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Dana White Promises “A Knockout That Beats Uriah Hall’s” on TUF 19 [HOORAY?]

(And when Cella was just lying there all comatose while everyone was fearing for his life? FUCKING. AWESOME.)

As MMA fans, it’s safe to say that we can appreciate a good knockout when we see one. The timing, the precision, the simultaneous grace and utter devastation — these are all factors we take into account when, say, deciding the greatest knockout of the year. But as we are continuously reminded in the aftermath of knockouts like the spinning back kick Uriah Hall hit Adam Cella with on TUF 17, the line between a brilliant knockout and a hard-to-watch knockout is a thin one. As amazing as these displays of technique are to witness, they can often leave a sour taste in one’s mouth when the victim appears to be seriously injured as a result.

So perhaps we’re in the minority here, but when Dana White recently attempted to hype the 19th season of TUF by promising fans “a f*cking scary knockout,” we were less than enthused (okay, sarcastically enthused) to say the least (via Fox Sports):

We had the fights to get into the house yesterday on The Ultimate Fighter, probably the nastiest f-king knockout. It beats Uriah Hall knockout. Was Uriah Hall not one of the sickest knockouts you’ve ever seen? This one beats it. Picture how f-king scary this knockout is.

On one hand, this could just be another instance of White attempting to stir up some buzz for a season of TUF that he knows no one is interested in. On the other, should we even be excited by this news?

(And when Cella was just lying there all comatose while everyone was fearing for his life? FUCKING. AWESOME.)

We had the fights to get into the house yesterday on The Ultimate Fighter, probably the nastiest f-king knockout. It beats Uriah Hall knockout. Was Uriah Hall not one of the sickest knockouts you’ve ever seen? This one beats it. Picture how f-king scary this knockout is.

Rewatch the video of Hall’s KO, or Matt Riddle’s KO of Dan Simmler, for that matter, and ask yourself: Should this really be a selling point for our sport? It’s kind of contradictory to declare that our sport is so much safer than boxing one day — which, it barely is — and then promote this kind of uber-violence the next. While there are surely some MMA fans out there who follow the sport to satiate their own sadism, not everyone of us adopts a “Just Bleed” guy mentality towards fighters. Likewise, the UFC should be past the point where it needs to hype the brutality of the sport in order to get people interested.

But who knows, maybe ol’ DW is simply speaking in hyperbole again. Or maybe TUF 19 will feature a KO that leaves a fighter in a coma for a week. No matter the case, “scary” should probably be on the short list of words *not* to use when describing a knockout in a positive manner. That is, if you’re ever hoping to convert the Tim Rothfield’s of the world to our fine sport.

–J. Jones

TUF 20 Could Have Female Coaches, but Doesn’t Need Them

The upcoming 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter is historic because it will not only be the first all-female cast in the show’s history, but it will also crown the first ever women’s strawweight champion. As of right now, the show has 11 ladies w…

The upcoming 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter is historic because it will not only be the first all-female cast in the show’s history, but it will also crown the first ever women’s strawweight champion. As of right now, the show has 11 ladies whose contracts were purchased from Invicta to compete on the show (the other five contestants will be chosen from a tryout).

So far, the cast includes Invicta champ Carla Esparza, Claudia Gadelha, Joanna Calderwood, Tecia Torres, Felice Herrig, Bec Hyatt, Rose Namajunas, Emily Kagan, Paige VanZant, Alex Chambers and Juliana Lima.

One of the questions that has been posed since the announcement of this cast is who the coaches would be. Would it be two female fighters or would they use male fighters?

Despite everything, it would be best for the UFC to incorporate male coaches for this season, especially a pair of coaches that have a background or rivalry.

Sure, TUF 20 could employ female coaches, but the options aren’t really aplenty.

Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate both coached season 18 and are still set to have their coaches battle at the end of this month at UFC 168. That, of course, was an obvious choice for coaching the first-ever season that included women, but they will not likely coach again.

That leaves the UFC with the rest of the bantamweight division as choices to coach.

