The Ultimate Fighter 17: 'Team Jones vs Team Sonnen'

[METAL ON METAL]

Yeah Zingano is slight favourite at 4/5 with the bookies sadly, was hoping they'd have Tate favourite so I could stick a nice sum on Cat to win.

 

 

Jorgensen is 7/2 to beat Faber, I think thats a great price. I know Faber looked great in his last fight against Menjivar but I've learnt my lesson in the past not to bet against Jorgensen. One to look out for betting wise.

[Egg Shen]

i cant look past Fabers recent run in non-title fights though, hes wrecked good fighters...still at 7/2 it might be worth a punt.

 

if my football bet comes in, i'll put something on.

[Adorable Adrian]

Stuck a

[wandshogun09]

i cant look past Fabers recent run in non-title fights though, hes wrecked good fighters...still at 7/2 it might be worth a punt.

 

Yeah that's my reasoning for picking Faber. When you look at some of his non-title fights over the last couple of years he's been scarily dominant. He looked like a world beater in the Menjivar and Bowles fights and they are two very very good fighters. There's the almost choking Mizugaki to death performance as well, right at the end of his WEC run.

 

He's just coming up short in title fights. To be fair, the second Cruz fight was razor close. Aldo and Barao schooled him though. Jorgensen's awesome though, you just never know, he could rise to the occasion tonight.

 

What happens if Faber wins? The hope is that Cruz will be back in time to fight the Barao vs Wineland winner, so Faber would probably need another fight. Personally I would fucking love to see Faber vs Pickett.

[Egg Shen]

i think Faber needs to go on a 3-4 fight streak all with finishes to get another crack at a belt, he's still probably the most popular fighter under 155lb though so who knows?

[David]

Personally I would fucking love to see Faber vs Pickett.

I don't think that would be a really competitive bout. I'd pick Faber to stop him within 2 frames without much trouble.

[wandshogun09]

Maybe but Faber has to fight someone and I think him and Pickett would make for an exciting clash.

 

Whatever happens there's still some mileage in Faber vs Cruz 3. That needs settling whether it's for the title or not. A Barao rematch would be a difficult sell but it's possible if he looks good in his next couple of fights. If he falls short again then he better hope Aldo makes the move to 155, Faber in a post-Aldo 145 division could be interesting. Faber vs Edgar, Zombie, Lamas, Swanson, Siver etc could be great.

 

Really looking forward to Tate vs Zingano. Been watching some Zingano stuff and I really think we're in for a bit of a war tonight.

 

Picking Faber on points, Hall by KO and Zingano by submission.

[Gagnam Style]

Adorable Adrian I have done the same as you hopefully it will work out ok for us one way or the other, used the remaning 4 quid from the tenner to put 2 quid on Dylan Andrews to win his fight and Justin Lawrence to win the other.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Holy hell what a show! I don't know if I'm overestimating it because of how average UFC Sweden was, but there wasn't a single fight I found dull.

 

Lots of finishes, variety of KOs and subs. If I wanted to get someone into MMA by showing them the full gauntlet of what the sport offers, I'd give them a recording of this card.

 

Loved the standing elbow KO. Clint Hester has scary power. Nice quick stoppage by Dylan Andrews too, that marks another Kiwi that we Aussies can claim on their own, alongside Te Huna and Hunt All the TUF contestants were impressive, save for Gilbert Smith. The right call was made in giving the TUF cast fights, and I hope the losers get second UFC fights- save for Gilbert Smith. Uriah Hall's performance wasn't what he was hyped to be (and delivered on the season), but I think the hype was a detriment, his Spider-like showboating was a new addition to his arsenal, and he suffered for it. Kelvin Gastulum is approximately 18 months younger than me, and he's the Ultimate Fighter. AND he's rolled with Ronda Rousey. Move over Bisping and Chael, Kelvin is the UFC's biggest heel now in my eyes.

 

Travis Browne mowed through Gonzaga, I paid close attention to the replay, and while he definitely blasted Gabe in the back of the head a couple of times, the ones that put him to sleep were to the side of the head around the ear area, you could see Gonzaga's limp head resting on Browne's thigh (no homo). The ref was coming in to stop it before the illegal shots.

