Tag: The Ultimate Fighter

‘The Ultimate Fighter’ 12.9 Recap: Special Moves

(Jonathan Brookins’s lateral drop even worked on Jose Aldo, back at WEC 36. No one is safe. Props: NHB USA)
We’ve officially entered the quarterfinals, and last night’s episode gave us two of ’em: Sako Chivitchian vs. Jonathan Brookins, and Cody McKe…


(Jonathan Brookins’s lateral drop even worked on Jose Aldo, back at WEC 36. No one is safe. Props: NHB USA)

We’ve officially entered the quarterfinals, and last night’s episode gave us two of ’em: Sako Chivitchian vs. Jonathan Brookins, and Cody McKenzie vs. Nam Phan. But you already know what happens in the McKenzie/Phan fight, right?

At the house, Sevak Magakian explains to his bro Sako that he has to redeem the Armenian race and beat Brookins, who is representing the Fraggle race. "Sak you gotta do this bro," Sevak says. "You gotta beat him, whatever it takes. I couldn’t do it, now you have to do it…There’s not gonna be two Armenians gonna lose to the same guy…you’re gonna fuck him." Wow, that’s some threat. Magakian has clearly been studying at the Wanderlei Silva school of trash talk.

Coach GSP wants to train his quarterfinalists like he trains when he’s about to fight — one training session a day, no more hard sparring or hardcore workouts. The focus is tactical now. He wants to make the guys feel hungry, like they’re not training enough, and build up their aggression for the fight.

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The Ultimate Fighter ‘Aftermath’ Episode 8: Nam Phan, Cody McKenzie, and Jonathan Brookins

We’re happy to announce that from now until the end of the season, The Ultimate Fighter‘s "Aftermath" online series will be exclusively embedded on CagePotato.com. So be sure to come by after each episode and watch Stephan Bonnar yuk it up with the week’s winners and losers. In this installment, Nam Phan, Cody McKenzie, and Jonathan Brookins — wearing a Nam Phan for Mayor t-shirt that I’ll probably be ordering for myself — drop in to discuss Marc Stevens’s "Party Boy" routine, GSP’s surprising gameplan for McKenzie, Nam Phan’s possibly-illegal elbows, what weights they’ll be competing at after the show, and lots more. We won’t throw out any spoilers now, but you can read the full episode recap tomorrow on the site.

We’re happy to announce that from now until the end of the season, The Ultimate Fighter‘s "Aftermath" online series will be exclusively embedded on CagePotato.com. So be sure to come by after each episode and watch Stephan Bonnar yuk it up with the week’s winners and losers. In this installment, Nam Phan, Cody McKenzie, and Jonathan Brookins — wearing a Nam Phan for Mayor t-shirt that I’ll probably be ordering for myself — drop in to discuss Marc Stevens’s "Party Boy" routine, GSP’s surprising gameplan for McKenzie, Nam Phan’s possibly-illegal elbows, what weights they’ll be competing at after the show, and lots more. We won’t throw out any spoilers now, but you can read the full episode recap tomorrow on the site.

Pending Passing Results in English, Andre Galvao is on the Next Season of The Ultimate Fighter

(Imagine a mugger trying to rob these three on their way home from the gym..)
Grappling star Andre Galvao revealed to Tatame yesterday that he is one step away from being on The Ultimate Fighter.
According to the Wand Fight Team lightweight, he is wai…


(Imagine a mugger trying to rob these three on their way home from the gym..)

Grappling star Andre Galvao revealed to Tatame yesterday that he is one step away from being on The Ultimate Fighter.

According to the Wand Fight Team lightweight, he is waiting for word that he will be one of the hopefuls tagged to compete for the coveted six-figure contract next season and that the decision will likely hinge on how well the producers feel the 28-year-old Sao Paulo, Brazil native speaks and understands English.

"We went through a test, we’ve shown some of our Jiu-Jitsu skills, they raffled some guys, and you had to do the grappling with the guy. I did it with an American, it was quick, about one and a half minute. Then we started to do gauntlet and then there was an interview. If you passed one test, they’d give you another one. On my group there were 20 people, and there were only 5 left for the interview. I was one of them, I was interview and they’ve approved me, but maybe they like other guys better on the interview," Galvao says. "Now I don’t know if I made it or not. I’ll just have to wait for them to call me," he explains. "The interview is exactly about that, they want to know your English level. I speak English, I can get things, I can read, I understand what people say and I communicate well. They’ve approved me on the test and let’s see if they’ll let me get in there with my English level, but I can speak good English. There are guys there that can’t (laughs). I think I’m a purple belt on English, fourth grade on the purple belt (laughs)."

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Spike Exec Insists ‘TUF’ is Still Awesome, Makes Crazy Comparisons to Super Bowl, World Series

(Celebrating 12 seasons of two faceless dudes fighting in a warehouse. PicProps: MMAOutsider.com)
Of all the things that consistently suck about “The Ultimate Fighter” – the repetitive plotlines, relentless douchebaggery of much of th…


(Celebrating 12 seasons of two faceless dudes fighting in a warehouse. PicProps: MMAOutsider.com)

Of all the things that consistently suck about “The Ultimate Fighter” – the repetitive plotlines, relentless douchebaggery of much of the cast and what feels at times like a conscious desire on the part of the editors to make everybody involved look as bad as possible, just to name a few — by far the most frustrating remains the show’s continuing unwillingness to reinvent itself. Aside from a couple of minor tweaks over its 12 seasons – one of which was, uh, this guy – fans have consistently been watching the same shit over and over again for the past five years. To say that the format has grown stale would be an understatement of Jake Shields-ian proportions.

