Sherdog.com’s Guide to TUF 5
Scott Holmes Jun 15, 2007
Last week Manvel
Gamburyan (Pictures) roughed up and out-muscled up a
bigger Matt Wiman
(Pictures) to put himself into the
semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter 5. With Gamburyan in the
picture, we now had a complete final four.
Representing B.J. Penn (Pictures)'s team is overall badass Joe Lauzon (Pictures) and grinding wrestler Gray Maynard (Pictures). Jens Pulver (Pictures) still has Manvel and Nick Diaz (Pictures)'s little brother Nate, who will probably shed the "little brother" moniker by the time this season wraps.
Penn decided to draw a line between coaches and contestants when he
started this season off by having guys raise their hands and commit
allegiance to either himself or Jens. Pulver took the act
personally and once the fights got under way, it was his team that
took the early wins, fostering a close bond the coach and his
fighters.
If you know anything about Pulver's troubled childhood, you can understand why he is so loyal to his troops. UFC president Dana White knows about that loyalty so he decides to have a little fun with Jens by announcing that he'd like to see the semifinals be comprised of teammate versus teammate.
I don't know Yiddish but the term for the face Jens makes when hearing this decision is I believe, "plotzed." Before the former UFC lightweight champ can really lose his biscuits, White tells him he's just playing and will have the semis as team vs. team. Dana was in Manchester, England on the conference call, and this weekend he's in Belfast, Ireland for UFC 72.
The Irish are a colorful people, why just this week I had my roommate's brother and sister from Kerry over at my house. I fed the girl some Texas toast and cream gravy … she had never seen either and claimed that the gravy "stung."
(I'll still be laughing about that this weekend.)
Moving on. Following his dominating performance over Wiman, Manvel is flanked by lifelong training partner Karo Parisyan (Pictures), who showed up to help coach his cousin to victory. The welterweight veteran is back in the locker room with Pulver's team and lets everyone know that he thinks his boy will win this thing.
Parisyan is riding high and starts busting balls. Eventually he turns his attention towards Nate Diaz and starts to kinda bully him a bit. Diaz is obviously uncomfortable but tries to play things off and be civil about it.
Karo is just in that kind of mood and starts to cuff Nate around a little. They both exchange some playful barbs but it's apparent that Nate ain't too comfortable with the whole situation and he starts to get a little defensive.
While everyone else is soaking in the team victory and giving Gamburyan his props, Karo and Nate are having a passive aggressive moment that is compounded by the fact that Karo has fought Nate's older brother before.
(I don't know about you but if you've fought my brother or hell, even competed against him in a pine box derby, I'm probably going to want to stand knee deep in the blood of your children. That's just how we dudes are.)
Eventually Karo's constant badgering gets under Nate's skin and he starts to give the UFC veteran some hints that he's done being underfoot. Diaz stands up, which causes Karo to take notice. They keep up the back-and-forth up until finally Karo realizes that Nate's serious. They bow up to each other have to be separated, but it's clear that now there's some serious bad blood.
Manvel's caught in the middle since he's tight with both guys. Karo is removed from the room but soon he's back trying to get Nate to come and talk to him. Diaz knows it's just a ploy to get more trouble going and decides he won't be baited.
"He's pacing like he's trying to fight me or something stupid dude," said Parisyan. "I swear to God brother there's so much I can do to these idiots. Do you even know me, do you know who I am?"
The teams are informed of the match-ups and Pulver is happy to have his first fighter, once again Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures), take on Joe Lauzon (Pictures).
Jens feels his ace in the hole is the fact that Manny will be able to train with Diaz, who has the same spindly body type as Joe.
While Gamburyan prepares, Joe is also getting ready with his team. Penn beams when he talks about Lauzon and how far he's come during these weeks of training. Joe knows that he's a better fighter having learned from Penn and company.
White decides to stroll back in town and treat the guys to a nice sit down dinner at the house. He shoots the breeze with the fellas and at the end of the dinner asks the guys if they have a beer bong in the house. The guys laugh (you always laugh when boss man tells a joke) but you know there are a dozen beer bongs that producers left lying around with UFC stickers on them.
Lauzon decides that in this fight he needs to, "stick to the game plan, good things happen. You don't stick to the game plan, bad things happen." Transversely Gamburyan commented that he's "never" had a game plan. In fact, he hates ‘em.
Intrinsically, this is the best part of our sport. We have two guys that are armed with not only different fighting styles but also completely different philosophies on how to ply their trade.
