The basic premise of MMA (mixed martial arts) is simple. You stick two combatants in an enclosed area, and see who emerges victorious. In my opinion, hand-to-hand combat is one of the purest forms of fighting. It’s the truest test of a warrior. Th…
The basic premise of MMA (mixed martial arts) is simple. You stick two combatants in an enclosed area, and see who emerges victorious.
In my opinion, hand-to-hand combat is one of the purest forms of fighting. It’s the truest test of a warrior. The only weapon you have at your disposal is your body. Anyone can win a fight with a gun.
Unlike boxing, which is confined to stand-up punching, and wrestling, in which striking is prohibited, MMA includes virtually all disciplines of martial arts. It essentially takes the best parts of the various martial arts and puts them to use in a (somewhat) realistic situation.
MMA is not the “anything goes” sport it once was. There are rules, regulations and weight classes, which ensure that the fights taking place are as fair as possible. You won’t see unfair strikes such as eye-pokes, and you will usually see fighters of the same size/weight squaring off.
As Royce Gracie showed us, sometimes even size doesn’t matter. With Brazilian jiu-jitsu, we learned that technique can triumph over size.
There are three basic elements that a mixed martial artist must master: Stand-up striking, grappling in the clinch and ground grappling. After all, these are really the only places that a fight between two unarmed opponents can go.
Now, all of this brings us to the martial artists themselves. In this day and age, we’ve come to see that mixed martial artists are some of the most well-trained and physically impressive athletes in the world. You must not only train your body, but also your mind. You must not only keep your body in top physical condition, but you must have knowledge of a vast array of techniques, as well as the skill and grace to execute them.
At the highest level, we have fighters like Anderson Silva—guys with transcendent skills. If you watch his fights, you’ll see him bob and weave as he anticipates his opponent’s strikes, then you’ll see him retaliate with devastating pinpoint accuracy. You’ll see him knock people out with a jab while backpedaling (Forrest Griffin), and you’ll even see him incorporate new techniques (to MMA)—the front-kick knockout against Vitor Belfort.
The thing about mixed martial arts is that there is no preconceived notion of what it should be. Any discipline can be absorbed and adapted to MMA. Really, the only criteria is that it should be efficient and effective (and nowadays, entertaining). Because MMA is so malleable, it is always evolving. Therefore, its practitioners are some of the baddest men on the planet.
This week’s episode had the fight we’ve all been waiting for: Justin Lawrence vs. Cristiano Marcello. But before that, let’s recap this week’s episode.I like the choice of “Higher Ground” by Red Hot Chili Peppers for the intro. The old theme was gettin…
This week’s episode had the fight we’ve all been waiting for: Justin Lawrence vs. Cristiano Marcello. But before that, let’s recap this week’s episode.
I like the choice of “Higher Ground” by Red Hot Chili Peppers for the intro. The old theme was getting, well, old. The new theme seems to fit the show’s new network better, as well.
Anyway, we start where we left off last week, where Cruz set up his No. 1 pick Justin Lawrence to fight and then let Faber decide who he wanted to match up with Lawrence. Team Cruz had a good laugh, since no one from Faber’s team stepped up.
John Cofer says something along the lines of “If it was to happen again, I think you’d see a lot more guys stand up.” But that’s kind of missing the point. You can’t wait for the “second time.” The whole point was that it was such an on-the-spot decision.
We’re introduced to Chris Tickle, and in this episode he’s made out to be the outspoken jokester of the house. He antagonizes Team Faber a bit about their hesitance to fight Lawrence.
It’s time for the typical TUF antics, and we see Tickle wearing a gas mask tearing down Faber’s parking sign. I’ll admit, somewhat amusing, but we’ve seen it all before.
We’re introduced to Justin Lawrence and learn that he’s pretty much been training in martial arts his whole life. Cruz describes how he really wanted to challenge Lawrence with the fight against Marcello. Coach Eric Del Fierro says Lawrence will “hopefully take him [Marcello] out with a left-hook knockout.”
Lots of camera-time for Tickle, as he seems to get on Cruz’s nerves a bit in practice.
