Tag: The Ultimate Fighter 19

The 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter continued Wednesday night, and the first middleweight semifinal was showcased. This time around, Team Penn’s Irish middleweight Cathal Pendred looked to show why he was so highly touted coming onto the show when he fought Chris Weidman teammate and physically imposing Team Edgar fighter Eddie Gordon.

This episode was the drinking episode, so we got to see some hijinks. It was nothing like the Julian Lane or Junie Browning drinking episodes of past, but it still earned a few chuckles.

As for the fight, we saw yet another decision. Gordon took a razor-thin split decision over the Irishman, effectively earning a spot in the finale.

I am now 1-0 on my semifinal picks, as I had Gordon over Pendred. That being said, it was so close that one could argue Pendred won the fight.

Next up are the light heavyweights, as Patrick Walsh takes on Corey Anderson. My pick for that fight is Anderson, as I think he is stronger, faster, more athletic and has a better gas tank than his Wai Kru counterpart.

Teams

*signifies that this fighter is a finalist.

Notes and Observations

• For some reason, I find the episodes where they show the fighters drinking as the funniest. There are always near-fights, as seen with Chris Fields and Hector Urbina. Somebody always gets naked, as seen with Tim Williams. Basically, something crazy happens, which is entertaining. That short scene of them drinking was more entertaining than most of the fights on the season so far. 
• Related to the drinking thing, the pan-out they did with the camera in the morning where Fields woke up on the floor and then we saw Williams sleeping naked face down on his bed was hilarious. Awesome job by the production crew; that was unintentional comedy at its best.
• When Dana White brought the fighters to Mandalay Bay to show them what they could have in their future, what are the odds that he let them stay and watch the fights? It would be funny if he got them out of there before the show started.
• The Gordon-Pendred fight was actually decent, showing the pep talk might have helped. It’s not gonna win any Fight of the Year awards soon, but it was better than most of the fights this season so far.
• I personally scored it 29-28 for Pendred, but that was no robbery. Pendred clearly won the first round, Gordon easily took the second and really it could have gone either way in the third. I expect that Pendred and Fields will probably be added to the UFC Ireland card, assuming they are healthy.
• Next week’s fight between Walsh and Anderson could be decent. Both have great wrestling, which may negate. On the feet, Walsh has more power, but Anderson has a much better gas tank, so it should be very interesting.

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‘The 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter continued Wednesday night, and the middleweights were again front and center. This time around, it was Team Penn’s top pick, Mike King, taking on Chris Weidman training partner and Team Edgar’s Eddie Gordon.

The episode was pretty standard, as we heard about both fighters’ backgrounds. The most interesting part was King’s strategy, as he wanted to stand and bang with Gordon, while BJ Penn and Mark Coleman thought it would be best to wrestle him.

This episode also showed the coaches challenge, which was kayaking. BJ Penn defeated Frankie Edgar to win $10,000 for himself and $1,500 a piece for his fighters.

The fight followed the typical, decent-at-best performance that we have seen all season since the quarterfinals started. King won the first round with aggression and striking, while Gordon took Rounds 2 and 3 with takedown defense and better striking.

Both men committed eye pokes, and a low blow was landed, tainting the fight a bit. Dana White openly disapproved of this fight, just like the last few before it.

The win equaled things up for Team Edgar in the middleweight semifinals with two fighters from their team and two from Team Penn. It also set up the final light heavyweight bout between Matt van Buren of Team Edgar and Chris Fields of Team Penn. It’s the only fight that has a real beef between the fighters.

Teams

Notes and Observations

• Mike King was shown at the beginning of the episode upset about all of the dirty dishes in the kitchen and how big of a mess it was. I can totally understand where he is coming from there, as college was a constant struggle, especially with dirty roommates. Eddie Gordon brushed it off, but that is a huge pet peeve of mine and others I know.
• I have to agree with Frankie Edgar with the coaches challenge. Kayaking is big in Hawaii because of its proximity to the ocean. I’m not saying Penn is a huge kayaker, but I am sure he’s done it more than a few times in his life.
• I think this season of the show has some really talented fighters, but the fights have been far from marvelous so far. I think Dhiego Lima, Eddie Gordon, Mike King, Tim Williams, Cathal Pendred, Corey Anderson, Anton Berzin, Patrick Walsh and Dan Spohn all have great potential, but their fights have been real so-so at best.
• Speaking of King, how tough is that guy? His elimination-round fight against Nordine Taleb was awesome, and he took a bunch of punishment. In this fight, he took a brutal eye poke that shut his eye by the end of the day and had him bleeding. Dana White said, “King damn near got his eye gouged out.” No arguments here, it looked really rough.
• Matt van Buren vs. Chris Fields at least has some emotion behind it, which leads me to believe it could be the best fight of the quarterfinals (not that it would be that tough). Fields is a striker, but he was getting dominated by Josh Stansbury in the elimination round before Stansbury blew out his knee. Van Buren is a pretty tough guy himself and is likely the favorite here. Fields is tough, but I think van Buren can notch the finish. 

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The 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter continued, as the most controversial episode of the season took place. A three-round fight between Roger Zapata and Ian Stephens was the main focus of the entire episode, as was the craziness that surrounded it.

Before the fight, we heard that Stephens lost his father at age six when he was electrocuted on the job. That seems to be the main driving force behind the young fighter, who is known for his dominant wrestling.

Another big part of the episode was BJ Penn bringing in Matt Hughes as a guest coach. Hughes, a former three-time opponent of Penn and current friend of the coach, seemed to do great things in the short time he was there.

