Mr Fight and Write TUF Shoot Week 1

So after a whole summer of hype The Ultimate Fighter’s whopping season 18 debuted this week. And whilst it was an entertaining 90 minutes the ratings have really bought the show into question-Do people still care? And more importantly, should they still care?

Mr Fight and Write TUF Shoot Week 1

 

As I said I thought it was an entertaining episode with some decent looking fights. The format does look tired there is no escaping it and by half way through I was bored of the f*cking sob stories, how many times do we have to hear about somebody saying they are doing it for their kids? Ever thought about doing something for yourself for once? But yes onto the actual fights and fighters.

It’s ironic that the show’s big drawing star Ronda Rousey actually did very little here, she was just so intense. Tate was busy getting Brownie points with Dana (although long term MMA fans may know that Tate and Dana go way back, long before Ronda was even on the scene) and Ronda just sat there in silence doing the death stare. She really is competitive as they say it would seem.

The big upset was legendary Womens fighter Tara LaRosa crashed out on Points. This was a huge upset, Tara LaRosa has been in the game for such a long time it felt almost a given she was going to be on the show. And I feel it’s a big loss already, she could of become an alder statesman(or should that be woman?) of the group.

 

I find it hard to believe that we will never see her in the UFC again, she is to legendary to disappear from mainstream. But then again she had her chance and she never took it, like they say in American Prisons; GABOS-Game Aint Based On Sympathy.

 

Speaking of prisons, here’s a tweet that never got enough attention over the summer

 

How many arm bars did we see? You get the feeling 2-3 years Arm bars will be as common as Triangles? It was a great outing all round for BJJ with some great looking grappling going on.

 

One guy I really liked was Chris Holdsworth. I loved the story of his Brother getting killed and being promoted to Black Belt at his funeral. I liked his style and I liked his look.

 

Then there was Roxanne Modafferi, what was up with her? F*ck AJ Lee-HERES A PROPER GEEK! She doesn’t fit in with the MMA world and that is what makes her so interesting, could be a huge fan favourite by the end of the season. Anoher fight I liked was Jessamyn Duke.

 

Did you see the whole thing at the end where Dana White threw somebody out? Bet it’s Tim Gorman, the guy just seemed like the sort of jerk who shoots a gift horse in the mouth. Big up to Liverpool’s Wooten and even bigger up to Mrs Fight and Write who predicted he would be picked last.

 

So the first week is down and next time hopefully the real fun will begin, next week’s fight looks great and I’m dying to know what Ronda’s meltdown is about.

 

I look forward to see what drama week 2 brings us.

UFC 164: A New Champion and a Drunken referee

UFC 164: A New Champion and a Drunken referee

Anthony Pettis won the Lightweight belt in fine style with an upset arm bar in round 1 and for the second time in his career it was Benson Henderson whom he took the gold from. I take my hat to Pettis 100%, like I said he was the underdog and he did really well to win with an arm bar against a newly promoted BJJ black belt (more on that later) but what the heck is Dana White with his post-fight comments?

 

For those who haven’t seen his ‘Post fight scrum’ he basically said since Henderson is now 0-2 against Pettis and as it was such a one sided title fight then Henderson won’t be getting another shot at Pettis….HOLD THE BOOK, HOLD THE COURT MY HONOR! What fight was he watching? Henderson looked the more aggressive to me and with the exception of those rather nice but nasty looking kicks to the body there was nothing between them. Henderson has held that belt for 2 years, made 4 defences, before the fight you saw it fitting to flash up on screen he was #6 Pound for Pound in the world and now all of a sudden he is not good enough for a shot at the gold?

 

Mir doesn't find Henderson's comments that funny in the highlight moment of the post fight press conference

And what about the other comments how Pettis is a whole different level to Henderson, really Dana? To me there is a lot more to this, there has to be some sort of personal beef between Dana and Henderson. Is he annoyed he pushed him so much as an elite fighter only to see him lose? Does he hate how religious he is? Is he still bummed his Silva v Jones super fight isn’t happening and is taking it out on everyone?

 

And here’s another thing-Can UFC stop getting a boner for all things BJJ? It’s getting silly how much they are marks for BJJ black belts. Before the fight they announce Henderson as a BJJ black belt and Pettis as a Taekwondo black belt. All true nothing wrong with that except Henderson is also a Taekwondo Black belt-HE’S HALF KOREAN FFS! HE HAS KOREAN WRITING TATOOED ON HIM! HIS MOTHER HAS A KOREAN FLAG WITH HER EVERY FIGHT! I felt this wasn’t so much disrespectful to Taekwondo as it was proof how bias they are towards all things BJJ. But despite this annoyance it’s quite funny to see a Taekwondo guy beat one of their ‘untouchable’ BJJ guys.

 

The forgotten Black belt

 

Things could even get more embarrassing for the UFC if Henderson goes on another win streak and 18 months down the line he is the only man that looks likely to challenge for the title and they will have to back down, a scenario I can see happening. Bottom line it was it was an absurd comment to make.

 

From absurd comments to absurd calls…

 

GO HOME REFEREE YOU’RE DRUNK!

 

What in the blue Jesus is that referee on? What kind of call was that in the Barnett/ Mir fight? Ref jumps in and says it over, the second he does Mir bounces up like a Jack in the Box wondering the same as the rest of us; What the heck? Mir was still in the fight, sure it was one sided but Mir wasn’t exactly taking a Brock Lesnar style mauling and it looked like the fight was going to go to ground where Mir is at his strongest.

 

It was a great pity since it was a fun fight and we never got to see it go to ground, in the count down show it was said by Mir (I think) he hopes they grapple and not just trade blows and unfortunately that is what happened. A rematch has to be on the cards in the near future, it could easily headline a fight night on Fox.

 

Looking ahead for Josh Barnett, he is a strange one. He is from a different era (quite literally) he represents everything UFC used to be. He made a comment about all he see’s are athletes in UFC today and not any real fighters. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant when UFC at the moment are really trying to push they are athletes as much as fighters (although I don’t think anyone bought Dana Whites line about how the UFC is made up of ‘middle class people’). You can really envision Barnet winning the title belt because, well because he is a bloody hard Bastard but is he the sort of guy UFC want as the face of their Heavyweight Division? But if they decide to not give him a title shot (which based on pre-fight comments could very well be his deal) then what does he do? Just keep chopping down possible contenders? Josh Barnet as the gatekeeper of the heavyweight Division? Now there’s a scary thought!

A warrior from a different time

 

Was anybody else surprised Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate didn’t have a bigger involvement Saturday night? Now I watch on BT Sports and they like to chuck in advert breaks when they feel like it so perhaps I may have missed some promotion but I’m very surprised we didn’t see some sort of in ring encounter to really hype up the premiere episode this week.

 

My face also Ronda...

 

Keep Kicking, Save the Trees and I will see you next time