TUF 17 vet/gangsta rapperKevin Casey won the RFA middleweight title on Friday night, with a thunderous first-round knockout of previously undefeated Andrew Sanchez. Like any good referee, Mike “The Walrus” Beltran dived in to cover Sanchez’s body from further punishment. What happened next is slightly harder to explain, but basically, Beltran used Sanchez’s half-conscious body as a Bubba dummy, transitioning from side-control to an arm-triangle choke, then used his own braided moustache to tie Sanchez’s wrists together (not really). Anyway, it was awesome in a Cecil Peoples-esque “WTF are you doing?” sort of way.
TUF 17 vet/gangsta rapperKevin Casey won the RFA middleweight title on Friday night, with a thunderous first-round knockout of previously undefeated Andrew Sanchez. Like any good referee, Mike “The Walrus” Beltran dived in to cover Sanchez’s body from further punishment. What happened next is slightly harder to explain, but basically, Beltran used Sanchez’s half-conscious body as a Bubba dummy, transitioning from side-control to an arm-triangle choke, then used his own braided moustache to tie Sanchez’s wrists together (not really). Anyway, it was awesome in a Cecil Peoples-esque “WTF are you doing?” sort of way.
(1-0 over constrictive tanktops, 0-1 over actual competition. You will be missed, Gilbert. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)
The UFC continues to steamroll ahead with its massive roster cuts, Potato Nation. And while we are never one to praise the departure of a Zuffa employee (unless it’s Paul Daley, of course), we should at least be able to take comfort in the fact that there are no Jon Fitch level mind-bogglers for us to mourn this time around. However, the UFC’s most recent list of firings does feature — somewhat unsurprisingly — every TUF 17 alum who came up short in the season’s finale earlier this month, as well as a couple other guys who have had less than successful UFC runs as of late.
Taking out the trash is never fun, so let’s just get this thing over with…
(1-0 over constrictive tanktops, 0-1 over actual competition. You will be missed, Gilbert. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)
The UFC continues to steamroll ahead with its massive roster cuts, Potato Nation. And while we are never one to praise the departure of a Zuffa employee (unless it’s Paul Daley, of course), we should at least be able to take comfort in the fact that there are no Jon Fitch level mind-bogglers for us to mourn this time around. However, the UFC’s most recent list of firings does feature — somewhat unsurprisingly — every TUF 17 alum who came up short in the season’s finale earlier this month, as well as a couple other guys who have had less than successful UFC runs as of late.
Taking out the trash is never fun, so let’s just get this thing over with…
Philip De Fries: Otherwise known as the poor man’s Christian Morecraft, the submission specialist has seen his lights turned out in 3 of his past 4 fights — to Stipe Miocic, Todd Duffee, and most recently, Matt Mitrione. All three of those losses came in under 3 minutes. Despite his trio of vicious beatdowns, De Fries was able to score a pair of victories over Rob Broughton and Oli Thompson at UFC 138 and UFC on FOX 4, respectively.
Chris Spang: The Strikeforce veteran was only given one chance in the UFC and suffered a unanimous decision loss to fellow Strikeforce vet Adlan Amagov in a snoozer at UFC on FUEL 9 earlier in the month. Insert Leonard Garcia joke here.
Jimmy Quinlan, Gilbert Smith, Kevin Casey, Collin Hart, & Adam Cella: These TUF 17 alums suffered losses at the season finale to fellow castmates Dylan Andrews, Bubba McDaniel, Josh Samman, and Luke Barnatt, respectively. Cella, on the other hand, was choked out by Tor Troeng in the first round of their fight at UFC on FUEL 9.
With Team Sonnen up 2-0 following Uriah Hall‘s brutal knockout of Adam Cella, it’s time for Team Jones to shift the momentum before it gets out of hand — and it’s up to their #5 pick Collin Hart to save the day. Here are the brass tacks from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which you can watch above in its entirety.
