Tag: Bubba McDaniel

‘The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen’ Episode 9 — Complete Video & Recap

(Video courtesy of Hulu.) 

Apologies in advance for dropping the ball on last week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Jones vs. Sonnen, which we completely forgot to recap for reasons that are not immediately obvious (if only we could get Danga to set down the bong for like thirty seconds…). Long story short: Chael Sonnen emerged victorious from a Coaches Challenge that involved stacking tires with excavators (?) and Team Jones’ Dylan Andrews secured a spot in the quarterfinals with a majority decision victory over Zak Cummings. For this week’s “Wild Card” matchup, Team Jones’ Bubba McDaniel and Team Sonnen’s Kevin Casey were selected.

To find out which fighter secured the final spot in the TUF 17 bracket, as well as the rest of last night’s highlights, join us after the jump.

– In a final effort to make us sympathize with noted codpiece Bubba McDaniel, last night’s episode began with McDaniel telling us his “I’m a poor little sad sack” story about how he can’t see his daughter because he is too far in debt.

I don’t know why I just downplayed a story as sad as that for laughs, and I apologize. God I’m dead inside…


(Video courtesy of Hulu.) 

Apologies in advance for dropping the ball on last week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Jones vs. Sonnen, which we completely forgot to recap for reasons that are not immediately obvious (if only we could get Danga to set down the bong for like thirty seconds…). Long story short: Chael Sonnen emerged victorious from a Coaches Challenge that involved stacking tires with excavators (?) and Team Jones’ Dylan Andrews secured a spot in the quarterfinals with a majority decision victory over Zak Cummings. For this week’s “Wild Card” matchup, Team Jones’ Bubba McDaniel and Team Sonnen’s Kevin Casey were selected.

To find out which fighter secured the final spot in the TUF 17 bracket, as well as the rest of last night’s highlights, join us after the jump.

– In a final effort to make us sympathize with noted codpiece Bubba McDaniel, last night’s episode began with McDaniel telling us his “I’m a poor little sad sack” story about how he can’t see his daughter because he is too far in debt.

I don’t know why I just downplayed a story as sad as that for laughs, and I apologize. God I’m dead inside…

– Back at the house, Josh Samman is inspired by McDaniel’s failed call out of Casey earlier in the season and proceeds to call out Jimmy Quinlan, who responds with a terrible fisherman pun that I probably would have made at some point in this recap had he not done it for me. Although Quinlan expresses a desire for the matchup, Uriah Hall throws his name into the proverbial hat and Quinlan eventually agrees that he’d rather see Hall “beat the piss out of” Samman than do it himself.

– The massive cut on Casey’s head is still tender, so he uses some kind of Kendo mask to make sure it doesn’t reopen in training. Coach Sonnen states that he doesn’t just want to see Casey win but live up to the potential he failed to reach in his preliminary fight against Collin Hart.

– It’s Thanksgiving time at the TUF household, y’all, and Sonnen and Jones are in the building. During a heartfelt toast, Sonnen is forced to admit that “It’s a severe disappointment to find out what a good guy” Jones is, and jokes about animosity not being his style. You guys, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. After Jones beats Sonnen in the worst way possible as he promises to do, of course.

Meanwhile, Bubba is pissed off that he can’t partake in the festivities and lashes out at his housemates gluttony in the confessional. Because he should be given the second chance that none of his other eliminated teammates received and some of their mashed potatoes. I recant my previous apology.

– Fight time! Round 1: After a brief opening exchange, Casey pulls guard and works for a guillotine before the two pop back up to their feet. Casey secures a trip takedown and easily passes Bubba’s guard, but is unable to do much other than control McDaniel’s posture (or as GSP fans call it, “complete and utter domination” TROLOLOLOL). Bubba throws up a couple unsuccessful triangle attempts and gets to his feet, but gets taken down again with less than 30 seconds left in the round. 10-9 Casey

Round 2: Jones urges Bubba to stay out of the clinch in the second, and is obliged for three whole seconds before Bubba does just that. This does not make assistant coach Mir very happy. Bubba continues to do some body work from the clinch until Casey drops into a completely telegraphed guillotine attempt, showing obvious signs of tiring as he does. McDaniel goes to work from on top for the rest of the round, landing body shots and elbows on a helpless Casey. 10-9 McDaniel and we are going to a third round.

