Ultimate Fighter Reality Show

Leben and Koschek won just by the way the looked and the way there friends were talking about them. They want you to buy the DVD my man.
 
Holy crap. What a war that was between Forrest and Stephan. Was it just me, or did Stephan clearly win the first two rounds? I'm glad they both won a contract or my tv would have been pelted with popcorn.
 
April 9, 2005
by Josh Gross ([email protected])

LAS VEGAS, April 9 — There are four remaining fighters eligible to win three-year UFC contracts. But that didn’t prohibit the 12 other men on the first ever cast of The Ultimate Fighter from showing what they could do in front of a Las Vegas crowd. Six fights, five finishes and a whole lot of finished drama … this is the TUF under card.

The final dark bout was also the under card’s longest, as Sam Hoger (5-0-0) outworked Bobby Southworth (8-4-0) to win a unanimous three-round decision. Judge Glenn Trowbridge had it 30-28, while Jeff Mullen and Tony Weaks scored it 29-28.

Both Hoger and Southworth were cautious in the opening period and if a round could have gone to Southworth it was this one. Periods two and three clearly belonged to Hoger, the least-liked fighter among the 16 who lived in the house. Much of that derision came from Southworth, who routinely made it a point to squabble with the 24-year-old Pat Miletich-trained fighter.

A Southworth low blow led to the best exchange of the second round. But with Hoger’s lack of power and Southworth’s inability to land damaging shots, the crowd continually voiced its displeasure, showering the small room with jeers.

Aware that he’d need a stoppage or overwhelming round to win the fight, Southworth fired out of the gate in the third period’s first moments. The 35 year old from Santa Cruz, Calif. put Hoger on the mat for the first time in the fight. But little happened there.

A minute later it was Southworth on his back. Hoger worked from the guard, yet seemed content to control and wait for the clock to wind down. At fight’s end, Hoger stood with his hands raised and ran to the opposite side of the Octagon. Southworth followed but the bell sounded by the time he reached him. An overjoyed Hoger smiled a wide smile and relished his victory.

TUF’s most controversial if not popular cast member Chris Leben (17-1-0) stopped Canada’s Jason Thacker (4-2-0) with strikes on the ground 1:35 of round one.

On paper, Leben was far too much for Thacker. But the 29-year-old from Whonnock, British Columbia, requested the bout after the embarrassment of seeing Leben urinate on his bed during the show’s debut. After the fight, the 24-year-old Leben publicly apologized, saying the incident is a major reason he’s given up drinking.

For Thacker, the first fighter to be dismissed and only one of two not to exit by way of fighting, the chance to compete was a welcome one. Twice before the opening bell he aggressively moved towards Leben only to be stopped by Nevada State Athletic Commission inspectors.

He could have used them a few moments later after walking into a Leben right straight.

Thacker stumbled backwards but was lucid enough to pull guard. He remained game from the bottom, yet offered little in the way of escapes or offense. With little to worry about, Leben found leverage from various positions and pounded away until referee Herb Dean was forced to halt the contest.

“I kinda got jacked on the show,” a less-than-gracious Leben said after the dominating performance. “I had that cut. I had Josh “The Blanket” on top of me. I want redemption.”

Leben’s nemesis on the show, Josh Koscheck (5-0-0), manhandled Chris Sanford (5-1-0), winning by knockout 4:21 of the opening round after a heavy downward right from half-guard crashed into the middleweight’s chin.

Sanford, like Thacker, was dismissed before getting a chance to fight — and he surely hoped to put on a better performance. In Koscheck he had a big challenge on his hands. The most athletic member of the 16-man cast and a multiple-time NCAA All-American wrestler, Koscheck is capable of putting most men on the mat if he wants them there.

Early on, it appeared he was eager to stand and strike with the 37-year-old Sanford, a capable striker out of the Cesar Gracie camp. Absorbing a sharp overhand right, however, quickly changed his mind.

“He caught me with a good, hard hook,” Koscheck said. “I was like, ‘whoa.’”

From there it was takedowns and ground-and-pound. Koscheck, 27, worked to pass the guard, and he did before Sanford created space while working for a heel hook. It was easily countered and the wrestler started to score with punches and elbows.

Sanford worked to get back to his feet, but half-standing against the fence only set up a perfect high-elevation Koscheck double-leg slam. It was the night’s first big takedown and the three-quarters filled arena exploded.

The end came suddenly. From half-guard, Koscheck snapped a right hand that connected perfectly. Sanford was out, but referee Steve Mazzagatti didn’t notice before Koscheck landed five unanswered shots.

