Sherdog.com’s Guide to the “Ultimate Fighter”
Scott Holmes Mar 1, 2005
Seven weeks ago the good people of the UFC decided to offer up some
"down home fight cooking" with the help of Spike TV. Dana White,
host and headwaiter, brought over a nice slab of filet mignon to
your table.
He described what you were about to enjoy: fighters from all over America brought together to test their determination and skill. Sixteen different people with varying backgrounds possessing different skills all seeking to outwit, outperform and outfight their way to a contract in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
You looked over the meat of the program, nodded to Dana and right
away he scooted back into the kitchen to prepare you something
special. The first two episodes were spent explaining how the
dishes would be prepared and he cut away some of the fat.
The first real appetizer appeared and we enjoyed a nice Bobby Southworth’ left-right-left combination that opened the meal quite nicely. Our bellies rumbled for a 12-course meal of fights and this was a nice preview of the knuckle feast we have been hoping for.
Once that pot boiled over, out came the plate you’d been hoping for. You rubbed your hands together in anticipation, but you got served a bland meal of wrestling dominance with a side of judge’s decision. After pushing back your plate unsatisfied, you realized that you couldn’t complain because you still got a free meal that you jumped on like a hobo on a ham sandwich.
This week at the restaurant, you sat down to a surprisingly good pairing of Southworth and Stephan Bonnar.
Since you have been watching the chef do all his fancy dramatic seasonings, you might have forgot what really tasted best: real ingredients.
In this week’s episode we got to see two fighters go at it not because they are schoolyard enemies, but instead one fighter calls out the other to test his skill against the best and to eliminate the strongest member of the other team.
Last week’s loss of Chris Leben combined with Nathan Quarry’s injury has left Team Couture depleted of middleweights.
Dana forces Chuck Liddell to once again cut loose one of his guys to even the teams. Josh Rafferty is chosen and he reluctantly joins Team Couture. Rafferty suffers because of this. He has essentially been traded from the Lakers to the Clippers, and joining the losing team stings even more since he misses his friends from Team Liddell.
With Leben’s spark gone, the producers of TUF decided to add a pot of Sam Hoger to the stove. While Leben and Josh Koscheck were settling their beef, Hoger has been busy making sure that his team hates him. It’s not really explained where he went wrong with his team in the past but in this episode they view him as a Benedict Arnold, and they give him the old Alaskan cold shoulder.
Team Couture wins its first physical challenge, a bizarre event that had the two teams belted together, fighting for the most flags in a capture-the-flag type game. Team Liddell thinks that their own Mr. Hoger was partly responsible for the loss, and they see him congratulating Team Couture and come to their own conclusions.
This is the part of the show that we call foreshadowing. (I think we will be seeing a lot more of Mr. Hoger in the next few episodes.)
Now that Team Couture has one the challenge, they get to decide whom they want to fight. And in one of the better moments of the show, the team decides which Team Liddell fighter they want to scrap with.
Stephan Bonnar talks about the possibility of fighting Southworth or Sam Hoger. Bonnar thinks he can beat them both but muses “it’s only a two round fight and Southworth would be tough to stop”; this is important to him since in the TUF fight rules, a stop means $5,000.
(Now read that again and try to imagine it being funny because trust me it was; the team’s laugh agreed that was a good point.)
It was during this exchange that Dana was in the background doing his “sideways glance.” I’ve noticed that both Dana and Chuck continue to sometimes share sideways glances. Start watching out for that, make a drinking game out of it or something.
In the end it is decided that Bonnar will fight Southworth. The idea behind this fight is that Southworth will only get stronger as the game goes on and eliminating him now would be best for Team Couture. Ironically, Stephan making the decision to test his skills against the best opponent seems much more like a Liddell-esque move.
(Gotta love the guys that will fight anybody.)
This was by far the most exciting fight so far in the show. Both guys matched up well in strength and technique. At times the fight was sloppy, but this was in part due to the fact that both guys went all out in trying to finish.
Both rounds Bonnar came out very aggressive. His movements and punching style remind me of Josh Barnett. They don’t have the same body type but the way he attacks—by moving forward and laterally—and throws his punches looks very similar.
Southworth fought a great fight, too. He let Bonnar push the pace and relied more on picking his shots when Bonnar was on the offensive. He was very smooth in his movement and always looked composed. I’ve never seen him fight before TUF, but this looks a lot like he’s picked up Liddell’s style and influence, letting his opponent come forward and targeting his countered punches better.
This fight featured lots of hard punches and knees from both guys with Southworth landing the better shots, even rocking Bonnar towards the end of the second round.
Bonnar was able to takedown Southworth a couple of times, but Southworth did a good job of not getting into dangerous positions. Both men fought very hard and the last two minutes of the final round was full of takedowns and great reversals from both fighters.
The last 30 seconds was all Southworth, as he finished strong and was able to keep Bonnar down until the last moment when he popped up punching away.
A split decision was awarded to Bonnar, prompting Southworth to get upset feeling like he won. Obviously he fought hard and was in the heat of the moment, so his feelings were valid. I’m sure everyone has his or her own opinion on who won.
Personally, I thought that since Southworth was never in any trouble, gave as good as he got and was able to hurt Stephan, he won the fight—but I’ll admit it was very close.
Despite the outcome the fight was really good so this episode was excellent despite missing out on some of the usual entertaining antics. I have to give Southworth his props since he's the only competitor to have fought twice. At the last UFC event in Vegas I spoke to Bobby and after we discussed his weight-cutting episode, he told me that the show was "only going to get better."
In retrospect this was a selfless thing to say because since then he had a blowout with Leben, got stuck paying for damages that Leben caused and in the end got screwed out of a decision. He could have been really discouraged with the show and bashed it, but he didn't and I respect him for that.