We learn more about Marcello and find out that his BJJ skills descend from the Gracie tree. The audience gets the impression that Marcello is going to come out super-aggressive, like his former Chute Boxe teammates. The coaches want him to fake the takedown, but mostly stand up with Lawrence.
It’s time for the pranks, and Team Faber uses some tape to put a widow’s peak on Cruz’s portrait. They say he looks like Eddie Munster, or Count Dracula. Pretty funny.
Cofer and Saunders poke a little fun at Tickle, and he takes offense. Cofer and Tickle get into a confrontation. Perhaps a sign of things to come? Cofer says “I would love to have a fight with Tickle.” A little immature of me, but I laughed a little bit upon hearing the words “tickle” and “fight” in the same sentence.
Next, we see Lawrence training with a BJJ blackbelt and pretty much getting manhandled. You really get the sense that Cruz believes in Lawrence and wants to push him.
The prank wars continue, and Team Cruz adds a thong to Faber’s “butt chin” on his portrait. I love it so far. Clever, harmless fun.
Faber tells Marcello to be real aware of the left hook, and really emphasizes keeping his chin down.
It’s funny how Lawrence appears nervous in the house, and Pichel tells him “It’s all hype, man. Don’t believe the hype…Anyone could be beaten, everyone bleeds.” This is funny, because you expect that this would be the talk Marcello would be getting. Lawrence is the one with all the hype. He’s the young kid and the No. 1 pick of the whole competition.
Marcello points to his family as an advantage—that extra motivation in the fight.
It’s fight night, and Faber goes over some moves with Marcello that Lawrence likes to use.
The fight starts, and Lawrence comes out exactly as Faber described. Marcello is in a traditional stance, while Lawrence looks unorthodox but very fluid. He’s constantly moving.
I like Lawrence’s style because it’s very unpredictable. His legs are like arms—you never know what he’s going to throw. The kid packs a lot of power as well. It seems like everything he throws has huge power behind it.
They’re mostly feeling each other out in this round. There are a few moments where Marcello chases Lawrence down with that Chute Boxe style but doesn’t land anything significant.
Overall, Marcello looked a little tentative and didn’t land as many power shots, so I’d give that round to Lawrence.
Second round. The action picks up a bit, and Lawrence looks a bit more aggressive. Marcello gets a hold of Lawrence, and Lawrence tries desperately to escape. He gets out, and they continue on their feet.
About two minutes in, Lawrence starts repeatedly finding Marcello’s chin. With about 1:44 left, Lawrence punishes Marcello with a huge punch. Guess what? It’s a left hook. Fight is over.
Winner by KO: Justin Lawrence.
Lawrence looked really impressive. I’m curious to see how he would do against a fighter that is able to cut off the cage or get him to the ground. Easier said than done, of course.
It’s time for the fight announcement, and the cameraman slips (probably in the trail of sweat left behind by Marcello). Gotta love live TV!
Cruz calls up Myles Jury, and his opponent will be:
Al Iaquinta.
Wow, another aggressive fight pick. This is another fight that we very well could have seen towards the end of the competition.
Iaquinta was Faber’s No. 1 pick, and he trains with Matt Serra. His record is 5-1-1. Jury was on season 13 of TUF before a knee injury forced him out. His record is 9-0.
It’ll be very impressive if Team Cruz can pull this off. If they win next week, they will have removed Faber’s top three guys.
We’ve just seen our third episode of The Ultimate Fighter on FX, and I think we’ve seen enough to get a feeling of the differences between the show on FX and on Spike TV.Since the format of the show changed this season, it’s a little tough to tell whic…
We’ve just seen our third episode of The Ultimate Fighter on FX, and I think we’ve seen enough to get a feeling of the differences between the show on FX and on Spike TV.
Since the format of the show changed this season, it’s a little tough to tell which changes are due to the new format, and which are because of the new network.
However, there are a few points that we can look at to determine an early winner.
First, the programming.
Spike TV is currently airing shows such as 1000 Ways to Die, Bar Rescue, Deadliest Warrior and Impact Wrestling. FX is currently airing shows such as Archer, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League and Sons of Anarchy.
There’s also the matter of lead-in programming.
Last night, FX broadcast the movie Taken prior to the airing of The Ultimate Fighter.
