Official "The Ultimate Fighter 5" Thread

[IX_Equilibrium]

http://ufcjunkie.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/0703011tuf5.jpg

Gray Maynard, Matt Wiman, Robert Emerson, Nathan Diaz, Noah Thomas, Marlon Sims, Cole Miller, (coach) Jens Pulver, Gabe Ruediger, Brian Geraghty, (coach) B.J. Penn, Brandon Melendez, Andy Wang, Manvel Gambaryan, Corey Hill, Wayne Weems, Alan Berubie and Joe Lauzon.

Starts tonight! I'm hoping that we see more training and fire from these guys than the "comeback" cast of last season. I'm sure we will since alot of these guys have never been in the UFC and have something to prove.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Great Joe Lauzon interview

http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/showthread.php?p=753952#post753952

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/BKDOTCOM/JLAU.jpg

[LEONARD]

Can't wait for this season...lots of people are saying that TUF 5 could be the best so far. I've seen a few spoilers posted by fighters at the UG forum, but I'm trying to avoid them. TUF 4 wasn't that great, especially since I knew who the final 4 were going into the show...

Not TUF 5 related, but Joe Lauzon posted a video of his brother Dan getting his ear drained...
http://mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=ListMessages&PID=1&TID=1018866&FID=1&pc=62

[IX_Equilibrium]

I've seen a few spoilers posted by fighters at the UG forum, but I'm trying to avoid them.

I hate when people do that crap. I have not seen any. Most sites will ban you right away when you do that.

[LEONARD]

I hate when people do that crap. I have not seen any. Most sites will ban you right away when you do that.

The one I saw was posted at the UG forum by one of the fighters on the show. I was surprised to see it from a fighter...

[IX_Equilibrium]

The one I saw was posted at the UG forum by one of the fighters on the show. I was surprised to see it from a fighter...

He could get the hell sued out of him because they sign a huge confidentiality agreement. Also be banned from everything owned by Zuffa.

[desflood]

If I had to guess I'd go with Nathan Diaz. Running off at the mouth seems to be a trait the whole family shares.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Lauzon, Manvel Gambaryan, Gray Maynard, and Wayne Weems are fighters I predict will go far.

[dallaskd]

i hope nate diaz gets his head pounded.

[LEONARD]

Should be an entertaining season....6'5" lightweight? Crazy...

I just wish some of these guys didn't act like complete thugs at times... :bang

[desflood]

Corey Hill gets my early vote for "the guy everybody wants to see go home early." Everybody includes fans watching the show and his fellow fighters on the show.

[LEONARD]

Definitely...how is 6'5" 155 even possible? He doesn't look THAT skinny like I expected. I want to see him vs Karo Pariysan's cousin who is 5'3" :lol

I'm already tired of Pulver's hat... :bang

and BJ Penn is funny as hell... :fro

[tlongII]

BJ was hilarious when they picked teams. He's in Pulver's head already! LOL!

[cornbread]

Great first episode. BJ Penn and Jens are both pretty entertaining. I can't wait to see Nate, Corey and Karo's cousin fight.

[dallaskd]

Cole Miller is a skinny little bitch. I hope he gets knocked out in his next fight.

[dallaskd]

I hate corey miller too. I cant stand those yellow team pulver jerseys. Jens is annoying too. Bj was funny when picking teams. I would have raised my hand too. This will be the most entertaining season yet. Nate Diaz hasnt exploded yet either.

[IX_Equilibrium]

I hate corey miller too. I cant stand those yellow team pulver jerseys. Jens is annoying too. Bj was funny when picking teams. I would have raised my hand too. This will be the most entertaining season yet. Nate Diaz hasnt exploded yet either.

Jens got the better team. BJ picked the raised hands, and Jens picked the fighters he wanted.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Episode 2 tonight!

[dallaskd]

i hope corey goes tonight.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Testosterone overtook every shred of intelligence for a couple of these guys.

When Emerson wrote that stuff on the wall, Diaz tried to be a badass. He was just posturing though, because when Emerson asked him if he wanted to fight, Diaz said yeah and took about 3 steps back to take off his shirt and start talking shit while waiting for someone to hold him back, instead of just going after Emerson. :lol


But Manvel Gambaryan took the cake. What a moron that guy is. Even though I picked him to be one of the guys to make it into the latter stages of the show, I wanted him to lose to Noah. He was walking around screaming "fuck the other team", and then would go up to each of them individually and shake their hands. :lol

During that whole stupid episode at the house, the only guy who wasn't posturing and looked like he was going to go off was Brandon Melendez.

Not a tough fight for Manvel, though. He made quick work of Noah. Next week either Diaz or Corey Hill will fight for team Pulver.

[cornbread]

^^Yep. Too much meat-head shit for my personal taste. But I really enjoyed Manvel's fight. His style is really exciting and he does fight like a mini-Karo.

[LEONARD]

Too much BS going on for my taste, but Manny was impressive in the ring... :ihit

[IX_Equilibrium]

Team Pulver must really respect Gabe Ruediger's skills. The guy was 22 lbs. overweight and they still haven't picked him. He did very well in the WEC, so I guess his record and experience precedes him.

The guy seems like a major asshole, though.

[tlongII]

These guys got "little man's disease." They are all trying to be bad-ass at 155 lbs. LOL!

[dallaskd]

Team Pulver needs to suck it up. All it said was suck it and they freak out. Little shorty needs to calm down. Corey wasnt as bad this week. Gabe Ruediger and Matt Wiman just need to duke it out. I loved the pole last night on who the fans thought would win.

Gabe:12%
Matt:88%

Team Penn needs to bond together and step it up a notch. Can the teams make trades, because I remember on season 1 the teams made trades or something. Team Penn is turning into team Shamrock of Season 3.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Pretty good fight tonight between Diaz and Emerson. The first round was pretty even. A few strikes thrown, and I was very impressed with Emerson's takedown defense. His balance was awesome.

But in the second round he got dominated. By the time Diaz got him down, he was gassed and Diaz destroyed him. Nate is a brawler, but it's nice to see a brawler have a solid base of BJJ.

[dallaskd]

That fight was WAYYY overrated. Dana gave it too much hype. it may the best ever if it was your first fight to see.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Dana White: UFC Considering U.K. Edition of “The Ultimate Fighter”

http://ufcjunkie.com/2007/04/23/dana-white-ufc-considering-uk-edition-of-the-ultimate-fighter/

This is a great idea. Imagine, guys from England, Scotland, Wales, & Northern Ireland in a house together. These guys would get into a fight over a rugby discussion. Imagine what you would get when you lock them in a house for a few weeks.

[LEONARD]

I didn't get why Dana was freaking out over that fight either...I thought it was "OK" at best...

[cornbread]

I knew there was something special about today. Fuck yeah!

[mardigan]

I didn't get why Dana was freaking out over that fight either...I thought it was "OK" at best...
Fo sho (I assume were talking about the Diaz fight). Coming into the ring saying it was the best fight they had ever had in there, I dont agree at all, fight was kind of boring and both fighters looked pretty weak to me. Is anyone else excited about seeing Cory fight?

[LEONARD]

Is anyone else excited about seeing Cory fight?

I am :fro

Jeremy Horn was all over his nuts... :lol

[LEONARD]

Son of a bitch... :bang

I'm sorry Andy, but when I think of you I don't think "warrior"...I think no game plan following MORON that sobbed uncontrollably after getting whipped...

Corey vs Gabe next week... :fro

[tlongII]

Andy Wang is a PUSSY! That was just more evidence for MMA dudes getting whooped by boxers.

[LEONARD]

Andy Wang is a PUSSY! That was just more evidence for MMA dudes getting whooped by boxers.

:wtf

:dizzy

Wow...not even sure what to say. Was that supposed to make sense?? Or???????

[cornbread]

Andy Wang is a PUSSY! That was just more evidence for MMA dudes getting whooped by boxers.
Watch Gracie vs. Jimmerson and get back to us.

[tlongII]

:wtf

:dizzy

Wow...not even sure what to say. Was that supposed to make sense?? Or???????


It was meant primarily to get a rise out of you! :lol

However, you could clearly see that Wang couldn't get inside because he was getting punched. Imagine what Mayweather would do to an MMA fighter!

[cornbread]

However, you could clearly see that Wang couldn't get inside because he was getting punched. Imagine what Mayweather would do to an MMA fighter!
Wang did not want to get inside. He said it himself. He wanted the KO because it would make him feel more like a samurai warrior or some bullshit.

Mayweather is the best p4p boxer in the world. Comparing him to some nobody wannabe is weak.

[LEONARD]

It was meant primarily to get a rise out of you! :lol

However, you could clearly see that Wang couldn't get inside because he was getting punched. Imagine what Mayweather would do to an MMA fighter!

:bang

[LEONARD]

Pulver on Weems...
http://ufcjunkie.com/2007/04/27/jens-pulver-i-was-disgusted-by-wayne-weems/

Andy Wang is smart...outside the cage...
http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_sports/ufc/

[tlongII]

Wang did not want to get inside. He said it himself. He wanted the KO because it would make him feel more like a samurai warrior or some bullshit.

Mayweather is the best p4p boxer in the world. Comparing him to some nobody wannabe is weak.


Bullshit. Wang gave up trying to get inside because he was getting a beatdown. I don't care what he said.

[LEONARD]

Bullshit. Wang gave up trying to get inside because he was getting a beatdown. I don't care what he said.

You're right...he was relentless with takedown attempts :dizzy

[cornbread]

Bullshit. Wang gave up trying to get inside because he was getting a beatdown. I don't care what he said.

:lmao

[IX_Equilibrium]

However, you could clearly see that Wang couldn't get inside because he was getting punched. Imagine what Mayweather would do to an MMA fighter!


Dude, go troll somewhere else. It's pathetic.

[tlongII]

You're right...he was relentless with takedown attempts :dizzy


He was getting his face beat in. He wanted to stay outside to keep from getting punched.

[tlongII]

You guys need to fight more. Then you'll understand what it's like to get your face beat up. It has a tendency to keep you at a distance.

[IX_Equilibrium]

You guys need to fight more. Then you'll understand what it's like to get your face beat up. It has a tendency to keep you at a distance.