– Adam Cella returns to the TUF house, still wearing his hospital gown, and claims he has no memory of the fight. Nevertheless, he tracks Uriah Hall down in the shower and jokingly asks Hall why he hit him so hard. Hall still feels uncomfortable about the fact that he nearly ended Cella’s life. The fact that he’s naked while Cella is trying to have a conversation with him does nothing to alleviate the tension.
– Kevin Casey suffered a cut over his right eye during his elimination-round fight against Eldon Sproat, and says he chose to fight Collin Hart — a wrestler — because he runs a lower risk of getting the cut re-opened against Hart than he would against a talented striker, like Bubba McDaniel, for example. So yeah, in a way he is ducking Bubba, but it makes sense from a strategic standpoint. Unfortunately, Collin vows to elbow Kevin Casey’s face in.
With Team Sonnen up 2-0 following Uriah Hall‘s brutal knockout of Adam Cella, it’s time for Team Jones to shift the momentum before it gets out of hand — and it’s up to their #5 pick Collin Hart to save the day. Here are the brass tacks from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which you can watch above in its entirety.
– Adam Cella returns to the TUF house, still wearing his hospital gown, and claims he has no memory of the fight. Nevertheless, he tracks Uriah Hall down in the shower and jokingly asks Hall why he hit him so hard. Hall still feels uncomfortable about the fact that he nearly ended Cella’s life. The fact that he’s naked while Cella is trying to have a conversation with him does nothing to alleviate the tension.
– Kevin Casey suffered a cut over his right eye during his elimination-round fight against Eldon Sproat, and says he chose to fight Collin Hart — a wrestler — because he runs a lower risk of getting the cut re-opened against Hart than he would against a talented striker, like Bubba McDaniel, for example. So yeah, in a way he is ducking Bubba, but it makes sense from a strategic standpoint. Unfortunately, Collin vows to elbow Kevin Casey’s face in.
– Gilbert Smith tries to start a rap-battle with Kevin Casey, and gets beat about as badly as Luke Barnatt beat him.
– There’s a power-outage, and a prank involving toilet paper. You don’t need to know details.
– Instead of shaking hands after the weigh-ins, Collin Hart sticks his middle finger in Kevin Casey’s face. The move doesn’t go over well with Team Sonnen. Collin’s only explanation is that you should respect his sleep. Uriah Hall tells Collin how disappointed he is. Uriah Hall is not the kind of dude you want to be disappointed with you.
– The fight isn’t exactly a barn-burner. Collin imposes his will immediately, scoring a takedown off the bell — off of a failed ninja-kick — then controlling Kevin on the mat and against the fence. Collin works some knee strikes from clinch, and Kevin is completely stymied in the first round aside from a few punches he lands during a brief separation in the closing seconds. Kevin tries to get aggressive at the beginning of the second round, rushing at Collin and throwing heavy punches, but Collin snatches him up after about 20 seconds and it’s back to Clinchville. Kevin’s cut opens up and Collin takes control again with his wrestling. Collin spends the remainder of the round on top, throwing down short strikes. All three judges call it 20-18 for Collin, who immediately heads for the treadmill to get a workout in.
– Team Jones regains control of the matchups, and select Bubba McDaniel to fight Team Sonnen’s last-pick Kelvin Gastelum. Jones acknowledges that Gastelum has better wrestling, but as Bones explains, “wrestling really doesn’t win fights.” Huh. So I guess we can expect Bubba’s game-plan to consist entirely of spinning back-elbows?
Team Sonnen
Luke Barnatt – quarterfinalist, defeated Gilbert Smith
Uriah Hall – quarterfinalist, defeated Adam Cella
Zak Cummings
Tor Troeng
Jimmy Quinlan Kevin Casey
Kelvin Gastelum
Team Jones
Clint Hester
Josh Samman
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel Gilbert Smith
Collin Hart – quarterfinalist, defeated Kevin Casey Adam Cella
Dylan Andrews
Zak Cummings (15-3, LHW, listed here as “Zach”): A Missouri-based vet who has made appearances in Strikeforce Challengers, Bellator, and MFC, Cummings kicked off his pro career with a 10-0 streak. Since then, he’s been more notable for losing to Tim Kennedy and losing to Ryan Jimmo.