I don’t recall Spike TV having any specific lead-in programming, but I don’t think they played movies right before the show’s airing. I think most of their programming would have matched the show a little better.
I don’t think UFC programming looks out of place on FX, but it’s definitely right at home on Spike TV.
The edge goes to Spike TV.
Next, we have the day that the show is airing.
Since the show was on Spike TV, it has aired on different days. The early seasons of the show aired on Mondays, then moved to Thursdays and most recently aired on Wednesdays. On FX, The Ultimate Fighter currently airs on Fridays at 10pm.
Personally, I think this is one of the worst days for the show to be airing. Since the fights are aired live, maybe the execs wanted to give it that “Friday Night Fights” feel. Or maybe they wanted to avoid scheduling conflicts, didn’t want to compete with other shows on other time slots or had to air it on Friday due to production issues.
The speculation could go on, but what I do know is that Friday is a notoriously difficult day to program. People like going out on Friday. You don’t see many networks putting their “must see” shows on Friday.
Once again, the edge goes to Spike TV.
Finally, there’s the indisputable evidence: the ratings. Season 15 premiered to 1.3 million viewers. This is a slight drop off from previous seasons. (Note: There is a difference between millions of viewers, and the numbers rating. You can look at the ratings for previous seasons here.)
Now, you can’t expect huge ratings immediately when moving to a new network, and you also have to take into account recent rating trends and viewer fatigue. But once again, the edge goes to Spike TV.
So, Spike TV wins a pretty decisive victory. It’s a better home for The Ultimate Fighter. However, there’s one giant elephant sitting in the room that renders all that was previously mentioned obsolete.
Its name is FOX.
The whole reason that The Ultimate Fighter is on FX is because of the UFC’s deal with FOX. The UFC was as big as it was going to get on Spike TV. The potential gains for the UFC airing on FOX are massive. So sacrificing The Ultimate Fighter a little bit is definitely worth it in the UFC’s eyes.
Walkout entrances are an underrated component of the entertainment aspect when it comes to MMA fights. The UFC is pretty reserved when it comes to walkouts. There are no light shows or fireworks here. But there is the music, and that plays a key role i…
Walkout entrances are an underrated component of the entertainment aspect when it comes to MMA fights. The UFC is pretty reserved when it comes to walkouts. There are no light shows or fireworks here. But there is the music, and that plays a key role in building the excitement leading up to a fight.
Some fighters like to play cheesy, ironic songs, while others play heavy, intimidating songs. Then there are fighters who have made certain songs signatures of their entrances. The beauty is when everything comes together, and you get a song that not only represents the fighter well, but also sets the right mood.
Here are my picks for the top 15 fighters with the best taste in walkout music.
Last week, the UFC premiered the new format for its flagship show The Ultimate Fighter. The first episode featured all of the fights to get into the TUF house shown live. This week’s episode is what we’ll be more likely to see this season.It star…
Last week, the UFC premiered the new format for its flagship show The Ultimate Fighter. The first episode featured all of the fights to get into the TUF house shown live. This week’s episode is what we’ll be more likely to see this season.
It starts with a recap of all of the events of the week, with a live fight taking place at the end of the episode.
I have to say that so far, I’m fan of the new format.
The UFC’s slogan is “As Real As it Gets,” and this format brings the show ever closer to achieving that notion. I got the sense in past seasons that sometimes events weren’t exactly as they appeared (events not occurring exactly the week they were shown, etc.). Editing can change a lot. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot of editing still going on; I mean you’re still essentially condensing a week’s worth of events into about 30 minutes.
What’s satisfying about the new format is that you feel as if you’re watching things exactly as they happen. It feeds that voyeuristic nature of reality television. I like how they sometimes put the day and time in the corner of a scene, so you know exactly when it occurred. There’s a certain immediacy to the format, as there’s also a countdown to the live fight.
Now, onto the actual episode:
With the 16 fighters moved into the house, the coaches get to choose their fighters.
Team Faber won the coin toss, so they had a choice between picking the first fighter or the first matchup. They chose the matchup, therefore Team Cruz picked the first fighter.
Cruz took Justin Lawrence, who probably was the most intriguing fighter from last week’s episode. He really does seem like a star in the making, although it’s still way too early to tell.
