Sherdog.com’s Guide to the “Ultimate Fighter”
Scott Holmes Feb 15, 2005
If you tuned into see The Ultimate Fighter last night you may have
been disappointed to see that Spike TV had preempted it with the
hit soap, As The Octagon Turns.
After the Diego vs. Alex showdown of last week, our little show took a quite a twist for the melodramatic. It featured Vegas nightlife, binge drinking, twisted ankles, volatile confrontations, shattered psyches and shattered windows.
We picked up where we left off last: at the octagon following
elimination fight. Most of the guys agreed that Diego the wrestler
did what a good wrestler does—take his opponent down and out of his
game.
In the next training session, Team Liddell meets Chuck's strength coach, Tom, who puts them to work on some fight-functional activities. Randy's team does some mat work and while taking down Alex S they roll into the back of Nate Quarry's leg. They twist up his ankle something fierce and a trip to the doctor yields some crutches and a mixed prognosis.
You see the guys have been staying at the house all cooped up for a few weeks. No women, no television, no distractions, not even a little bit of bronzer for the skin! (OK, well, maybe there is some bronzer.)
After the whole group finds out about the night that Dana has planned, there is much celebration. Too much celebration. For a few minutes there it was a little awkward as the guys laughed and acted way too excited for a night of dinner and drinks. Either we missed something in the editing or the guys really were that freakin' bored in the house. Play some Uno or Tic-Tac-Toe or something next time. It made me depressed.
Before going out there is some playful banter discussing low-cut jeans. Yay, professional fighters discussing denim and couture—and I don’t mean Randy Couture. Save that crap for Bravo.
Anyway, like I said, they are getting a night out at the Hard Rock so mom's lock up your daughters because the boys of the UFC are on the prowl. Actually they didn't show any real night on the town ... just the guys noshing on Asian fusion cuisine and throwing down Mai Tai's.
(In retrospect it's probably better that we don't see the fellas around any women. I don't know if you saw those night's of Blind Date featuring some the UFC's finest competitors showing their skills with the ladies. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. We're talking white belts when it comes to the women. When your best pick up lines include how fast you can break someone's guard or include your many feats of strength you may want to check your game.
Put on a nice blazer, buy a wine magazine, study up and try not to resort to spending your night explaining a key lock to a bored chick from Human Resources.)
So the guys have themselves some much needed fun and they come back to the house soused. Everyone seems to be having a good time except for Diego, who is passed out. They carry him to his bed where Koscheck begins to warn him of aliens and he flips out and starts thrashing. Kind of funny. Actually it looked like your usual drunken good time until of course the booze bravado takes over and guys start talking trash.
Leben and Southworth get into a verbal scuffle and then Southworth drops a "fatherless bastard" remark on Leben and things go south. It's mentioned that Leben has just had his father's identity revealed to him in the last few weeks and it's a tender topic.
(Apparently Bobby hit the death star center nerve of emotions on Leben because this seemed to just crush his gentle soul.)
More insults and smack are tossed back and forth. Southworth makes an attempt at patching things up and apologizes, but he's done too much damage to the tender Leben.
Leben's so bent out of shape he decides to sleep outside to avoid the fray. Actually for once he does make an effort to stay out of trouble, but when you've been an instigator for three weeks, you can't expect not to get some crap thrown back your way. So as Leben is sleeping outside, his two antagonists, Koscheck and Southworth, creep up with a garden hose and douse Leben's blanket with water.
It might as well have been gas on the flame because in no time Leben jumps up and puts his fist threw the front door window. He wobbles through the house looking for the wily Koscheck. He heads over to Koscheck's room and instead of soberly opening the door, he bursts through it. In fact it's a little impressive because it looks like it he went through a fairly solid wooden door like a hot knife through butter.
The next morning is spent cleaning up and dealing with the after math of the booze tornado that hit the night before. Everyone is speculating on what will happen because everyone knows that the behavior from all involved will be addressed somehow.