Finally the fight is on and while Joe claimed that Manny's short arms wouldn't be able to reach him, he was dead wrong. Gamburyan immediately closes the distance between the two and shows the power in his smaller frame.
Manny spends most of round one on top of Joe, keeping his center of gravity low, burying his head into Lauzon's chest and only raising up to rain down shots. The kid from Boston is never in too much peril, but it's clear that he can't get his long legs under Manny for any kind of offensive guard or sweep attempts.
Once round two comes, again Manny finds himself on top and uses his position to keep Joe on his back. Manny mixes up shots to the body and head, and the occasional shoulder punch. Manvel is able to even fully mount Joe, but inactivity gets the two back standing.
Again Gamburyan looks to be too strong as he ties up Joe with another standing head-and-arm hold that again Joe uses a quick spinout to get untangled.
Since it's the quarterfinals, we have three rounds to work with tonight, which is good since neither guy is worse for the wear in this fight.
Manny has been able to control Joe at almost every turn but at the same time he hasn't put him away.
Round three shows up and anything Joe attempts, Manny just powers through. Again Manny is on top with a tentative Joe working from the guard. Manny is still keeping close to Joe and not allowing for any submissions or even a chance for Joe to try and rework for better positions.
Just when things look to be all sewn up for Manny, Joe slips out and takes Manny's back with about a minute and a half remaining in the round. Fans of Lauzon had to be losing their mind as he reversed his fortune and put himself in a great position to steal a win.
Penn is going crazy with recommendations for Joe, admonishing him to punch, pounce and unload but again Joe is tentative. He works for a rear-naked choke a little too patiently and when he tries to roll Manny over for the submission, instead he gets outmaneuvered again and put on his back where he was pound until the end of the final round.
All three judges scored it 30-27 for Manny. Dana admits that the two fighters he's underestimated the most have been Rashad Evans (Pictures) of TUF 2 and now Manny.
I went to high school with a guy that was an all-state wrestler and an all-state lineman. The only catch was that he was 5' 6". Yeah, a 190-pound nose tackle that could blow past taller offensive lineman or get under their pads and use leverage to blow them off the ball.
Manny is that guy. Using his brute strength and technique to out-hustle and flummox taller opponents, he ironically shares the same advantage as beanpole Corey Hill: an odd body type that can confuse and befuddle a normally competent fighter into being reluctant to engage.
B.J. knows that Pulver has one man in for the finals but vows to get his boy Gray in there as well. Joe is mature about his loss and I'm sure we'll see him in the finale fight night card for sure.
We only have one episode left for this season and thankfully no one has listened to Dana and his speeches about fighter behavior since they will be spending the next week's 60 minutes guzzling grain alcohol and breaking things.
Diaz or Maynard?
Going back-to-back with new TUF's on SpikeTV is a treat, and tonight the world learned who would be the finalists on June 23 in Las Vegas.
Earlier, Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) punched his ticket with a unanimous decision over Joe Lauzon (Pictures). Next, it was going to be Nate Diaz or Gray Maynard (Pictures) joining the "Armenian Fire Hydrant" in the cage on Saturday.
After the requisite training, White springs a surprise on Pulver and Penn by making them play Ping Pong for $10,000. (Next thing you know he'll be walking around with a shaved cat and have giant salt-water tanks full of laser-wearing sharks.)
The catch is, the winning coach also gets a grand apiece for his fighters, and so the guys that have been out of the competition for a while have something to root for.
Pulver and Penn show their competitiveness, going deep into a deciding third game. The former UFC lightweight champ, on the strength of his "slice shot," eventually takes it 13-11, proving that Federer and Nadal have nothing on these two. Pulver figures since he won 10 Large on television, he was basically a pro Ping Pong player.
The guys train and Diaz and Maynard make weight one last time. The fight is on. Who will fight Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) on June 23?
Maynard came out strong, putting Diaz on the floor and roughing him up with strikes. Soon Diaz was bleeding heavily from his face, but that didn't stop the Stockton, Calif. lightweight from throwing every submission in the book at the wrestler.
A high-paced opening round came to an end with Maynard appearing comfortable and Diaz squinting from the sting of blood in his eyes.
They continue the high pace until Diaz slaps on a guillotine that forces Maynard to tap pretty darn fast. Either way, it's Team Pulver versus Team Pulver in the finals, as Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) faces off against Nathan Diaz (Pictures).
This is an interesting clash, especially since the "Armenian Fire Hydrant" is so much shorter than your average lightweight, not to mention the lanky Diaz who generally uses his size to peck away on the feet or tie someone up in knots on the floor.