Fighting for the first time since being picked for TUF, Gresham, Oregon’s Nate Quarry (12-1-0), victim to a nasty ankle injury during training that ended his competition, stopped Lodune Sincaid (15-3-0) with strikes 3:17 of round one.

It was a thorough performance for the middleweight. Quarry, who’s helped UFC light heavyweight champion Randy Couture prepare for next weekend’s bout versus Chuck Liddell, looked sharp, peppering Sincaid’s head with almost anything he wanted.

“I wanted to show why I was there, why I was picked,” he said afterwards.

He did just that, countering a Sincaid’ overhand right with a straight punch of his own. Quarry’s best blow of the bout, a body shot that ripped into 31-year-old Sincaid’s midsection, gave way to the finish.

“As soon as I landed the body shot I looked into his eyes and I saw he was fading fast,” the 33-year-old Quarry said.

Sincaid covered and absorbed multiple punches and kicks before referee “Big” John McCarthy jumped between the two fighters. The ending was somewhat surprising in that both men remained in their feet — a finish rarely seen in mixed martial arts.

Despite competing at light heavyweight during the taping of TUF, Mike Swick (7-1-0), who came up short against Stephan Bonnar in the semifinals, put his stamp on the middleweight division by putting the stamp on Alex Schoenauer (10-1-0), knocking the taller man out 20 seconds after the opening bell.

Swick’s speed was the difference — for each Schoenauer strike, he offered three. Two left hook-right straight combos stunned the 28-year-old Argentinean. As he stumbled back-first towards the cage Swick, 25, unleashed an awkward overhand right. The shot met its mark and Schoenauer, who met his fate on the show by tapping to Forrest Griffin, slumped to the canvas.

“I got to set the pace,” Swick declared after the impressive showing. “This is my division.”

Two men who were one-and-done on TUF fights battled to a quick finish in front of a still-filtering-in Cox Pavilion crowd when welterweight Alex Karalexis (5-0-0) stopped Josh Rafferty (7-4-0) at the 1:40 mark of round one.

Karalexis countered a Rafferty’ guillotine to drop hard rights and lefts on the Cincinnati, Ohio product. The two briefly separated before Karalexis, training out of Las Vegas by way of Boston, dove back into the 24-year-old Rafferty’s guard.

It was then that Karalexis, perhaps the smallest fighter to compete at middleweight during the show, dropped the fight-changing punch. He looked to referee Steve Mazzagatti to jump in, but when the referee didn’t move Karalexis hammered home additional shots.

“His eyes rolled in the back of his head and I told him he was out,” said the 27-year-old Karalexis.
 
Diego sure looked good last night. It kind of makes me wonder just how good Koscheck is, Josh went the full 3 rounds and lost a split decision, everyone else Deigo fought didn't last 2 minutes with him. I think Deigo could be the real deal, Florian is a BJJ BB and Diego had no problem with him on the ground.
That fight with Forrest and Stephan was awesome, I had no clue who was going to win that thing while waiting for the judges decision. It looked like they both landed some bombs. I need to watch it again but during the fight it seemed like Stephan landed a couple more strikes, but Forrest did better in the clinches and on the ground. That had to be the best fight I've ever seen, I don't know if I could have watched another round, I was exhausted just sitting there. I'm glad Forrest won, nothing against Bonnar but Forrest is just such a character and has a cool attitidue toward the whole thing, it looks like he really enjoys getting hit, the harder the better. Giving Stephan a contract was the right thing to do, those two guys put on a hell of a show. I do think they took some of Forrest's thunder by doing it so soon after the fight. They should have let the winner have his moment of glory, then maybe bring Stephan out and announce the contract at the end of the broadcast.
JDenz, thanks for the dark match update, by the looks of Leben and Koscheck during the broadcast I thought they might not have actually fought, and judging from the report, they didn't.
Looking forward to TUF 2....
 
Josh is a takedown wizard. I always thought I was okay he probably forgot more then I never knew you really don't get a feel for how fast he is on Tv.
 
Last night I saw a fight between Griffen and Bonnar(sp?) and I must say I found it pretty disapppointing, from a Martial Arts point of view (although not as much as earlier fights) Most of the fight's I'd managed to catch, when I managed to at all, seemed to be maybe 20-30 second o trying to punch each other until one could grab the other and then there was a bunch of ground wrestling which, frankly, I find a bit boring. At least Griffen and Bonnar managed to stay on their feet most of the time, or get back there.