Dana, Randy and Chuck all get together for a meeting about the boys that resembles the meetings your teachers, principals and guidance counselors all did for you back in the day. They discuss what they know and decide to bring in Leben and the two water hose pranksters, Southworth and Koscheck.
Each side tells their side of what happened so that a decision can be made. Even UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta gets involved. They decide to get rid of alcohol in the house and make the guys pay for what they broke.
It would seem that everyone got worked out just fine but here is where Dana and the coaches decide to stop being teachers and guidance counselors and decide to let them settle their differences like your football coach would have: on the field.
Since Leben and Koscheck can't seem to get along they are going to let them fight it out. The good news is that this is a fight we've been wanting to see. The bad news is that we are going to have to wait another week.
This episode was highly entertaining and gripping at times, but for the most part it was just a little over the top. Not in that “Reality TV edited to look worse than it was” way, but just too much overblown emotion for something so little.
I'm not saying that insulting someone about not having a dad isn't rough. I realize that it was touchy because he had just found his dad after all these years but still.
Being insulted and sprayed with water while you sleep is still no excuse to go all Kool-Aid man on everybody and start breaking through walls. Especially when you are the type of cat that likes to start trouble yourself. I mean he peed on a man’s bed sheets, but he can’t get his pillow wet?
Bottom line is this week the guys went from being warriors to acting like vindictive women and devolved into an episode of Desperate House Fights. All because of booze. It made me get all emotional. In fact I think that Randy and Dana should have to fight. They are the ones that got us in this mess. If Randy hadn't hurt one of his own team and Dana hadn't let the boys tip back all of those glasses of the syrupy brown demon ... none of this would have happened.
I'm so upset that I could just hold Willa Ford in my arms for hours while she stroked my hair and told me everything will be OK.
Oh well, doesn't matter. All of this nonsense had to be shown so that we could build up for the grudge match. Next week we'll be treated to a fight that features one of the better, experienced fighters against one of the best athletes. I just hope that nobody has to see a therapist afterwards or says something like "you complete me" to another fighter.
After the Diego vs. Alex showdown of last week, our little show took a quite a twist for the melodramatic. It featured Vegas nightlife, binge drinking, twisted ankles, volatile confrontations, shattered psyches and shattered windows.
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In the next training session, Team Liddell meets Chuck's strength coach, Tom, who puts them to work on some fight-functional activities. Randy's team does some mat work and while taking down Alex S they roll into the back of Nate Quarry's leg. They twist up his ankle something fierce and a trip to the doctor yields some crutches and a mixed prognosis.
The guys head back to the T.U.F compound where Dana greets them
with some exciting news. It's time for a night on the town,
courtesy of the Zuffa wallet.
You see the guys have been staying at the house all cooped up for a few weeks. No women, no television, no distractions, not even a little bit of bronzer for the skin! (OK, well, maybe there is some bronzer.)
After the whole group finds out about the night that Dana has planned, there is much celebration. Too much celebration. For a few minutes there it was a little awkward as the guys laughed and acted way too excited for a night of dinner and drinks. Either we missed something in the editing or the guys really were that freakin' bored in the house. Play some Uno or Tic-Tac-Toe or something next time. It made me depressed.
Before going out there is some playful banter discussing low-cut jeans. Yay, professional fighters discussing denim and couture—and I don’t mean Randy Couture. Save that crap for Bravo.
Anyway, like I said, they are getting a night out at the Hard Rock so mom's lock up your daughters because the boys of the UFC are on the prowl. Actually they didn't show any real night on the town ... just the guys noshing on Asian fusion cuisine and throwing down Mai Tai's.
(In retrospect it's probably better that we don't see the fellas around any women. I don't know if you saw those night's of Blind Date featuring some the UFC's finest competitors showing their skills with the ladies. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. We're talking white belts when it comes to the women. When your best pick up lines include how fast you can break someone's guard or include your many feats of strength you may want to check your game.