Tor Troeng (15-4, MW): Remember how Dana White said there was one guy in the TUF 17 cast who “scared the living shit out of everyone” and put all his opponents in the hospital? Well, there are unsubstantiated rumors that it might be this guy, a Swedish vet who has won four straight fights since being submitted by Thales Leites at Superior Challenge 6 in October 2010.
Robert McDaniel (20-6, MW): “Bubba” has only gone to decision once in his long career, and 75% of his wins have come by submission. McDaniel holds stoppage wins over Kala Hose, Kyacey Uscola, and Johnny Rees, and is currently on a six-fight win streak.
Zak Cummings (15-3, LHW, listed here as “Zach”): A Missouri-based vet who has made appearances in Strikeforce Challengers, Bellator, and MFC, Cummings kicked off his pro career with a 10-0 streak. Since then, he’s been more notable for losing to Tim Kennedy and losing to Ryan Jimmo.
Tor Troeng (15-4, MW): Remember how Dana White said there was one guy in the TUF 17 cast who “scared the living shit out of everyone” and put all his opponents in the hospital? Well, there are unsubstantiated rumors that it might be this guy, a Swedish vet who has won four straight fights since being submitted by Thales Leites at Superior Challenge 6 in October 2010.
Robert McDaniel (20-6, MW): “Bubba” has only gone to decision once in his long career, and 75% of his wins have come by submission. McDaniel holds stoppage wins over Kala Hose, Kyacey Uscola, and Johnny Rees, and is currently on a six-fight win streak.
And now, the full roster…
Dylan Andrews (16-4-1), 32, Gold Coast, Australia (by way of New Zealand)
Kito Andrews (9-2), 34, Sacramento, Calif.
Luke Barnatt (5-0), 24, Cambridge, England
Leo Bercier (7-2), 31, Great Falls, Mont.
Ryan Bigler (9-3), 28, Yona, Guam
Kevin Casey (5-2), Hawthorne, Calif.
Adam Cella (4-0), 27, Fenton, Mo.
Zach Cummings (15-3), 28, Kansas City, Mo.
Andy Enz (6-1), 21, Anchorage, Alaska
Nik Fekete (5-1), 32, Las Vegas
Kelvin Gastelum (5-0), 20, Yuma, Ariz.
Uriah Hall (7-2), 28, New York City (by way of Jamaica)
Collin Hart (4-1-1), 23, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Clint Hester (7-3), 25, Atlanta
Jake Heun (3-2), 25, Salt Lake City
Mike Jasper (6-0), 29, Camarillo, Calif.
Nicholas Kohring (3-0), 22, Valley Springs, Calif.
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel (20-6), 29, Albuquerque, N.M.
Fraser Opie (10-5), 29, Milton Keynes, England (by way of South Africa)
Mike Persons (3-0), 28, Manteca, Calif.
Jimmy Quinlan (3-0), 26, Metheun, Mass.
Scott Rosa (4-1), 26, Sparks, Nev.
Joshua Samman (9-2), 24, Tallahassee, Fla.
Gilbert Smith Jr. (5-1), Colorado Springs, Colo.
Eldon Sproat (3-1), 27, Molokai, Hawaii
Tor Troeng (15-4-1), 29, Umea, Sweden
Eric Wahlin (5-1), 29, Taylorsville, Utah
Timothy Williams (7-1), 26, Millville, N.J.
Keep in mind that this crew will likely be cut down to 16 by the end of the first episode’s elimination round. If you have info to share about any of the other fighters we didn’t cover, please drop some knowledge in the comments section.