Thanks, Jean Claude :rolleyes

[cornbread]

You guys need to fight more. Then you'll understand what it's like to get your face beat up. It has a tendency to keep you at a distance.
:lol keyboard warriors :lol

[mardigan]

You guys need to fight more. Then you'll understand what it's like to get your face beat up. It has a tendency to keep you at a distance.
I fight plenty. If I get hit in the face all it does is make me want to rip yours off more. From your first couple of sentences its pretty obvious you have probably never gotten into a fight yourself Chun Li

[tlongII]

I fight plenty. If I get hit in the face all it does is make me want to rip yours off more. From your first couple of sentences its pretty obvious you have probably never gotten into a fight yourself Chun Li

Yeah, whatever Mardi. Knock yourself out.

[mardigan]

Yeah, whatever Mardi. Knock yourself out.
Sorry man I was just in a bad mood. But you did bring up the tough guy act first

[tlongII]

Sorry man I was just in a bad mood. But you did bring up the tough guy act first

No worries. I always bring the tough guy act in here since it's an MMA thread. LOL.

[dallaskd]

psst...wang listen to your coach.

[IX_Equilibrium]

psst...wang listen to your coach.


...and don't bawl like a 2 year old on national tv .

[dallaskd]

yeah my grandfather watched that fight with me and it was his first ever MMA fight. Now he thinks MMA is stupid. "Boxing is a real sport"

[cornbread]

yeah my grandfather watched that fight with me and it was his first ever MMA fight. Now he thinks MMA is stupid. "Boxing is a real sport"
Some folks don't realize that the many of the contestants on TUF are not even good enough to make any UFC card. They don't represent top-level mma.

[dallaskd]

Alot of my black friends dont like MMA for what ever reason. They say its gay to roll around on a sweaty guy. All they care about is boxing, which i dont follow very much. It seems white people and asians like mma more.

[LEONARD]

yeah my grandfather watched that fight with me and it was his first ever MMA fight. Now he thinks MMA is stupid. "Boxing is a real sport"

lol...well at least he got a good sample to judge it by... :lol

My grandmother swears it's fake...

Don't expect many elderly to follow it, as they grew up with boxing...


Alot of my black friends dont like MMA for what ever reason. They say its gay to roll around on a sweaty guy. All they care about is boxing, which i dont follow very much. It seems white people and asians like mma more.

Watching guys throw a flurry, hug, be separated, then repeat...for 12 rounds...is so much less gay...

A guy like Rampage will draw black fans...

[LEONARD]

Based on the previews, it looks like Gabe just about kills himself cutting weight in tonight's episode...I wonder if we get to see him fight Corey or not?? :wtf

[desflood]

Thank goodness the Gabe Ruediger show has been canceled.

I hated that show.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Ruediger is a huge douche. As much as I laughed at Andy Wang's stupidity last week, at least he got in the octagon and fought.

Ruediger is nothing more than a shit talker who will never be able to back up his own hype. Dana was way more pissed in last night's episode than when Jeremey Jackson jumped the fence.

Well, I'm stoked about next week's episode. Two fights!

[IX_Equilibrium]

As if Ruediger didn't look bad enough, he adds linsult to injury by posting this:

http://mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=ListMessages&PID=1&TID=1037936&FID=1&pc=276

"Hey everyone, sorry I havent been on here, but Ive been focusing on my training and less on the negative comments I see here.

I just want to say, please take what you see on TV with a grain of salt. Ive said it many times before and Ill say it again. REALITY TV is NOT Reality. I realize that Im painted as a less than stellar character, and it is causing a LOT of you to pass judgement. I saw the show as just that, a show. I wasnt looking at it as the UFC and I wasnt looking at it as anything more than a tool to ensure my face would be recognizable. Basically, a marketing tool.

I allowed my behaviour to be “over the top” and made sure my antics were always in the fore front. In retrospect, i would have done things very different, but it DID work. Im human and will make more mistakes in my life and I will be accountable for it. We all do STUPID things, I just had a camera on me when I did it.

From this point forward, Im going to let my future actions decide who I am. The past is just that and I will not allow it to define me. My dedication is to be the best fighter I can be, and that is where my focus is now. Im thankful that I have a great team that supports me 100%. I have Dan Henderson, Heath Sims, Sokoudjou, Shawn Tomkins, Mayhem Miller, Art Santore, Rani Yahya, Dave Gardner, Ryan Parsons and everyone at Team Quest supporting me, so I guess Im not THAT bad of a guy! LOL

To those that support me, Thank you. Im glad that you can see through the hype and still feel that Im worthy of your support. To those that pass judgement blindly. Im sorry that a TV show completes your reality. I hope that with my future endevours you might see a different side. To those that hate me regardless, well, you have more than enough ammunition now!LOL There are those that will hate you regardless of what you accomplish.

Im more than happy to talk to anyone in an adult fashion and explain my view point more in depth, so feel free to check out my website WWW.GABGODZILLA.COM and contact me through there. If you want to send a “Your a pussy,blah blah blah” note. The web admin just deletes them."


So it wasn't reality that he didn't take his opportunity seriously and waited until the last minute to cut weight and give up?? OK :rolleyes

If he thinks he has a career in MMA, I'm sure it won't be on the big stage in the UFC.

[cornbread]

I'm glad I didn't watch this episode. Sounds like it was pretty bad.

[desflood]

Actually, I found the whole "Gabe/Sauna" fiasco quite amusing.

"Put me back in... I can do it if you just put me back in..."

[LEONARD]

More tears and more BS...what a surprise...

Dana White should have his ass kicked for all the BS hype he spewed leading up to this season. Not surprising at all that the ratings are down...

At least we get 2 fights next week... :ihit

[mardigan]

Worst episode ever, at least whats his name gets to come back, although he wasnt immpresive the 1st time and Im pretty sure Corys gona jack him up

[IX_Equilibrium]

Andy Wang responds:

Gabe,

You need to call me, man. We were friends before the show, but man, come on. You put a lot of us in bad positions...we missed practice time, we were one training partner short while you were out doing your thing, the van rides were constant headaches and distractions.

Remember that talk we had at the house...come on man, learn from all this, don't pass ALL the blame on to others or call them morons for going off what they see each week on TV. Yeah, they edited all of us to a certain degree, but some of the things you did, you put us on the spot man.

I don't want to get into it here because I respect you more than that, but don't go out like that, putting all the blame on the editors or you just wanting to get TV time so pulled some stunts...your moves had an impact on all of us.

-Andy

http://mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=ListM...=1037936&FID=1

[dallaskd]

Gabe is a fatass. 155 is not even his weightclass.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Lauzon is a beast! You wouldn't expect this kid to unleash a fury like that from the way he acts or talks. He completely dominated his opponent. I think everyone there was thinking, "Holy shit, this guy is for real!"

As far as Emerson/Hill, I thought Hill won the 1st round, Emerson took the second, and the 3rd because of the leg kicks. Emerson wasn't aggresive enough in the 3rd, but I was still surprised to see Hill get the decision. Emerson should have been legkicking the shit out of him all day long. It would have been a victory if he had.

[desflood]

:lol @ Jens: "Hey, I'm glad the kid is good. That means I didn't get beat by some bitch!"

I gave the last round to Cory by just a hair. It was pretty close though. Rob definitely would have wrapped it up with a few more kicks. I give him all the credit in the world for doing fairly well with such a reach disadvantage. Hill is some kind of freak.

[LEONARD]

Agreed...

I really like Lauzon...he doesn't hold back. And talk about executing your gameplan...

Kinda funny that Hill had no professional fights. He's an interesting project. I thought the 3rd was a toss-up, with a slight edge to Emerson due to the leg kicks.

[LEONARD]

Joe's weekly blog in the Boston Herald...
http://sports.bostonherald.com/ufc/view.bg?articleid=1000610

Week 6: Making the most of my shot
By Joe Lauzon, Friday, May 11, 2007 - Updated: 10:15 AM EST

(Brockton native Joe Lauzon, a UFC lightweight fighter and member of the cast of TUF 5, will give exclusive insight to bostonherald.com readers immediately following each week’s episode. Here is his commentary on Episode 6.)

This week we have two fights in one show. I square off with Brian Geraghty, while Rob gets a second chance and has the opportunity to fight Corey Hill. Team Pulver picked the fights, but we were very happy with the matchups. I was ready to fight anyone on Team Pulver and was happy to be fighting who I thought to be their toughest remaining fighter. In one of my earlier blogs, I talked about how we tried to play some mind games with Team Pulver and get them to choose a fight we wanted, which was Corey vs. Rob. It didn’t work at the time, but in the end it did work out as that was the fight Team Pulver chose now.

I had actually met Brian before we moved into the house on the show. I had fought down in Florida a few times before fighting in the UFC, and Brian was on one of those cards so I was able to see him fight. He was warming up in the same lockerroom as me and, the way he was moving around, I could tell he was good on the ground. Then he was hitting mitts and he looked great there too. I got to see his fight and he completely dominated the kid with punches, then kneed his opponent in the head and put him away. I remember thinking, ‘Damn, I don’t want to fight him.’ Fast forward to the first day of the show and there he is. Wonderful.

The first day there we had evaluations with the coaches. Brian was in my group, and I don’t remember if I did any stand up with him, but I know we did some grappling and he took me down and kept top position on me. It really went his way from start to finish, which was a little discouraging. One thing that kept me positive, though, was thinking about how I hadn’t trained in nearly two months prior to the show, and I would do better after getting back into the routine. I had injured my wrist a month and a half before the show, so I wasn’t able to do any boxing or wrestling. I decided to rest my wrist and hope that it would be better for the show, which it was. If you pay attention to the Team Penn training sessions, you will notice that in almost every clip I have my wrist all taped up. So I took a beating in evaluations, but knew I could do better once I had a few days to train. The fighter I was on the day of evaluations was a far different fighter from the one that had trained with B.J. Penn five hours a day for four weeks straight. My cardio and technique were much better come fight time, and I was super confident going into the fight.

Leading up to this fight was a little different for me, because Brian and I were hanging out the night before we fought. Just talking about how much it sucked making weight, we were both sitting there stuffing our faces with everything from water to pasta to shakes to Snickers Ice Cream bars. I don’t ever ‘hate’ someone I am fighting, but I also don’t usually hang out with them the night before the fight either.

really don’t get nervous for my fights. Some guys like to get all amped, get excited and get into their ‘zone.’ I like to stay calm. I just talked about how I had been training five hours a day for four weeks straight. Why do some people get nervous about doing 15 minutes of something you spent countless hours doing? It’s different than training, but it’s not so different that you should entirely change everything you do. For me, I stretch out and jump around for a few minutes to get blood flowing into my legs. That’s what I do before training and that’s what I do before I fight. Everyone is different, but it’s what works for me.

