(Yeah, Matt, we’re all pissed about the Giants last performance.)
When we last heard from Matt Mitrione, he had placed himself in Dana White’s crosshairs by committing the #1 sin a UFC fighter can commit. No, not failing a drug test that eventually cancels the biggest fight of the year — that sort of thing can easily be forgiven. The man known by many as simply “Meathead” did something much, much worse: he refused to bail the UFC out by taking a fight against Daniel Cormier when Frank Mir got injured. THE AUDACITY.
Out of action since October of 2011 and coming off a hype-derailing performance against Cheick Kongo, Mitrione needed to step up for the UFC in one way or another ASAP, lest he find himself Attonito’d. The perfect opportunity arose when Shane Carwin became the sixth coach in the last eight TUF seasons to pull out of his scheduled fight due to injury. So bada boom bada bing, Mitrione will now be squaring off against fellow TUF 10 castmate Roy Nelson at the TUF 16 Finale in December.
Ironically enough, Kongo was originally being sought after to fill in against Nelson. One would think that, given his last few performances (snoozer over Mitrione, crushed by Mark Hunt, even worse snoozer over Shawn Jordan), Kongo would want to try and earn a little redemption in both the fans and the UFC’s eyes by stepping up. Then again, Nelson’s short and stout frame would have made it difficult for the 6’4″ Frenchman to turn “Big Country’s” testicles into flapjacks with a series of low blows, so perhaps it makes sense that he turned the fight down.
In either case, Mitrione vs. Nelson will now headline the preposterously titled TUF 16 Finale, a card which more or less sums up the kind of talent the UFC has been able to discover in the past few seasons of the show. Which is to say, none. I mean, just look at this card:
-Roy Nelson vs. Matt Mitrione
-”TUF 16″ tournament final
-James Head vs. Mike Pyle
-Tim Elliott vs. Jared Papazian
-Pat Barry vs. Shane Del Rosario
-Melvin Guillard vs. Jamie Varner
-Jonathan Brookins vs. Dustin Poirier
-Johnny Bedford vs. Marcos Vinicius
-Rustam Khabilov vs. Vinc Pichel
-Nick Catone vs. T.J. Waldburger
-Reuben Duran vs. Hugo Viana
-John Cofer vs. Mike Rio
I know, pretty stacked for a TUF Finale, right? That might be because there are only two members from the current season competing on the card, who will undoubtedly have long careers in the UFC ahead of them [SARCASM].
This is what baffles me most about the current state of TUF. MMA is constantly evolving; gyms are popping up more frequently around the world than zits on a teenagers mug and producing more talented up and comers than ever before. Thousands upon thousands of fighters audition for TUF each year, yet somehow, those who are deemed talented enough for the show are simultaneously so untalented that they don’t even deserve a shot on the card dedicated to the show they were just on? After months of training with top fighters at their disposal?
I have no clue if Ross Pointon is a more talented fighter than the “Let me bang, bro” guy or not, but the TUF Finale events are starting to resemble some ass-backwards high school graduation where no students are actually invited on stage and instead spend three hours watching the teachers and past alumni stroke each other’s egos. And half of the teachers are from different schools. Perhaps stealing the casting crew behind the Real World/Road Rules Challenge wasn’t such a good move by the UFC after all…
…SO WHO’S EXCITED FOR NEXT SEASON?!