I didn’t see the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. I won’t claim to have watched Griffin/Bonner live as it happened. I never saw Josh Koscheck the ass. His antics and attitude must have been quite outrageous, as it seems people still think of Kos as the original War Machine or Junie Browning – the magnificent difference here is obviously talent. Having not seen season one, I can’t believe how he is still perceived. His antics after the camera was pointed at him 24/7 for 6 weeks seem to be all about business. His maturation from one-dimensional fighter to well-rounded contender has been quite amazing. It is hard for me to see how others don’t see his maturity as a person as well.

 I’ll try not to over emphasize my issues with the trash talk too much. We all know good trash talk is good for selling fights. Some get personal and I’ll even admit, sometimes that needs to happen – see Rampage/Rashad. But sometimes it just seems like some try too hard. Kos’ issues with Daley were: who has he fought?, what’s he got beside his hook?, and he can’t wrestle. Daley seemed to go straight for the name-calling and allegations of sucking on things, etc. We know Daley was trying hard to ‘sell’ this fight and to steal Kos’ thunder, but c’mon, that was pretty weak. I guess Daley showed his true maturity after the fight.

 Kos will undoubtedly come out looking like crap after the ‘missed knee-gate’ controversy. But I have to defend him here. When was the last time you saw a professional athlete not complain to an official after an obvious-looking call? Does an out of bounds receiver try to keep running after his foot barely touched out. Was the guy who goes down in the paint really charged every time. No, they are selling a call. When careers are on the line, and they always are, the seasoned pro will try to exploit every possible ‘rule’ to their advantage. Kos felt, or at least saw, the illegal knee – why not sell it to the ref? Big Dan didn’t get the call right at first, but it was not his fault either. The perspective of one man inside the cage is never going to be 100%. From his angle it clearly looked like Kos was hit by the knee. One might argue that the disruption of the action could have upset the outcome. But the proper call by the ref, whether Kos was struck or not, would have been to warn Daley. Just because Kos didn’t get hit didn’t mean that Daley didn’t attempt an illegal blow – he obviously did. Perhaps Kos played it up a bit too much, but I think it’s a legitimate pro tactic to use the rules to your advantage as much as possible. It’s not crying wolf. That shot could’ve connected and ended Josh’s career – I would have called it to the refs attention. What the ref did with it from there is the ref’s problem to deal with. Ultimately, I think Big Dan got it right. It really just ended up being a no harm , no foul situation.

 It looked like there might have been some extremely unkind words spoken between the opponents seconds before the final bell. I wonder what Kos said to make Daley get up and cancel his UFC career?

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What makes a good rematch? I think first and foremost, the original fight has to be a standout. That means either it was an exceptional and close fight deserving of a closer look or that it ended in a quick, dramatic fashion leaving the question of what if one split second has played out differently (see Faber v. Brown). The other way in which a fight becomes a standout is when the fight ends in disqualification, foul or controversy (see Varner v. Cerrone).  The Faber v. Pulver rematch had none of that.

In their first meeting, Faber and Pulver did their thing for 25 full minutes, with all judges calling every round for Faber. Many fans voted this Fight of the Year. I couldn’t disagree more. Just because fighters go the distance doesn’t mean that it was close. I was thrilled when I saw this fight was going to happen, but now when I watch the reruns, it just makes me sad to see how dominated Jens was the whole fight. Yes, he landed some shots and showed incredible resilience, but mostly he got handled pretty rough. Urijah didn’t seem to have sustained much injury, while Pulver’s face looked awful afterwards.

Why would the WEC fight makers want to rematch this fight, and especially so quickly? If rematches are to be made from fights that weren’t so close to begin with, there has to be more time. There needs to be more time in which the loser proves that there is some good reason to have a rematch, improvements, changes in training, etc. I thought the idea of Faber v. Pulver 2 was a good one, but in six months to a year later, not immediately. At least let it be believable that the challenger could have improved enough to even have a chance. The commentary tonight reported that Jens tried to move the fight back just one month, but the WEC said no. Even that as a slight delay would have been acceptable to the fans I’m sure. Jens has had a trying few months since the first fight with the arrival of a new child, as well as with the death of long-time friend/training partner Justin Eilers.

My second problem with this rematch was really a question: What good could come from any outcome to this fight? If Faber had lost, which looked highly unlikely, then the poster boy for the WEC is even further off the track that the WEC has undoubtedly poured mucho dinero into paving for him. If Pulver loses, then he is looking at the first 0-3 streak in his career. Not a good position for one of the top stars of this organization. Was the WEC was looking for a bus to throw Pulver under? It didn’t seem that way when he was brought into the organization last year like a hero.

Lastly, Craig Hummer’s post fight interview with Pulver was low-class. I don’t remember Craig’s first comment/question, which Jens handled easily with sportsmanship and class. Then Hummer asked if his now 0-3 record in the WEC makes him irrelevant. From that point it was difficult to watch one of my first heroes of this sport to get tears in his eyes and a clench in his throat. What the hell did you want him to say? It was almost as if he pointed the mic right at Jens and asked if he knew how much he disappointed Justin Eilers with a loss tonight? Craig Hummer, you would probably be best served in a non-people profession.

The question has been asked a billion times in the last few days...Where do all these out-in-the-cold fighters go now? For most, I could care less. But to think about poor Gina and her friends - I mean to think these girls will be out on the streets, grappling for food, submitting bitches to keep warm - living fight to fight with no prospects???

But the real point of this post is to ask if anyone has any further thoughts on Dana's comment: 'he’s not interested in promoting women’s fighting.'

Why the hell not???

Gina's last fight was arguably one of the most watched fights in MMA ever. The ratings aren't a problem.  The almost unanimous majority of male viewers would certainly never complain. The girl fights can be pretty decent - but even the bad ones are better than some wrestler holding down an opponent for a 15-minute decision. Oh, and did anyone seem to remember that there are some female fighters out there that are pretty easy on the optic nerves? And finally, after that, who doesn't wanna see a chick fight!?!

I would think that the hardest part of starting a new class/division/promotion is the beginning. Getting together a partial or full roster from nothing, even before a single fight is had, must be difficult. But isn't this now the golden opportunity for the UFC? With all these (ok, maybe its only a few) women looking for a home at the same time isn't it at least tempting to think about a women's division in the UFC? I know I will be.