I think I really had B.J. worried while warming up and before the fight. They kept joking, ‘You know you have a fight, right?’ but they were good and understood I knew what I was doing and how I liked to warm up, and they let me do my thing. Once I got in the octagon, B.J. really starting getting worried: ‘Let’s go, Let’s go, Joe. Be aware. Wake up! C’mon, hands up!’

Something I found funny watching the show was how accurately I predicted my fight. That’s always the big question people like to ask: How are you going to win? How is your fight going to go? During my pre-fight interview I said, "Take him down, beat him up on the ground, put him in our corner, grind him against the fence, drop bombs, beat him up, mount him, choke him out.’ Aside from the lack of mounting him, I really couldn’t have been more visionary. I didn’t really remember how my pre-fight prediction went, but looking back, it’s kind of cool. That was my ideal fight, and it went perfectly.

Like I said, I knew Brian had good standup, so I rushed in aggressively when he threw his first punch. I had been working a lot of wrestling with Tony Desouza, and it showed by how quickly I got in for the takedown. Starting off on the right foot is important to get the momentum of the fight in your direction, and that’s just what I did until it was over. Once I had the body lock, I slammed Brian (and my own head) down hard on the mat. I threw a few punches, kept him at odd angles on the fence, making it tough to defend, and landed some good punches and elbows. With one of the elbows I knocked him out for a split second, and I knew the fight was mine. He had that dazed and confused look and was clumsy and lost coordination. I stood in his guard and cleared his legs and threw a big elbow with bad intentions. It looks on the video like I missed, but I think I grazed the side of his head with it before it landed solid with the floor of the octagon. Either way, Brian got back to his feet but was still clumsy and slow because of the earlier elbow that knocked him out, and I jumped on his back and sunk the choke.

The fight really couldn’t have gone any better for me, and I think it was a pretty dominant performance. Most importantly, I was happy to have it be over with. In fighting, there is always the saying, ‘You are only as good as your last fight.’ I had a lot to live up to coming off my win over Jens, but I was happy with how the fight went.

I think B.J. was proud that I gave 100 percent. I listened to what he showed me in training, and went in there and used it in my fight. A lot of the things I did in the fight came directly from what we did in training — most notably the shot. I had drilled that a lot with Tony in training, right down to how I cleared the legs out.

The No. 1 question everyone asks me: How was it being on the show when you knocked the other coach out? This episode finally addressed the fact that I knocked out Jens in my last fight. One of the things Jens had said to Brian was, ‘Forget that he hit me.’ Jens even needing to say that shows you how much of a mental advantage I have on a lot of people in the house. It’s never a good sign when your coach is telling you, ‘Forget that he knocked me out’ — that’s not a confidence booster. Jens and I acted like professionals to one another. I wasn’t about to go running around pointing it out to everyone, and he wasn’t going to be bitter about it and call it a lucky punch or anything else. In MMA, you can live and die by a single punch. You can’t start talking about when you lose it was a lucky punch and when you win it’s because you were better. You just have to see it for what it is ... it only takes one.

When I walked into the gym on the first day, he came over and gave me a big hug and was joking about how I was ‘the upset’ and screwed up all of his plans. It was weird training for the fight with Jens, and talking about how he was coaching the show, and I was just looked past by everyone leading up to our bout. It kind of brings a smile to my face knowing Jens was supposed to knock me out to hype him as one of the coaches on the show, and here I am as a contestant because I knocked him out instead.

Watching this week’s episode, I had no idea Corey had so few fights. I was still under the impression he had eight-or-whatever fights coming into the show. I am super impressed by that. He came in fearless and didn’t care how much more experience everyone else had. He came in to win and that’s what he did this week.

We thought it was a good matchup for Rob. Rob has good standup, was in great shape and has good takedown defense. Corey kind of comes in throwing bombs but doesn’t have very technical standup. Corey has a lot of reach, though, and moves around well. When we were in the house, I thought Rob won the fight. After watching it half a dozen times, I still think he won the fight. They even showed a clip of Dana saying he thought Rob won, so it seems odd to me that the judges saw it otherwise. I thought Corey had Round 1 and gave Rob trouble adjusting to the difference in reach. In Round 2, Rob came back hard with leg kicks and did a lot of damage with them. The leg lock at the end of Round 2 ensured Rob the round. Round 3 was more Rob doing damage with kicks, and I thought he had the round. Corey moved forward more, but it’s tough for Rob to keep coming forward and walking into jabs the entire round. Rob did way more damage as a whole, and I still thought he took Rounds 2 and 3. I didn’t agree with the judges’ decision, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

[dallaskd]

Lauzon is the guy to beat in my mine. Id love to see Diaz and Lauzon is the finale. Corey Hill did not impress me at all. If he fights anyone with decent striking hes done.

[dallaskd]

Will team pulver have to make a trade or something with team penn to even up the teams?

[IX_Equilibrium]

Will team pulver have to make a trade or something with team penn to even up the teams?


It's very possible.

[dallaskd]

It's very possible.

They made trades in season 1.

[2centsworth]

there's some pretty good drama, but the fights stink.

[dallaskd]

there's some pretty good drama, but the fights stink.

There has been a couple decent fights.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Wiman and Maynard rolled through the competition. You're going to start seeing more competitve fights now that the men are separated from the boys.

Two notes: Andy Wang is a total moron. I could see why everyone would get frustrated when dealing with him. I thought Dana was going to hit him at one point. The other thing, Dana drops way too many F-bombs. It's annoying to hear him speak and every other word is bleeped out.

Fight at the house! Looks pretty intense from the previews. I think its Marlon Sims and Noah that go at it. The guys seemed to find it hilarious.

[LEONARD]

Seriously...how did Weems get thru the screening process and make it on the show??? You know there are a lot of guys that didn't make the cut that were cussing at the TV last night...

Marlon Sims is good for a laugh...maybe he'll be 301-0 in street fights after next week??

the next round will definitely be much better. I think the only really weak link will be that first dude that fought and won for Pulver's team (tall skinny annoying fake tough guy kid). He'll get waxed by any of the 3 Penn guys IMO.

[MajorMike]

Ultimate website (http://www.upa.org/)

[IX_Equilibrium]

Quit trolling, you fucking douche.

[MajorMike]

I love Ultimate.

[LEONARD]

Here's Lauzon's blog for this week...some more funny shit about Marlon in it :lol

Week 7: Here’s the real story
By Joe Lauzon
Friday, May 18, 2007 - Updated: 03:22 PM EST

Brockton native Joe Lauzon, a UFC lightweight fighter and member of the cast of TUF 5, will give exclusive insight to bostonherald.com readers following each week’s episode. Here is his commentary on Episode 7.

The theme of this episode was, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” This week, we have all kinds of people making claims that they don’t really back up.

Wang would give a good effort in training, but a lot of times he wouldn’t be listening to instructions. We would be drilling and he would not listen to advice from coaches. He would be rolling and training with people, and BJ would tell him, “That’s good, stop,” and he would constantly be saying, “One more round, one more round, I am good.” These are the things that really pissed BJ off, and that started to wear on him. Gabe told us from the first day that Andy would not listen and would brawl. We tried to make him more receptive in training sessions, giving him advice and telling him what to do, but it all fell on deaf ears.

BJ said, “Everyone likes a winner, nobody likes a loser. It’s done. I don’t care how you did.” As a team we felt that Wang gave his fight away. He is great on the ground but refused to take the fight there, where Brandon is weakest. We were particularly upset because we drilled into him how important it was that he take the fight to the ground and that he needed to follow the game plan. Going into the fight, we were hopeful that he would work to get the fight on the ground, but we all knew he wouldn’t. This left a real sour taste in everyone’s mouths, particularly the coaches. Wang was apologizing to us, and then in the next breath talking about how it was a great fight and he “left it all in the cage.” At one point, one of the producers was talking to us in the back room, and all Andy cared about was what the producer thought of the fight, and if Dana liked the fight. “I hope Dana liked my fight. ... It was a good fight. ... I left it all in the cage.” This is all we heard out of Wang when he should have been apologizing. BJ respects guys winning fights, not guys giving the fight away in an attempt to be ballsy. If Wang had listened, the fight would have gone much differently.

I think my fight was kind of a tipping point on everything with Wang. We had two guys that should have won their fights — one didn’t listen and he lost his fight, while the other listened and won convincingly. I think my fight showed BJ what Wang’s fight could have been, and it was salt in the wound to sit there and watch Wang talk about his fight and how good it was. There was nothing good about it ... he lost. Winning is all that matters, and he didn’t win. End of story.

BJ acted like the general that Dana wanted and took control of the team. He saw Wang as a problem within the team and he got rid of him. I thought it was a little harsh, but the way things were going, something needed to change. At first I thought it was a joke. I was sitting on the mat taping up my ankle and laughing to myself about the whole thing. I started working out with Reagan and I kept telling him, ‘I put nothing past you guys,’ and then he started laughing at me, telling me it was real. I really didn’t believe it until Dana showed up, and then I was like, ‘Man, this isn’t a joke at all.’ ”

I can understand why Wang didn’t want to go to Team Pulver, because the two teams really did start to click at this point. Everyone got along but team spirit was very apparent. In particular, our team had really started to come together now that Gabe was gone. Practices were much better and everyone just got behind each other a lot more.

The irony of the whole situation was Rob Emerson’s behavior. Rob had lost two fights but gave his 100 percent in everything from training to his fights. After his second loss, though, he had been taking it easy because he was out for sure. There was no way he would get a third chance before someone else got a second. So while Andy was getting kicked out for not giving 100 percent, Rob was riding a scooter around the gym, with a beer in his hand and a cup duct-taped to his scooter filled with Reese’s Pieces. You just had to laugh at the whole situation.

Then we have Wayne Weems. Not to take a shot at Weems, but I think out of everyone in the house, he was the most technically behind. Wayne came from a wrestling background but had pretty much zero jiu-jitsu or striking. I didn’t get a chance to work out with him because we were in different groups for evaluations and he was on Team Pulver. From talking with a few of the other guys, though, his wrestling wasn’t the best either. If you only have one strength, it has to be really good. You can’t be one-dimensional and not have that one dimension be really strong. We all saw Weems as one of the weakest from Team Pulver and Gray was one of the strongest from Team Penn. We were super confident about Gray’s fight, and you can see why.

