Tag: The Ultimate Fighter

TUF 18 Episode 10 Results and Recap: Emotions Rise for Team Tate

The Ultimate Fighter continued its 18th season Wednesday evening with episode 10. 
Featuring Team Rousey’s Michael Wooten versus Team Tate’s Chris Holdsworth, this episode kicked off semifinal action with a matchup between oppositely ranked bantam…

The Ultimate Fighter continued its 18th season Wednesday evening with episode 10. 

Featuring Team Rousey’s Michael Wooten versus Team Tate’s Chris Holdsworth, this episode kicked off semifinal action with a matchup between oppositely ranked bantamweights. 

Holdsworth, Team Tate’s top male in the competition, is considered a favorite to win the entire competition, whereas Wooten was the underdog in his first fight against Josh Hill and likely will be for the remainder of the competition, should he pull off the upset. 

Spoiler alert: He didn’t.

The decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Holdsworth, worked the fight to the mat early in Round 1, and Wooten had no answer for his relentless ground attack.  

Holdsworth worked briefly from side control before taking Wooten’s back and immediately securing the fight-ending rear-naked choke. 

Pan to an epic picture of Royce Gracie. 

This fight is done. Wooten was just outgunned. 

No fighter in this competition will want to go to the mat with Holdsworth. The dude is nasty, and he showcased the full glory of his skills with the standing rear-naked choke against Wooten in this one. 

Tate’s top dog is moving on to the live finale. 

Next week we have Julianna Pena vs. Sarah Moras, and it looks like we’re getting a heaping spoonful of drama, as well. 

Moras was shown crying in a sauna in the teaser, so we will have to wait and see if this fit of emotion costs her inside the Octagon. 

A few more random takeaways from episode 10:

  • Ronda Rousey partied it up with the departed members of her team. For all the crap we are quick to fling her way when she enters a fit of drama or sadness, Rousey truly seems to care about her fighters, and she makes an effort to connect with them on a personal level. I like it. 
  • What’s going on with Team Tate? Early scenes showed Tate and her coaches favoring Julianna Pena and Chris Holdsworth over the rest of the cast. Team morale is slipping. 
  • Cast members learned some basic Harley-Davidson riding and maintenance skills. Cain Velasquez showed up atop his two-wheeled macho machine, but this segment was basically a shameless plug for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. 
  • Tate invited motivational speaker Kenny Salvini to talk to her team. A former skier, Salvini is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after a botched jump. The team seemed to latch on to his words, and his story inspired them to push harder to achieve their goals and to appreciate their natural gifts. 
  • Nate Diaz and Manny Gamburyan showed up to help coach Team Rousey. Awesome.
  • Rousey actually hugged Holdsworth after his big win. No middle finger?! What are you becoming, Ronda?
  • Did I mention that Holdsworth is legit? He’s a scary foe for anybody in this competition, and his ground game makes him an intriguing prospect for the UFC’s bantamweight division, should he win in the live finale. 

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‘TUF 18? Episode 9 CRUSHES The Record for Least-Viewed Episode Ever

(I *begged* them to have “Oh Yeah” playing in the background of this scene, but did they listen to me? Nooooooo.)

Yesterday, we mentioned that the Ultimate Fighter 18 mid-season recap episode which aired on October 23rd was the least-viewed episode in the history of the series. To be specific, it received an average of only 476,000 viewers, a 24% drop from the previous low-water mark of 624,000 average viewers, brought in by TUF 16 episode 5. It was a poor showing, without question, but you can’t expect much out of a clip-show, especially since it was competing against the first game of the World Series. Surely, the numbers would bounce back the following week, when there was an all-new episode with a women’s fight on the schedule.

Actually, the numbers sunk even further. On October 30th, TUF 18 episode 9 — which featured the forcible ejection of Cody Bollinger and a savage performance by Sarah Moras — received a viewer average of only 452,000, a 5% drop from the freakin’ clip show. Obviously, the numbers were hurt once again by having to compete with Game 6 of the World Series, but it’s safe to assume that the UFC will never put together a mid-season recap episode for TUF ever again, because that shit is apparently ratings suicide. (By the way, is there really that much crossover between MMA fans and baseball fans? I can’t think of two more dissimilar sports, but I guess a lot of people were watching the MLB post-season this year. I don’t know. I wasn’t one of them.)

The recent TUF ratings news is just the latest in a string of bad viewership numbers for the UFC…


(I *begged* them to have “Oh Yeah” playing in the background of this scene, but did they listen to me? Nooooooo.)

