I'm way behind on this stuff, but I'm not going to be much of a news regurgitator blogger (yet). I'm thinking I'll be writing my takes on major events, happenings in MMA and UFC (WEC, CageRage) for now and will pick up my pace some time soon. Trying to write something good turns out to be quite an effort. May be I'm just trying too hard and shouldn't. Anyways...
Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale on Spike TV was a GREAT show. It was one of the better events UFC lucked out with this year. I, for the most part, agree with the idea of lots of young, hungry guys fighting on the undercards for a little more famous ones. Just like in this show, most of the TUF'ers fought hard and impressed. With that said, here are some notes on the fights.
Matt Arroyo vs John Kolosci - nice submission game from Arroyo, but dammit, I officially put Kolosci in the high ranks of "real ultimate fighters" Abbadi's, Monsta Lobsta's. You know, those guys that that are either convinced by their friends and parents that they've got talent for MMA. Those guys reek with the smell of 99% of American Idol hopefuls. As soon as they fight, it's like WTF!?!... How did you get on this show? The good part about American Idol is that they actually have people who screen the candidates before the make it on the actual show.
What was I talking about? Oh ya.. Kolosci. Come on, why's everyone so high on him? Cause he, while looking scared and lying about not being scared, took the fight with Mac Danzig? What did he do with that nice opportunity to come back and have another go? Absolutely nothing!! It was such a half ass attempt at may be possibly landing a lucky shot. Danzig beat him up good the first time and probably took his warrior spirit from his young fighting career. Guess what? His fight with Arroyo was just was crappy. He did nothing when he took the fight to the mat. Bleh... more on shitty efforts and Dana Whites and Joe Rogans giving WAY too much credit for just showing up - remember you actually have to fight in fights.
Troy Mandaloniz vs Richie Hightower - well, I'm almost taking Richie off the "real ultimate fighters" list, almost. Despite to what I wrote about Richie earlier, he fought a good fight and I was actually kinda sorta rooting for him to win. He started off really good, hitting Mandaloniz pretty good a few times and taking him down, but ran out of gas and got knocked down by a stiff jab while moving in with a looping hook. A win for Mandaloniz, but Richie actually showed promise of getting off the shitty tough talking fighters.
Ben Saunders vs Daniel Barrera - Barrera was very impressive with his athleticism and work ethic while on the TV show, but his fighting was very disappointing. He has the physical tools and ability it seems, but his game plan for this was all wrong. Ya, he go Saunders down and did nothing. Props to Saunders for playing good defense and doing enough to win a very important fight. Most boring fight of the night.
Jon "War Machine" Koppenhaver vs Jared Rollins - What a fight! The nasty angry elbow outburst from Rollins was a first of it's kind. I mean few people used elbows successfully from the guard, Bas Rutten vs Kevin Randleman and may be Joe Riggs vs Chris Lytle, but not like this they didn't. I bet Bas Rutten wishes he saw this fight before fighting Randleman, he could have used the "elbow outburst" move to win more convincingly.
What a come back by WarMachine! He was rocked hard by Rollins, but pulled a nice, probably the most under-used sweep from the guard in MMA, and finished the fight with some vicious strikes. In Goldies words, this is what MMA is all about.
Mac Danzig vs Tom Speer - there is no question Tom Speer is a tough farmer guy. In most of his fights on the TV show he was in some type of trouble, but was very resilient and toughed out of some close calls. Admittedly not doing much training, except for strength/conditioning on the farm, for this fight he must have counted on his toughness one more time. Mac Danzig came in with George St. Pierre'esque game plan and took the wrestler down and after softening him up abit easily submitted him. Good for Danzig, he'll be a nice addition to 155 division. Speer didn't lose too much with this fight in my opinion, except for affliction wearing TUF noobs for his farm comment, but oh well, he just may turn out the next Matt Hughes.
Roger Huerta vs Clay Guida - a kick ass fight it turned out to be. Did I already say in Goldies words that this is what MMA is all about? I'm saying it again! Lots of standing exchanges, take downs, take down defense, transitioning on the ground all the while striking, knockdowns. This fight had it all. Mayweather vs Hatton the same night had hype and no fight.
There was good hype coming into the fight. Lots of people written off Huerta and predicted Guida to win. After one of the better fights this year, people said Huerta was exposed and got lucky. I disagree.
Here is my take on it. Clay Guida is tough and a very active fighter. He took it to Huerta for two rounds, but only had him in trouble at the end of round two. Huerta got a real good test there, but they key here is that he passed and Guida failed at finishing up. When Huerta hurt Guida, Guida didn't recover and was submitted.
Guida was exposed for not being able to finish a very hurt fighter and not being able to recover when in trouble.
Huerta weathered the storm and finished when needed. Great win for Huerta to finish up a very active year. The news of Roger taking some time off is good to hear. He's doing a smart thing to take some time to rest and wait for a good fight.
On a related note, UFC gets credit for making the pay for hard fighting a little bit better.
What did you think of the event? Ya, I know it's a late. If you didn't see it yet, as an MMA fan you must.
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