(Where the hell do y’all think you’re going?! Please, I’m begging you, if you stick around, I’ll even break out the Techno Viking dance!)
We can’t wait to see how Dana White tries to spin this one.
The numbers were just released for all of last weekend’s UFC events. The good news: The main FX card did pretty well and the fourth episode of The Ultimate Fighter hit a seasonal high in terms of viewership (take that with a grain of salt). The bad news: The FUEL prelims were caught by less people than the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee prelims on ESPN 3. Probably.
You see, last Friday’s FUEL prelims only managed to draw in 44,000 viewers, absolutely shattering the promotion’s previous FUEL prelim low of 84,000 for UFC on FX 3. If these kind of numbers do not improve, the UFC won’t have to worry about emerging victorious from a ratings war with the WWE because they will be too busy trying to compete with the Punkin Chunkin people. We expect DW to start lobbing insults at “those four-eyed f*cking scumbag f*cks on the Lience Channel” any day now.
(Where the hell do y’all think you’re going?! Please, I’m begging you, if you stick around, I’ll even break out the Techno Viking dance!)
We can’t wait to see how Dana White tries to spin this one.
The numbers were just released for all of last weekend’s UFC events. The good news: The main FX card did pretty well and the fourth episode of The Ultimate Fighter hit a seasonal high in terms of viewership (take that with a grain of salt). The bad news: The FUEL prelims were caught by less people than the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee prelims on ESPN 3. Probably.
You see, last Friday’s FUEL prelims only managed to draw in 44,000 viewers, absolutely shattering the promotion’s previous FUEL prelim low of 84,000 for UFC on FX 3. If these kind of numbers do not improve, the UFC won’t have to worry about emerging victorious from a ratings war with the WWE because they will be too busy trying to compete with the Punkin Chunkin people. We expect DW to start lobbing insults at “those four-eyed f*cking scumbag f*cks on the Lience Channel” any day now.
In all seriousness, at least part of the insane drop can be attributed to the fact that last weekend’s prelims started one hour earlier than normal — at 5 p.m. EST rather than 6 p.m. — meaning that many West Coast viewers would still likely be working or on their way home when the fights began. That being said, we don’t think a one hour difference could be the sole factor behind a 75% drop from the UFC on FX 4 prelims, which managed to reel in over 160,000 viewers. Although the card suffered some last minute setbacks, we also can’t imagine that the absence of Jeremy Stephens and Dennis Hallman were responsible for this ratings drop either.
At this point, we don’t know what to say really. While it’s not exactly crisis mode for the UFC, there’s no way they can be completely satisfied with such continually disappointing numbers. Say what you want about “Spuke TV”, but they sure as hell knew how to market The Ultimate Fighter and the prelim events better than FX does. I can’t remember the last time I saw an advertisement for the prelims more than a day or two out from when they were scheduled to air, which seems to be the main problem FX is facing: awareness. With a UFC event happening practically every weekend, FX needs to start advertising each event earlier and with more frequency if they expect to bring in more viewers.
Then again, it could simply be a case of the UFC spreading themselves too thin. Think about it, most cable-accessible UFC events begin with a live stream on Facebook, then a few fights on FUEL, then the main card on FX. Aside from the fact that most of the country does not get FUEL even with special cable packages — I have a 160 channel package that doesn’t — asking your viewing audience to keep jumping through hoops to watch a few fights featuring lower-level fighters seems like a counterproductive strategy. Only die hard fans of the sport will make the effort to catch every single fight, and they must often resort to illegal streams and other means to do so because of the variety of channels and mediums through which the UFC broadcasts their content on a given night.
The question now becomes: What can the UFC/FX do to boost these ratings?
Anyway, this lack of coherence has infuriated the Baldfather, who had repeatedly tried to get Stephens out of jail in time for his fight and and claimed he was willing spend the amount of money it would take to free Charles Manson to do so. Like many things Dana White says, he may have been embellishing slightly.
While his support for his fighters is heartening and arguably the ethical course to take in these situations, Jeremy Stephens probably doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt in this case.
(Jeremy Stephens, shown here attempting to perform long division without a calculator.)
Anyway, this lack of coherence has infuriated the Baldfather, who had repeatedly tried to get Stephens out of jail in time for his fight and and claimed he was willing spend the amount of money it would take to free Charles Manson to do so. Like many things Dana White says, he may have been embellishing slightly.
While his support for his fighters is heartening and arguably the ethical course to take in these situations, Jeremy Stephens probably doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt in this case.