Yesterday, we mentioned that the Ultimate Fighter 18 mid-season recap episode which aired on October 23rd was the least-viewed episode in the history of the series. To be specific, it received an average of only 476,000 viewers, a 24% drop from the previous low-water mark of 624,000 average viewers, brought in by TUF 16 episode 5. It was a poor showing, without question, but you can’t expect much out of a clip-show, especially since it was competing against the first game of the World Series. Surely, the numbers would bounce back the following week, when there was an all-new episode with a women’s fight on the schedule.

Actually, the numbers sunk even further. On October 30th, TUF 18 episode 9 — which featured the forcible ejection of Cody Bollinger and a savage performance by Sarah Moras — received a viewer average of only 452,000, a 5% drop from the freakin’ clip show. Obviously, the numbers were hurt once again by having to compete with Game 6 of the World Series, but it’s safe to assume that the UFC will never put together a mid-season recap episode for TUF ever again, because that shit is apparently ratings suicide. (By the way, is there really that much crossover between MMA fans and baseball fans? I can’t think of two more dissimilar sports, but I guess a lot of people were watching the MLB post-season this year. I don’t know. I wasn’t one of them.)

The recent TUF ratings news is just the latest in a string of bad viewership numbers for the UFC…

According to Dave Meltzer’s most recent pay-per-view buyrate column on MMAFighting, UFC 165: Jones vs. Gustafsson brought in somewhere between 300,000-325,000 PPV buys — by far the lowest tally for a Bones-headlined pay-per-view card — while the early estimates for UFC 166: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 3 “are in the same range, or very slightly up” from UFC 165.

Yes, UFC 166 had to compete with the MLB post-season, and UFC 165 may have suffered from its proximity to the blockbuster Mayweather/Canelo boxing match. But excuses aside, those are terrible numbers for title fights in the UFC’s two heaviest weight classes. Over on BloodyElbow, Nate Wilcox suggests what the real culprit might be, and adds some interesting historical context to the numbers:

It seems obvious to me that the moves from Spike TV where preview shows for UFC PPVs sometimes drew over a million viewers to FX/Fuel TV and now FS1/FS2 has dramatically reduced the UFC’s promotional reach.

It’s also worth noting that when UFC 99 did 360,000 buys in the summer of 2009 that was considered the “floor” for UFC ppv buys. It was an event taking place in Germany and airing in the U.S. in the mid-afternoon and featuring a non-title fight between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva. If you’d told me in 2009 that four years later the UFC HW and LHW titles would draw comparable PPV numbers I’d have laughed in your face.

In 2013, that “floor” has been re-located to the sub-basement.

In a related story, last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 30: Machida vs. Munoz show — which aired in the middle of the day on an obscure channel called FOX Sports 2 — brought in just 122,000 viewers, which was even less than the audience generated by the World Series of Fighting 6: Burkman vs. Carl event that aired that night on NBC Sports (161,000 viewers).

Which brings us to a pair of questions we seem to be asking a lot these days: Does anybody even care anymore? And how low can these TUF ratings go?

TUF 18: Power Ranking the Fighters After the Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals of The Ultimate Fighter 18 are now complete, as we are now left with four men and four women in the semifinals. There were a lot of shockers in the opening round, as favorites fell and new contenders arose.
On the men’s side of t…

The quarterfinals of The Ultimate Fighter 18 are now complete, as we are now left with four men and four women in the semifinals. There were a lot of shockers in the opening round, as favorites fell and new contenders arose.

On the men’s side of the bracket, Team Rousey has three fighters and Team Tate has just one. As for the women, it’s the exact opposite, as Team Tate has three fighters to Rousey‘s one.

Now that the fights for the quarterfinals have been completed, let’s power rank the fighters still in the house. 

 

Women’s Rankings

Fighter Team QF Result
1. Julianna Pena Team Tate Defeated Shayna Baszler
2. Sarah Moras Team Tate Defeated Peggy Morgan
3. Jessica Rakoczy Team Rousey Defeated Roxanne Modafferi
4. Raquel Pennington Team Tate Defeated Jessamyn Duke
5. Shayna Baszler  Team Rousey Loss to Julianna Pena
6. Jessamyn Duke Team Rousey Loss to Raquel Pennington
7. Peggy Morgan Team Rousey Loss to Sarah Moras
8. Roxanne Modafferi Team Tate Loss to Jessica Rakoczy

The women’s side of the bracket shaped up with many surprises. Going into the quarterfinals, I thought Team Rousey had the bigger, more talented team, but they sent just one fighter, the last overall pick, into the next round.

Julianna Pena, despite early struggles in her fight, overcame the heavily-favored Shayna Baszler via submission. Pena showed powerful striking in her fight, as well as composure on the ground against the overconfident Baszler.