Who will be the next "Ultimate Fighter"? Tune in at the Palms Casino next Saturday to find out. And more importantly, who will take the rematch between Pulver and Penn?
Regardless, there won't be a lack of lightweights fighting on SpikeTV on June 23.
Representing B.J. Penn (Pictures)'s team is overall badass Joe Lauzon (Pictures) and grinding wrestler Gray Maynard (Pictures). Jens Pulver (Pictures) still has Manvel and Nick Diaz (Pictures)'s little brother Nate, who will probably shed the "little brother" moniker by the time this season wraps.
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If you know anything about Pulver's troubled childhood, you can understand why he is so loyal to his troops. UFC president Dana White knows about that loyalty so he decides to have a little fun with Jens by announcing that he'd like to see the semifinals be comprised of teammate versus teammate.
This would pit Lauzon against Maynard and Gamburyan with Diaz.
I don't know Yiddish but the term for the face Jens makes when hearing this decision is I believe, "plotzed." Before the former UFC lightweight champ can really lose his biscuits, White tells him he's just playing and will have the semis as team vs. team. Dana was in Manchester, England on the conference call, and this weekend he's in Belfast, Ireland for UFC 72.
The Irish are a colorful people, why just this week I had my roommate's brother and sister from Kerry over at my house. I fed the girl some Texas toast and cream gravy … she had never seen either and claimed that the gravy "stung."
(I'll still be laughing about that this weekend.)
Moving on. Following his dominating performance over Wiman, Manvel is flanked by lifelong training partner Karo Parisyan (Pictures), who showed up to help coach his cousin to victory. The welterweight veteran is back in the locker room with Pulver's team and lets everyone know that he thinks his boy will win this thing.
Parisyan is riding high and starts busting balls. Eventually he turns his attention towards Nate Diaz and starts to kinda bully him a bit. Diaz is obviously uncomfortable but tries to play things off and be civil about it.
Karo is just in that kind of mood and starts to cuff Nate around a little. They both exchange some playful barbs but it's apparent that Nate ain't too comfortable with the whole situation and he starts to get a little defensive.
While everyone else is soaking in the team victory and giving Gamburyan his props, Karo and Nate are having a passive aggressive moment that is compounded by the fact that Karo has fought Nate's older brother before.
(I don't know about you but if you've fought my brother or hell, even competed against him in a pine box derby, I'm probably going to want to stand knee deep in the blood of your children. That's just how we dudes are.)
Eventually Karo's constant badgering gets under Nate's skin and he starts to give the UFC veteran some hints that he's done being underfoot. Diaz stands up, which causes Karo to take notice. They keep up the back-and-forth up until finally Karo realizes that Nate's serious. They bow up to each other have to be separated, but it's clear that now there's some serious bad blood.
Manvel's caught in the middle since he's tight with both guys. Karo is removed from the room but soon he's back trying to get Nate to come and talk to him. Diaz knows it's just a ploy to get more trouble going and decides he won't be baited.
"He's pacing like he's trying to fight me or something stupid dude," said Parisyan. "I swear to God brother there's so much I can do to these idiots. Do you even know me, do you know who I am?"
The teams are informed of the match-ups and Pulver is happy to have his first fighter, once again Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures), take on Joe Lauzon (Pictures).
Jens feels his ace in the hole is the fact that Manny will be able to train with Diaz, who has the same spindly body type as Joe.
While Gamburyan prepares, Joe is also getting ready with his team. Penn beams when he talks about Lauzon and how far he's come during these weeks of training. Joe knows that he's a better fighter having learned from Penn and company.
White decides to stroll back in town and treat the guys to a nice sit down dinner at the house. He shoots the breeze with the fellas and at the end of the dinner asks the guys if they have a beer bong in the house. The guys laugh (you always laugh when boss man tells a joke) but you know there are a dozen beer bongs that producers left lying around with UFC stickers on them.
Lauzon decides that in this fight he needs to, "stick to the game plan, good things happen. You don't stick to the game plan, bad things happen." Transversely Gamburyan commented that he's "never" had a game plan. In fact, he hates ‘em.
Intrinsically, this is the best part of our sport. We have two guys that are armed with not only different fighting styles but also completely different philosophies on how to ply their trade.
Finally the fight is on and while Joe claimed that Manny's short arms wouldn't be able to reach him, he was dead wrong. Gamburyan immediately closes the distance between the two and shows the power in his smaller frame.
Manny spends most of round one on top of Joe, keeping his center of gravity low, burying his head into Lauzon's chest and only raising up to rain down shots. The kid from Boston is never in too much peril, but it's clear that he can't get his long legs under Manny for any kind of offensive guard or sweep attempts.
