SB Nation User Blog: funnytiger

It's All About How 'TUF' The Coaches Are

funnytiger — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:08:41 -0000

Alright, only 3 more weeks to go! Whoot!

This week I'm touching base on the coaches, but I'm already excited about next weeks entry which will be about the cry babies and d*cks who've graced TUF over the 7 seasons. So please stay tuned!

As usual, please feel free to share your thoughts!

One of the biggest draws for The Ultimate Fighter has been the coaches who lead each team. Season 8 will have interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Team Nogueira) versus his next opponent Frank Mir (Team Mir). There has already been some talk about how Mir will have his hands full with the Big Nog in their title bout at UFC 92 in December of this year, but will it have the same drama that past successful coach rivalries have had on TUF?

Let's look at some of the great coach rivalries from past years:

Season 3: Team Ortiz v. Team Shamrock
Let's be honest. The real reason we all tuned into this season was to see if there was going to be a pre-finale brawl between Ken Shamrock, a veteran of MMA, and Tito Ortiz, a young loud mouth who showed little to no respect for Shamrock.

Tension soared on the show every time the 2 of them were forced to be in the same room with each other. One episode showcased a near collision between Tito and Shamrock, both men had to be restrained by cast members and trainers.

In the end, Team Shamrock had been thoroughly beaten by Team Ortiz with only 1 of Shamrock's fighters ending up in the finale (Ed Herman). To add worse to an already bad situation for Shamrock, he was out muscled by Ortiz in their finale battle at UFC 61 ending after a mere 1 minute and 18 seconds of the first round.

Season 5: Team Pulver v. Team Penn
This season of TUF featured lightweight rivals Jens Pulver and BJ Penn whose bitter hatred stemmed from what BJ claimed was Jens Pulver living off of his decision over Penn in 2002. It seemed like a silly reason to have such a grudge against someone, but then again, it's also possible that their dislike was turned up a notch at the request of producers... but I digress.

It was all tension from the very beginning when Penn and Pulver had to choose teams. Penn decided it was appropriate to ask the would-be fighters who would like to be on Team Penn and not on Team Pulver. Ten of the sixteen fighters raised their hand, which I'm sure got under Pulver's skin more than a little bit, and that was just the beginning of a long line of personal digs between the 2 professional fighters.

It didn't really matter what Penn did, he couldn't get a break. Team Pulver delivered win after win ultimately breaking the spirit of Team Penn. To make matters worse for "Baby Jay" he also had to be on the losing end of a table tennis match between him and Pulver. Set up by Dana White, $10,000 in cash went to the winner and each member of their team received a $1,000 bonus.

At the finale it was 2 members of Team Pulver (Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz) who ended up fighting for the UFC contract. But in the end, it was BJ Penn who walked away the victor by defeating Jens Pulver by rear naked choke in Round 2.

What I really liked about this rivalry was the respect that the 2 ended up showing each other. It was a great moment for BJ and for fans of MMA to see the 2 of them come together as maybe not "friends" but as respected peers.

Season 6: Team Hughes v. Team Serra
I gotta tell you, this was my favorite rivalry. Yes, even more than Tito and Ken. Why? Because Matt Serra is one funny man and Matt Hughes is MMA's biggest douche.

After winning Season 4 of TUF, Serra was guaranteed a title shot which he won (against all odds) against the then Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre. For season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter it was to be Team Hughes v. Team Serra and then a fight between the 2 coaches for the Welterweight Title.

I have to say, Hughes did himself no favors on this show to prove he wasn't the pulsating dick that Serra said he was. One particular moment that sticks out in my mind during that season is when Hughes made his team read the book of Ruth from the bible. It was the most masturbatory thing I've ever seen on any season of TUF. Not only was Hughes forcing these guys to read an obviously irrelevant book from the Bible (I would have chosen Job myself) but he was wasting precious training time that they all desperately need seeing as how only 2 of Hughes' guys ended up winning their fights.

In the end it was Serra left holding the bag as 2 of Hughes' guys went on to fight for the TUF title, and the highly hyped fight between Serra and Hughes was put on the back burner indefinitely while Serra had to drop out to nurse an injury. Oh well. It would have been an interesting fight to see those two finally get all that aggression and animosity out in the ring. Personally, I think Serra would have come out on top. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I honestly don't think the following season of TUF with coaches Griffin and Jackson had the same tension as the ones listed above. Both guys had their moments, but for the most part they seemed like 2 really good natured guys who didn't have a serious bone to pick with each other.