Round 3: Well, the UFC promised a “shocking” ending to this fight and that’s what we’re given. Not in the Uriah Hall “Did he died?” kind of way, but more in the Nick “Wouldn’t Get Up From Butt Scoot” Serra kind of way, as Casey gives up on the stool in between rounds. During the freaking wild card fight. Redemption: Failed.

– Anyways, McDaniel starts celebrating like he owns the place and asks Dana if he gets one of those tasty $5000 finish bonuses. Dude, just be happy your back in the tournament. Dana ends up giving him one anyway.

Sonnen is shocked that a cardio machine like Casey gassed out, but once they get back to the locker room, it appears that something out of the ordinary is wrong with him. Turns out, Casey once suffered a kidney failure during a fight back in 2010 and thought it was happening to him again. Casey leaves in an ambulance to undergo some preliminary tests.

Now, onto the quarterfinal matchups, which are as follows:

– Collin Hart vs. Kelvin Gastelum
– Luke Barnatt vs. Dylan Andrews
– Josh Samman vs. Jimmy Quinlan
– Uriah Hall vs. Bubba McDaniel

Next week, we will be treated to a pair of fights: Hart vs. Gastelum and Barnatt vs. Andrews. Tune in to find out who will punch their ticket to the semis.

Team Sonnen
Luke Barnatt – quarterfinalist, defeated Gilbert Smith
Uriah Hall – quarterfinalist, defeated Adam Cella
Zak Cummings
Tor Troeng
Jimmy Quinlan – quarterfinalist, defeated Clint Hester
Kevin Casey
Kelvin Gastelum – quarterfinalist, defeated Robert “Bubba” McDaniel

Team Jones
Clint Hester
Josh Samman — quarterfinalist, defeated Tor Troeng
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel — quarterfinalist, defeated Kevin Casey
Gilbert Smith
Collin Hart – quarterfinalist, defeated Kevin Casey
Adam Cella
Dylan Andrews — quarterfinalist, defeated Zak Cummings 

–J. Jones

‘The Ultimate Fighter 17: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen’ Episode 5 — Complete Video & Recap

(Props: The Ultimate Fighter on Hulu)

After Collin Hart’s decision win over Kevin Casey returned matchup-control to Team Jones, it’s fan-favorite Robert “Bubba” McDaniel‘s time to shine — or crash-and-burn, whichever the case may be. Here are the major plot points from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which you can watch above in its entirety.

– This week’s fight will be Bubba vs. Kelvin Gastelum, a 5-0 prospect (and full-time bail bondsman) from Arizona who, at 21 years old, is apparently the youngest competitor ever allowed onto The Ultimate Fighter. Jones picked the matchup because he sees Kelvin as Team Sonnen’s weakest link, and feels that Bubba’s vast experience edge and overall skills will make the difference in the fight. As usual, Coach Chael Sonnen tries to stay positive: “They don’t know what they handed you,” he tells Kelvin. “They handed you a big opportunity. Everybody here’s gotta win this tournament to get in the UFC. You just gotta beat this guy. This is your ticket, right here.”

– Kelvin is apparently a big Ronda Rousey fan, so Chael sweetens the pot by arranging for Ronda to call Kelvin and wish him luck, then promises that Ronda will come down and train with him if he wins. Man, that devious bastard.

– Chael Sonnen’s friendliness is still throwing Jon Jones for a loop; the champ likes to keep a “mystique” about himself and maintain a distance from future opponents, but Sonnen is making that difficult by constantly engaging Jones in pleasant conversation. Seriously, Chael, when are you going to start fucking with his parking spot and hiding his sandals?


(Props: The Ultimate Fighter on Hulu)

After Collin Hart’s decision win over Kevin Casey returned matchup-control to Team Jones, it’s fan-favorite Robert “Bubba” McDaniel‘s time to shine — or crash-and-burn, whichever the case may be. Here are the major plot points from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which you can watch above in its entirety.