Weems had this confidence about him that you don’t see a lot. When someone shows that kind of confidence they either know something you don’t, or are delusional. For Weems, he was delusional. He lost the fight but he fought hard and never gave up. He was just outclassed. The only thing that bothered me about Weems was after his fight when he was in the kitchen and he started ranting: “He never hurt me. I would kill that guy, this is bull!” It went on for a while and you couldn’t help but laugh. When it’s a real close fight, you can complain, but not when it’s a borderline early stoppage. Wayne said he would still be fighting if it were up to him. Fortunately for him it was stopped, because otherwise he would still be in that same position and eating punches with no sign of getting out.

Everyone gets emotional after a loss, though, so it’s not a big deal. The technical ability wasn’t there but the heart surely was. You can’t teach heart but you can always work on technique.

Weems and Gray’s fight was over, but we can’t forget about “Mr. Indestructible” Marlon Sims. Marlon claimed a lot of things. Of everything, he said two things that were true. He said he was a great cook, which he was. The guy can cook! The best meals made in that house, Marlon made. He said he was a chef in some restaurant and I wouldn’t find that hard to believe. He backed that “story” up. That’s one real story.

Another feat Marlon claimed he could do was eat a spoonful of cinnamon. Everyone was saying no way, so Gabe bet him $100, but Marlon did it. We didn’t have any money in the house but Gabe is supposed to pay up at the finale. Whether he will or not, I have no idea. But Marlon did it, even when we all thought he was full of crap. That’s two real stories.

After that ... it ends for Mr. Indestructible. Let’s start with the nickname. He claimed he had never been knocked out by a human being. That was false, and was actually proven false while on the show. I’m not sure if you can tell, but there is a peg board in the gym that had large wooden dowel pegs. You could climb up the wall by putting the pegs in holes that were higher and higher. During one of the Team Pulver practices, Marlon was using the pegboard and started talking to someone and looking over his shoulder. When his shoulder leaned back, the peg came out and he nailed himself in the face with the peg board, knocking him out. He had to go and get stitches. It was actually questionable if he would even be cleared to fight because of the cut. Fortunately, it didn’t preclude him from being able to fight. I am calling him on it, though, so we have 2-1 in favor of real stories.

Baseball. Marlon claimed that he would have gone on to play professional baseball if he hadn’t thrown out his shoulder. He supposedly threw a baseball 93 miles per hour. I am calling BS on this one.

Street Fights. Marlon had a million stories on street fights and how he would face seven guys at once and would beat them all and would never be hurt. Now if this were true, he would have to be fighting hordes of 5-year-olds. Unfortunately for him, he was talking grown adults. To have 300 or more street fights and not once get hit with a blind shot, or have someone pull a gun or knife? I am calling BS on this one too.

His chipped tooth. He had two explanations for the same chip in his tooth. At one point he told us it was from a fight and another time it was from crashing his motorcycle. Contradicting stories for the same chipped tooth has to be a fake. That’s two real stories, and four fakes for those of you keeping count.

Motorcycle races. Andy Wang brought up how he had a bike that he rode at home, so in true Marlon fashion about having to outdo any story, he started talking about how he rode motorcycles professionally. I’m calling fake on this one too.

That’s two real stories and five fake ones so far. But the best is about how he is the most “lethal striker” and the hardest hitting guy in the house. He did a lot of talking about how he knocks people out and no one could stand with him. Then what happens when he fights? He comes out with a ridiculous stance and is dropped with the first punch that Matt throws. Matt jumps on his back and chokes him out. Marlon talks about how it was a lucky punch. There is no such thing as a lucky punch, unless luck is Matt waiting for Marlon to drop his right hand and then hitting him on the chin. And he was out cold, so he definitely can’t claim he has only been knocked out once before. My count is now six fake and two real ... so maybe Marlon shouldn’t tell so many stories.

[dallaskd]

GO team penn!! :clap

2 good wins.

[dallaskd]

andy wang is a pussy.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Thanks for posting, Leonard. Joe provides some good insight.

[dallaskd]

Marlon is the biggest liar ever! wayne weems is a fagg!!!!!!!!

[ATRAIN]

Man i have missed most of this season. I might have to go and download it or wait till Spike has one of those all day marathons.......does anyone know when they usually have it. I think its right before the finals. How far into it are they....I saw like the first 3 episodes.

[LEONARD]

Man i have missed most of this season. I might have to go and download it or wait till Spike has one of those all day marathons.......does anyone know when they usually have it. I think its right before the finals. How far into it are they....I saw like the first 3 episodes.

Honestly, you haven't missed shit man...just pick it up now. The douche bags are gone for the most part, so there should be good matchups left.

and they'll have an all-day marathon just before the finale in June...

[ATRAIN]

well I got most of them DVR'ed so yeah ill pick it back up. I heard the next UF is going to have Matt Sera and Matt Hughes as the coaches which will lead up to thier title fight. Sera is a great coach.

[LEONARD]

TUF 5's Gabe Ruediger appears to be being added to the K1 card on June 2nd...
http://www.ufcdaily.com/2007/05/24/update-ruediger-nearly-cleared-for-k1-bout/

This week's backyard brawl preview...
http://ufcmania.com/2007/05/24/tuf-5-preview-backyards-are-for-more-than-just-bbqs/

[LEONARD]

:lol

http://picsorban.com/upload/credit_to_meathook.gif

[desflood]

Ice cream cake!

[dallaskd]

whats with the cake? is that gabe?

[IX_Equilibrium]

This week's backyard brawl preview...
http://ufcmania.com/2007/05/24/tuf-5-preview-backyards-are-for-more-than-just-bbqs/


You posted a fucking spoiler??? :cuss

[dallaskd]

You posted a fucking spoiler??? :cuss

thats why i didnt watch it.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Marlon Sims is fucking trash. He is completely delusional and started that whole mess.

Lauzon dominated that fight. I think without the illegal elbow, the outcome would have been the same.

[LEONARD]

No loss with all 3 of those guys getting the boot...

Joe definitely had that fight handled, although Cole Miller has a little more than I expected. I thought he had him in the first 30 seconds...


You posted a fucking spoiler??? :cuss

I guess...it was little more than what was shown on the preview last week, and I think I was pretty clear about what it was... :p


whats with the cake? is that gabe?

yes

Cake > Gabe

[IX_Equilibrium]

I guess

You know better than that.

[LEONARD]

You know better than that.

You really consider that clip a big deal??

I'd never post a true spoiler without a clear warning. That was barely more than last week's preview....

[LEONARD]

Joe's blog for this week...

Week 8: Fighting inside and outside the Octagon
By Joe Lauzon
Friday, May 25, 2007 - Updated: 05:12 AM EST

Brockton native Joe Lauzon, a UFC lightweight fighter and member of the cast of TUF 5, will give exclusive insight to bostonherald.com readers following each week’s episode. Here is his commentary on Episode 8.

This week on the Ultimate Fighter we have two fights. One is the first quarterfinal of the tournament, while the other is between two guys who have just lost, and are frustrated being in the house.

Fight picks were a little different this time around. Rather than teams winning and getting momentum, all the matchups were determined at once in the beginning. Dana, Jens and BJ had a meeting and decided on the best fights. That much you saw. Here’s what you didn’t see: Each fighter that won their first fight had a very brief sitdown with Dana and the coaches on who they wanted to fight.

Going into the second round, I wanted to fight Brandon or Manny. I thought both fights were good pairings for me. Brandon is a striker without a lot on the ground, while Manny is good on the ground, but I thought I could get the takedown and put him on the fence. I wanted to avoid Corey because he is so tall and can make anyone look bad. I would rather not fight Diaz because he is a real bad matchup for me stylistically, being real tall and a southpaw with great boxing. He is also very good on the ground once I get it there. I think we all saw Nate as the top guy on Team Pulver, so I don’t think anyone really wanted to fight him, but I don’t think anyone was scared of him either.

The first fight they announced was me and Cole.I was happy with this fight because I thought I’d be able to control the pace as Cole’s biggest weakness is his wrestling. I worked with Cole a little bit on evaluation day doing some grappling, and he felt as I had thought he would. He had long legs but wasn’t very strong. He had good hip movement, so submissions and sweeps were constantly coming, but I felt comfortable that I could stay out of those while beating him up on the ground and making it a fight and not a grappling match. Team Pulver knew that one of them would have to face their own and BJ had said that everyone on both sides were saying they wanted to fight Cole. I was happy to have the fight because a fight between Cole and I had been talked about since long before either of us even thought of getting on the show. A lot of people would get to see a fight that had been talked about in-depth.

I thought Gray fighting Brandon was a great thing for us. Brandon was the biggest guy in the house but Gray would be able to take him down and keep him there. Brandon has better standup but it doesn’t matter when you have a three-time Division 1 All-American trying to get you down. I thought Brandon was a good matchup for any of our guys, because we were all good on the ground and would all hopefully be able to get the fight down and keep it there.

I was happy to see Nate and Corey fighting because it meant we wouldn’t have to deal with either of them this round. One would knock the other out, and it was a win-win situation for us. Nate said he knew that none of us wanted to fight him or Corey, and he was right. In a tournament like this, you would rather have an easier fight so you can go into the next round rested and healthy. Matching up two of their best guys was great for us.

Matt and Manny was almost set in stone before the coaches sat down with Dana. Manny was very clear that he didn’t like Wiman, and he told them that was the only fight he wanted. They just rubbed one another the wrong way and it was apparent in the house. Matt is kind of the type to tell you how you should do things, while Manny is the type to tell you to do everything how you want and forget about everyone else. I like both guys, but I can see how they could annoy each other a little bit. I thought this was another good fight for Team Penn because Matt has a lot of height and reach on Manny, and he has no problem standing. He could keep Manny away with punches and then stop the takedowns. He would have to stay clear of the clinch stuff so Manny didn’t throw him on his head, but it gave us a clear game plan, which is always good when entering a fight.