Unfortunately, I think it will be the same story with the new season of TUF.I'm not sure how good Nog's english is and I am interested to see how well he can teach with a language barrier. Mir just doesn't really have a very interesting personality to me. I'm hoping the fighters more than make up for the lack of spark between the 2 head coaches.

Which brings me to the subject of my next post. Who could forget the colorful personalities that have gone through the TUF house? JT Money pissing in the corner, Gabe Rudiger missing his weight and then crying like a bitch... ahh... memories...

This post is long overdue as I promised a post once a week. I will be sure to make another post this week to make up for lost time. As usual, comments and suggestions are welcome!

'TUF' Television for Fans of MMA

funnytiger — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:53:17 -0000

With The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 premiere about a month away I thought it would be a good time to start some sort of countdown in preparation for it.

For the next 4 weeks I'll be making a weekly post that is TUF related, whether that be a look at past winners, losers, cry babies or some of those "Holy Sh!t" moments that each season undoubtedly has.

I would LOVE for people to chip in with memories of their favorite (or not so favorite) moments in TUF.

IN CASE YOU FORGOT
Despite the stigma that comes along with being on a reality TV show, some of the former cast mates of Spikes The Ultimate Fighter fight on to become great fighters who eventually overshadow their reality TV days. While some aren't quite the lucky I wanted to take a look at each season and the fighters we may (or may not have) forgotten were once of the show.

Season 1: Team Liddell v. Team Couture

No doubt, a little chaotic in their inaugural season, Season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter would lead up to one of the most pinnacle points in UFC/MMA history -- the TUF Season 1 finale with Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. Still considered one of the best fights televised by the UFC, Griffin and Bonnar left it all hanging out in the ring, slugging each other for what seemed liked the entire duration of the bout. Neither man really seemed interested in showing any kind of defense and by the time the final bell rang both men looked like they'd been chewed up by a grizzly bear.

Season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter left us with quite a few fantastic fighters who still mix it up with the best of them in the UFC including: Forrest Griffin (Season 1 Light Heavyweight Winner), Stephan Bonnar, Diego Sanchez (Season 1 Middleweight Winner), Chris Leben, Josh Koscheck, Kenny Florian, Mike Swick, Sam Hoger, and Nate Quarry.

Season 2: Team Hughes v. Team Franklin
Who could forget this seasons first episode? It was like a soap opera! First, Heavyweight Kerry Schall is eliminated because of a knee injury, then Eli Joslin leaves the show (mostly cause he's a p*ssy), and THEN Stevens is forced to forfeit his match after not being able to make weight for the fight. Oh the popcorn drama! Deliciously fantastic! (Guys, if you want to get your girlfriends into MMA, make them watch this show.)

Some characters that still make their faces shown in the UFC include: Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (Welterweight Winner), Rashad Evans (Heavyweight Winner), Luke Cummo, Josh Burkman, Marcus Davis, Melvin Guillard, Mike Whitehead, and Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine.

Season 3: Team Shamrock v. Team Ortiz
The third season of TUF featured one of the most entertaining grudges in television history (*hyperbole*) between coaches Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. I'm not going to delve to far into their antics on the show as I want to save coach antics for my post next week, but boy was it a good one! They also changed the format of the show a bit, which made it a little more streamlined and made it seem a lot less like Family Double Dare.

Aside from the heated rivalry between Ortiz and Shamrock, we got to see a lot of great fights and meet some newcomers who have cemented themselves as legitimate fighters including Season 3 Middleweight winner Kendall Grove, Season 3 Light Heavyweight Winner Michael Bisping, Matt Hamill, Rory Singer, and Ed Herman.

Season 4: Team No Love v. Team Mojo
This season of TUF saw a slightly different take on the show's premise. Instead of UFC hopefuls the season was comprised of fighters who had yet to get a title shot in the UFC. Instead of coaches, named trainers and UFC fighters acted as advisors. The winners at the end of the season would get the usually $100,000 plus a guaranteed title shot.

This season had some great characters that we would have otherwise missed including Matt Serra (Welterweight Winner) and Shonie Carter. However, there were a couple of recent casualties of Season 4 cast members in the UFC due to poor performances or consecutive losses including Din Thomas, and Travis Lutter (Middleweight Winner).