– This week’s fight will be Bubba vs. Kelvin Gastelum, a 5-0 prospect (and full-time bail bondsman) from Arizona who, at 21 years old, is apparently the youngest competitor ever allowed onto The Ultimate Fighter. Jones picked the matchup because he sees Kelvin as Team Sonnen’s weakest link, and feels that Bubba’s vast experience edge and overall skills will make the difference in the fight. As usual, Coach Chael Sonnen tries to stay positive: “They don’t know what they handed you,” he tells Kelvin. “They handed you a big opportunity. Everybody here’s gotta win this tournament to get in the UFC. You just gotta beat this guy. This is your ticket, right here.”

– Kelvin is apparently a big Ronda Rousey fan, so Chael sweetens the pot by arranging for Ronda to call Kelvin and wish him luck, then promises that Ronda will come down and train with him if he wins. Man, that devious bastard.

– Chael Sonnen’s friendliness is still throwing Jon Jones for a loop; the champ likes to keep a “mystique” about himself and maintain a distance from future opponents, but Sonnen is making that difficult by constantly engaging Jones in pleasant conversation. Seriously, Chael, when are you going to start fucking with his parking spot and hiding his sandals?

– Luke Barnatt finds it a bit “cheap” that Bubba, with his size and experience advantages, is going in to fight the youngest/smallest guy in the house.

– Gilbert Smith teaches the guys the rules of gay movie charades, or something. It seems like a great time, but Bubba isolates himself outside. He tells us how having his daughter got him to stop being a punk and take his life seriously. “It’s been a long, sad road in my life to be where I’m at MMA,” he said, “but I believe, on the other hand, MMA helped save my life.”

– I’m not going to transcribe Chael’s lesson about the people walking on the 2×4, and how the only thing that changes on fight day is the environment, but I’ll be first in line to pre-order his motivational DVD set when it comes out. Hopefully that freestyle rhyme about the “reflection of perfection” will stay on the cutting room floor, though.

– Team Jones’s Josh Samman is battling a laundry list of injuries, and wants to postpone his first fight another week. Of course, if Team Jones loses matchup-control and Team Sonnen calls Josh out, he’ll fight — but the implication is that he’ll probably get his ass kicked if it came to that. Jones’s coaching staff wonders if Josh’s injury excuses are legit, or if Josh is trying to stay out of action for other reasons.

– Chael Sonnen brings in A-list Hollywood weirdo Mickey Rourke (!) to talk to his boys, and discuss his own experiences in pro boxing and overcoming the dark moments in his life. It’s kind of awesome. We might need to update this list.

– Fight time: Bubba has five inches in height on Kelvin, three inches in reach, and 21 more professional fights on his record. Kelvin takes the center of the cage after the opening bell and drags Bubba to the mat first, but Bubba is crafty and quickly escapes. Kelvin gets the fight back to the mat and starts to work his jiu-jitsu before Bubba reverses him and takes his back. It looks dicey for a moment but Kelvin survives, gets to his feet, and goes back to his own ground-attacks. Once again, Bubba defends and takes Kelvin’s back, threatening with a choke. And again, Kelvin escapes and takes the top position, before Bubba does the same damn thing to him. Let’s just say there’s a lot of “scrambling,” and put it at that. Kelvin dives in with a rather dramatic flying punch as the round ends.

Kelvin starts round two with a sharp leg-kick, and Bubba returns kicks to the body and head. Kelvin takes Bubba to the mat, and loses position after a guillotine attempt. Bubba takes Kelvin’s back but slips off when Kelvin gets to his feet, and Kelvin is back on top. Bubba tries a triangle but is rebuffed. Kelvin rolls to Bubba’s back and tries a rear-naked choke. “Oh my God, he might have it,” says a genuinely-surprised Coach Sonnen. And he does. Holy crap, Kelvin Gastelum chokes out Bubba McDaniel. It was a great fight, and it puts Team Sonnen up 3-1 in the preliminary round. Or as Chael puts it, “One more for the bad guys.”

– Bubba is completely broken up after the fight. Jones tells him that the wild card spot is still a possibility, and he’ll fight Kelvin harder the next time. Meanwhile, Kelvin gets a congratulatory phone call from Ronda Rousey, who says that she can’t wait to meet him. (“Really! Really!”) And so begins the catfishing of another promising young athlete. Still, it’s awesome to see how happy Kelvin is in that moment. “I’m on top of the world, meng,” he says.

– For next week’s fight, Chael selects Tor Troeng to fight the achy, breaky Josh Samman. This is not looking promising for Team Bones.