White goes on to say that he supports Jeremy Stephens in the latter’s upcoming legal battles, as he would any UFC fighter when they encounter legal trouble:
“Jeremy Stephens is a young kid, a young, dumb kid who made a mistake and made a bigger mistake by not taking care of it, but, he’s got a side to this story, everybody’s got their side of the story. I look at the problem and see what it is. I’m always going to believe my guy until I’m proven wrong. I’m always going to support the guys or girls who work for us. … There’s two sides to the story. I’m going to support my guy. You don’t have to be Rampage, or Jon Jones, or some of the big stars in the UFC, if you’re in the UFC and you’ve helped us and you’re a fighter here, I’m going to support you and I’m going to have your back, depending on how serious the situation is.”
On one hand, it’s admirable White is so willing to support his fighters no matter what. (Unless they’re accused of beating their wife. Or they make a rape joke on Twitter. Well, unless Dana likes you.) Technically, all of them are innocent until proven guilty to begin with.
Many of them, especially perennial undercard fighters like Stephens, need to fight in order to simply pay their bills. If the UFC didn’t back them and forced them to undergo legal proceedings on their own, they suffer serious financial repercussions, even though they may be innocent. And, like White claims, it appears the UFC does not discriminate in this regard between its superstars and the rest of its roster.
All in all, it’s the ethical approach to this situation from the major company.
That said, let’s be real here. Jeremy Stephens is not a “young, dumb kid.” He’s 26. He has a job.
Jeremy Stephens is not a dumb kid – he’s just dumb. In fact, he’s exceptionally dumb.
His nickname is “Lil’ Heathen” and he has a giant fucking cross on his back. Stephens probably saw an Affliction shirt at his local strip mall in Iowa with “Heathen” in some terrible font clearly intended to overcompensate for something, thought it looked really cool, asked one of his buddies to read it for him, and liked the way it sounded so much he made it his nickname. Come to think of it, his tattoo was probably inspired in a similar manner. (The words around his cross? “Only God Can Judge Me.” I’m sure the Des Moines district attorney is willing to put that to the test.)
Also, in addition to being stupid, Jeremy Stephens is an asshole.
Now, does this mean Jeremy Stephens is guilty? No.
But let’s stop pretending that he’s a victim of a justice system run wild. Jeremy Stephens’ assault case is stemming from last year.
As for the charge itself, Stephens probably didn’t do himself any favors by – essentially – running from them for months. Even White, who has only heard Stephens’ side of the story, admits “there’s no doubt he’s responsible for the situation.” White adds a caveat that “he’s got a completely different story” from his accuser’s – shocking – but frankly, when you concede that a professional fighter is responsible for assaulting someone, it doesn’t look good.
As for the charges themelves, there’s virtually no information available on them. There’s a user on Reddit who claims Stephens beat another man badly and let a relative to take the fall instead, but the only evidence provided is a Facebook conversation. Not exactly a smoking gun.
So for now, Jeremy Stephens will remain in jail, Dana White will remain pissed, and we MMA fans will wonder just what the hell happened here. We’ll update you with more news when it becomes available, Potato Nation.
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned oversaturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned over-saturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
As the UFC has increased its number of fight cards seemingly exponentially over the past few years, each individual card has in turn lost a significant amount of hype amongst its audience. This may just be subjectivity on our part, but we feel as if most of you would more or less agree with this point. We’re not going to act like the UFC’s marketing department doesn’t know how to milkthe shit out of a “grudge match” or title fight, but when comparing the UFC’s schedule, say, five years ago, to its current one, the most obvious difference one can notice is the amount of cards held per year. In 2007, the UFC held 19 events, with an average of one pay-per-view card being held each month with some Fight Night and TUF Finale cards sprinkled throughout. In 2011, the UFC put out 26 cards, with nine of them being either Fight Night, TUF Finale, or UFC Live type cards, which have never done great in terms of viewership. Although there may not be a direct correlation between these two things, would it surprise you to learn that last year was the UFC’s worst year for PPV buys since 2008, with the average buy rate being the worst since 2007? The UFC’s total buyrate dropped from 9.215 million in 2010 to just 6.79 million last year, and while Dana White is willing to pass off last weekend’s abysmal attendance/TV ratings to Florida being a shitty place for MMA, we think there may be other issues at hand. For instance, the UFC’s last trip to Florida, which was headlined by Rashad Evansvs. Sean Salmon, drew both a higher gate and attendance than last weekend’s event.
But before we get into all that, we’d like you to think back to mid-2007, if your brains aren’t too clogged with malted hops and bong resin to do so. Chuck Liddell was still the baddest man on the planet (until May 26th came around) and Randy Couture had just capped off the most improbable career comeback in ever by defeating Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 in March, capturing the heavyweight title once again in the process. Sound familiar? It should, because to this day, UFC 68 still holds the record for being the largest attended MMA event in the United States.