Season 5: Team Pulver v. Team Penn
This season of TUF featured for the first time only one weight class, lightweights. Also, another change is that eliminated fighters do not leave the house, instead they stay around to train and cause trouble. Not necessarily in that order. And once again, the bitter rivalry between Penn and Pulver made for some really intense television. Again, I'll talk about this next week when I feature coaches from TUF.

So, we can't talk about this season unless we talk for just a second about Gabe Ruediger. His failure to make weight and the waterfall of tears he shed on camera after being verbally slammed by Dana White made this one of my favorite seasons. Let's not forget the confrontation between Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas which ended in their expulsion from the show along with Allen Berube for instigating the fight. Ah, the drama.

Some familiar faces include Joe Lauzon, Manny Gambaryan, Rob Emerson, Gray Maynard, Matt Wiman, Cole Miller, Corey Hill and one more... let's see... oh yea, Nate Diaz.

Season 6: Team Hughes v. Team Serra
There were several things that made this season memorable. Mostly the rivalry between Hughes and Serra, but for me personally, this season cemented (in my eyes) Hughes as a world class dick and Serra as a world class smart ass. Needless to say, I was (and am) a Serra fan. :)

Once again, this season featured just one weight class, Welterweights. It was pretty clear who the winner was going to be after the first episode. Mac Danzig showed he was the superior fighter on this season by finishing Joe Scarola in the first round via triangle choke and barely broke a decent sweat.

Joe Scarola was a personal friend of Matt Serra and needless to say Matt was disappointed that his friend lost. However, Serra's disappointment didn't end there. After bitching and moaning about how he wanted to go home for the next several episodes, Matt Serra sat down with his friend for a talk. Serra's conversation with Joe was basically, "If you embarrass me on national television by leaving, you can not be my friend nor will you have job at my gym." Next Dana White had a talk with Joe. The actual meat of the conversation is meaningless next to its point. "If you leave this show, you will never work for the UFC." That is me paraphrasing of course, but seriously, that was what it all boiled down to. Despite Dana's warning, Joe packed his bags and left. What a dumb ass. This move still baffles me and irritates me, so let's move on.

Ok, so now we can talk about the familiar faces from this season which include Mac Danzig (Winner), Jared Rollins, Jon Koppenhaver, Troy Mandaloniz, and Ben Saunders. Tommy Speer had a couple fights after the season ended, but was eventually let go after some disappointing losses.

Season 7: Team Griffin v. Team Rampage
This season featured Middleweights teams led by then current Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and number one contender and Season 1 Light Heavyweight winner Forrest Griffin. This season was full of surprises including a slightly new format. Instead of starting the season with 16 fighters it would begin with 32 fighters who would have to fight down the to the 16 who would eventually end up at the TUF house.

On a personal note, I really liked this change. We start the season off with a bang having several fights in the first couple episodes. Also, there were a lot less spotlights on them in the house as there had been in past seasons.

The biggest surprise this season had to of been Amir Sadollah coming out of nowhere and winning the whole kitten caboodle! Amir came off as a very unsure, self-depricating fighter when interviewed but seemed to always pull something out in the ring, especially when on the losing end. Also, Jesse Taylor was eliminated from the competition after the end of the show, a first in TUF history. Taylor made some bad decisions while drinking which caught the attention of UFC President Dana White who saw no other alternative but to dismiss Taylor from the competition. Taylor later came back to fight C.B. Dollaway and lose by way of submission in the first round. Shortly after he was let go by the UFC.

Some familiar faces from this season include Amir Sadollah, C.B. Dollaway, Matthew Riddle, Tim Credeur, Matt Brown and Dante Rivera.

Season 8: Team Noguiera v. Team Mir
This season starts September 17, 2008 and will feature both Light Heavyweights and Lightweights.

Well, that's it for a rundown of each season with a look at the familiar faces from each. Next week I'll be taking a look at some of the rivalries between coaches of TUF.

Until then, stay TUF! (Too cheesy?)

You've been Mazza-GOT-ti'd!

funnytiger — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:36:29 -0000

There has been a lot talk about bad calls being made in MMA bouts, and with no great surprise, one refs name seems to come up more than others -- Steve Mazzagatti.

Referee Steve Mazzagatti has had to fend off criticism from fighters, fans, and officials concerning some of the calls he's made. Most recently, his call in the Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns bout at UFN 14 where Burns repeatedly poked Johnson in the eye and eventually shoved his finger so far into his eye that Johnson threw himself on the ground writhing in pain. Mazzagatti, claiming he didn't see the eye poke, called it a TKO making Burns the winner by... eye poke?