Team Sonnen
Luke Barnatt – quarterfinalist, defeated Gilbert Smith
Uriah Hall – quarterfinalist, defeated Adam Cella
Zak Cummings
Tor Troeng
Jimmy Quinlan
Kevin Casey
Kelvin Gastelum – quarterfinalist, defeated Robert “Bubba” McDaniel

Team Jones
Clint Hester
Josh Samman
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel
Gilbert Smith
Collin Hart – quarterfinalist, defeated Kevin Casey
Adam Cella
Dylan Andrews

Poll: Who Is the Least Likable Contestant in ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ History? [UPDATED w/Results]

(Don’t worry, Julian, at least this moment was not forever immortalized by the power of the internet. That would be *super* embarrassing.) 

If BG’s recaps are any indication, this season’s The Ultimate Fighter appears to be void of most of the fabricated, frat boy drama that has plagued countless seasons before it, opting rather for a more straightforward, yet stylistic focus on the fights themselves. And while TUF has undoubtedly matured after some 17 seasons, that isn’t to say that the show has completely rid itself of the kind of unsightly characters reality television oft shines a light on. This season’s Julian Lane is none other than Robert “Bubba” McDaniel, a relentless a-hole who thus far has both bashed teammate Gilbert Smith for being mentally weak the day before he was scheduled to fight and unsuccessfully attempted to troll Kevin Casey into a fight using tactics usually saved for elementary school playgrounds (or the comments section of BloodyElbow).

So while a few of us were discussing McDaniel’s douchiness in the comments section of our latest recap, we (we being ReX) got to thinking: Who was the least likable fighter in TUF History?

After the jump lies a poll with the most obvious offenders (Browning, Lane, Koscheck the participant, Koscheck the coach, etc.) for you to choose from, along with an “Other” option in case you feeling like calling out some of the lesser-known but equally offensive jackwagons to enter the TUF household. I cannot stress enough that I have never entered the TUF household. I’ll announce the results at some point tomorrow, because I do what I want, when I want. OK, you can include me as an option for that statement alone.


(Don’t worry, Julian, at least this moment was not forever immortalized by the power of the internet. That would be *super* embarrassing.) 

If BG’s recaps are any indication, this season’s The Ultimate Fighter appears to be void of most of the fabricated, frat boy drama that has plagued countless seasons before it, opting rather for a more straightforward, yet stylistic focus on the fights themselves. And while TUF has undoubtedly matured after some 17 seasons, that isn’t to say that the show has completely rid itself of the kind of unsightly characters reality television oft shines a light on. This season’s Julian Lane is none other than Robert “Bubba” McDaniel, a relentless a-hole who thus far has both bashed teammate Gilbert Smith for being mentally weak the day before he was scheduled to fight and unsuccessfully attempted to troll Kevin Casey into a fight using tactics usually saved for elementary school playgrounds (or the comments section of BloodyElbow).

So while a few of us were discussing McDaniel’s douchiness in the comments section of our latest recap, we (we being ReX) got to thinking: Who was the least likable fighter in TUF History?

After the jump lies a poll with the most obvious offenders (Browning, Lane, Koscheck the participant, Koscheck the coach, etc.) for you to choose from, along with an “Other” option in case you feeling like calling out some of the lesser-known but equally offensive jackwagons to enter the TUF household. I cannot stress enough that I have never entered the TUF household. I’ll announce the results at some point tomorrow, because I do what I want, when I want. OK, you can include me as an option for that statement alone.

RESULTS

With 33.9% of the vote, TUF 8 alum and terrorizer of Taiwanese townspeople Junie Browning shall henceforth be known as the most reprehensible scoundrel in the long line of reprehensible scoundrels to have paraded through the halls of TUF manor.

In a distant second place, none other than TUF 16′s Julian Lane with 25% of the votes, which just edged out the combination of coach/participant Josh Koscheck (24.9%).

In the “Other” category, TUF 1‘s Bobby Southworth collected 14 of 95 votes, somewhat ironically edging out “fatherless bastard” (his words, not mine) Chris Leben, who took in 10 votes. And to the scholar who wrote-in TUF 7′s  Luke Zachrich for the sake of obscurity, congratulations. Game recognizes game.

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 –J. Jones