Sarah Moras, despite a hefty height disadvantage, showed that her ground game is legit in tapping out Peggy Morgan. She has great takedowns and submission ability, as seen in her slick armbar win against “The Daywalker.”

Jessica Rakoczy, the ultimate underdog of the season, had an impressive performance in blasting through MMA pioneer Roxanne Modafferi. The former pro boxer came into the house with just a 1-3 record, leading many to doubt her skill.

Raquel Pennington won the fight of the season so far over Jessamyn Duke in a bout where she showed a great chin and powerful sledgehammers for fists. She may be the toughest woman in the house in terms of punishment absorption and damage infliction.

The semifinal matchups are set. Pena and Moras will duke it out to see who makes it to the live finale, while fellow strikers Pennington and Rakoczy will attempt to one-up Pennington’s last fight to have the best bout of the season.

 

Men’s Rankings

Fighter Team QF Result
1. Chris Holdsworth Team Tate Defeated Chris Beal
2. David Grant Team Rousey Defeated Louis Fisette
3. Michael Wootten Team Rousey Defeated Josh Hill
4. Chris Beal Team Rousey Loss to Chris Holdsworth
5. Josh Hill Team Tate Loss to Michael Wootten
6. Anthony Gutierrez Team Rousey Bye due to forfeit
7. Louis Fisette Team Tate Loss to David Grant
8. Cody Bollinger Team Tate Forfeit to Anthony Gutierrez

The men’s side of the bracket is the less featured of the two genders due to the decent-at-best fights and overall less fights in terms of quantity. That came courtesy of Cody Bollinger, whose inability to make weight for his fight against Anthony Gutierrez left the latter man with a bye to the semis.

Chris Holdsworth looks like the man to beat on the men’s side of the bracket. He has top-notch jiu-jitsu that was overshadowed in his last fight when he used powerful striking to hurt Chris Beal.

David Grant and Michael Wootten are the two Brits in the house and both won their respective quarterfinals against the two Canadian fighters. Grant dominated Louis Fisette from bell to bell, while Wootten won a scrappy effort against Josh Hill to really earn his way into the next round.

The semifinals see two Brits fight two Americans. Wootten will face off with Holdsworth, while Grant meets Gutierrez, who had the aforementioned bye into this round.

 

Follow me on Twitter for MMA news and other random thoughts (@RileyKontekMMA). Or don’t that’s cool too.

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TUF 18 Episode 9 Results and Recap: Fight Scrapped, Semifinals Set

The ninth episode of TUF 18 was to feature the final fights of the men’s and women’s quarterfinals, with Cody Bollinger taking on Anthony Gutierrez and Peggy Morgan taking on Sarah Moras. Of course, we only got one of those bouts, as Bollinge…

The ninth episode of TUF 18 was to feature the final fights of the men’s and women’s quarterfinals, with Cody Bollinger taking on Anthony Gutierrez and Peggy Morgan taking on Sarah Moras. Of course, we only got one of those bouts, as Bollinger failed to make weight, allowing Gutierrez a bye into the semifinals.

As for the women’s fight, Moras and Morgan fought for under a round until the Team Tate grappler tapped out Morgan. Moras gave up a great deal of size, but was far too overwhelming on that mat, scoring an armbar victory.

  • I would have loved to see Chris Beal back in the competition, but I can understand Gutierrez not wanting to cut that much weight in a short time. I am pretty sure that is the first bye into the semifinals since the first ever seasons when they had different rules.
  • If Morgan were able to keep her distance better than she did, I think she could have jabbed her way to victory. Moras was very aggressive, but footwork and solid counterstriking could have been the recipe for success.
  • Moras was very confident in her ground game coming into this fight, and for good reason. Her takedown on Morgan was powerful and her top game was slick. That armbar was nasty, which eventually led to the tap.
  • With the win, Team Tate’s women showed that size doesn’t matter. They had a smaller team than Team Rousey, especially since they had Jessamyn Duke and Morgan.

 

TUF 18 Rosters

Team Rousey Team Tate
Shayna Baszler Julianna Pena
Jessamyn Duke Sarah Moras
Peggy Morgan Raquel Pennington
Jessica Rakoczy Roxanne Modafferi
Chris Beal Cody Bollinger
Davey Grant Chris Holdsworth
Anthony Gutierrez Josh Hill
Michael Wootten Louis Fisette

 