What disappointed me from a Martial Arts perspective is how very little, or very poor, martial arts skill they seemed to use. It seemed to be little more than a boxing match with smaller gloves where you were allowed to kick (but little was done) and could wreslte if you got the chance. I now know why the fights do go to the ground; bad technique. From how I've been taught, at least, power comes from executing technique properly and quickly and proper and powerful technique requires balance and stability. Balance requires you to keep your back straight, your shoulders square, and your head up. What I saw was a lot of techqniques thrown from off-balance positions and a lot of punches that were thrown, especially in close, without putting body mass and hip movement into them. *Especially* when on the ground it seemed like the punches were being thrown just with arm strength; not stabilizing the body and getting full mass into it.

I could tell off the bat that they did not respect the ability to kick. They set up too close, just barely beyond fist range which was well within kicking range. If they expected that the other person would and could kick them hard, the would not have been so close. What it seemed to me from this was that the few kicks thrown came in low, below the ability to see well or parry much , but also not with a lot of authority or power. Yeah, a few kicsk actually got up, but they didn't seem to be thrown very well.

Anyway, what also struck me was the lack of defense and lack of counter movement in the striking/standup game. It seemed to be mostly "I'm going to get in and try to punch you more/harder than you do to me" and when they came in, the opened up their hand position and had very little defense. There seemed no attempt to use hand blocks to block the others defense, and no attempt to work both offense and defense simulataneously, such as to block with one hand while punching with the other. No attempt to counter an attack by defending it and striking back because the opponent had opened themselves up. No attempt to use footwork to bypass or sidestep the attack and come back once the attacker is out of good defensive position. For something labelled a "Martial Art" is seemed pretty one dimensional and unskilled.

And that's when I noticed the takedown. What appeared to me to happen in most cases is that a person would defensively duck their head and get their head and shoulders forward, which caused a lot of problems. First off, it's awfully hard to strike from down there in that position. Secondly, it got the person off-balance, making it really hard to strike 'well', but mostly, it got the person forward and off-balance and in close to the opponent, making it pretty straightforward to grab them and take them to the ground. That's why I thought, and said "ah hah! lack of good defensive technique leads to being in an easy position to take own, and since it's legal, they do" If you can direct a person's head, you can direct their body, and if they put their head down for you, well...their body will easily follow.

Anyway, for something billed as "Mixed Martial Art" I found it very disappointing. I cannot comment on the ground work (other than that it seemed like punches from that position were not very authoritative and I'm thinking it's because the body position did not allow full hip and body mass motion to get more power into the punches) but the stand up/striking portion did not seem like much of a 'martial art' as it seemed fairly one dimensional and short on technique/skill of what I would consider important in martial arts and important in fighting period.

----
Personally, I was highly suspicious about the results. I remember watched the TKD matches in the Olympics and it seemed like the announcers were really trying to hype the match much more than what was actually going on. I did not find the match to be nearly exciting as the breathless hyperbole from the announcers wanted to make it. I thought that the guy with (black and) green trunks fairly obviously dominated the other guy. I was surprised that the announcers seemed to be saying it was so even and got real suspicious when the announcers started talking about 'two contracts being awarded'. When the match ended and they said that they just decided to give another six figure contract to the 'loser', my first thought was "oh, come on! You don't make business decisions like that on the spur of the moment, you planned this from some time ago, and the announcers tipped it"
 
I also managed to catch a move last night between Liddell and some dude "Tiger" White. Although they were more skilled on their feet and in their offensive attacks, a lot of it seemed te same; not a lot defensive hand or foot technqiues and people went down because of bad defensive or overcommiting on offense that left them out of position and unbalanced.
 
FearlessFreep,

The reason they don't use their hips and shoulders to generate power while on the ground is because the are more concerned with keeping the mount. If you tried to punch on the ground just like you would standing you would be bucked off or swept every time. It is more important to keep your weight on your opponent then to put it into your punch.

I agree with you that it degenerated into a slugfest but both of those fighters do possess very good technical abilities. They just got tired and decided to play home run derby.

-Tyler
 
FearlessFreep said:
I also managed to catch a move last night between Liddell and some dude "Tiger" White. Although they were more skilled on their feet and in their offensive attacks, a lot of it seemed te same; not a lot defensive hand or foot technqiues and people went down because of bad defensive or overcommiting on offense that left them out of position and unbalanced.

Just remember, You are looking at 2 totally different aspects of martial arts. Maybe thusfar in your experience you haven't been exposed to the various different styles :idunno: . I don't know you from anybody yet have enjoyed the questions you have posted coupled with your attitude to learn :asian: . I for one loved the fight between Bonner/Griffin. It was a good display of heart and attitude after it was over. I still give it a tip of the hat to both of them.
 