Put on a nice blazer, buy a wine magazine, study up and try not to resort to spending your night explaining a key lock to a bored chick from Human Resources.)
So the guys have themselves some much needed fun and they come back to the house soused. Everyone seems to be having a good time except for Diego, who is passed out. They carry him to his bed where Koscheck begins to warn him of aliens and he flips out and starts thrashing. Kind of funny. Actually it looked like your usual drunken good time until of course the booze bravado takes over and guys start talking trash.
Leben and Southworth get into a verbal scuffle and then Southworth drops a "fatherless bastard" remark on Leben and things go south. It's mentioned that Leben has just had his father's identity revealed to him in the last few weeks and it's a tender topic.
(Apparently Bobby hit the death star center nerve of emotions on Leben because this seemed to just crush his gentle soul.)
More insults and smack are tossed back and forth. Southworth makes an attempt at patching things up and apologizes, but he's done too much damage to the tender Leben.
Leben's so bent out of shape he decides to sleep outside to avoid the fray. Actually for once he does make an effort to stay out of trouble, but when you've been an instigator for three weeks, you can't expect not to get some crap thrown back your way. So as Leben is sleeping outside, his two antagonists, Koscheck and Southworth, creep up with a garden hose and douse Leben's blanket with water.
It might as well have been gas on the flame because in no time Leben jumps up and puts his fist threw the front door window. He wobbles through the house looking for the wily Koscheck. He heads over to Koscheck's room and instead of soberly opening the door, he bursts through it. In fact it's a little impressive because it looks like it he went through a fairly solid wooden door like a hot knife through butter.
The next morning is spent cleaning up and dealing with the after math of the booze tornado that hit the night before. Everyone is speculating on what will happen because everyone knows that the behavior from all involved will be addressed somehow.
Dana, Randy and Chuck all get together for a meeting about the boys that resembles the meetings your teachers, principals and guidance counselors all did for you back in the day. They discuss what they know and decide to bring in Leben and the two water hose pranksters, Southworth and Koscheck.
Each side tells their side of what happened so that a decision can be made. Even UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta gets involved. They decide to get rid of alcohol in the house and make the guys pay for what they broke.
It would seem that everyone got worked out just fine but here is where Dana and the coaches decide to stop being teachers and guidance counselors and decide to let them settle their differences like your football coach would have: on the field.
Since Leben and Koscheck can't seem to get along they are going to let them fight it out. The good news is that this is a fight we've been wanting to see. The bad news is that we are going to have to wait another week.
This episode was highly entertaining and gripping at times, but for the most part it was just a little over the top. Not in that “Reality TV edited to look worse than it was” way, but just too much overblown emotion for something so little.
I'm not saying that insulting someone about not having a dad isn't rough. I realize that it was touchy because he had just found his dad after all these years but still.
Being insulted and sprayed with water while you sleep is still no excuse to go all Kool-Aid man on everybody and start breaking through walls. Especially when you are the type of cat that likes to start trouble yourself. I mean he peed on a man’s bed sheets, but he can’t get his pillow wet?
Bottom line is this week the guys went from being warriors to acting like vindictive women and devolved into an episode of Desperate House Fights. All because of booze. It made me get all emotional. In fact I think that Randy and Dana should have to fight. They are the ones that got us in this mess. If Randy hadn't hurt one of his own team and Dana hadn't let the boys tip back all of those glasses of the syrupy brown demon ... none of this would have happened.
I'm so upset that I could just hold Willa Ford in my arms for hours while she stroked my hair and told me everything will be OK.
Oh well, doesn't matter. All of this nonsense had to be shown so that we could build up for the grudge match. Next week we'll be treated to a fight that features one of the better, experienced fighters against one of the best athletes. I just hope that nobody has to see a therapist afterwards or says something like "you complete me" to another fighter.