When fight time came, it was marred by lack of activity and controversial calls. Stephens easily won Round 1, but there was a major focus on referee Steve Mazzagatti warning Zapata on several occasions to stop grabbing the fence and throwing illegal elbows.

The same thing happened in Round 2, but a sudden victory Round 3 was required. In the third, Mazzagatti finally took a point from Zapata after another illegal elbow or two. It upset Dana White, though in reality Mazzagatti did give Zapata plenty of warnings.

In an even crazier turn of events, Zapata was announced the winner of the decision despite the fact that there was no way he could win Round 3 due to the loss of point. A bunch of craziness ensued from the questionable judge’s call, but the decision stood, and Zapata now moves on to the semifinals.

The next fight was announced for next week. Ohio State wrestler Patrick Walsh of Team Edgar was chosen by Penn to take on Penn’s top pick Anton Berzin, a jiu-jitsu specialist.

Team

Notes and Observations

• I really like the coaches that Penn has brought in. It seems that Mark Coleman, an everyday coach, and Matt Hughes, a one-off guest, are awesome teachers and coaches. At some point, I think it would be awesome if they had a season of TUF where the coaches are all retired fighters. Imagine having Coleman, Hughes, Chuck Liddell and other legends assembled as a team of coaches teaching fighters the tricks of the trade. Besides, other than heated rivalries, the coaches fights aren’t that big a deal anymore.
• I want to know how often the last pick of the entire season has made it out of the first round. I know on TUF 18 last season, Jessica Rakoczy was not only the last pick of the women, but actually made it to the finals.
• I understand where Dana White is coming from and why he was upset, but let’s look at this logically. Mazzagatti warned Zapata probably three or four times about grabbing the fence, never taking away a point. He also warned him about the elbows half a dozen times or so before taking the point. Not only that, but a lot of Zapata’s strikes were to the back of Stephens’ head. I think the point deduction was a long time coming.
• I scored the fight 29-27 for Stephens. I thought he won the first and third round via control, plus took the third 10-8 due to the point deduction. Assuming the judges had it 19-19 going into the third, it does seem impossible Zapata could win, especially with the point deduction. A win in the third round for Stephens would make it 29-27. A 10-9 win (9-9 with the deduction) for Zapata in that round would make the score 28-28, meaning that they would have to go to a fourth round. There is no way Zapata could have had a 10-8 (or 9-8 with the deduction) to earn that. Controversial to say the least.
• So far, most of the fights on the season have been underwhelming. This is surprising considering the level of talent on the season. I really think that Anton Berzin, Corey Anderson and Dan Spohn are great talents in the light heavyweight division, while Mike King, Dhiego Lima, Cathal Pendred, Tim Williams and Eddie Gordon are all gems at middleweight. I really expected more from these guys in terms of excitement so far.

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With Team Penn up 2-0 in the early going of The Ultimate Fighter 19, Team Edgar looked to Dhiego Lima to get its first win of the season. In his way was a scary man known as “The South Jersey Strangler,” Tim Williams.

A lot of this episode revolved around the future of the season, as Matt Van Buren of Team Edgar irked many of Team Penn.

This was especially true with Chris Fields, as both men expressed their dislike for one another and their intent to fight at some point.

When it came time to fight, we got a great scrap between two awesome middleweights on this season. As BJ Penn put it, it was the fight of the season so far (not including elimination-round fights).

Williams dominated the first round using good cage work, solid clinch and great top control. Williams had Lima’s back for a good portion of the round and almost got a rear-naked choke.

The second round was a different fight. Lima stayed off the cage more and opened up with his hands. He really started scoring on the feet, which led to a shot by Williams. Lima sprawled nicely, quickly jumped Williams’ back and secured a rear-naked choke of his own. Williams tapped and Lima effectively gave Team Edgar its first win.

Williams was distraught, but it was a sweet transition to choke by Lima. Had the fight gone to the end of the second round, it would have been pushed to a third and Lima looked the fresher of the two.

Team Edgar finally got a hold of the pick, and despite Van Buren‘s pleas to get his fight with Fields, they went with their top pick Corey Anderson to take on Josh Clark.

Teams

Notes and Observations:

• Matt Van Buren is officially the bigmouth of the house. The Team Edgar guys seem half-and-half about him, while most of Team Penn dislikes him in a big way. He says what he feels and doesn’t apologize for it. This was especially the case when he made fun of Chris Fields’ accent, upsetting the Irishman. We will see if he can back up his tough-guy act.
• Patrick Walsh tweaked his back in training, an injury he says has been nagging him for a while. Expect this storyline to continue down the road, especially when fight time nears for Walsh. This will affect his ability to score takedowns, as that is the former Ohio State wrestler’s bread and butter.
• Tim Williams has some gnarly facial scars that he got from a terrible car accident. Anton Berzin made him a picture of a half-faced skull because it reminded him of Williams. That leads me to call for Williams to change his nickname to “Two Face,” even though “The South Jersey Strangler” is super badass.
• The fighters say they are fighting boredom when not in the gym. They said they shoot pool and write in journals to pass time, but they showed two fighters playing nutball in their room. If you don’t know what nutball is, you basically sit across the room from one another with your legs spread and you toss a tennis ball at the opposing player’s testicles. Yeah, they are really bored.
• Dhiego Lima talked about coming to the USA, learning English quickly and showed he was brainstorming middle names for his daughter on the way. He mentioned his brother Douglas as a successful fighter, but didn’t mention he was a major player in Bellator. Not really a surprise, though.
• The fight next week should be interesting. I think Anderson’s wrestling is going to be too much for Clark, but Clark did get into the house by using a triangle armbar from the bottom to tap out a wrestler. We will see if he can do that again.

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