As you can see, it’s not like the cards just a few years ago were exactly stacked with more talent compared to today’s average card. Then why, pretell, were we seemingly more excited for them? The answer is simply because just five years ago, it was almost a privilege to witness a UFC event. We’re not trying to act like hipsters here, but before the UFC started gaining network deals left and right, it wasn’t every weekend that we were treated to the gift that is a fight card, as is nearly the case today.
When big fights were more sparsely scattered throughout the year, each individual card was given a few weeks more time to stew, if you will, and gain interest from any on-the-fence fans that may have existed at the time. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the UFC’s current policy of jamming two, and sometimes three cards into a month gives even the most enthusiastic fans little time to truly take stock of a given fight before another is billed as “the next big thing in the ______ division.”
As the kind of fan that simply cannot get enough of the sport, the idea of being treated to more fights for free excited me more than when I received my first Nintendo 64 for Christmas, but even I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of unknown and less than intriguing matchups that are being put before me these days. Then again, fans like myself (and most of the Potato Nation staff/readers) are not the kind of fans that the UFC is trying to reel in. Because the “hardcore” fans will always stand by the sport we love, until it becomes insanely obvious that the fights are being fixed, that is. The UFC is trying to bring in new markets, different crowds, and wider audiences to truly lift the sport into the realm of the NBA and NFL, but the difference between the “major” sports and the UFC is that those sports have an off season for both fans and players to recover, rebuild their rosters, and hype the upcoming season. The fact the the UFC has no off period is both a blessing and a curse, because it gives the fans so little time to do this. The closest thing to an off season an MMA fan ever had used to be the four or so weeks off in between cards, but the abundance of events to spring up in the past few years have perhaps spoiled us a bit in the process. In short, there’s a reason that March Madness blows the roof off of most other sporting events in terms of pure hype and interest. In fact, we guarantee that most of you, college basketball fans or not, at least filled out one bracket to partake in the festivities this year. Hell, your grandmothers probably did.
But the problem the UFC is facing is that, by simply delivering quantity over quality, they might just be risking over-saturating their market in terms of interest. The fact that injuries have wiped out nearly every fight we were looking forward to this summer surely isn’t helping matters, but the problems these weak cards face could just as easily be solved by combining the best matchups from a couple of cards into one stacked lineup. Let’s be real here, Aldo vs. Koch (now Faber vs. Barao), Munoz vs. Weidman, and Shogun vs. Vera are pretty pathetic headliners for a sport that has nearly acquired a monopoly on the sport’s top talent, and unless there are some major changes made, the buyrate for these events will likely reflect the lack of exciting matchups at hand. While combining/spacing events may mean that the promotion has to sideline, or even cut, some of it’s lesser fighters is an unfortunate side effect, but the UFC actually has the roster to deliver amazing cards capable of reaching the Brock Lesnar or Jon Jones levels of PPV buys every time if those in charge would just space out them out on occasion.
Look no further than the UFC on FOX’s downwardly spiraling ratings if you need proof of this. The first event, which only featured one fight, mind you, reeled in over five and a half million viewers. Why? Because the one and only fight they showed was a title fight between an undefeated champion and the most deadly number one contender known to man. The fight sells itself. Trying to sell a pair of “number one contender” bouts between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis or Jim Miller and Nate Diaz is not as easy of a task, regardless of how good (or in Evans/Davis’ case, bad) the fights are, simply because there is not as much at stake to garner interest. Again, last minute injuries were partially to blame for some of the FOX ratings, but so were the matchups. The upcoming UFC on FOX 4 event will likely see an even farther drop down the rankings due to this same issue as well.
Look at it this way, you wouldn’t headline a PPV card with any of those fights excluding Velasquez/dos Santos, and perhaps that is what some of the new fans are starting to realize. Being a business that wants to make money, the UFC saves its best cards for PPV’s, because who wouldn’t, and shell out mediocre to above average cards for live TV. And some fans may be sick of being fed the scraps.
To reiterate, I personally will never complain about free fights, but am rather simply pointing out what seems to be a trend in the UFC’s plateau of popularity as of late. And I’d rather not have my ass chewed out by DW for making such an observation, so at this point, I’d like to turn the focus on you Taters. Do you think the UFC could be giving its new fans too much, too fast? Or is even bringing up such a notion insanely idiotic?
This season’s TUF features live fights each week but everything before that are taped highlights of how the fighters and their teams and coaches have spent the past week. By the looks of what we saw on episode 3, a good amount of what Team Cruz did before getting ready for the next bout was making fun of how Dominick Cruz mind fucked the whole of Team Faber last week.
Cruz coach Lloyd Irvin gleefully recounted how, after choosing overall number one pick Justin Lawrence to fight this week, Dominick Cruz told Faber that he could choose who, from his team wanted to fight. Faber was shocked by Cruz giving up matchmaking power that he had earned after James Vick KO’s Daron Cruickshank and asked his team who wanted to fight.