 

Women's MMA is firmly established in the UFC. Tate and Zingano had a fantastic, thrilling fight. Non stop action and aggression, we got a longer taste of the ladies fighting than Rousey's fight, and they showed a perfect mix of brutality and skill. I knew nothing about Zingano before today, and she seems extremely likeable as well as talented and violent. Anik and Florian need to stop with the "victory for mothers" angle though. Most mothers I know abhor "that cage fighting stuff".

 

Dana had exactly the same look on his face in that post fight interview as he did when Brock lost the title.

 

 

He should be happy though. A fight like that, Tate doesn't lose any shine from, she was winning until that 3rd round. "Cupcake" is already a star (what a fucking horrible nickname). Zingano is another woman who could be a marketable star (and really should be after TUF especially). I'm pretty confident that women in UFC won't be the Ronda Rousey show now.

 

The main event was worthy of its placement, and yet seems like an afterthought, such was the quality of the whole card. Faber had a pep in his step that was greatly missed in the Barao fight, he performed like a beast. Jorgensen gave a very good account of himself, I honestly expected it to be a razor close fight that went the distance as we got into the 3rd round. Faber is still an elite BW, he really only choked in the Barao fight (the 2nd Cruz fight was far closer than most will credit him for).

 

Really, really enjoyed this event. 9/10. Gets docked half a point for both Gilbert Smith and Uriah Hall's cockiness.

[wandshogun09]

That was a great show. Really delivered pretty much start to finish, especially the top 3 fights.

 

Faber vs Jorgensen

Really enjoyed this fight. I'm glad it was more competitive than Faber's fights with Menjivar and Bowles. Faber looked like he was going to steamroll it in round 1 but Jorgensen gutted it out and from the 3rd round on he really started to get into the fight and landed a lot of good shots. Faber proved too much in the end though, he just seemed to have more weapons in his arsenal overall to me. Finish kind of came from nowhere.

 

Really good fight, I couldn't believe twats were booing.

 

Gastelum vs Hall

Cracking fight. Best TUF final in a long time, maybe since Stevenson vs Cummo back on TUF 2. Although I did really like Brandao vs Bermudez (TUF 14) and Whittaker vs Scott (Smashes), this was a notch above for me.

 

It had a great story to it as well, you had Uriah who was picked to win the whole thing from early on and declared a future contender. Then you had Kelvin Gastelum - the last pick, inexperienced, 21 years old and probably should be at 170 as well.

 

Gastelum actually reminded me of a mini Cain Velasquez at times with the pace he set. I think there may have been a slight case of Uriah believing his hype a bit here. The way he was copying Anderson Silva's backing onto the fence thing was risky and lead to Gastelum getting the advantage more than once. Anderson gets away with that stuff because he's Anderson Silva. It can't be duplicated. Uriah is clearly extremely talented and dangerous, he doesn't need to try to be Anderson Silva-lite.

 

Tremendous fight though. The big German suplex was awesome. That exchange with the takedowns and reversals in round 3 was nuts. Kelvin took it for me, 29-28.

 

I think this might came down to a case of Gastelum simply handling the moment slightly better mentally. It's amazing considering his age but he seemed totally unfazed whereas Uriah may have been a victim of his own badassery to some degree. Everyone put a lot of expectation on him and maybe he just felt too much pressure. And it didn't help that Kelvin fought a great fight.

 

Zingano vs Tate

Another fantastic fight. Zingano proved she was overlooked like a few of us thought. There's a reason she wound up being the bookies favourite come fight night. And she showed why, she's a dangerous bastard.

 

I'm a big fan of Tate though, that's 3 magnificent fights on the bounce she's been in now. Sadly she's 1-2 in results from them but she's a popular and exciting fighter so she'll be back. I guess a lot of people will be disappointed we don't get Rousey vs Tate 2 now but Zingano is pretty marketable herself. Undefeated, a big strong 135, dangerous in all areas and she's got something which has proven quite rare in women's MMA - KO power.

 

Excellent fight. Tate looked really good in round 1, quite a dominant round. I'd give Tate round 2 as well although Cat came back strong at the end. Round 3;

 

 

Some controversy as some are arguing early stoppage which I can kind of see. But let's face it, Tate looked fucked, it most likely wasn't going to be getting better for her. I didn't see Miesha complaining about the stoppage either.