With a crticial fight on Saturday, UFC Heavyweight fighter Brock Lesnar has vocally said he is still upset with the call Mazzagatti made during his UFC debut bout with Frank Mir. The ex-professional wrestler was raining down hammer fists on Mir moments into the first round when Mazzagatti stopped the action, deducted 1-point from Lesnar for shots to the back of the head and then stood both fighters back up. Mir was eventually able to recover and submitted Lesnar for the win.

Mazzagatti claims to have given Lesnar two verbal warnings for the strikes to the back of the head. Lesnar still claims he was given no warning, which is the source of a lot of debate between fans some who some claim to have heard the warnings when looking at a play of the fight via Tivo. Others claim that there were no warnings at all and that Mazzagatti was playing favorites by stopping the action to give Mir time to recover.

Whether you can hear the warnings on a playback are far from the point of contention which is, did Lesnar hear the warnings IF Mazzagatti did in fact give them like he claims? Muttered warnings can easily be washed out by all the yelling and commotion from the audience and any referee worth his weight would know that. The second point of contention is, why did Mazzagatti stop the fight and then stand it back up? Was that necessary? I can not recall any fight where the action was stopped within a few moments of the first round and then started again because of shots to the back of the head.

Steve Cofield from MMA Sports Blog (A Yahoo! Sports Blog) breaks down the most notable "Mazza-GOT-ti" reffing mistakes:

Jamie Varner v. Rob McCullough @ WEC 32
Varner loses his mouthpiece and actually stops fighting then signals his own timeout. Varner, who looked wobbly, is actually granted a stoppage by Mazzagatti.
Kevin Burns v. Anthony Johnson @ UFN 14
Burns clearly poked Johnson in the right eye. Johnson went down in a heap. Mazzagatti stopped the fight awarding a TKO victory to Burns.
Gray Maynard v. Rob Emerson @ TUF 5 Finale
Maynard slammed Emerson but in the process knocked himself out. The win is initially given to Maynard before ringside officials cleared things up for Mazzagatti and the fight was ruled a no-contest.
Jamie Varner v. Marcus Hicks @ WEC 35
This is the type of fight where Mazzagatti scares some people. Hicks was knocked down and out with 3:12 left in the first round. He then took 19 additional punches and three knees to the face before the fight is stopped 20 seconds later.
Mike Whitehead v. Vernon White at IFL - Las Vegas
Whitehead had White's back and rained down punches. He then told Mazzagatti that White had tapped. Mazzagatti clearly didn't see it but honored Whitehead's 'official' call and stopped it. Coach Ken Shamrock is seen on the ring apron screaming at Mazzagatti, "that was a horrible f**kin call!"
Shayna Baszler v. Cristiane Santos @ Elite XC
Santos knocked down Baszler with 1:31 left in the first then prematurely celebrated her victory by jumping on the top of the cage. Santos carried on for 13 seconds while Mazzagatti stood in the middle of the ring and screamed "hey" in Santos' direction to keep fighting. The Portuguese-speaking Santos had no idea what Mazzagatti was saying. Instead of a disqualification, Santos was allowed to come back down from the cage and the action was restarted around 1:08. Santos went on to finish Baszler.
Babalu v. David Heath @ UFC 74
The pre-fight included a war of words between the fighters. Babalu got in position for an anaconda choke finish. Mazzagatti stopped he fight and Heath held onto the choke for an extra three seconds. Some think Mazzagatti didn't do all he could to force Babalu to stop.
Thiago Alves v. Karo Parisyan @ UFN 13
Alves stopped Parisyan with one big knee and then two punches on his arm. Parisyan was beside himself and actually pushed UFC fight booker Joe Silva several times in the cage as he protested the Mazzagatti stoppage.

In any sport there will always be calls from officials that the fans will question. It happens in football, basketball and baseball all the time. So what makes this any different? For me, it is the sheer number of instances where the momemtum of the fight (and possible the outcome) can be attributted to Steve Mazzagatti's reffing.

I am sure the number of bouts Mazzagatti has fairly and legitimately reffed far outweighs the handful of bouts listed above. I hope that Steve is aware of the spotlight that is on him right now and will be mindful of the decisions he makes as a referee. I know that as a fan of MMA, I will be paying close attention to any bout being referreed by Steve Mazzagatti in the future.