We are at a point now where there are eight still focused on fighting while the seven other guys are just trying to deal with life in the house and having a good time. A lot of the guys were drinking and, as is often the case, guys get a little confrontational and bad things happen. In this instance, it was a brawl between Marlon and Noah. I am never one to give someone a hard time about losing a fight, because we all lose and it’s going to happen sooner or later. There is no point in kicking someone when they are down and it’s usually uncalled for. However, I usually don’t talk myself up and make all of these ridiculous claims either. Marlon made a lot of claims about how hard hitting he was and how he will knock people out, and talking about this and that ... and then he got dropped with the first punch of the fight while hanging his chin out, and was choked unconscious in no time. When you make big claims and fall drastically short you are going to hear about it on the back end. That’s basically what happened at the house sitting around the fire.

Less than two days after being crushed by Matt, Marlon was already trying to build himself up and talk about how he and Weems (who had their fights stopped by the referee) were better than Noah and Allen (who tapped out). Marlon, for some reason, thinks it’s better to lose by TKO or being choked unconscious, than to tap out because you know you are caught. I have always had an internal debate on what’s better: tapping out or going to sleep in the middle of the cage to be woken up in front of everyone. Getting choked unconscious can be embarrassing, but I think it’s worth holding out and trying to get out with your last bit of effort because it could be the difference between getting out and possibly winning, or losing outright. However, Marlon is now trying to make his loss out to be better than Noah’s, who would have been in a serious world of hurt and rehab had he not tapped, and had serious damage done to his shoulder.

It was a transparent ploy, and the guys weren’t hearing it. Marlon says he will never tap in a fight. His career in MMA will be short-lived because sooner or later he will be caught in something that will do serious damage and he will be badly hurt. Or he will be shown to be a liar like the rest of his stories, and tap. Either way, he looks like an idiot.

As talking went on, Noah brought up how Marlon lasted 50 seconds and Marlon didn’t like it, and flipped the chair Noah was sitting in. Both guys started taking off clothes and microphones and were ready to throw down. I think everyone was so bored that this was just something new and exciting to do in the house, so no one really cared what happened. Allen was a huge instigator in the whole thing and was really pushing for them to fight. Saying things like, “Are you ready?” and “Let’s get it on!” really isn’t the best idea in that situation. It could cause someone to directly draw comparisons between the UFC and mindless brawling. The UFC has tried to separate itself from these stereotypes for years and, as the show and sport start getting mainstream attention, Marlon, Noah and Monstah do something stupid that could undo that.

The actual fight has been called the “most technical street fight ever” by one Cole Miller. We had takedowns, ground and pound, submissions, slams, punching and kicking combinations, but it was still a stupid street fight. Noah got a decent-sized cut on the back of his head, but he was lucky that’s all that happened. After they fought, both guys were cool to one another, and Marlon even went to the point of signing Noah’s shirt, which was covered in fresh blood.

I knew Noah and Marlon were going home. They had to set a precedent. The only rules we really had were:1) Don’t leave the house except to train, and 2) Don’t fight in the house. If people had left the house they would have gotten the boot, and the UFC can’t have people fighting in the house. Both guys were rightfully sent home. Going one step further, Dana sent Allen home too, which I didn’t expect, but I had to agree with after the fact. Allen had as much, if not more, to do with it than the guys that fought, because if he wasn’t so actively egging it on, both guys would have most likely gone their own ways and left each other alone.Anyway, you hate to see that, but now there were three less distractions in the house for the eight of us remaining.

I was very excited for my fight with Cole. As I said, I had worked out with Cole in evaluations, and was actually friends with him before the show. We had talked prior and he told me about how he doesn’t come up with a unique strategy for any fight. He goes out there and tries to kill them with standup. As they try to take him down he tries to guillotine, and then if he ends up on his back he has a great guard and an even better triangle. I don’t think he has the best standup, but I wanted to take him down because I didn’t want to deal with his long arms and legs. I was going to be wary of the guillotine as I went in for the takedown. Once on the ground, I would be OK, but the guillotine was the biggest threat on my mind as I headed in. I worked a lot with Tony on posture and keeping my head safe, and working out of them.

Everything we had done in fight preparation paid off. We worked on covering up as Cole closed the distance, we worked on takedowns and keeping my head safe, and we worked on a lot of ground and pound from the open guard. The fight started and Cole threw a kick right off the beginning. This was one of our “indicators” to shoot, because his base would be weaker with only one foot on the ground. Unfortunately for me, I shot in at a weird angle and gave Cole my back as the fight started. Immediately I am thinking, ‘Wow, that was dumb.’

He had my back and was trying to work the choke, but I never felt in danger. I wasn’t being hit, and it wasn’t the first time someone had my back. I made progress when I got my back to the mat and Cole took mount. You never want to be mounted, unless it means getting someone off your back. I went for his leg the first time, and thought I had the lock, but he managed to work out and remained on top from the scramble. I went for his leg again and this time used it to get on top. Once on top, I was constantly dodging triangle chokes and armlocks, while landing good punches and elbows. I felt in control throughout the rest of the round, but had trouble passing his guard. Cole moves his hips very well and gave me some trouble, but I was happy to sit in his guard and land shots. At one point Cole and I were actually talking. He said something like, “This is so much fun,” and I threw a couple quick punches and said, “I could do this all day long.”

In the second round, Cole tries to kick again, and, as it is an “indicator,”I went for the takedown. I spend a few minutes on top trying to pass. I eventually start to pass his guard and he turns up for a single leg. I stop him from getting up to base, and I am thinking about a story BJ was telling us. He was telling us about when he fought Caol Uno, he was in half guard and got hit with a really good elbow to the side of the head and it made him snap into it and realize he was really in a fight. For some reason, that was all I was thinking about, and I saw an opening and threw an elbow at Cole. When I threw this elbow, it hit Cole right in the back of the head and took the life out of him. He let out a whimper, and I knew he was hurt. I wasn’t trying to hit him in the back of the head, but it happened. I would never try to break the rules -- you can actually hear me get warned about hitting Cole in the back of the head with a punch and I adjust and throw another punch and ask, ‘Is that okay?’ and the ref tells me it’s OK. It sucks that it happened, but it did, and I was penalized a point.

Cole was given time to recover, but it gave me time to rest too. I knew his head would be bothering him and he wouldn’t be feeling well, so when we restarted I went after him with everything. The five-minute break was actually a help to me, too, because I got a second wind and was able to go after him harder. I ran across the ring chasing him down, throwing punches and took him down again. Once down this time, Cole was weak and was hardly fighting back. He was hanging on and trying to tough it out, but there was very little he could do. I looked up at the ref once or twice to end it, but he let it go a little longer before calling an end to the fight.

It really sucks winning a fight when it’s not clean, but not as much as it sucks to lose when it’s not clean. I have been on the losing end of a few fights like that, and all you think about is, “Well, if that didn’t happen, could I have won?” It will haunt you for a long time, and I am sorry it happened to Cole. Things happen sometimes that are out of your control, and this was one of those cases. I talk with Cole all the time and he is cool with it, but I’m sure it bothers him a little bit. That’s how it goes sometimes though.

Thanks for reading.

[IX_Equilibrium]

Joe is a great guy. He is already a great fighter and is so young. Could you imagine him and Roger Huerta fighting in a couple of years?

[dallaskd]

Im loving the second round matchups. that brawl was shit. both guys are idiots. noah could have avoided it if he walked away AND if he didnt throw that cheap shot kick. If they want to fight, set something up with the coaches. both threw some cheap shots. im glad monster got thrown out to. Finally, the idiots are out. Literally! Too bad the fight had to change with that elbow. Id like to see Cole Miller somehow get a shot to get back in.

[dallaskd]

Marlon Sims is fucking trash. He is completely delusional and started that whole mess.

Lauzon dominated that fight. I think without the illegal elbow, the outcome would have been the same.

yeah joe was clearly winning the bout, but it was a great fight. in my mind it was the best one so far. corey vs nate should be very entertaining. the tequila had some of the blame, but come on marlon, grow up. hey, we finally saw one of his famous street fights. :lol

[LEONARD]

Funny article about, Wayne Weems...or should I say "Nathan Ironside" the pro wrestler...
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman/publish/article_507.shtml

and his bunk record...

"Also why does Wayne Weems (a.k.a. Nathan Ironside) have IWAI listed as one of the companies he won a MMA fight for? Are you booking MMA fights illegally? Or do you have a license?
Or is he just lying about it too pad his experience? And against "Trip Shatfires", kind of reminds me of Tripp Strychnine for some reason, and what do you know this was Trip's only fight...
http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?fighterID=10769"

Several other odd instances with wins over other "pro wrestlers" who are now 0-1 in MMA...

How could Dana not check this guy out a little better? What a waste of a slot on the show... :nope

[LEONARD]

Joe Lauzon on the kick that "dropped him"
http://mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=ListMessages&PID=1&TID=1057325&FID=1

[LEONARD]

The backyard brawlers have been matched up on the TUF 5 Finale card already...

http://ufcmania.com/2007/05/30/tuf-5-finale-marlon-sims-and-noah-thomas-set-to-fight-again/

http://blogs.chron.com/fighting/2007/05/ufc_swings_misses_in_staging_s.html#comments

Just goes to show that Dana is all about ratings and money...

[LEONARD]

Not a big surprise in the fight last night...and it looks like Nate Diaz gets smart next week and starts training with BJ :lol

[LEONARD]

Joe's week 9 blog

Week 9: Going behind the scenes
By Joe Lauzon
Friday, June 1, 2007 - Updated: 12:08 AM EST

There are different views that someone could have based on the six-week experience we had living in that house. There is seeing everything that happened with Team Penn, everything that happened with Team Pulver, and then what the viewers see -- which is just a little bit of each side.

I was fortunate enough to see everything that happened with Team Penn, and now I am seeing some of the gaps filled in with Team Pulver. I don’t think anyone on Team Penn knew about the issues Brandon was going through. At the time, we didn’t know about his hand and we definitely didn’t know about the problems he was having with Jens. There were times when Brandon seemed really pissed off around the house, but I just always assumed it was from trying to keep his weight down.

One day in practice, BJ and Gray were sparring pretty hard. They were both out there trying to kill one another and really going back and forth. I think Gray got a scratch on his nose that was bleeding, and Rudy wanted to stop it, but Gray waslike, “No, no, no ... I am good. Keep going!” So they kept going back and forth. It was definitely getting more competitive between them and it was a little beyond the scope of where it started. It escalated, but it was a good escalation. I was a little taken aback though, because BJ is up on this level -- above and beyond anything I had ever experienced -- and then there is Gray giving him all kinds of trouble. I’m sure BJ could have really poured it on and taken control, but I was just like, “Wow. Gray is an animal!”