 

Regardless, what a great fight. Rousey vs Zingano should be fun. I can't see Zingano beating Ronda but she's a dangerous fight for anyone in my opinion, you never know, but I don't think she's the one to stop Ronda.

 

Dana had the old post-Brock losing-gutted face after the fight didn't he. He was clearly hoping for TUF: Rousey vs Tate 2.

 

Browne vs Gonzaga

This was over before it started. The finish was kind of slightly marred because one of two of the elbows were clearly to the back of the head. Gonzaga looked out of it before those shots though. Brutal finish, Gonzaga went limp and took about 4 or 5 more really hard elbows. Probably could have been stopped a bit sooner. Browne is a beast. Wouldn't mind seeing Browne vs Overeem actually. Why not?

 

Bubba vs Smith

This was a decent enough opener. I was rooting for Roy Jones Tyson Jr but Bubba the cock fought well to be fair. Nice finish as well.

 

Prelims were a good bunch of fights. Maximo vs Sicilia was the pick of the bunch for me. Really really fun fight, much better than Maximo's UFC debut. Samman vs Casey was another fun one, crazy start with the triangle/armbar stuff and a great comeback for Samman. Pineda making quick work of Lawrence was very impressive and Clint Hester's elbow, FUCK.

 

Top show.

 

Bonuses - $50K each;

 

Fight Of The Night: Zingano vs Tate

KO Of The Night: Travis Browne

Sub Of The Night: Daniel Pineda

 

I'd have given Hester the KO bonus myself.

 

EDIT - Ha, yeah it was definitely the same face as when Cain beat Brock.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

About the crowd reaction to Faber/Jorgensen, I didn't really hear much booing, more a lack of reaction seemed to be the case to me. Either way, I think it's due to a couple of reasons:

 

1) the crowd got spoiled. Plenty of violence, finishes, very little inactivity through the whole night of fights. Then you had Faber and Jorgensen being more technical and using feints and the like to slow down the action (ever so slightly), after most of the other fighters were doing the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots thing earlier. Probably got burnt out from the awesomeness of Tate/Zingano as well.

 

2) (and more importantly IMO) There was really nothing at stake in this fight. Jorgensen would have stepped up with a win, but Faber losing wouldn't do much against him- he's like Teflon with the fans and Zuffa. Conversely, Faber winning just holds his place as the perennial no. 2. Remembering this was a ring in main event after Mighty Mouse got injured. The previous 2 fights had high stakes, with a TUF coaching spot/no. 1 contendership and a TUF winner's contract on the line.

[wandshogun09]

I think it's more #1 than #2 there. They were probably burnt out after two great fights in Hall/Gastelum and Zingano/Tate. I definitely heard some boos in the first two rounds. Nothing major but I noticed it, so once I noticed it it became annoying to me.

 

Whether something's on the line shouldn't really make a massive difference. There was nothing on the line in fights like Bermudez vs Grice and Watson vs Nedkov earlier this year and the crowds were molten for those fights. Granted they were better fights than Faber vs Jorgensen but it proves there doesn't have to be high stakes for a crowd to get massively into the action.

 

Also, the crowd would have probably sat on their hands if Mighty Mouse had fought on this show as planned. And that's a title fight. Great fights are great fights, I think you're probably nail on head with the first point. Just crowd burn out most likely. Didn't they learn from WrestleMania? Should have chucked the ring girls in as a piss break segment.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Yeah, also, no matter how great the fights are, it's a lot to sit through. I watched every fight from the Facebook prelims to the main event and I was getting a bit tired. Just personally for me, I was able to stick through the later fights as there was significance in the outcome. My concentration waned just slightly for Faber/Jorgensen due to a combination of #1 and #2. I think it'll serve me well to watch it again as a stand alone fight.

 

Speaking of Wrestlemania, I forgot to mention that the TUF 17 Finale was CM Punk-approved. Thought that was really cool when WWE wouldn't let Punk appear on UFC previously to be in Chael Sonnen's corner (and he would have been less in the spotlight in that role than when UFC go out of the way to show him on camera as a celebrity).

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, is Punk off for a bit now after Mania? I guess that would be why he was allowed to be there. Wonder if he'll show up to 159, being pals with Chael and that?

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

I've heard rumours that he has time off but nothing definite. He certainly deserves it, and if he does I'd definitely say he'll be at 159.