No one raised their hands. And, as Irvin pointed out, many of them were all but looking up at the sky, whistling. A flustered Faber gave the pick back to Cruz, who chose the most accomplished fighter in the house, Cristian Marcello.
Faber lets us know, during an interview, that he really is trying to contain his rage at Cruz. “I’m doing my best to hold it together,” he says. “But, you know, I want to punch the guy right in the face,” bro. Ok, I added the “bro,” in. But no matter what Faber is saying, his surferspeak always makes it sound like he’s inviting you to go catch a few waves or telling you about the killer party he’s throwing next weekend, and could you please pitch in for the keg.
From the little we’d seen thus from Lawrence, the fact that he trains at Blackhouse, and Marcello’s pedigree and experience, this seemed more like a TUF Final than a first round bout.
But before we get to the fight itself – Chris Tickle’s annoying ass, ladies and gentlemen. Episode 3 featured the Team Cruz fighter, being a smart ass in teasing Team Faber members, acting all sensitive when teased him, trying to spar with ear rings in, destroying parking lot signs, using perhaps the most quickly passing case of diarrhea to avoid training and (yes, really) wearing a fucking gas mask during an interview.
Back in the house, Tickle worked hard to tell Team Faber members how stupid they looked in not raising their hands when their coach asked them who they wanted to fight. But Justin Lawrence made it clear that it wasn’t just Team Faber guys who were annoyed by Tickle.
As reels ran showing Tickle’s hilarious, totally disruptive and incredibly creative “prank” of pulling out Urijah Faber’s parking space sign out of the ground, Lawrence delivered the play by play with about as much excitement as one could imagine him having to describe clipping his own toe nails. Lawrence says Tickle is “obnoxious.”
This season’s TUF features live fights each week but everything before that are taped highlights of how the fighters and their teams and coaches have spent the past week. By the looks of what we saw on episode 3, a good amount of what Team Cruz did before getting ready for the next bout was making fun of how Dominick Cruzmind fucked the whole of Team Faber last week.
Cruz coach Lloyd Irvin gleefully recounted how, after choosing overall number one pick Justin Lawrence to fight this week, Dominick Cruz told Faber that he could choose who, from his team wanted to fight. Faber was shocked by Cruz giving up matchmaking power that he had earned after James Vick KO’s Daron Cruickshank and asked his team who wanted to fight.
No one raised their hands. And, as Irvin pointed out, many of them were all but looking up at the sky, whistling. A flustered Faber gave the pick back to Cruz, who chose the most accomplished fighter in the house, Cristian Marcello.
Faber lets us know, during an interview, that he really is trying to contain his rage at Cruz. “I’m doing my best to hold it together,” he says. “But, you know, I want to punch the guy right in the face,” bro. Ok, I added the “bro,” in. But no matter what Faber is saying, his surferspeak always makes it sound like he’s inviting you to go catch a few waves or telling you about the killer party he’s throwing next weekend, and could you please pitch in for the keg.
From the little we’d seen thus from Lawrence, the fact that he trains at Blackhouse, and Marcello’s pedigree and experience, this seemed more like a TUF Final than a first round bout.
But before we get to the fight itself – Chris Tickle’s annoying ass, ladies and gentlemen. Episode 3 featured the Team Cruz fighter, being a smart ass in teasing Team Faber members, acting all sensitive when teased him, trying to spar with ear rings in, destroying parking lot signs, using perhaps the most quickly passing case of diarrhea to avoid training and (yes, really) wearing a fucking gas mask during an interview.
Back in the house, Tickle worked hard to tell Team Faber members how stupid they looked in not raising their hands when their coach asked them who they wanted to fight. But Justin Lawrence made it clear that it wasn’t just Team Faber guys who were annoyed by Tickle.
As reels ran showing Tickle’s hilarious, totally disruptive and incredibly creative “prank” of pulling out Urijah Faber’s parking space sign out of the ground, Lawrence delivered the play by play with about as much excitement as one could imagine him having to describe clipping his own toe nails. Lawrence says Tickle is “obnoxious.”
Fighters on past seasons of TUF were prohibited from bringing all sorts of personal effects with them, including cell phones, bring books, read newspapers, watch television or listen to the radio. Looks like they were unaware of the “gasmask” loophole. Tickle sits in the van with his team on the way to the training center looking like a dufus wearing a gas mask. “I brought this from home,” he explains. O RLY?
Inside the training center, Tickle has already lost the respect of his coaches, who are convinced that he will do anything to avoid training hard. First, he is late to getting in the ring because of how long he takes to tape his feet. Next, he forgets to take out his earrings, so he has to take his gear off to take them out.