A quick note in case anyone missed Saturday's showing -- from the TV schedule I saw on My Yahoo, it looks like they're airing the finale again tonight at 11pm or so on SpikeTV, after WWE Raw finishes.
 
Diego looked good. I'm glad to see that he got the contract. As for the Bonnar/Griffen fight, I'm really glad they decided to award both a contract. It was a warriors' battle and the two withstood tons. It's good to see something rewarded....
 
I knew all along Diego was going to destroy his opponent in his match. If Diego was not to go to UFC, I would have picked Josh Koscheck, since he looked to be Diego's toughest challenge, and Josh was my personal favorite:). That other guy that made it to the finals (forgot his name, florense or something I think) didn't have a chance. He basicly lost the semi-finals to that red head that lost to Josh Koscheck a couple weeks back, who I also forgot who name.

I didn't pay much attention to the light heavyweights durring the show, but the match was much more interesting to watch than the middleweight match, since it was much longer and closer.
 
7starmantis said:
Allready accepting apps for next season.

anyone here thinking of trying out for it?

7sm

I'm too old and fatherly (Randy Couture may differ in opinion). But 10 years ago...

:jedi1:
 
I got accepted to the Pride FC USA auditions, but could not attend. I thought my chances for that were pretty low, but apparently, out of thousands of apps, only about 200 people got accepted, and only about 100 of those guys could attend.

UFC is not for me but I will check it out anyway. you gonna try it out Primo?
 
Hi all you MMA folks.

Sorry to say that the only good fight of that whole show was the Stephen and Forrest brawl. And a brawl was all it was- No technique - No attempt at a strong finishing hold. EMPTY!
Koscheck had no stand up skills to speak of- any one can throw a punch. I'm sure he is a good wrestler, but in this game you don't wait for the ref to slap the mat just because you pin him to the mat. You have to make him tap out or knock him out. No finishing skills.
Deago had no real competition through the whole show.
He first fight was against a stand up fighter who had no reason being in the ring in the first place.
His second fight was also a joke. None of these guys knew what to do once they hit the ground. Kind of makes you think what they where being taught by their coaches.
If they are strong standing up, then they should have focused on their ground game.
Deago is way over rated, when he gets in the Octagon with a real MMA he is going to be dead meat.
But I'm sure they will feed him some lesser talent and boost his win streak to make him look more formidable and that will go for Forrest and Stephen as well.
Why give these guys a contract to have them get their *** beat their first time out.
I will give Kuddos to Stephen and Forrest for their heart and ability to stand up and hammer the hell out of each other. Best UFC fight in years since it's beginning.
Not one BJJ guy in the whole show showed any ground techniques and not one of them would use what they say was their strength, instead they choose to stand and take shots for no reason at all.
It was a shame not to see any Gracie BJJ use any ankle locks or arm locks.
Too much talk about what Black Belt they had and not enough training or execution of their art.
The night of the finalls all of our Jin Pal Hapkido BB's got together and watched the finals.
Best fight of the night: Obviously -Stephen and Forrest. Entertainment value 8 out of 10
Second best Fight: Sorry Ken slipped and couldn't recover. Shamrock and the other guy. 5 out of 10
worst fight - Deago and Kenny. Deago got this on the last couple of elbows. 1 out of 10 and that is being generous!
Next UFC Fighter show, they should really look deep into the skills of the guys they pick for the show.
The Canadian guy at the beginning of the show should never ever have been picked for the show. How the hell did he get in there? There are way better Canadian fighters then that guy. Who did the picking of contestants?
nixweiss.gif

I can't wait to see all three of the so called winners get into the Octagon with a legit UFC competitor that has worked his *** off the hard way and not rely on a reality show to short cut his way to the Octagon.
I'm sure they will get their heads handed to them!
________________________________________________________________
If a fight lasts more then 30 seconds, you have lost already.

Silver Dragon 65 JPHF 2nd dan Certified Instructor.
30 yrs Martial Arts experience.
That's why I have the opinion that I do about the fighters on the show.
You all know that there are way better fighters out there then there was on this show.
And they may even be YOU! Smile - hope I didn't offend anyone.
Happy Training everyone. check us out- www.hapkidocanada.com
 
so you are saying that Forrest has not worked his *** off to get where he is and that he doesn't deserve to be in the UFC?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
There are a few people that have said that these guys can't fight, they have no technique, no skill, etc. I guess the only response I have to that is they are accepting applications for TUF 2.....
 
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