Ultimate Fighter: Rousey v Tate

[wandshogun09]

Is everyone still watching this? Just seen this week's episode so obviously -

 

SPOILERS

 

 

 

Pretty good fight again this week. Was really impressed with Julianna again. Sarah Moras was becoming a bit of a dark horse of the season for me. No-one was really on about her much but she was the one who beat Tara LaRosa to get in the house, and she fought well so far on the show, good BJJ etc. And Julianna submits her. Really impressive. Shows the Baszler fight wasn't a one hit wonder. I'd never even heard of her before the show but she's clearly got the skills to belong in the UFC womens division based on her fights on this season.

 

So she moves to the finals and will fight the winner of Raquel Pennington vs Jessica Rakoczy. Should be good either way but I reckon Pena vs Pennington would be the better final.

[METAL ON METAL]

Is it just me that has a bit of an unconventional crush on Sarah Moras? She's a bit odd but there's something about her.

[wandshogun09]

I don't know if it's just you, but not for me.

 

 

As a great man sometimes says, "that doesn't work for me, brother." She's not ugly or anything but not my cup of tea. And those starey eyes scare the shit out of me. Does she blink, ever?

[lambyUK]

Just watched the latest ep and as Wand says great performance from Juliana. Despite her being a little mental, I personally feel that she's been subject to borderline bullying. From this perspective it great to see her get the win and piss off the other house mates.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, a couple of times I've thought 'yeah I can see why they find her a bit annoying' and she seems very childish and immature at times. Like the way she was getting all sulky when Miesha was helping Sarah Moras in training. But the way everyone's singled her out, I feel a bit sorry for her. It's not like she's a Junie Browning type or that red mohawked prick off the Nelson-Carwin TUF. I don't know, maybe part of it's jealousy because she's Miesha's friend (teacher's pet) and also that she's came in unheralded and beat Shayna Baszler, who was the favourite, on week one.

[lambyUK]

What I find troubling is that you can clearly see that the girl has a few issues. Not serious issues, but she suffers with self doubt and couple other problems. However, as you say, she's been a little annoying but mostly harmless. Personally, they are probably jealous that's she's an attractive woman who can be marketed. Win or lose she's getting a contract.

 

Dana needs to give Roxanne a contract for perhaps being the nicest person alive. Even I got choked up when Roxanne broke down in tears hugging Juliana after the fight.

[dopper]

What I like about Julianna is that she did the exact opposite of what both opponents expected her to do and still dominated.

 

Everybody said before the fight with Sarah this week said they expected Sarah to want the fight to go to the ground, then Julianna took it to the ground and dominated.

 

Last night's show ended with a very interesting cliffhanger which I have no idea about.

Hoping Raquel wins the other women's semi final and would like to see Davy win the other men's semi final but him being in tears as part of this week's cliffhanger has got me wondering.

[JNLister]

Roxanne needs to marry Luke from season two. Imagine the badass nerdery of the kids.

[wandshogun09]

 

"FUCK YOU BITCH", I believe she said.

 

 

I know I'm pretty much flying solo here but balls to you all. I love Ronda. There's enough sportsman(or woman)ship in MMA, every now and then it's nice to call someone a cunt. Theraputic even. I like Miesha, but sod the anti Ronda lot. A bit of finger waving immaturity never hurt anyone.

[lambyUK]

Can't say I agree Wand. Whilst I do love my trash talk, Ronda just comes across clueless with her trash talk. It's hard to describe really but there's good trash talk and bad.

 

Ronda falls into the later category unfortunately and actually sounds dumb as fuck sometimes.

 

Her "I'm going to make weight on Tuesday" was embarrassing to say the least. I could see the intention, but come on!? You could just see the look on Dana's face in that he was just sat there thinking "YOU IDIOT!".

 

I'm certainly not anti Ronda though, I still like her. Although she seems to be bulking up far too much for my liking lately with her frame being a bit, erm, manish?

[wandshogun09]

Oh, she's a bit psycho and I'm not claiming her any kind of eloquent trash talker, but I think she's great for MMA. Even if you can't stand her, she's the type of character where you're never indifferent. Unless you're David, in which case you're indifferent to all women's MMA.

 

Lets pretend for a second that Ronda wasn't in the UFC and we still had the current women's division minus her. Good fights still, but there's no investment, no real personality, no spark. Basically no reason to give much of a shit. It'd be Flyweight with tits.

 

Not really on here, but half the time the same people knocking Ronda for how she carries on are jizzing themselves over the latest Nick Diaz quote. I can see why she'd be disliked, absolutely. But personally I think she's been fantastic to watch over the last two years.

 

She is nuts though. She's basically Norman Bates with armbars and a nice arse.

[Supremo]

So it came out that Ronda actually went through with the weight cut, cutting about twenty pounds in 24 hours just to prove to her team it was possible. And it was in the middle of that weight cut that they recorded the rock climbing segment. She spent hours in a sauna, did the challenge, then headed straight back to cut more weight. All for nothing. She's fucking nuts. But then, I think you have to be somewhat nuts to be successful at an Olympic level. Look at Kurt Angle.

 

I'm with Wand though. Whilst I acknowledge she's absolutely crackers, I still find her wildly entertaining and think her trash talk and general attitude builds fights up brilliantly. She's the female Nick Diaz. She has no control over what she's doing or saying, completely bonkers, and yet it works perfectly. I love her.

[lambyUK]

Don't get me wrong Supremo, I'm a big fan too. However, you can't argue that with this season of TUF her character perception has changed drastically.

 

Before TUF we were only exposed to her trash talk during interviews and press conferences and this really worked for Ronda. She was this woman who could kick ass but do with an attitude.

 

With TUF we've been able see her more closely and she's lost the plot time after time and comes across simply dumb.

 

Now, you're right, she's incredibly entertaining and awesome at what she does, but I do look her differently now than before she was on TUF.

[wandshogun09]

That's mental. So Ronda had just gone through a rushed weight cut, she was drained as fuck and still beat Miesha in the coaches challenge? Assuming Miesha was aware of the weight cutting, that's got to be a bit of a morale breaker. Say what you want about Ronda's personality but there's no denying she's a machine. People act like she's some flash in the pan but you have to remember she's been competing and making weight and getting injured since she was about 5 years old or something. You can't teach the kind of toughness that builds in someone.

 

It's barmy that she did the weight cut when she didn't need to but there is a twisted logic to it. She's setting an example to the team. It's not like Ken Shamrock who'd come to the gym and watch tapes of himself knocking out Kimo while the fighters he's meant to be coaching sweat and cut weight. She's at least showing her fighters that she's grafting as well. It's too late really. Anthony already fucked up, but I guess in her logic she's showing the team that if she can do it in that short a time and still win the challenge, then there's no excuse why they can't make weight.

 

The Ronda/Nick Diaz comparison has been brought up a fair bit but it fits I reckon. People say she's trying to be the female Diaz but I don't think she could act this nuts this convincingly for this long if she was just doing it to be like Nick Diaz. I think they're just very similar in their ways and approaches to fighting. Both obsessive about training and competing to the point of fucking psychosis. And I don't mean the Mexican wrestler.

[lambyUK]

The interesting thing is, Ronda is/was the darling of the MMA world with endorsements coming through her nose. Has this season of TUF changed that?

 

I personally look at her completely different than before this.

 

To be honest, her answer would probably go along the lines of "i don't give a fuck!"

 

Regarding the weight cut, i'm torn on that. Weight cutting is a dangerous thing and doing something like that could have caused some negative problems. I know her intention and I commend it to a degree, but the fact is the process is very dangerous.