After much prodding and a couple delays, Tickle is finally in the cage training when he informs Cruz that he “has diarrhea,” and has to stop training and leave the cage. Cruz is not pleased and he and his coaches discuss the problem that has already become Tickle. After training, Cruz takes aside Tickle and explains how important it is for him to train hard every day, all practice long, because he will likely soon be fighting himself, and because he has potential.
In an interview, Tickle explains how this made him very upset. “I’ve never had a coach in my career,” he says, perhaps explaining a whole lot. “I don’t care if you like me. I’m here to fight and win.” And make poopy.
As Team Faber comes into the gym, a couple of them, including John Cofer walk in funny and say that Tickle walks like that. Where Cruz’ coaching, advice and encouragement annoyed Tickle, this makes him fucking livid.
“I don’t walk like that, bro,” he tells Cofer. He then chases down Cofer in Team Faber’s locker room and repeatedly talks about how offended he is by Cofer being a “smart ass,” but does absolutely nothing about it. Cofer later tells his coach, “I know who I want to fight.”
In an interview, Tickle, still looking incensed says, “since I was 8 years old I don’t put up with anyone’s shit. And I never will.” Either he’s trolling or he just took it to a dark place, no joke. Something happened to him before he was 8 that he’s using to create hate for Cofer. Yikes.
Faber blames Cruz personally for Tickle taking his parking sign. So he defaces Cruz’ giant portrait to make him look like Count Dracula, or something, he says. Later on, Team Cruz one-up him by making a thong out of string to cover up what they call Faber’s “giant chin butt.” Funny, I’ve never noticed that before. I’m sure you hadn’t either.
Faber plays it cool when he sees that. “Cool, a Faberkini,” he says. Stay chill, Urijah. Stay chill.
Marcello prepares for Lawrence by trying to be unpredictable on the feet – faking shots and coming at him with strikes. He seems to want to knock out Lawrence, even though the kid looks to be a far better striker. Seem like a crazy idea?
Well, as Faber coach Justin Buchholz says, “Don’t discount crazy.”
Meanwhile, Cruz is training Lawrence to get ready to make Marcello pay for shooting in and to be prepared for unorthodox BJJ takedowns. Assistant coach Wilson Reis is there to show Lawrence what Cruz is talking about.
Back at the TUF house, Marcello says, “I have something he don’t have,” pointing to photos of his children and wife. “They give me strength, they give me power.”
Weigh in time!
Both Lawrence and Marcello make weight and have what is edited to be one of the longest staredowns ever. Marcello gets in Lawrence’s face Chute Box style and even tries the “made you flinch,” move. Lawrence does not flinch. They both smile.
Fight Time!
We’re live now and the coaches are giving their fighters their pre-fight advice. “We need to kill, Cruz tells Lawrence.
Lawrence circles, keeping his distance. Lawrence feints constantly and Marcello stalks from a safe distance. Lawrence lands an inside leg kick and overhand right. Lawrence perhaps gets a bit too close and Marcello chases him down with wild strike attempts. Lawrence turns and runs to get out of harm’s way. More feinting from Lawrence before he lands a push kick that drops Marcello.
Marcello gets back to his feet and Lawrence barely misses with a couple overhand rights. Marcello shoots in, gets stuffed.
More circling from Lawrence. Push kick from Marcello. In the last fifteen seconds, Lawrence throws a side kick that doesn’t connect but backs Marcello up. Marcello returns fire with a cross-left hook combo that doesn’t connect but also backs up Lawrence. The round with the two fighters each throwing kicks simultaneously.
Round 2 – Lawrence stays a little more in range at the start and is a little more active with kicks and punches. Thirty seconds in Marcello uses that shorter range to go for a high shot and work double underhooks.
He drives Lawrence back into the cage but lets go to swing a wild right hand that misses. Lawrence lands a punch to Marcello’s head. Marcello throws two head kicks that are blocked by Lawrence. Cruz tells Lawrence to begin countering off of those.
A spinning back kick from Lawrence whiffs. Marcello lands a left hook and then a right cross. Faber yells for him to keep his chin down. Marcello throws a kick, Lawrence changes levels and dumps Marcello but does not follow him to the ground.
Marcello stands up. Lawrence lands a jab then a rear push kick to the body. A jab from Lawrence. Marcello seems to feels a sense of urgency with three minutes left in the fight starts and begins stalking Lawrence more aggressively. He walks into a jab that drops him.
Marcello stands up and is immediately hit with another jab. Lawrence with a right hand. Lawrence lands a left hook. Lawrence hits a jab to the face of Marcello, and then a push kick to the body. These shots seem to be taking their toll on the wind of Marcello.