Faber took Al Iaquinta with his first pick, and here are the rest of the fighters, in the order they were picked:
Sam Sicilia (Cruz), Cristiano Marcello (Faber), Myles Jury (Cruz), Daron Cruickshank (Faber), Mike Rio (Cruz), Joe Proctor (Faber), James Vick (Cruz), Michael Chiesa (Faber), Vinc Pichel (Cruz), John Cofer (Faber), Chris Tickle (Cruz), Andy Ogle (Faber), Jeremy Larsen (Cruz) and finally, Chris Saunders (Faber).
Apparently, Chris Tickle wanted to be on Faber’s team and Cruz used a little psychology and picked him up instead.
This eventually proves to be a non-issue, as Tickle eventually states that he loves being on Cruz’s team.
Faber picks the matchup and decides to pit his third pick Daron Cruickshank against the lanky boxer James Vick. I thought Cruickshank was the second-most impressive fighter of last week. Faber thinks this will be a guaranteed win.
Michael Chiesa learns that his father passed away. He’s allowed to return home and later returns to the show.
We’re then shown Vick and Cruckshank’s training sessions
Vick works on using his length to his advantage and works on his submission game. Team Faber suspects that Team Cruz will try to emphasize Vick’s lankiness, so they work on Cruickshank’s submission defense. This should be a shoo-in.
The fight starts, and all goes as expected. The fighters don’t engage too much, and it’s mostly a stand-up affair. Vick seems hesitant, but stays at range, trying to utilize his reach. Cruickshank throws many flashy kicks, but doesn’t land anything too big. Cruickshank ducks down for a takedown, and Vick nails him with a knee.
Cruickshank is out cold.
Team Cruz goes nuts, and you can tell that Vick is elated. We head to the post-fight interviews, and Jon Anik does his best impression of Joe Rogan. The best part is when Anik interviews Cruickshank. He asks him to describe the challenge in staying focused in the house if he potentially gets a chance to return to the competition due to another fighter’s injury. Then, his parting words are “congratulations.” Got to love live TV.
Anik interviews Dana White, and White says that Faber may have underestimated Vick, seeing as how Vick beat Dakota Cochrane last week. Cochrane has a win over former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner.
To be fair, I thought Vick was a big underdog. Cruickshank looked well-rounded in his preliminary fight, while Vick wasn’t very impressive. What Vick does having going for him, besides his boxing, is his size. There’s literally no substitute for his size at his weight class. He used it to his advantage and nailed Cruickshank with a knee he never saw coming.
It’s time for next week’s fight announcement, and Cruz picks his No.1 guy, Justin Lawrence. To everyone’s surprise, Cruz decides to let Faber pick a fighter to go against him. Faber is taken aback and hesitates while he makes a decision. Faber asks, “Who’s ready to scrap now, guys?” And no one responds.
Faber gives control back to Cruz, and he chooses Faber’s No. 2 pick, Cristiano Marcello. Cruz obviously seems very confident in Lawrence, and this should be an interesting matchup. Lawrence primarily displayed striking skills in his preliminary fight, while Marcello was the former BJJ coach for the Chute Box gym in Brazil.
The Ultimate Fighter was the UFC’s Trojan Horse.Before the show aired, the fledgling sport was only available to hardcore enthusiasts via pay-per-view or home video.The Ultimate Fighter was, simply put, ingenious.It was everything the UFC was about di…
The Ultimate Fighter was the UFC’s Trojan Horse.
Before the show aired, the fledgling sport was only available to hardcore enthusiasts via pay-per-view or home video.
The Ultimate Fighter was, simply put, ingenious.
It was everything the UFC was about disguised as a reality show. It was the perfect way to package its product to the American public. The show found a perfect home in Spike TV: A network catering to guys that was mainstream, but not too mainstream.
The UFC execs couldn’t have asked for a better first season.
You had the crazy antics of the cast (I’m looking at you, Chris Leben), as well as one historic fight in the finale, with Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar. I didn’t watch the fight live at the time, but I remember watching it after everyone had been talking about it, and I was completely amazed by what I saw.
However, that one fight didn’t transform me into a fan.