  • Most of the episode concerned the weight cut for Cody Bollinger and Anthony Gutierrez. I am not surprised that Bollinger didn’t make the weight, as he pigged out on bad food all season. Plus, he’s a massive bantamweight that may actually be better suited at featherweight, a weight class he competed in while with Bellator.
  • That being said, I am shocked that Gutierrez made weight. He looked to be a bigger perpetrator when it came to feasting on junk food, but it looked like he was working hard to get the weight down.
  • As stated, I would have really loved to see Chris Beal get a second shot, especially if his hand was healed up. But, you can’t blame Gutierrez for wanting a huge weight cut for the second time in a short amount of time.
  • Until the finish, the Sarah Moras-Peggy Morgan fight seemed to be dragging on with boredom. However, once Moras got Morgan off the cage and was able to grapple more freely, it was worth the wait. That was a nifty, painful armbar.
  • It was crazy to see how agreeable Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate were when making the semifinal matchups. I figured we’d have at least a little back-and-forth, but there was nothing there.
  • The male semifinal matchups are Davey Grant vs. Anthony Gutierrez and Chris Woldsworth vs. Michael Wootten. Gutierrez and Grant both cut a lot of weight to get to 135, but Gutierrez has the benefit of being fresh from no fight in the quarterfinals. He is the grappler to Grant’s striker. As for Holdsworth-Wootten, this will likely be a striker vs. grappler match. Holdsworth is a high-level ground fighter, while Wootten is a more-refined striker. That being said, Holdsworth showed good striking against Beal in his quarterfinal.
  • The female semifinal matchups are Sarah Moras-Julianna Pena and Jessica Rakoczy-Raquel Pennington. The Moras-Pena fight is interesting because Pena was tough on the ground, but I think Moras is better there. Pena is a brawler, though, and if she can stay on her feet, she should be able to beat Moras. If you didn’t know, Moras beat Pena last year by doctor’s stoppage. As for Rakoczy-Pennington, that is going to be a slugfest. Rakoczy is a world champion boxer and Pennington is the most powerful striker in the house.
  • Next week, we have Wootten-Holdsworth. The winner goes to the live finale.

 

The fourth episode of TUF 18featured the second women’s fight of the quarterfinals, with Jessica Rakoczy of Team Rousey taking on long-time vet Roxanne Modafferi of Team Tate. Rakoczy scored the upset with a second-round knockout of Modafferi due to a vicious slam and follow-up punch.

As with the last fight’s pick, Team Tate chose that fight because Rakoczy had a shoulder injury that it wanted to exploit. She worked through that, using her quickness, footwork and overall explosiveness to tire Modafferi and score the win.

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The Ultimate Fighter 18: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate, Episode 9 Live Results

It’s a tale of two fights, as we see the prelims come to a close with Sarah Moras vs. Peggy Morgan and Cody Bollinger vs. Anthony Gutierrez in an Ultimate Fighter doubleheader (…or is it?). Fans wondering why there was a clip show last week have thei…

It’s a tale of two fights, as we see the prelims come to a close with Sarah Moras vs. Peggy Morgan and Cody Bollinger vs. Anthony Gutierrez in an Ultimate Fighter doubleheader (…or is it?). Fans wondering why there was a clip show last week have their answer.

There’s a lot on the line in both fights, as the men and the women stare down the possibility of having to fight teammates in the semifinals. Both matchups end in shocking fashion, and things close with the semi-finals announcements. 

This is one to watch, folks!

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Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva Will Coach the Upcoming Season of TUF Brazil

The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil has its coaches for the next season of the show, and it will be sure to generate buzz.
Dana White appeared on Fox Sports Live on Monday night to break the news that Chael Sonnen would coach opposite Wanderlei Silva.

 …

The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil has its coaches for the next season of the show, and it will be sure to generate buzz.

Dana White appeared on Fox Sports Live on Monday night to break the news that Chael Sonnen would coach opposite Wanderlei Silva.

 

White told Sonnen in the interview that he would have “a ton of security” during filming.

The rivalry between Silva and Sonnen has been brewing for years, and it nearly came to a head earlier this year at the Mr. Olympia Expo in Las Vegas. Silva sought out the former UFC middleweight title contender and things got heated.

The video released on Silva’s YouTube account was not the first about Sonnen. The account also released an intense promo directed at Sonnen earlier in the year that has amassed more than 1 million views to date. Silva has been laser-focused on Sonnen in 2013.

The two have even taken their beef to Twitter.

White did not talk about when they would begin shooting the next season, or when it would air. Previous seasons of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil have been put on UFC.com for viewing. There was no word on if Fox Sports 1 or 2 would pick up the latest season of the show.

Sonnen‘s plate was already full. He is scheduled to fight Rashad Evans at UFC 167, and is a member of the Fox Sports broadcast team.

It seemed like it was only a matter of time before the two would meet inside the Octagon, and now we know they will fight at the end of The Ultimate Fighter.

TUF Brazil tryouts will be held in Rio de Janeiro on November 11th. The tryouts will be open to middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights. Filming is expected to take place in early 2014.

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