After a couple minutes of his corner yelling for him to feint the right hand cross and then throw his power hook, Lawrence finally does just that, as Faber had feared he would in training, and knocks Marcello out.
TUF host Jon Anik asks Lawrence how he’s reacting to being the number one pick overall in the post fight interview. “There is added pressure from being number one…but that’s something I’ve got to get used to,” Lawrence says.
Marcello uses his post-fight interview to pitch himself to Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta for this summer’s big Rio card. “Give me the opportunity to fight in Brazil,” he asks. The oldest fighter in the house calls Lawrence a “great kid.”
Team Cruz goes to 2-0.
They go RIGHT TO picking the next match up. A camera man falls down from the excitement and fast pace.
No shenanigans from Cruz this time around as he picks Myles Jury and Al Iaqunita from Team Faber to go at it next week.
Jon Anik’s silky voice talks us in to episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 15, telling us we’re less than an hour away from tonight’s live fight. We’re about to see what happened this past week in TUFlandia but right now there are two hooded fighters warming up with their backs to the camera in their respective lock rooms.
Could it be? Yes…those two (at present) nameless and faceless fighters will fight each other tonight but we will have to wait and see who they are. Cheesy, but kinda cool. Another new element of this debuting hybrid taped/live TUF format. Also, there’s a fight clock on the bottom right hand of the screen, ticking down.
The 16 winning fighters from last week’s elimination round pull up to the TUF mansion and once again we see a new crop of young fighters enthusiastically explore their new digs with the type of giddiness that can only lead us to believe that they’ve never watched past seasons and thus don’t realize how completely miserable it can be to be locked in that house. Happens every season.
Jon Anik’s silky voice talks us in to episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 15, telling us we’re less than an hour away from tonight’s live fight. We’re about to see what happened this past week in TUFlandia but right now there are two hooded fighters warming up with their backs to the camera in their respective lock rooms.
Could it be? Yes…those two (at present) nameless and faceless fighters will fight each other tonight but we will have to wait and see who they are. Cheesy, but kinda cool. Another new element of this debuting hybrid taped/live TUF format. Also, there’s a fight clock on the bottom right hand of the screen, ticking down.
The 16 winning fighters from last week’s elimination round pull up to the TUF mansion and once again we see a new crop of young fighters enthusiastically explore their new digs with the type of giddiness that can only lead us to believe that they’ve never watched past seasons and thus don’t realize how completely miserable it can be to be locked in that house. Happens every season.
Michael Chiesa has a more legit reason to be excited as he reveals that he’s “kinda homeless right now,” and so is just happy to have a place to stay. Whoah, some perspective there. Chiesa better go piss in someone’s fruit basket or something real soon or he won’t fit into the TUF lifestyle.
Team selection time now for coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber. UFC Prez Dana White gets to the coin toss. Faber wins it and chooses to select the first matchup as opposed to choosing the first fighter.
Cruz chooses Whitethletic Justin Lawrence, the Blackhouse gym member that tore up James Krause last week with a TKO. Faber chooses Serra/Longo Al Iaqunita with the second pick. Cruz chooses 8 second sensation Sam Sicilia next.
Faber grabs Pride veteran/ringer Cristiana Marcello next. Cruz goes with Myles Jury. Faber goes for fellow Abercrombie & Fitch model look-alike Daron Cruickshank. Cruz chooses Mike Rio next.
Faber, on the recommendation of Joe Lauzon, chooses Joe Proctor. Cruz selects James Vick next. Faber tries out his “long hair don’t care” catchphrase for the second week in a row and chooses Michael Chiesa. Cruz take Vincent Pichel next. Faber grabs John Cofer.
Cruz then chooses Chris Tickle, who I’m sure has never used childhood teasing of his name as fighting fuel. Cruz starts the mind fucking early in taking Tickle. Remember, in episode 1, Tickle said that he wanted to be on Faber’s team. Cruz says he thinks he “threw a wrench in Faber’s plan.” Tickle me Chris has an attitude. He is pissed to be picked 13th and tells Faber that its “his loss, brother.” You tell ‘em.
Faber chooses Andy Ogle next. Cruz chooses the anti-Tickle, Jeremy Larsen, who says, “I’m just happy to be here. Doesn’t bother me at all.” Faber chooses Chris Saunders as his final pick.
Team Faber’s first training session takes place Saturday, 9am. Faber asks how many of his fighters have a wrestling base, as he does, and encourages them to have a purpose in mind with each practice. Cofer, Saunders and Ogle all have early praise for their team’s unity and for Faber.
Two hours later, Team Cruz fills the gym as their coach uses the time to observe them since, he says, he only had one round to view them before. Cruz sets up style stations with his assistant coaches leading to see how good the fighters are in each area.