Cat Zingano was supposed to coach and then fight Rousey, but a knee injury bumped her from that spot and gave Tate the opportunity. She is likely to get her earned title shot after the Tate-Rousey fight goes down, so throwing her on the show as a coach wouldn’t make sense because she already has a title ticket punched.

That leaves the rest of the division, which includes Sara McMann, Alexis Davis, Jessica Eye and Amanda Nunes, to name a few.

First off, I think we have to remove anybody from the running that doesn’t speak English, as that is a requirement for performing on the show. Nunes isn’t exactly fluent, nor is Jessica Andrade or Bethe Correia.

When you go further than that, none of the women in the division who could be potential opponents have an intriguing storyline with another woman. Plus, you have to find somebody who is marketable to warrant views.

Liz Carmouche has pushed hard on Twitter to get that coaching spot, but with all due respect, her record in the UFC doesn’t suggest she should land the spot. Sure she had a title shot, but she is 1-2 with the company and coming off a one-sided loss to Alexis Davis.

Davis could be a viable contender to coach, as she could be right behind Zingano in the line for a title shot. However, finding her a dance partner to coach against would be tough, especially because the most interesting coaching seasons come between rivals that dislike each other.

Sara McMann could be a decent coach, but we haven’t heard from her since she pulled out of her fight back in the summer against Sarah Kaufman.

What it comes down to is that the UFC needs these strawweights to get the best attention possible, so they can develop into marketable, seasoned fighters that make the division more legit than it is now. It worked with Rousey and Tate, but outside that, it may be tough.

That’s why the UFC may have to go with male coaches for this season.

There are well over 200 male fighters on the roster, many of whom have an opponent who could not only create a great rivalry, but could make for a close, interesting fight when it’s all said and done.

What about Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson coaching a season that ends in a title rematch between the two? That would be a great competitive rivalry.

Then there’s the idea of having Rich Franklin coach opposite another top fighter, which could be the ultimate sendoff for the legend who will probably retire next year. Franklin has a lot to offer having coached the show before.

Michael Bisping and Tim Kennedy would be great to have, as their rivalry continues to heat up through the media. It would be a tense season that resulted in an important middleweight bout.

The possibilities are endless. Basically, even though it’s an all-women’s season doesn’t mean the coaches need to be female fighters.

Whatever happens, I’m sure the season will be filled with high drama and great action. That’s why there is such a buzz about the keynote 20th season.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 20: Guide to the Strawweight Division

Dana White announced on a conference call this week that the UFC has acquired 11 strawweight fighters from Invicta FC. Those 11 will compete in a tournament on The Ultimate Fighter’s 20th season to determine the first ever UFC Strawweight Champion.
The…

Dana White announced on a conference call this week that the UFC has acquired 11 strawweight fighters from Invicta FC. Those 11 will compete in a tournament on The Ultimate Fighter‘s 20th season to determine the first ever UFC Strawweight Champion.

The 115-pound division has long been considered the deepest division in women’s MMA. However, it has not been a long time where the elite have been able to compete against one another.

It was Bellator who signed several of the top female athletes to have them compete in a tournament back in 2010. Longtime divisional standout Megumi Fujii would take on Zoila Frausto Gurgel in the finals and lose a controversial decision.

Since then, the division has changed. Gurgel moved to 125-pounds, Jessica Aguilar moved to the top of the division with a seven-fight win streak and Invicta FC appeared on the scene.

Invicta finally began to build a true elite 115-pound division, and Carla Esparza would take their inaugural title. The organization brought in several of the top ranked women from around the world and helped foster prospects such as Tecia Torres.

A lot of hard work has paid off, and now the deepest division of women’s MMA will be under the big top of the UFC.

This is what you need to know in advance of TUF 20.

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Chael Sonnen Officially Invites Anderson Silva to Be Asst. Coach on TUF: Brazil

Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva have one of the most storied rivalries in the current era of mixed martial arts.
The pound-for-pound great and the “Gangster from West Linn” have engaged in two memorable affairs, with the former middleweight king emergi…

Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva have one of the most storied rivalries in the current era of mixed martial arts.

