of fighters I have ever seen. I see at least one Dustin Hazelett, one Junie Browning and a couple of JT Taylors in the bunch. Not to mention a “published poet.” Seriously, read his and all the others’ bios over here. Although I suggest you skip that – most fight-related info is pretty meaningless at this point – and go over to Cage Potato, which has picked out a few humorous highlights, like this one:

Ben Stark was “a practitioner of the Orthodox Jewish religion until the age of 6,” which is about the most meaningless piece of biographical information one can imagine since it tells us about the religious choices he made before he was at an age where he was allowed to make choices about religion. He also breeds snakes though, and that’s pretty sweet.

TUF 11 Cast Announced

My gut reaction upon seeing this Peeping Tom video of Chuck Liddell and girlfriend Heidi Northcott getting buff in the buff was to throw up a little bit in my mouth. There are somethings I just don’t need to see. Liddell’s little Iceman slapping thighs is one of them, even if it’s blurry.

Turns out the clip was staged. It’s a viral video advertising the new Reebok ZigTech sneakers, the only thing Liddell is wearing while he exercises. It’s actually the second Reebok video the Ultimate Fighter coach has been in – he appeared, along with a handful of other sports stars, in a video featuring Jersey Shore’s Pauly D and “The Situation.”

And while I may need a breath mint after watching it, I have to admit that it does the trick. Now I have no idea what it will do for sales of Reeboks (MMA fighters don;t wear shoes in the cage so I’m not sure how being associated with Liddell will help). But it is bringing MMA more mainstream exposure – latenight talking head Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the naked Chuck clip in his monologue yesterday.

All I can say is that the eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter better have more going for it than Tito Ortiz’s mouth. Last season’s fights were pitiful. Pi-ti-ful. If there isn’t the talent I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stand watching Ortiz flap his gums at Chuck Liddell.

I wonder how this is going over with UFC president Dana White: Jake Shields, the Strikeforce middleweight champ, will be on season eleven of The Ultimate Fighter. He has been asked by Chuck Liddell to be an assistant coach on the series. It remains to be seen just how much screen time Shields will get, whether it’s an annoyingly omnipresent Tiki Ghosn-level or an annoyingly elusive Greg Jackson-level. But either way it can’t sit too well with the folks at Zuffa, especially given Shields is expected to make his first title defense against recent UFC castaway Dan Henderson in April.

Gray Maynard may have out-boxed (barely) and split-decisioned jiu-jitsu brown belt Nate Diaz in the main event, an effort that looked more impressive than it was because of Diaz’s flailing/pawing striking style, but I’d hate to see what would happen to him in a title fight against BJ Penn. There’s just no way the former Michigan State University wrestler could stand and strike with Penn and he just doesn’t have the GSP-calibre takedown ability to grind it out on the ground.

Then again, I’m not sure the other top contender, Frankie Edgar, would fair any better against the Prodigy. While it’s only been rumoured that Edgar will get the nod against Penn at UFC 112, I think tonight’s less-than-stellar – by which I mean less-than-dominant – performance by the still-undefeated Maynard takes him out of the running for the moment.

That was one painful-as-hell armbar submission Evan Dunham slapped on Ultimate Fighter 8 champ Efrain Escudero in the third round of their bout. I have to wonder why Escudero waited so long to tap. He had to know he wasn’t going to get out of it. It was locked in as tight as any armbar can be.

Sure, the Gracies have an honour thing about not tapping and I get the warrior spirit mentality, but come on, Escudero ain’t no Gracie. Better to save the arm so he can fight again and soon. It wasn’t a cheap submission hold, their was no wiggle room. Dunham was twisting apart Escudero’s livelihood and it’s not like he’s at the top of the UFC foodchain cashing six-figure paychecks. I’m not sure he can afford a four- or six-month layoff to heal a broken arm unless he’s got a trust fund he can tap into. Credit to Dunham, too. He gutted out a first-round beating that had him weebled and wobbled only to turn the tables in round two before the Submission of the Night and a perfect 3-0 UFC record.

Ditto Aaron Simpson, who got rocked and was spaghetti-legged for almost the entire first round against Tom Lawlor but managed to dig deep and hold on and survive for a three-round split-decision win and the Fight of the Night bonus. No one would’ve faulted Simpson if he’d collapsed to the canvas after any of the handful of crosses and uppercuts Lawlor landed, but he kept his feet under him, kept moving forward, and Lawlor started gassing late in the second as Simpson shot for takedowns. The crowd may have booed but it was the right call as Simpson clearly had Lawlor beaten in the final frame and oftentimes it’s how you finish a fight that matters most.

And TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah was in top form as he out-worked Brad Blackburn en route to a unanimous-decision victory to open the televised portion of the card.

Among the prelims, Chris Leben earned a UD win over Jay Silva that could’ve (and should’ve) ended in the first round when Leben worked a rear-naked choke for close to four minutes but couldn’t finish it. Rick Story settled for a split decision over Jesse Lennox while Nick Lentz and Thiago Taveres battled to a majority draw that Tavares would’ve won if he hadn’t nailed Lentz with a brutal groin shot in the third round that cost him a point. Twenty-year-old Canuck Rory MacDonald made his UFC debut by armbarring veteran Mike Guymon in the first round, Rafael dos Anjos outlasted Kyle Bradley for a unanimous-decision win, Gerald Harris TKO’d John Salter in the third round and Nick Catone took a split decision over Jesse Forbes.

Anybody excited about tonight’s UFC Fight Night 20? It’s free. So, yeah, not so much, eh? Well, Ultimate Fighter grads Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz headline in a lightweight showdown that should provide some fireworks: the two have a history – Diaz tapped Maynard via guillotine in the TUF 5 semi-finals. A win for either is a step toward BJ Penn, although the undefeated Maynard is a rung or two higher on that ladder.

The rest of the card is what you’d expect for free fights on a Monday night, with Efrain Escudero vs. Evan Dunham, Aaron Simpson vs. Tom Lawlor and Amir Sadollah vs. Brad Blackburn. I wouldn’t mind if undercarders Chris Leben vs. Jay Silva or 20-year-old Canuck Rory MacDonald vs. Mike Guymon made the broadcast. Speaking of Guymon, just heard this guy interviewed on MMA Junkie Radio. Funny guy, very funny.