Well kids, save room in your belly because next week we’ll learn more about last night’s decision for Bonnar and we’ll find out which fighter will emerge as the new story line. Whee!
He described what you were about to enjoy: fighters from all over America brought together to test their determination and skill. Sixteen different people with varying backgrounds possessing different skills all seeking to outwit, outperform and outfight their way to a contract in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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The first real appetizer appeared and we enjoyed a nice Bobby Southworth’ left-right-left combination that opened the meal quite nicely. Our bellies rumbled for a 12-course meal of fights and this was a nice preview of the knuckle feast we have been hoping for.
Back in the kitchen the producers/chefs were busy seasoning with a
pinch of Koscheck, a dash of Southworth and let that pot of Leben
continue to boil.
Once that pot boiled over, out came the plate you’d been hoping for. You rubbed your hands together in anticipation, but you got served a bland meal of wrestling dominance with a side of judge’s decision. After pushing back your plate unsatisfied, you realized that you couldn’t complain because you still got a free meal that you jumped on like a hobo on a ham sandwich.
This week at the restaurant, you sat down to a surprisingly good pairing of Southworth and Stephan Bonnar.
Since you have been watching the chef do all his fancy dramatic seasonings, you might have forgot what really tasted best: real ingredients.
In this week’s episode we got to see two fighters go at it not because they are schoolyard enemies, but instead one fighter calls out the other to test his skill against the best and to eliminate the strongest member of the other team.
Last week’s loss of Chris Leben combined with Nathan Quarry’s injury has left Team Couture depleted of middleweights.
Dana forces Chuck Liddell to once again cut loose one of his guys to even the teams. Josh Rafferty is chosen and he reluctantly joins Team Couture. Rafferty suffers because of this. He has essentially been traded from the Lakers to the Clippers, and joining the losing team stings even more since he misses his friends from Team Liddell.
With Leben’s spark gone, the producers of TUF decided to add a pot of Sam Hoger to the stove. While Leben and Josh Koscheck were settling their beef, Hoger has been busy making sure that his team hates him. It’s not really explained where he went wrong with his team in the past but in this episode they view him as a Benedict Arnold, and they give him the old Alaskan cold shoulder.
Team Couture wins its first physical challenge, a bizarre event that had the two teams belted together, fighting for the most flags in a capture-the-flag type game. Team Liddell thinks that their own Mr. Hoger was partly responsible for the loss, and they see him congratulating Team Couture and come to their own conclusions.
This is the part of the show that we call foreshadowing. (I think we will be seeing a lot more of Mr. Hoger in the next few episodes.)
Now that Team Couture has one the challenge, they get to decide whom they want to fight. And in one of the better moments of the show, the team decides which Team Liddell fighter they want to scrap with.
Stephan Bonnar talks about the possibility of fighting Southworth or Sam Hoger. Bonnar thinks he can beat them both but muses “it’s only a two round fight and Southworth would be tough to stop”; this is important to him since in the TUF fight rules, a stop means $5,000.
(Now read that again and try to imagine it being funny because trust me it was; the team’s laugh agreed that was a good point.)
It was during this exchange that Dana was in the background doing his “sideways glance.” I’ve noticed that both Dana and Chuck continue to sometimes share sideways glances. Start watching out for that, make a drinking game out of it or something.
In the end it is decided that Bonnar will fight Southworth. The idea behind this fight is that Southworth will only get stronger as the game goes on and eliminating him now would be best for Team Couture. Ironically, Stephan making the decision to test his skills against the best opponent seems much more like a Liddell-esque move.
(Gotta love the guys that will fight anybody.)
This was by far the most exciting fight so far in the show. Both guys matched up well in strength and technique. At times the fight was sloppy, but this was in part due to the fact that both guys went all out in trying to finish.
Both rounds Bonnar came out very aggressive. His movements and punching style remind me of Josh Barnett. They don’t have the same body type but the way he attacks—by moving forward and laterally—and throws his punches looks very similar.
Southworth fought a great fight, too. He let Bonnar push the pace and relied more on picking his shots when Bonnar was on the offensive. He was very smooth in his movement and always looked composed. I’ve never seen him fight before TUF, but this looks a lot like he’s picked up Liddell’s style and influence, letting his opponent come forward and targeting his countered punches better.
This fight featured lots of hard punches and knees from both guys with Southworth landing the better shots, even rocking Bonnar towards the end of the second round.
Bonnar was able to takedown Southworth a couple of times, but Southworth did a good job of not getting into dangerous positions. Both men fought very hard and the last two minutes of the final round was full of takedowns and great reversals from both fighters.
The last 30 seconds was all Southworth, as he finished strong and was able to keep Bonnar down until the last moment when he popped up punching away.
A split decision was awarded to Bonnar, prompting Southworth to get upset feeling like he won. Obviously he fought hard and was in the heat of the moment, so his feelings were valid. I’m sure everyone has his or her own opinion on who won.
Personally, I thought that since Southworth was never in any trouble, gave as good as he got and was able to hurt Stephan, he won the fight—but I’ll admit it was very close.
Despite the outcome the fight was really good so this episode was excellent despite missing out on some of the usual entertaining antics. I have to give Southworth his props since he's the only competitor to have fought twice. At the last UFC event in Vegas I spoke to Bobby and after we discussed his weight-cutting episode, he told me that the show was "only going to get better."
In retrospect this was a selfless thing to say because since then he had a blowout with Leben, got stuck paying for damages that Leben caused and in the end got screwed out of a decision. He could have been really discouraged with the show and bashed it, but he didn't and I respect him for that.
Well kids, save room in your belly because next week we’ll learn more about last night’s decision for Bonnar and we’ll find out which fighter will emerge as the new story line. Whee!