I didn’t know much about the UFC before I saw The Ultimate Fighter. I watched NBC’s sanitized pugilistic reality show, The Contender, and the first thing I noticed that was different in The Ultimate Fighter was that it was real!
The fights were shown in their entirety, with a live audio feed. I’ll always remember how strange it was to hear people shouting in the background. The Contender‘s fights are edited with an epic soundtrack, and sound effects are added to punches.
My first experience with The Ultimate Fighter actually came in a marathon of season three, which Spike TV was showing as a prelude to season four.
I’ve got to tell you, It got me hooked.
I’ll always remember the rivalry of Ken vs. Tito, as well as all the personalities of the fighters. You had the brash Brit Michael Bisping, as well as the deaf wrestler Matt Hamill, along with a handful of other colorful characters.
The fighters themselves are what make the UFC what it is today.
The Ultimate Fighter introduces a new set of characters to the public every season, and then lets the drama unfold both in and out of the cage. The fights themselves aren’t the only reason MMA has become as successful as it is today.
A large component of the show is allowing fans to learn about the different fighters’ personalities. This gives them someone to root for, as well as someone to boo against.
I think The Ultimate Fighter was so successful that the producers and UFC brass didn’t know what to do with it. They knew it was successful, so the simple solution was to make more.
The upcoming season will be the show’s 15th, and it’ll be just about seven years since the show debuted. That’s about two seasons per year, and I’ve watched every single one of them.
I immensely enjoyed the first five seasons, but started to notice a gradual decline in the quality of the show.
By that point, most everything had been done already.
We’ve heard the same music and seen the same shots over and over. The format of the show became extremely predictable. The quality of the fighters started to diminish, and eventually I stopped caring about the fighters or the fights.
The reason the early seasons were so good because they had a certain energy to them.
You really felt the fighters were fighting for their lives. They were fighting just to get into the UFC. Season four even had fighters fighting for a shot at the title.
But, in the later seasons, it didn’t really matter who won the whole thing, because you knew a majority of the standouts would end up in the UFC anyway, or a least get a shot in the UFC.
The first few seasons featured many standout fighters, and a few have even gone on to win or fight for championships.
Josh Koscheck, Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez, Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine, Joe Stevenson, Marcus Davis and Melvin Guillard are all from the first two seasons alone.
Season 14 seems to have been one of the better seasons in recent memory, and I think that’s because the show introduced two new weight classes: featherweight and bantamweight. With a fresh talent pool, the fights were much more exciting.
However, that didn’t stop the show from being predictable or boring at times.
The biggest change for season 15 will be the addition of live fights. I think this will bring a new dimension to the show, but I don’t think it’s nearly enough to even come close to the magic of the first few seasons.
Another change is the move from Spike TV to FX. I think the difference is negligible—FX is a more mainstream network, but the show won’t gain many more fans for that reason alone.
The rivalry between the coaches has long been a staple of the show, and this season is no different, with Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz.
I’m not too excited to see them as coaches.
Do you really think these two can talk better smack than Rashad and Rampage? Or that their hatred will be more intense than Koscheck and G.S.P., or Ken and Tito?
The coach-fights themselves haven’t even been that interesting.
Tito easily disposed of an aging Ken, BJ did the same to an over-matched Jens Pulver and the Rashad/Rampage fight was delayed due to Rampage’s stint in the acting world. Michael Bisping vs. Jason Miller was a joke.
I don’t really think Faber stands a chance against Cruz, and really the only coach-fight that is sticking out in my mind right now is Dan Henderson knocking out Michael Bisping.
That was sweet.
So, to wrap it all up, I think this season will be better than the last few, but not nearly as good as the first few.
The Ultimate Fighter is still a viable tool for the UFC to build up fighters’ name-recognition among fans, but they need to keep thinking of new ways to spice up the show.
They have announced that the next season will take place in Brazil, with the coaches being Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort.
I’m looking forward to that season much more than the current one.
It’ll be interesting to see an entirely new batch of fighters, as well as getting to see some of the Brazilian culture. So, The Ultimate Fighter isn’t quite dead yet, although it’s come close.
The basic premise of MMA (mixed martial arts) is simple. You stick two combatants in an enclosed area, and see who emerges victorious.