That the show’s average viewership hasn’t dropped any lower than the approximate 1.5 million who currently tune in each week is certainly more of a testament to the loyalty of MMA fans than a reflection of quality programming. Even most of the people who (like me) still watch religiously admit that a lot of it is pretty god-awful. But to understand exactly why “TUF” insists on plodding forward from season to season with the mindless tenacity of a reanimated corpse, look no further than SpikeTV senior vice president Brian Diamond’s recent interview with MMA Junkie.

According to Diamond, “TUF” ain’t broken and he responds to the suggestion that maybe the show needs a facelift (actually, a complete body tuck would be better) by making some comparisons that are … well … totally fucking insane.

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The Josh Koscheck Apology You Didn’t Get to See on ‘TUF 12’…

Compared to TUF 12 good-guy Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck certainly comes off as an asshole bully with the maturity of a fourth-grader. But as with all reality shows, there’s some creative editing involved to make the villain look even worse than he (or she) really is. What we saw on Wednesday night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter was Koscheck physically assaulting Brad Tate, then making snarky comments instead of actually apologizing. It turns out that a lot of important footage landed on the cutting room floor.

In the video above, we see that Brad Tate wasn’t just taunting Kos — he was also mocking the accents of the yellow-team Armenians. The fact that Tate was attacking his guys was what really set Josh off. Koscheck actually does make a heartfelt one-on-one apology to Brad, which ends with their beef getting thoroughly squashed. Before that even happens, Kos advises his team not to start any more trouble with Tate: "When you see him tomorrow, don’t say one word. Kill ’em with kindness. Let me stand up for you guys. Let me look like the bad guy." It’s a moment that would have swayed sympathy toward Koscheck if it were included in the episode — unfortunately, it wouldn’t have fit into the show’s perfect Kos-as-heel narrative.

See More: TUF 12 • exclusives • Team GSP • Josh Koscheck

Compared to TUF 12 good-guy Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck certainly comes off as an asshole bully with the maturity of a fourth-grader. But as with all reality shows, there’s some creative editing involved to make the villain look even worse than he (or she) really is. What we saw on Wednesday night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter was Koscheck physically assaulting Brad Tate, then making snarky comments instead of actually apologizing. It turns out that a lot of important footage landed on the cutting room floor.

In the video above, we see that Brad Tate wasn’t just taunting Kos — he was also mocking the accents of the yellow-team Armenians. The fact that Tate was attacking his guys was what really set Josh off. Koscheck actually does make a heartfelt one-on-one apology to Brad, which ends with their beef getting thoroughly squashed. Before that even happens, Kos advises his team not to start any more trouble with Tate: "When you see him tomorrow, don’t say one word. Kill ’em with kindness. Let me stand up for you guys. Let me look like the bad guy." It’s a moment that would have swayed sympathy toward Koscheck if it were included in the episode — unfortunately, it wouldn’t have fit into the show’s perfect Kos-as-heel narrative.

‘The Ultimate Fighter’ 12.8 Recap: The Cucumber and the Pickle

(Josh Koscheck and Marc Stevens run down last night’s episode with host Stephan Bonnar in the latest installment of "The Aftermath." Warning: The editor forgot to bleep out Koscheck’s numerous F-bombs. Props: UltimateFighter.com)

The official title of this episode is "KOS in a Commotion." There’s nothing funny about rape-choking a male nurse, but we’ve always appreciated a good pun.

Dane Sayers is bummed that he was robbed of a wild card spot. After all, he lasted two rounds against Sako Chivitchian, and Marc Stevens didn’t even last 20 seconds against Cody McKenzie. As Jonathan Brookins explains, "It’s supposed to be reserved for the guy that put on the best performance…some people like the cucumber better then the pickle, I don’t know." But Stevens is the "obvious pick" according to Dana, I guess because he knocked some dude out in the elimination round. We’ll see how far that gets him. Coach Koscheck thinks Marc has a lot of "po-tential" that he didn’t get to show, because he got submitted "kind of early." Kind of!

Alex Caceres tweaked his back during his round-of-14 fight against Jeff Lentz, and is unable to train as hard as the other guys. Michael Johnson just thinks he’s lazy. They argue about it at the house, and Caceres explains that he needs to save his body for his next fights, and promises that when it’s time for him to fight MJ, he’ll be training, believe that. The gauntlet has been dropped, son.

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(Josh Koscheck and Marc Stevens run down last night’s episode with host Stephan Bonnar in the latest installment of "The Aftermath." Warning: The editor forgot to bleep out Koscheck’s numerous F-bombs. Props: UltimateFighter.com)

The official title of this episode is "KOS in a Commotion." There’s nothing funny about rape-choking a male nurse, but we’ve always appreciated a good pun.

Dane Sayers is bummed that he was robbed of a wild card spot. After all, he lasted two rounds against Sako Chivitchian, and Marc Stevens didn’t even last 20 seconds against Cody McKenzie. As Jonathan Brookins explains, "It’s supposed to be reserved for the guy that put on the best performance…some people like the cucumber better then the pickle, I don’t know." But Stevens is the "obvious pick" according to Dana, I guess because he knocked some dude out in the elimination round. We’ll see how far that gets him. Coach Koscheck thinks Marc has a lot of "po-tential" that he didn’t get to show, because he got submitted "kind of early." Kind of!

Alex Caceres tweaked his back during his round-of-14 fight against Jeff Lentz, and is unable to train as hard as the other guys. Michael Johnson just thinks he’s lazy. They argue about it at the house, and Caceres explains that he needs to save his body for his next fights, and promises that when it’s time for him to fight MJ, he’ll be training, believe that. The gauntlet has been dropped, son.

read more