We had “Captain America” Randy Couture serve as a guest coach for the day. He showed us all kinds of great stuff, and it was amazing being able to work out with him. Until you lock up with Randy, you really have no idea how dense and skilled he is. I had a huge amount of respect for him, but it jumped up a few levels after working with him.

I actually got to drill takedowns and throw Randy Couture. Did he let me? One hundred percent. But I will leave that part out when I use the following line: “So, uh, I threw Randy Couture from the clinch. No big deal.”

Regardless, who else can say they got to work Greco with Randy for a few hours? It was great for Gray, too, because Randy is his normal trainer and coach. Seeing someone familiar when you are alone and cut off from the world was great for his spirits, and in turn, that raised all of ours. When Randy walked in, it was like seeing Gray on Christmas when he got his first pair of wrestling shoes.

Brandon had a tough time cutting weight, but Wang was there to help him through it all. I’m sure Andy has been catching a lot of aggravation about how his fight went down and being kicked off Team Penn, but you really get to see who Andy is in this episode. Here is a guy that was eliminated from the competition and he is doing everything in his power to help the guy that beat him make weight for his next fight. Wang could have been bitter or upset about losing, but instead he is committed to helping Brandon. That’s the kind of teammate you want with you when you are cutting weight and it starts getting tough. I had a lot of respect for Andy after seeing that.

The fight between Brandon and Gray seemed a lot closer when it was happening. I still think the fight was very competitive, but I was in shock when Brandon was getting back to his feet over and over. I think everyone on Team Penn expected Gray to take him down and keep him there for the rest of the fight, but Brandon surprised us all. In the end though, Gray kept taking him down and showed how much of a workhorse he is. He exhibited the drive that carried him to all those wrestling accolades in high school and college. Brandon seemed to fatigue as the fight went on, which I am sure had a lot to do with cutting so much weight. The pace of the fight was real fast too, but you can’t cut that much weight and expect to carry a pace like that for very long. While trying to get back to his feet Brandon left his neck exposed and Gray took advantage of it. As Manny said though, “That was a crazy-ass fight, bro.”

I’ll be back next week with the lowdown on the next quarterfinal matchup.Until then, thanks for reading.

[djohn14]

Did anyone else catch that when they said Karo and Manny were cousins?

[LEONARD]

Did anyone else catch that when they said Karo and Manny were cousins?

:reading


Definitely...how is 6'5" 155 even possible? He doesn't look THAT skinny like I expected. I want to see him vs Karo Pariysan's cousin who is 5'3" :lol

;)

Manny was Karo's cornerman at UFC 71...

[dallaskd]

A little late...Man that was a great fight between Gray and Brandon. Melindez did more than i expected after having to cut about 10 lbs in a couple days.

[dallaskd]

lmao @cole and nate

[IX_Equilibrium]

I can't believe Jens made Melendez cry.

[Evan]

Did anyone else catch that when they said Karo and Manny were cousins?

Yeah. They certainly look nothing alike. This season has some great talent and I suspect the will use the cast offs to stock the WEC. Great way for exposure without flooding the UFC. I am not an anti TUF guy but it bothers me sometimes seeing do many cast offs on cards.

[dallaskd]

on ufc.com it says episode 10 reairs on thursday. when did it originally air?

[LEONARD]

Tomorrow night is a new episode...

[IX_Equilibrium]

Tomorrow night is a new episode...


Guess I'll have to Tivo it. I'll be at a bar watching the Spurs!!!!!

[desflood]

Dana White: Marlon Sims vs. Noah Thomas Fight Cancelled

Posted by UFC Junkie on June 7, 2007 at 9:14 am ET

The Ultimate Fighter 5‘s Noah Thomas and Marlon Sims — cast members who earned famed from a backyard brawl and not from their lopsided defeats in the Octagon — will not fight at The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale as the UFC first announced.

That’s the word from the Houston Chronicle‘s Steve Sievert, who recently spoke to UFC president Dana White.

Sims and Thomas both lost their preliminary fights on the television series. However, the show’s producers decided to let eliminated contestants remain in the house, and the two fighters eventually brawled in the season’s eighth episode. The fight included cheap shots from both fighters, and Sims even dropped Thomas — twice — on pavement in an attempt to break free from an armbar. White quickly kicked Sims and Thomas — and ring leader Allen Berube — off the show.

The episode was tough to watch, and it did little to further the UFC’s goal of portraying MMA as a legitimate sport. That’s why the UFC’s follow-up press release stating the two fighters would fight in the show’s finale was met with widespread criticism.

White, though, put the blame squarely on Spike TV, which will broadcast the event on June 23. In fact, White said that not only will the two fighters not take part in the finale, they won’t fight in the UFC — ever.

“They’re not fighting on the finale,” said UFC President Dana White. “Not only are they not fighting in the finale, they’ll never fight in the UFC. Spike wanted that fight. It ain’t gonna happen. No (expletive) way is that fight going to happen. Those guys will never fight in the UFC — ever.“

White told Brawl Sports today that the news release issued by Spike on May 29 announcing the fight and the “second chance” granted to the backyard brawlers was “a huge mistake.“

“Mistakes happen. I didn’t find out about it until yesterday. We make mistakes over here … it’s unfortunate.“

For the full story — including Sievert’s personal thoughts on White’s position — check out the Brawl Sports blog.

[Evan]

Now thats interesting. This says a lot about the UFC - Spike relationship.

I have always wondered exactly how much pull Spike had any over UFN / Season finale fight cards.

I know the impression is Dana rules all but you never know exactly since TV producers aren't going to call him out publically for behind the scenes decisions. So this shows Spike has a lot of pull since Spike thought they could get away with this without checking with the UFC first, they even went as far as to promote it.

So this tells me they have designed some fights on cards before without the UFC having to give the green light. But obviously they don't have the the final word on cards if the UFC thinks they made a bad choice.

[LEONARD]

Glad to know that they won't be on the card...or in the UFC. Having them on the card would make Dana look like a chump...

More Marlon Sims streetfighting stories...
http://mmafever.blogspot.com/2007/06/marlon-sims-tells-another-story.html

[IX_Equilibrium]

Just goes to show that Dana is all about ratings and money...


not so fast!

[ATRAIN]

Yeah even though it prob would be a bigger draw for Spike, what they did was pretty jacked up. It was a loppsided fight too, would be boring on tv.........maybe :).

[Chamiliatic]

Funny article about, Wayne Weems...or should I say "Nathan Ironside" the pro wrestler...
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman/publish/article_507.shtml

and his bunk record...

"Also why does Wayne Weems (a.k.a. Nathan Ironside) have IWAI listed as one of the companies he won a MMA fight for? Are you booking MMA fights illegally? Or do you have a license?
Or is he just lying about it too pad his experience? And against "Trip Shatfires", kind of reminds me of Tripp Strychnine for some reason, and what do you know this was Trip's only fight...
http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?fighterID=10769"

Several other odd instances with wins over other "pro wrestlers" who are now 0-1 in MMA...

How could Dana not check this guy out a little better? What a waste of a slot on the show... :nope


I only registered this so I can speak this one thing. This is Tripp Strychnine from the IWAI. I personally have the tape of the match from October 21st, 2006 where I did lose a W R E S T L I N G match to Nathan Ironside, in 12 minutes and 30 seconds (roughly) by submission. He also, about ripped my left shoulder of of it's socket, straight from the get go. In all honesty, this shit has got to stop. Any further questions, or comments, hit me up at [email protected] or myspace at myspace.com/trippstrychnine THanks.

[ATRAIN]

Damn my DVR cut off.........what is going to happen next week with Parisyan picking on Nate? DAMN I cant stand Parisyan.

[LEONARD]

I only registered this so I can speak this one thing. This is Tripp Strychnine from the IWAI. I personally have the tape of the match from October 21st, 2006 where I did lose a W R E S T L I N G match to Nathan Ironside, in 12 minutes and 30 seconds (roughly) by submission. He also, about ripped my left shoulder of of it's socket, straight from the get go. In all honesty, this shit has got to stop. Any further questions, or comments, hit me up at [email protected] or myspace at myspace.com/trippstrychnine THanks.

Wow!! :lol


Damn my DVR cut off.........what is going to happen next week with Parisyan picking on Nate? DAMN I cant stand Parisyan.

Probably just some trash talk...sounds like Nate will be fighting Manny...

[ATRAIN]

I hope so, I cant stand Manny. I would like to see Nate and Lauzon in the finals.

[LEONARD]

Week 10: Getting down to the Final 4
By Joe Lauzon
Friday, June 8, 2007 - Updated: 08:05 PM EST

I thought this week’s episode was pretty good. When I saw it the first time, I was out and saw it without audio. I could see everything unfolding with Diaz going to our practice and Jens and people not being happy about it. But I kind of knew what the deal was from actually living in that house. I didn’t get to actually hear everything that was said though, and it was interesting watching this episode the second time and hearing exactly what people thought. I also completely missed Corey talking to himself in the sauna, which was awesome to hear the second time I watched it because I had no idea.

I said in my Week 3 blog: “Corey is a mad man, in a good way.” I think it really shows this week when he is sitting in the sauna all alone, talking to himself. Corey was an interesting person to have in the house because he would be so low key and relaxed sometimes, and even acting like a counselor with Manny trying to calm him down after the whole “writing on the wall” incident. Next thing you know, he is barking at people and talking to himself in the sauna. Corey is out of his mind ... but in a good way.

I can fully understand why Nate didn’t like being around Corey. I am fine being around people I will be fighting, but some people like to get into that “This is war” mindset and not talk to the other person, be around them, or even see them. Living in a house with someone is one thing, but you can stay away from one another and it’s not a big deal. Trying to practice in the same gym as them though, or riding in the same van, would be really tough. You are constantly walking on egg shells in everything you do and have to always be thinking about what the other person will hear or see. That’s not the way to prepare for a fight.