The pound-for-pound great and the “Gangster from West Linn” have engaged in two memorable affairs, with the former middleweight king emerging victorious on both occasions. While their time inside the cage certainly earned a place in MMA history, the build-up to the bouts was just as epic, as Sonnen launched a constant verbal assault on the longtime champion and the country of Brazil.

While the grudge between Silva and Sonnen has been put to rest following their final meeting at UFC 148 in 2012, the former two-divisional title challenger’s beef with Brazil still has a pulse. In fact, it could get downright lively as Sonnen will head down to the country largely heralded as the “birthplace of MMA” when he coaches The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil opposite another rival in Wanderlei Silva. Filming of the show will begin on Jan. 12 and continue until Feb. 21, with the two coaches squaring off at an event later in the year.

While Sonnen’s feud with “The Axe Murderer” may be red hot, the Oregon native has shown the ability to let the past be the past, as he has officially reached out to the former 185-pound champion to be one of his assistant coaches on the show.

“I have officially invited Anderson to coach TUF: Brazil as part of my staff,” Sonnen told MMAFighting.

The perennial contender told the MMA news outlet that he has reached out to Silva’s manager Ed Soares to extend the offer. Soares replied that he would pass the message on to his fighter. There has been no word yet if the former middleweight champion would take Sonnen up on his offer, but it would make for an interesting dynamic on the reality-based fighting program.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 20: Can Strawweights Make the UFC’s Reality Show Relevant Again?

Don’t be fooled by the fact that it continues to stagger aimlessly through the barren fields of cable television—The Ultimate Fighter has been dead for years.
Once the primary vehicle of the UFC’s drive toward the mainstream, the real…

Don’t be fooled by the fact that it continues to stagger aimlessly through the barren fields of cable television—The Ultimate Fighter has been dead for years.

Once the primary vehicle of the UFC’s drive toward the mainstream, the reality show has become something less than itself during its last handful of seasons. These days, it’s merely a zombie, shuffling awkwardly in pursuit of its goals but without the brains or the soul to carry them out.

Limping along only because no one has had the good sense to put it out of its misery.

This week, however, we got a glimmer of hope for a cure. With the UFC’s announcement on Wednesday that it’ll use TUF’s upcoming 20th season to introduce strawweights to the Octagon, there’s a sudden and unexpected note of optimism surrounding the flagging series.

Perhaps—just for a little while—the sport’s smallest fighters can bring The Ultimate Fighter back to life.

TUF began as a way for the UFC to forge new stars, but more recently it’s succeeded only in producing stagnant ratings, largely middling talent and decidedly unflattering portraits of some of the promotion’s biggest draws (Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey).

Casting strawweights for TUF 20 immediately remedies several of the show’s biggest ills, raising the stakes while simultaneously guaranteeing an overall higher level of competition.

For the first time in the show’s history, an honest-to-goodness UFC title will be on the line, as the winner will reportedly emerge as the organization’s inaugural women’s strawweight champion. These fighters won’t simply be competing for a glass trophy and a nebulous “six-figure contract,” but for actual, recognizable hardware that won’t cease to be meaningful as soon as the season finale wraps.

Since producers are essentially buying out Invicta FC’s 115-pound division to cast the show, Season 20 may also be the most talent rich and competitive to date. After all, this marks the first time most of the top 10 fighters in a single weight class will live in the TUF McMansion and compete in its wacky two-round exhibition bouts.

While TUF 20 may not completely redress the show’s single greatest flaw—overall staleness—this season will be the first to feature an all-female cast, so it can’t exactly be considered more of the same, either. For Season 18, the UFC hedged its bets in casting both male and female fighters and obviously came away from the experience more invested and confident in women’s MMA in general.

To that end, Season 20 doesn’t figure to hurt for marketable personalities. Of the 11 names released so far, several—including but not limited to Felice Herrig, Bec Hyatt, Carla Esparza, Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres—seem like natural fits for reality TV.

And with that uneven number of contestants on the docket so far, it’s not totally out of the question that there could be a few more surprise entrants before filming begins in May.

