Zuffa Serves Up Ultimate Fighter Finale and WEC 49 for Father's Day Weekend
Zuffa Serves Up Ultimate Fighter Finale and WEC 49 for Father's Day WeekendBy Edward Pollard | Photos courtesy of Josh Hedges/Zuffa |
If you didn’t see a single episode of The Ultimate Fighter Season 11, missed a few or wanted to relive every moment all over again, Spike TV ran a TUF Season 11 marathon all day long to give those DVR-deprived in the viewership a second chance at getting up to speed. By the time the show hit flat-screen televisions across America from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, we were all ready for some careers to begin, end or go into the gray zone called “How Bad Do You Really Want to Be an MMA Fighter?” What’s still interesting after 11 seasons of the UFC’s virtual bellhop production is that it has provided entertaining filler to recycle almost endlessly in smaller events such as this without making the more successful among its participants come across as anything less than committed. Chris Leben—who fought Aaron Simpson and defeated him by TKO (punches) after four minutes 17 seconds in the second round—is a perfect example. If it has succeeded at anything, TUF has emerged as an American guts meter. How else can one describe a TUF alumnus fighting Anderson Silva, which Leben did. Keith Jardine, who has lost seven of his 11 UFC appearances, somehow manages to maintain an aura of menace despite his poor record, which has mostly suffered since he passed through the carpeted halls of The Ultimate Fighter’s second season under the tutelage of Rich Franklin almost five years ago. He lost to Rashad Evans, who went on to win the show’s heavyweight title, but his billy goatee, shaved head and spastic footwork have hypnotic appeal. He isn’t a pushover by any means and will take you to the limit if you aren’t prepared.
Hamill has yet to really define himself in terms of what he is capable of achieving, but he showed how hard he can grind and how badly he can make someone like Jardine bleed from his head. It wasn’t pretty, and it went to decision, so there was plenty of time to paint the canvas and gross out squeamish viewers across the nation. Seriously, Jardine looked like he’d emerged from inside a slaughtered bull. As we’ve seen so often, an athlete with superior ground skills seemed compelled to keep the fight standing, even though a finish was not forthcoming. It may be that pesky guts meter: It doesn’t register as well down there. So Hamill got the majority decision and proved he was better than the DQ win he suffered at the vertical elbow of Jon Jones, and Jardine probably earned himself another gatekeeping appearance somewhere down the line. In the final match to decide who would join the hardscrabble ranks of TUF winners, Court McGee displayed his grappling acumen and worked Kris McCray for the good part of two rounds. In the second round, he’d learned enough about McCray’s defenses to slap on a rear-naked choke after three minutes 41 seconds and win by submission—only the fifth of 17 champions to do so (preceded by Travis Lutter, Mac Danzig, Amir Sadollah and James Wilks). Sunday’s World Extreme Cagefighting event might have gone unnoticed if you weren’t ready for it, and this is one of the problems with being the younger smaller brother in the family. In case you don’t already know, the WEC features several lighter weight classes than the UFC and does not hold any bouts beyond welterweight.
A perfect example of this is 22-year-old Chris Horodecki, who has been on the scene for several years and still looks like he only graduated junior high. But don’t be fooled by his baby face; he’s a vicious and skilled fighter with a well-rounded game. His opponent, Daniel Downes, experienced it for close to three rounds as “The Polish Hammer” took him down, worked for submissions, and also sapped him with aggressive strikes to the body and head. By the third round, Downes was worn and vulnerable, which allowed Horodecki to sink the rear-naked choke after a minute nine seconds—an excellent demonstration of warrior spirit in a compact package.
Rich Franklin Ices Chuck Liddell With First-Round KO at UFC 115Rashad Evans Takes Rampage Jackson Down a Peg at UFC 114 Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Claims Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida's Gold at UFC 113 Anderson Silva Mocks Demian Maia, Still Wins Decision at UFC 112 |