One morning when we were getting up for practice, I saw a note in the kitchen that said, “Wake up Nate.”At first, I thought it was a joke and Cole or someone just wanted Nate to be woken up early. I didn’t know what to do, so I started asking the other guys. They said that Nate was going to come and work out with us. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the idea. I like

Nate a lot, and got along with him great in the house, but after this fight, Gray or I have a very good chance of fighting him. I didn’t like the idea of training with someone we would be fighting next week. On top of that, I had a few injuries I was trying to keep real quiet and didn’t want anyone on Team Pulver to know about.

Now I don’t think Nate would go running back to his team and telling them, “Oh, Joe had his ankle and wrist taped up. He must be hurt.” However, if he saw, then he knows, which would matter if we fought in the next round.

Nate is one of the coolest guys in the house, and I wish I had more opportunity to train with him. When he came to our practice, he rolled with B.J. a little bit, and then he grappled and wrestled with Gray. From Day 1, we all knew we could end up fighting teammates and training partners down the line, but this is really getting down to the wire now. You go from having to fight one of 16 guys, to fighting one of four guys. I would have avoided guys I would be fighting like the plague. To be honest, even within Team Penn we didn’t train a ton with one another. We would drill and do rounds with each other but also with B.J., Reagan and Tony. So rather than me doing a round with Emerson, then a round with Gray, then a round with Wiman, I would roll with Reagan, then Tony, then B.J., then maybe Emerson or someone. I don’t think it was a conscious decision by anyone, but that is how it would usually play out.

The fight between Nate and Corey showed a whole new Corey Hill. He came out aggressive and was moving all over the place. Maybe he had more confidence from training with Nate and knowing more of what to expect, or maybe it was that Corey had doubled his ring experience in the short time we were there. In either case, Corey came out and put it on Nate from the start.

Corey was controlling the fight and throwing Nate around. Nate would rather sit there and pick away at you, while Corey comes rushing in, throwing bombs. I would imagine it was also one of the first times Nate fought someone with a reach advantage. You could see him trying to stay back and pick shots, while Corey was just outside his range and landing punches of his own. In the end, though, Nate started to take over and as Corey shot in, Nate made him pay for leaving his neck hanging.

Jens said it best: “Expect big things out of Corey Hill.” I think we all expect big things out of Corey. With such limited experience, he was able to come in and do well, not just in his fights but also in training. Everyone from Team Pulver had great things to say about Corey from his work ethic to how explosive he was. He really is a piece of clay that is going to be a nightmare for a lot of people. Even with just a wrestling base, and his physical attributes, he gave a lot of guys problems. Once he learns a little Jiu-Jitsu ... watch out.

From the beginning, Manny hated Wiman. Matt would just rub him the wrong way when he would talk about himself or whatever else. Manny is all about letting your actions do the talking and not hyping yourself. I had talked to Manny a few times and he would say how arrogant Matt was, and how he couldn’t wait to fight him and shut him up. To an extent, I can see where Manny is coming from, but if you are here as a fighter you have to have a lot of confidence or you will get run over. Sometimes the difference between confidence and arrogance is a fine line, but Manny thought Matt was crossing it. Manny wanted nothing more than to make “Handsome Matt Wiman” not so much.

At the same time, Wiman hated Manny just as much. Maybe it was the singing, maybe it was Manny leaving out eggs and cream cheese and other things all the time. I really don’t know. I would ask Matt what his problem was and he would just say, “Everything about him. I just want to smash him.” So the dislike was mutual and it made a lot of sense for this fight to happen. (And as a side note, the only verb I use when talking about fighting is “smash.” Damn you, Wiman.)

I thought it was pretty cool for Karo to come and be a guest coach with Team Pulver. It may not have been the most fair thing for Manny to have his cousin around, but Gray had Randy for a day too. Karo was in longer while Randy was just in for a few hours, but it’s really not a big deal. I would have loved to have my brother come in and train for a few days, but that’s just how itgoes.

I thought the fight between Manny and Wiman was pretty good. Manny is very good at doing what he needs in order to win the fight. Manny controlled the action, but I agree with Matt that he didn’t do a lot of damage. Unfortunately for Matt, he did even less. I think losing to Manny was real hard for Matt because he takes a lot of pride in what he does, and seeing “that little bastard” around the house was tough for him.

At least we have two guys from each time in the semis though. Next week should be exciting.

[LEONARD]

Catch up on TUF 5 in 16 minutes... :fro
http://sprawlnbrawl.blogspot.com/2007/06/tuf-5-in-16-minutes.html

Leonard Garcia vs Allen “Monstah” Berube on the TUF 5 Finale. Garcia is going to smash Berube, aka "Monsta" or "Lobsta" from TUF 5. Dana is punishing him for the backyard brawl by having him fight Garcia...

[dallaskd]

Manny is good, but i expect lauzon to beat him in the finals. I still would like to see Cole Miller fight again in the UFC.

[Evan]

Lauzon is my pick as well.

If Manny doesn't win he will probably fight at 170, maybe 185. Supposedly his last fight before TUF was at 205 which is insane for his height.

[LEONARD]

Hmmm...so they don't matchup the teammates on Thursday night's episode...

[ATRAIN]

IS today's episode the last of the season?

[LEONARD]

I thought they were showing 2 fights, but I think it's just one based on the preview. The last will be shown next Thurs I guess...

[Evan]

I think 2, then the live finale. I could have sworn they advertised tonights as 2 fights but now I am not so sure.

[desflood]

From UFCjunkie.com:

Manny Gambaryan will face Joe Lauzon in the first episode, and Nate Diaz will face Gray Maynard in the second episode during tonight’s back-to-back semi-final episodes of The Ultimate Fighter 5.

[LEONARD]

Thanks man...I saw that my DVR was trying to record 2, but I thought they were just showing the same episode back to back.

[Evan]

Ah that makes sense. Didn't they do the same thing in season 3?

[ATRAIN]

I think so...its been so long I dont remember :).

[Evan]

I thought it was a good season. I had picked Joe and Nate to make it to the finale but once I saw Manny I had him in the running. I was certain Joe would make it but he looked so lost last night. Kid has skills and I hope he trains full time. Very good season.

I would also like to thank the F-ER who ruined the season for me on Sherdog 6 episodes ago while I was in a non TUF thread no less. I have been hoping he was wrong but as the season went on it just cemented the spoilers he gave us with no warning. I was still able to enjoy it somewhat.

Its going to be fun writing a preview for the finale, should be an excellent show...and for free nonetheless.

[desflood]

Honestly, I figured Gray to be one of the finalists, but Nate Diaz really put it out there and earned his spot. The finale will definitely be an interesting one - with Diaz's big reach advantage and Manny's obvious strength advantage. They're like Mutt and Jeff.

My favorite part of the night was the ping-pong game, though. Rack up another victory for Team Pulver :clap

[Evan]

I admit I only picked Nate because of his brother.

[LEONARD]

I really wanted to see Joe vs Nate in the final, but Manny vs Nate will be good too...especially since Karo hates Nate now :lol

I can't wait for BJ to wipe the mat with Jens... :fro

[desflood]

Psychologically speaking, as far as Jens is concerned, a loss to BJ Penn would represent a lot more than just a loss to BJ Penn, if that makes any sense to you. If Pulver loses he'll probably end up retiring. I like the little guy, I have to cheer him on.

[Evan]

I get what your saying desflood, makes sense to me. Jens mentioned last night he almost retired and turned to full time coaching.

BJ though is a very wealthy man. He comes from a very rich family so if he reitres no big deal to him.

[desflood]

I think it goes even deeper than that into his psyche. Evan, you mentioned you read Jens's book? I believe he equates BJ and his father together in some small way - their attitude toward his (Jens) worth as a person.

At any rate, if Pulver retires, you know he'd always have a job in the Miletich gym if he wanted it. He definitely wouldn't be left out in the cold.

[LEONARD]

Penn needs to get back on the winning track. He's only 28 yrs old (pulver is 32) and there are tons of big fights ahead of him, whether at LW or WW.

Penn - Gomi 2
Penn - Aoki
Penn - Karo
Penn - GSP 2
Penn - Hughes 3

I'd love to see all of those...I'm onboard with any Penn fight really.

Pulver? Who knows what he's got left. I don't mind watching him fight, but he doesn't do as much for me as watching Penn...

[desflood]

I like watching BJ fight, but I can't get over my impression of him as a punky, spoiled rich kid pissing away his talent because of a lack of mental discipline.

[LEONARD]

I like watching BJ fight, but I can't get over my impression of him as a punky, spoiled rich kid pissing away his talent because of a lack of mental discipline.

He is a punky, spoiled rich kid (I find humor in his attitude though), but I don't think he's necessarily pissed away his talent. The GSP fight was a bad fight for him cardio-wise and I think he got that fixed for the Hughes fight, before suffering the odd rib injury.

If he gases after one round in another fight, I'll probably give up on the guy. For now, I want to see him make a "comeback" and take the WW and LW belts...

[ATRAIN]

Hey I didnt get to see it, what happened with Karo and Nate?

[Evan]

@ deslfood. I hear ya. I totally agree with you. And I do believe he has deep hatred for BJ, equating him with his father is a huge deal. His father sounds like he was one of the most misrable humans to be around.

And for fighting Gomi, I am stating to really worry about PRIDE fighters. These guys are all going to need "shake the rust off" fights, maybe a few of them. Fighters state time and time again that while resting repairs some injuries you must keep fighting to stay sharp. Gyms aren't enough. Thrown out or not that fight with Diaz must have really screwed with Gomi and he has been doing nothing but collecting dust after a serious loss. It has to be eating away at him and many others. Clock is ticking.

[LEONARD]

Week 11: A lesson learned
By Joe Lauzon
Friday, June 15, 2007

(Brockton native Joe Lauzon, a UFC lightweight fighter and member of the cast of TUF 5, will give exclusive insight to bostonherald.com readers following each week’s episode. Here is his commentary on Thursday night’s two-hour episode — episodes 11 and 12.)

Nate and Karo had some “issues” in the Team Pulver locker room after Manny won his fight. Karo was complaining to the Team Pulver corner that they pissed him off because they should have been quiet so he could yell instructions to Manny from the audience in Armenian. That’s pretty ballsy to complain to Manny’s corner that they should keep their mouths shut so he can yell instructions from the side. Diaz jokingly says, “You’re the new guy here,” and played it off, being cool. Karo started on Diaz and kept giving him a hard time, talking down to him and putting his hands all over him.