Call 'em Like I See 'em

funnytiger — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:26:59 -0000

Let me start off by saying I am GEEKED about this Saturday, and for good reason. GSP defends his title against Jon Fitch, Lesnar gets in the ring to lose it or prove it, and Huerta and Florian will undoubtedly be one of the best matches of 2008, all in one show.

I am a very, very happy girl. :)

I'm gonna go on record and speculate as to who will walk away the victors of their bouts on Saturday:

Jason MacDonald Vs. Demian Maia
I don't know either guys fighting style well enough to make an educated call on this fight so I won't. I will comment on how MacDonald (21-9-0) has fought nearly 4x more than Maia (8-0-0) which tells me one of 2 things. MacDonald is going to be the proverbial sacrificial lamb for Maia, a possible rising star OR they gave MacDonald some noob to kick around in his UFC debut. Not sure if Maia is a noob or not (although if I weren't being such a lazy bum right now I could look it up) but either way I can't get too excited about a couple of guys that I don't know that well.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Rob Emerson
Ok. I will try and keep this short. Manny Gamburyan should have won TUF 5. He was clearly winning the finale fight when his shoulder popped out of place when he went to shoot for Nate Diaz's legs. I want a freakin' rematch Dana White!

Anywho, Gamburyan is going to murder Rob Emerson, who I might add got his ass handed to him TWICE in the show and for some strange reason he still got a contract! Maybe Dana sees something I don't, but I am 100% positive he will be on the worse end of an ass whopping from Gamburyan.

I call this one for Gamuryan early on in the fight. Maybe White will ditch Emerson for a better fighter on the UFC roster.

Kenny Florian Vs. Roger Huerta
This one is going to be a bit harder to call. I am a HUGE Roger Huerta fan. His fight against Guida is one of my favorites, but Kenny Florian is not Clay Guida and he is a formidable opponent.

I am still going to call this one for Huerta, but I think its going to be a nail biter of an event, I tell you what. (That was my Hank Hill impression...)

Brock Lesnar Vs. Heath Herring
Ah, yes. The "fake" wrestler who just so happens to be a 2-time NJCAA All-American, 2-time NCAA All-American, 2-time Big Ten Champion, and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion. His record aftter 4 years? 106-5. Not quite so "fake", huh?

His MMA record is a different story. He is currently 1-1 with no victories in the octagon so far. He was clearly very strong, very fast and very agile in his first fight with Frank Mir. The ONLY reason he lost (in my humble opinion) is because he is still very, very green. He got caught in what I've been told was a pretty easy submission to protect against.

But how will this still green fighter fare against the "Texas Crazy Horse" who has 10 years worth of MMA experience? Lesnar is bigger, stronger, faster than Herring (again, my humble opinion), but we have yet to see what Lesnar's endurance is. His match with Mir didn't even go into a 2nd round. And anyone who has been paying attention to the UFC roster, White isn't keeping losers. Either Lesnar pulls this one out of his ass and becomes a contender in the UFC Heavyweight division or he eats canvas and goes to another league (for a lot less money, might I add).

I call this one for Herring because of his experience, but I am really hoping for an upset. I like Lesnar and what he stands for and I wish him the best of luck in whatever he pursues.

Georges St-Pierre Vs. Jon Fitch
The cherry on my sundae. The feather in my cap. The light at the -- you get the idea. Watching GSP fight is watching a master at his craft. Clearly one of the best pound for pound fighters in MMA, GSP will face a very tough opponent in Jon Fitch. This fight is going to be up, down, against the cage, from the clench, from the guard and if it were possible for them to spill into the audience I believe they would do just that. As good as a fighter I think Fitch is, I don't think there is anyway he can beat GSP. Simply put, as it has been said over and over in the last weeks up to this fight, GSP is never the same fighter twice. He is always (for the exception of the Serra fight to which he admits he was not mentally there) a BETTER fighter than in his last match up. I have no reason to believe that will not ring true on Saturday. GSP will come in and give a great show as the Welterweight Champion, and he will leave the same way. As the Welterweight Champion.

All in all, Saturday will be a fantastic PPV undoubtedly one of the best of the year. I think there is so much opportunity for this show to blow our socks off. UFC has an opportunity to really shine here. Let's hope they don't disappoint.