Once round two comes, again Manny finds himself on top and uses his position to keep Joe on his back. Manny mixes up shots to the body and head, and the occasional shoulder punch. Manvel is able to even fully mount Joe, but inactivity gets the two back standing.
Again Gamburyan looks to be too strong as he ties up Joe with another standing head-and-arm hold that again Joe uses a quick spinout to get untangled.
Since it's the quarterfinals, we have three rounds to work with tonight, which is good since neither guy is worse for the wear in this fight.
Manny has been able to control Joe at almost every turn but at the same time he hasn't put him away.
Round three shows up and anything Joe attempts, Manny just powers through. Again Manny is on top with a tentative Joe working from the guard. Manny is still keeping close to Joe and not allowing for any submissions or even a chance for Joe to try and rework for better positions.
Just when things look to be all sewn up for Manny, Joe slips out and takes Manny's back with about a minute and a half remaining in the round. Fans of Lauzon had to be losing their mind as he reversed his fortune and put himself in a great position to steal a win.
Penn is going crazy with recommendations for Joe, admonishing him to punch, pounce and unload but again Joe is tentative. He works for a rear-naked choke a little too patiently and when he tries to roll Manny over for the submission, instead he gets outmaneuvered again and put on his back where he was pound until the end of the final round.
All three judges scored it 30-27 for Manny. Dana admits that the two fighters he's underestimated the most have been Rashad Evans (Pictures) of TUF 2 and now Manny.
I went to high school with a guy that was an all-state wrestler and an all-state lineman. The only catch was that he was 5' 6". Yeah, a 190-pound nose tackle that could blow past taller offensive lineman or get under their pads and use leverage to blow them off the ball.
Manny is that guy. Using his brute strength and technique to out-hustle and flummox taller opponents, he ironically shares the same advantage as beanpole Corey Hill: an odd body type that can confuse and befuddle a normally competent fighter into being reluctant to engage.
B.J. knows that Pulver has one man in for the finals but vows to get his boy Gray in there as well. Joe is mature about his loss and I'm sure we'll see him in the finale fight night card for sure.
We only have one episode left for this season and thankfully no one has listened to Dana and his speeches about fighter behavior since they will be spending the next week's 60 minutes guzzling grain alcohol and breaking things.
Diaz or Maynard?
Going back-to-back with new TUF's on SpikeTV is a treat, and tonight the world learned who would be the finalists on June 23 in Las Vegas.
Earlier, Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) punched his ticket with a unanimous decision over Joe Lauzon (Pictures). Next, it was going to be Nate Diaz or Gray Maynard (Pictures) joining the "Armenian Fire Hydrant" in the cage on Saturday.
After the requisite training, White springs a surprise on Pulver and Penn by making them play Ping Pong for $10,000. (Next thing you know he'll be walking around with a shaved cat and have giant salt-water tanks full of laser-wearing sharks.)
The catch is, the winning coach also gets a grand apiece for his fighters, and so the guys that have been out of the competition for a while have something to root for.
Pulver and Penn show their competitiveness, going deep into a deciding third game. The former UFC lightweight champ, on the strength of his "slice shot," eventually takes it 13-11, proving that Federer and Nadal have nothing on these two. Pulver figures since he won 10 Large on television, he was basically a pro Ping Pong player.
The guys train and Diaz and Maynard make weight one last time. The fight is on. Who will fight Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) on June 23?
Maynard came out strong, putting Diaz on the floor and roughing him up with strikes. Soon Diaz was bleeding heavily from his face, but that didn't stop the Stockton, Calif. lightweight from throwing every submission in the book at the wrestler.
A high-paced opening round came to an end with Maynard appearing comfortable and Diaz squinting from the sting of blood in his eyes.
They continue the high pace until Diaz slaps on a guillotine that forces Maynard to tap pretty darn fast. Either way, it's Team Pulver versus Team Pulver in the finals, as Manvel Gamburyan (Pictures) faces off against Nathan Diaz (Pictures).
This is an interesting clash, especially since the "Armenian Fire Hydrant" is so much shorter than your average lightweight, not to mention the lanky Diaz who generally uses his size to peck away on the feet or tie someone up in knots on the floor.
Who will be the next "Ultimate Fighter"? Tune in at the Palms Casino next Saturday to find out. And more importantly, who will take the rematch between Pulver and Penn?
Regardless, there won't be a lack of lightweights fighting on SpikeTV on June 23.