Nate wasn’t happy about Karo’s persistence and was 100 percent ready to throw down. Who does Karo think he is? He’s saying, “Who are you? Do you even know me? Do you know who I am?” When someone is saying things like that, you know they are arrogant and need someone to rein them in.

Fortunately, everything was cool between Manny and Nate regardless of what happened with Karo. From the Team Penn dressing room, we could hear something was going on between Karo and Diaz, and we figured it had something to do with how Nate’s brother had lost a real close decision to Karo. I guess that wasn’t the start of the problems, but Karo was bringing it up, saying things like, “Go ask your brother what happens when you try to fight me.”

After one of my fights, Karo gave me a hard time, too. He came over and yelled across the mat something to the extent of, “Hey, nice fight,” and I just said, “Thanks.” He starts saying, “Oh, is that all you have to say to me? ‘Thanks?’ Speak up and say a little more next time.” What more do you say, though, without coming off as cocky, when someone congratulates you? “Oh yeah, I’m the man. I just won my fight with ease and killed that guy. I rule!” That’s not my style. The incident with me happened before the problems he had with Nate, so I could see where Diaz was coming from. I don’t think Karo had any problems with me, it’s just his attitude and how he comes off can rub people the wrong way.

Semifinal fights were decided at the beginning of this week’s show. We had talked amongst ourselves, and we would rather keep the team intact and not be forced to have me fight Gray. It’s just a much better situation fighting someone that you haven’t been training with twice a day, every day, for five weeks. We thought Gray matched up better with Diaz while I matched up better with Manny. Manny was actually the guy I had requested in the second round, so I kind of figured that would be taken into account when they decided fights. Jens and B.J. had a conference call with Dana and everyone liked those pairings, so that’s how it was decided. I was just happy that training could remain the same and we wouldn’t have to deal with splitting up the team or working different practices or any of the other stuff that Team Pulver had to deal with when Diaz fought Corey.

was looking forward to this week’s show more than any other, because I am always looking to improve, and this fight showed all kinds of ways I could improve. Manny beat me by decision after three rounds. I knew going into the fight that it was going to be a war.I could see the trouble that Manny gave Wiman in their fight, and there were a number of things I was concerned with, but I thought I could come up with an answer for each of them.

I was smart enough, from the outset, to take notes on every fight. As soon as each fight was over, I had a rough play-by-play of the fight, and I made notes on what each guy did well, not so well, and what they did often. For Manny, I didn’t have a lot to go off based on his fight with Noah. His fight with Wiman showed me a lot more, and confirmed some of the things I had seen in the first fight.

The first issue was his overhand right. Manny absolutely loves to come up and swing for the fences and bomb that overhand right to close the distance. He dropped Noah with it, and he caught Wiman with it a few times as well. I had to be careful of it, but I had a lot of reach and did a good job at keeping him away, so it never really played into our fight. It was something to watch out for, but I didn’t see it as a real problem.

The next thing was his height. Manny is super short and we jokingly referred to him as “the bad elf.” We were training for the fight and doing ground and pound and B.J. would be yelling, “Bad elf! Bad elf!” while I threw punches. It was kind of funny, but it’s really accurate. Manny is built like a tank, and while his reach is short, his upper body is enormous. I knew I didn’t want to get into any kind of clinch with him because he is so thick and I was worried he would throw me on my head coming from such a strong judo background. We worked in stuffing his shots in practice and working the front headlock, but come fight time I just couldn’t get it done to the point I wanted. Manny was great at closing the distance and taking me down.

The next thing I noted was his grappling and scrambling. I stuffed some of Manny’s takedowns, but I could never capitalize and get on top. He was really good at scrambling. It seemed like whenever I would make space or create an opening, he would either close it down right away or he would beat me to wherever I was trying to go. I have a very explosive style which makes for exciting fights, but I have trouble sometimes with someone that’s just trying to slow the pace and grind the fight down to a crawl.

Manny did a great job of staying safe and controlling. Like Wiman had said about his own fight, I didn’t feel like Manny did a lot of damage to me. I had a swollen lip, which I think might have been from a head butt, but I felt like I didn’t really absorb that much. Aside from my lip, I don’t think I had a mark on my face. I did a good job on bottom of staying safe and not taking damage, but I couldn’t get up or get anything going, so it wasn’t enough. Manny has short arms and no neck with a huge upper body, so I had a hell of a time trying to create any openings. Manny controlled the fight and did everything he needed in order to win the fight.

I think I was too patient in the fight and it hurt me in the long run. There have been times in the past when I have been overly aggressive and taken chances I maybe shouldn’t have. Sometimes they work out beautifully and other times they get me in trouble (shooting in too quickly on Cole at the beginning of Round 1 is a good example). I allowed Manny to control because I didn’t take enough chances for the first two rounds. In the third round, I utilized a sweep on Manny that I like a lot from the bottom of half guard. I was able to pass his guard, take side mount, then mount and finally take his back.

I got very close with the choke. So close it makes me almost sick to my stomach watching the tape and knowing how close I got before falling short. Manny has no neck and a huge upper body, so while I got under his chin and had the choke in deep, he was able to pop my elbow off and I lost back control. From there, the fight was over.

I honestly think the sweep was there the whole fight, but I was paranoid about going for it. Going for that particular sweep can leave you open to elbows and punches if it doesn’t work and you get stuck, so I wanted to try other options first. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for it in Round 1 because I would have had more time to work and maybe changed the rhythm of the fight. Hindsight is always 20/20 though, so I will remember it for next time and not cry over it now.

I try to take something positive from every fight, especially when I lose. Manny controlled the fight and 100 percent deserved the win and it’s something I will have to deal with. Could I have maybe changed the path of the fight had I gone for that sweep? Maybe. Or maybe I would have hit the sweep and Manny would have been fresher and scrambled and I never would have gotten his back, or gotten close with the choke. I was frustrated to put everything I had into winning and then fall short at the very end, but it happens and I’m not bitter about it. I said from the moment I decided to go on the show that it would be great to win, but the training experience would be the real benefit. I said something like, “All for nothing,” to B.J. after I had lost, but I don’t really feel like that. That was just a low point of, “Wow, this sucks” and I was fine 10 minutes later.

I do feel like I grew tremendously as a fighter and had my eyes opened to a lot of things, so hopefully I will do B.J. proud and show off some more things that I learned on the show with a little more refinement.

The food fight that was shown on the show really didn’t do that battle justice. We came home from training and the Pulver guys were still there because they were taking their afternoon practice off. I walk out the back door and see a piece of orange land at my feet, and Nate is standing there with a banana in his hand, waiting to throw it at Brian, who is in the pool house. I asked, “What’s going on?” and Nate was like, “Uh .... not much. Just killing some time,” and he whipped a banana at the door. For a bunch of guys that have been bored out of their mind for five weeks, this was the best thing ever.

We ran inside looking for any kind of fruit or food that could be thrown. The goldmine, though, was when I found a few bags of potatoes. We loaded up and helped with the assault. I think there were around five or six outside of the pool house, attacking Cole and Brian, who were inside. We had the numbers and were braver, so we were trying to break in through the front door, which they were looking out of. Then they set up the ping pong table and used it as a shield. Gray and I decided to go Navy Seal style and attack through the side window. We started out throwing things through but when I saw an opening I dove through the window and unleashed “potato hell” on Brian and Cole, who were cowering in the corner.

Cole ran for the bathroom while Brian just took the beating. Eventually he joined Cole in the bathroom, and I laid out, blocking the door to make sure they couldn’t escape. Meanwhile, someone — ahem, Emerson -- threw a pot through the window and sent glass everywhere. And that concluded the fruit war, and we’ll move on to the last semifinal.

Looking at Diaz as a fighter, he will give you problems no matter where the fight is. He is a southpaw with a lot of reach on most people, and has tight boxing and doesn’t overcommit. He will hit you all day from his feet and has all kinds of tricks he uses. For example, one thing he did very well was using his lead hand to grab Emerson’s fingers and throw punches from there. Little things like that can really cause problems for you in a fight. On the ground, he is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous. Nate has very tight Jiu-Jitsu and uses his long arms and legs well. He is constantly transitioning from one thing to the next and everything he does is solid.

Gray, on the other hand, is a great wrestler with hands that complement his wrestling well. He doesn’t have the best Jiu-Jitsu, but he has enough to stay out of most submissions and lay a beating on you. Gray is much stronger than Diaz, but strength isn’t everything.

The fight between Gray and Diaz was great. Gray controlled and was getting the takedowns and was winning from the top, landing big shots all over and even cutting Nate. Nate held strong though, and kept working submissions. Nate could take some big shots, but if he caught Gray in a submission, it was over. Nate got really close to some submissions throughout the first, but Gray just powered out of everything and kept landing shots. Round 1 ended and it was looking like Gray was going to take it. Round 2 starts off, and before long Gray is mounted on Nate and working a guillotine. Nate gets back on top and it’s looking bad for Gray. As Gray fights to get back to his feet and work a takedown, Nate locks in a guillotine.

I am very impressed with Nate, who won all three of his fights by submission. He finished Rob with a rear naked, Corey with a guillotine and then Gray with a guillotine. Nate was constantly moving, and even when the fight wasn’t going his way, he stayed strong, maintained his composure and came back to win. Nate Diaz is a complete badass ... end of story.

I can’t wait for the finale between Nate and Manny. I think this was the best season so far and we all did a good job of representing the lightweight division. I’m not even going to pick a winner, because I don’t want to doubt either guy. I am just going to sit back and enjoy the fight like everyone else.

[LEONARD]

The full card for the finale includes:

Main Card (Televised)

* B.J. Penn vs. Jens Pulver
* Nate Diaz (Finalist #1) vs. Manny Gambaryan (Finalist #2)
* Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans
* Thales Leites vs. Doug Sword

Undercard (May Not Be Broadcast)

* Joe Lauzon vs. Brandon Melendez
* Cole Miller vs. Andy Wang
* Rob Emerson Vs. Gray Maynard
* Allen Berube vs. Leonard Garcia
* Brian Geraghty vs. Matt Wiman

Corey Hill dropped off due to an injury.

The funny thing to me is that the only TUF 5 guy facing a non-TUF 5 guy is "lobsta" Berube. Garcia will punish him for the backyard brawl for Dana... :lol

[LEONARD]

Karo appologized for acting like an ass on TUF on Beatdown Radio today. He said that it wasn't like it seemed and that he doesn't have a problem with Nate...