Likewise, coaches have not yet been announced, but they seem borderline irrelevant to this scenario. One of the particularly grating parts of TUF’s endless parade of past seasons was the insistence that fans treat every announced coaching combo like big, exciting news, when really it’s not. Not when we’ve seen it 19 times before.

For now, this story should be all about the strawweights.

Is this just a temporary fix? Sure. You can’t create a new division and have a tournament for the UFC title every time you need to cast a new season of TUF. After Season 20, perhaps the show will revert to the mindless, relentless plodding of the undead.

In the short term though, we’ll take it, as under the circumstances it seems like the best possible move.

To make TUF relevant again, even for just a season?

That seems like a miracle.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Pillages Invicta FC’s Strawweight Division, 115-Pound Women to Be Featured on TUF 20

(Well, it was fun while it lasted. / Photo via InvictaFC)

On Wednesday evening, the UFC officially announced the launch of its 115-pound women’s division, after acquiring the contracts of 11 top strawweight fighters from Invicta FC: Carla Esparza, Claudia Gadelha, Felice Herrig, Joanne Calderwood, Tecia Torres, Rose Namajunas, Bec Hyatt, Emily Kagan, Alex Chambers, Juliana Lima, and Paige Van Zant.

Those fighters (along with five more strawweights to be named later) will compete on the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter, which begins filming in May 2014. The winner of the season will become the UFC’s inaugural strawweight champion. Coaches for the season haven’t been named yet.

As for Invicta FC, company president Shannon Knapp has put on a happy face and explained that Invicta’s strawweight division will carry on without its 11 best fighters, which seems kind of depressing. But her promotion has had a good working relationship with the UFC since the beginning, and that’s not going to change.

At this point, you probably have a lot of burning questions racing through your heads, so we’ve put together a helpful FAQ to answer some of the major ones…

Q: Does this mean that CagePotato’s sponsorship of Rose Namajunas is effectively over?
A: Yeah, pretty much. But we wish Rose the best with the bigger, fancier sponsors that she’ll be snapping up next year. JUST TREAT HER RIGHT, BRO.

(Well, it was fun while it lasted. / Photo via InvictaFC)

At this point, you probably have a lot of burning questions racing through your heads, so we’ve put together a helpful FAQ to answer some of the major ones…

Q: I haven’t watched TUF since the Brock Lesnar season. (Chicken shit, chicken salad, good times.) Why can’t the UFC just start putting these women on upcoming fight cards? Like, they could re-book Gadelha vs. Esparza for the inaugural strawweight title on a FOX Sports 1 show or something. You know what I mean?
A: I do know what you mean, and the answer is that the UFC still holds the antiquated belief that The Ultimate Fighter builds stars and people enjoy watching it. That hasn’t been true for a long time, and the worst part is that some great strawweight fighters will probably never officially make it into the Octagon because they lose their first fight on TUF. That could happen to any of these 11 women, considering how talented they are as a group.

Still, let’s put the criticism in perspective — if Invicta threw together a 12-week Strawweight Grand Prix featuring Rose Namajunas, Felice Herrig, Bec Hyatt, Claudia Gadelha, Joanne Calderwood, Paige Van Zant, Tecia Torres, and Carla Esparza, we’d all think it was the most badass thing ever. Well, at least ReX and I would. (And Eric Holden, obviously.) At the very least, we expect some fun televised hijinx from the more colorful members of the cast.

Q: Will CagePotato be doing episode recaps for this season?
A: Most likely, we will follow the TUF 18 format of doing full recaps for the first half of the season, then getting bored and just throwing up video highlights for the rest of the season when it becomes clear that none of our readers care anymore.

Q: Does time-travel exist? And if so, can I use it to skip past TUF 19 entirely?
A: Funny story. When I was abducted by those aliens last year, they showed me an advanced kind of DVR, which they used to skip ahead to future seasons of any television show beamed in from Earth. (They called it a “skipper,” which in their cute alien accents sounded like “skeepuh.”) So yes, the technology exists. Is it worth getting your orifices probed, just to see how Mad Men ends? Absolutely.

(BG)