TUF 17: Uriah Hall vs. Kelvin Gastelum Sets Up Finale, Team Sonnen Beats Jones

Another season of The Ultimate Fighter came to a close on Tuesday, officially confirming the co-main event of the TUF Season 17 finale on April 13 in Las Vegas.Uriah Hall and Kelvin Gastelum are the last men standing in the reality TV middlew…

Another season of The Ultimate Fighter came to a close on Tuesday, officially confirming the co-main event of the TUF Season 17 finale on April 13 in Las Vegas.

Uriah Hall and Kelvin Gastelum are the last men standing in the reality TV middleweight MMA tournament and will compete against each other to become the undisputed winner of the season, in addition to winning a six-figure UFC contact and a customized Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

However, Chael Sonnen has already won a motorcycle for himself.

Not only does the winning fighter of Season 17 get a Harley-Davidson, but one motorcycle is also awarded to the winning coach.

That would be none other than the “Team Darkside” leader himself, who coached both Hall and Gastelum throughout the show.

Although Jon Jones had two of his team members—Josh Samman and Dylan Andrews—make it all the way to the semifinals, both of them were finished in their respective fights by stoppages via submission and technical knockout.

Notably, Samman was a favorite to win against Kelvin Gastelum, having knocked out all three of his previous opponents (Leo Bercier, Tor Troeng and Jimmy Quinlan) in the first round.

But 21-year-old Gastelum—the youngest fighter in TUF history—turned the tables on his more experienced opponent right from the start, controlling Samman on the ground and avoiding submission attempts before finishing the fight via rear-naked choke.

Uriah Hall’s match against Dylan Andrews was far more one-sided, as the season favorite lit up his opponent with jabs and a huge kicking arsenal early in the match.

Andrews did manage to score a late takedown in Round 2, but Hall handled his opponent from the bottom with a tight kimura grip.

From there, Hall eventually switched up his guard, hurting Andrews with heavy punches from bottom position and finishing the last-pick Team Jones fighter from the top with strikes, prompting amazement from UFC president Dana White.

 


McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in NVisionPC World, Macworld, GamePro, 1UP, MMA Mania & The L.A. Times.

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