At first Cruz was all like, “Tickle dissed me by saying he wanted Faber but I’m cool with it,” but soon his real feelings become clear as he pairs Tickle me Chris with his number one pick, Lawrence, to “see what he is about.” Lawrence manhandles Tickle.
Cruz is high on his team saying that they are going to “suck things up like a sponge.” Let’s all just pretend he said, “soak.”
Fight selection/Faber confrontation time. Things move fast, here. It’s 2pm on Saturday and both teams sit down on mini-bleachers in the training center. Faber and Cruz sit about a foot and a half apart.
Faber, like a boss, turns and tells Cruz, “My dad called and says you’re a bold-faced liar now.” Yeah, that statement doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on its own, but stay with Faber, he’s got a point.
Apparently, Faber’s dad has called Faber to tell him that in a recent UFC Magazine* interview, Cruz said that his parents gave Faber a gym. The proud Team Alpha Male leader does not like the invoking of his family into the rivalry by Cruz. “Gave you [a gym]? I never said they gave you a gym,” Cruz protests. “I mentioned that you may have had help with a gym from your parents.”
Faber closes with, “Stay away from the family issue, dude.”
Faber announces that he’s selected his team member Daron Cruickshank to take on James Vick. Faber calls it a “guaranteed win,” for his team. Cruz compares Vick’s body type to his own.
On Sunday afternoon Team Faber’s Michael Chiesa is pulled out of practice for a phone call. It’s his mom. She tells him that his father died the night before. Chiesa explains that his father had been battling a type of cancer called acute myeloid leukemia. Chiesa says he owes everything to his dad and that his dad made him promise that if he were to die while on TUF, that he wouldn’t leave. Back at the house, Chiesa shares the horrible news with his friend and training partner back home, Sam Sicilia.
Sicilia points out that Chiesa’s dad got to see his son get on national television and win a fight. Chiesa meets with Dana White the next day, who tells him that he will be allowed to fly home for a day to visit and be with his family. That’s good to hear.
Tuesday, back in the training center, James Vick prepares for his fight. And don’t get it twisted, just because he may look a tad lanky and goofy, the kid says he grew up poor, fast, hard and serious. Cruz is training Vick to keep a fast pace and says the strategy is to keep the fight on the feet against Cruickshank.
BJJ master Lloyd Irvin gets his hands on Vick, encourages him to “embrace the war,” and also shows him a pretty dope looking far side, arm-in choke on a turtle up opponent.
Cruickshank is in the gym with Team Faber next. “Some people are born a fighter and some people are raised a fighter. I would say, I’m both,” Cruickshank says, ending the nature vs. nurture debate forever.
Faber has Cruickshank work on defending specific submissions that they think Vick will go for with his long frame – and looky here, they work on a bunch of arm-in submissions. Cruickshank is confident, to say the least, calling Vick “one dimensional…he thinks he’s a boxer,” he says. “I’m 10-2. I’m a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do. What’s he done?”
And if there’s anything we’ve learned from MMA is that if you have a Tae Kwon Do blackbelt, you are unbeatable. Well, at least words never come back to bite anyone in the be-hind…
Chiesa comes back to the house, saying he got the closure he needed back home. His dad toughed it out to stay alive long enough to watch his son fight on episode 1, then went downhill. No joke, thank God that this season is live.
Weigh in time. Cruickshank weighs in at 155.5 and Vick at 154. The cocky Cruickshank smiles at Vick but Vick ain’t having that shit and he keeps his hands up and game face on.
Fight time! A fight fan can get used to this – because the fights are live, we get to watch the coaches give their last-minute pep talk to their fighters, live. Cruz tells Vick, “You know you belong here,” because it doesn’t seem like anyone else does. Faber tells Cruickshank to keep things moving in there.
Anik tells us that the winners of this season get a contract with the UFC and a year long sponsorship deal with TapOut. Why didn’t anyone think of that before? Great idea.
Round 1
Big height difference between Cruickshank and his 6’3 opponent, Vick. Lot of feeling out between the two. Thirty seconds in, the only two strikes that have been thrown are from Cruickshank; a lead left kick to the body and a lead left leg kick. Cruickshank puts together a punch combo, the ending uppercut lands. Spinning back kick from Cruickshank.
Vick’s corner is calling out combos, which, to this point, he isn’t throwing. Vick is stalking Cruickshank, but not throwing much, until he tries a whiffing super man punch. Another spinning back kick from Cruickshank but then he decides to go away from what was working for him and shoots in for a takedown.
Vick throws the right knee counter and it lands flush, knocking out Cruishank cold. Team Cruz goes nuts for the underdog, made good.
A country boy can survive. James Vick gets the surprised KO win over Daron Cruishank. Photo courtesy of UFC.com
Anik in the Octagon to interview Vick who starts off his comments with a “yes sir,” and ends it with a “I’m happy and everything’s going good.” Nothing like a Southern twang to make the underdog persona complete.
Anik asks Cruickshank “what happened there at the end of the fight.” Jon, I love ya, and I suppose you have to ask, but I guess you didn’t see Daron out on his back about, um…10 seconds ago with referee Herb Dean speaking soothing words into his ear. Unsurprisingly, Cruickshank responds, “I don’t remember too much so, I’m going to have to watch it.”
Cruickshank has a chance to get back in to competition if another fighter gets injured, but humbly says he’s just looking to get his teammates ready for their fights during the rest of his time on TUF.
Next week’s matchup time!
Team Cruz has the hammer and chooses Justin Lawrence but wait…he doesn’t choose who his fighter is going to fight! Nuts. Does anyone remember a coach giving up matchup control, even half, before like this?
Cruz has something up his sleeve and is looking to sabotage the “Alpha Male,” somehow…but how? Faber is shocked and has trouble coming up with a selection.
So, he turns it over to his team. “Who’s ready to scrap now, guys?”
Big. Fucking. Mistake. No one on Faber’s team raises their hand. Wow. Big balloon deflating moment. Biggest hand raising, or lack there of, shocker since season 5 when BJ Penn asked fighters to raise their hands if they wanted nothing to do with opposing coach Pulver.
Faber turns it back over to Cruz, who knows exactly who he wants Lawrence to face, and chooses Cristiano Marcello. This is going to be a hell of a fight.
Filed under: UFCUFC heavyweight Pat Barry may have halted his two-fight losing streak with a brutal knockout of Christian Morecraft at the UFC on FX event in Nashville last Friday night, but he isn’t letting the success go to his head just yet. It was,…
UFC heavyweight Pat Barry may have halted his two-fight losing streak with a brutal knockout of Christian Morecraft at the UFC on FX event in Nashville last Friday night, but he isn’t letting the success go to his head just yet. It was, after all, the lone win in his last three trips inside the Octagon, as he reminded Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.
“I’ve been seeing the world say, ‘There you go getting back on the winning track,’ and ‘You’re back to your winning ways,'” Barry told Helwani. “I would like to say, let me win two in a row and then I’ll feel like I’m on a winning track. As of right now, I just won a fight. That doesn’t necessarily predict what’s going to happen in the next fight.”
What the victory over Morecraft did accomplish was to save Barry from the dreaded three-fight losing in the UFC, which is often the point when the organization will send a fighter packing. While Barry admitted to being “ridiculously nervous” heading into the fight in Nashville, he insisted it wasn’t due to the losing streak or the potential consequences of adding to it.
“That’s the state that I put myself into, just match-ready, knowing that anything could possibly happen.”
What happened in the fight against Morecraft — and what didn’t happen in many of Barry’s previous fights — was that Barry kept his cool after getting taken down, fought off his opponent’s submission attempts, and got back to his feet to deliver the deciding blow. The win showed significant improvement in Barry’s overall game, but the mere fact that he got to demonstrate his defensive ground skills means he’s still got a ways to go, he said.
“I was happy with what I did once I was already on the ground, like…staying poised, staying controlled, not panicking and being able to avoid submissions and getting back to my feet, but the one thing I wasn’t happy with was the fact that I even hit the ground. I showed submission defense and I showed a better confidence on the ground, being under somebody, but I didn’t execute the takedown defense like we had been planning on doing and the way we trained to do it.”
Much of the credit for his gains on the ground go to his coaches and teammates at the Death Clutch gym in Minnesota, Barry said. While some fans seem to believe that the gym has folded up shop ever since its most famous member — former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar — announced his retirement, Barry insisted the rest of the team was “still marching forward; we’re just down one man.”
“We still have [Bellator heavyweight champion] Cole Konrad, and when you have a Cole Konrad, you don’t really need much else,” Barry added. “That dude is a monster.”
According to Barry, the Death Clutch gym has turned out to be the perfect place to deal with his weaknesses as an MMA fighter — namely staying on his feet and out of submissions in a division populated with much larger fighters.
“There’s no secret to the flaws in my game. …What I did was I went and found a gym that consists of giant wrestlers who all do [jiu-jitsu], and with [Rodrigo] ‘Comprido’ [Medeiros], a seven-time world champion who is a super-stud on the ground. So I found a room with a bunch of guys who are a lot bigger than I am, they all wrestle and they all do jiu-jitsu. …What better thing [is there] for me to do?”
The work seems to have paid dividends for Barry in the win over Morecraft. One win might not be a streak, but at least it’s a start.
UFC heavyweight 