**Official** TUF 5 Finale Thread

[LEONARD]

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, so I won't be around til Wed the 27th to discuss this one...

ULTIMATE FIGHTER 5 LIVE FINALE- JUNE 23, 2007 ON SPIKE TV
venue: The Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada

Main Card Bouts:
-BJ Penn (#6 WW) vs. Jens Pulver
-TUF 5 LW Tourny Final: Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Diaz
-Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans
-Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword

Preliminary Bouts:
-Joe Lauzon vs. Brandon Melendez
-Gray Maynard vs. Robert Emerson
-Leonard Garcia vs. Allen Berube
-Cole Miller vs. Andy Wang
-Matt Wiman vs. Brian Geraghty

Joe Lauzon is the swing bout...hopefully get to see it too.

Can't wait to see BJ motivated and at 155 again... :fro

[desflood]

Main Card Bouts:
-BJ Penn (#6 WW) vs. Jens Pulver
-TUF 5 LW Tourny Final: Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Diaz
-Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans
-Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword

Preliminary Bouts:
-Joe Lauzon vs. Brandon Melendez
-Gray Maynard vs. Robert Emerson
-Leonard Garcia vs. Allen Berube
-Cole Miller vs. Andy Wang
-Matt Wiman vs. Brian Geraghty

Who the hell is Floyd Sword? :lol

I know Wiman is more skilled than Geraghty, but Brian's a tough kid - and "Handsome Matt" doesn't like being hit in the face :rolleyes

[Evan]

Dude who is gonna post Friday quick hits on email? You can't leave!

[LEONARD]

LOL...I'm just hoping the hotel has Spike TV!!

See you bitches in about a week... :fro

[Evan]

enjoy!

[dallaskd]

Main Card Bouts:
-BJ Penn (#6 WW) vs. Jens Pulver
-TUF 5 LW Tourny Final: Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Diaz
-Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans
-Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword

Preliminary Bouts:
-Joe Lauzon vs. Brandon Melendez
-Gray Maynard vs. Robert Emerson
-Leonard Garcia vs. Allen Berube
-Cole Miller vs. Andy Wang
-Matt Wiman vs. Brian Geraghty

[Evan]

Lightweight Bout: Jens Pulver (21-7) vs B.J. Penn (10-4)
Lightweight Bout: Manvel Gambaryan vs Nathan Diaz
Lightweight Bout: Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans
Preliminary card:

Middleweight Bout: Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword
Lightweight Bout: Brandon Melendez vs. Joe Lauzon (I hope this makes it to TV)
Lightweight Bout: Andy Wang vs. Cole Miller
Lightweight Bout: Rob Emerson vs. Gray Maynard
Lightweight Bout: Leonard Garcia vs. Allen Berube
Lightweight Bout: Brian Geraghty vs. Matt Wiman

[cornbread]

BJ, Manvel, Huerta, Leites, Lauzon, Miller, Maynard, Garcia, Wiman

[tsb2000]

BJ Penn looked the best I'd ever seen him last night. Absolutely awesome.

[TheTruth]

Great night of fighting. Penn looked locked in last night. He was awesome. Pulver looked good on the ground for a while, but was clearly outclassed.

That no contest was crazy. Gray fucked himself up.

[Evan]

I still can't get bjpenn.com to load.

[desflood]

Nope, it's still down. BJ knocked out his own website! :lol

Maynard/Emerson was crazy. Crazy crazy crazy.

I feel for Manny Gamburyan. He clearly won the first round before suffering that freak injury.

I feel for Jens Pulver also, but if anything the end of the fight seemed to have a good effect on him. I think through this he's managed to exorcise some of his demons. Too bad Penn is going back up to 170, he looked great at 155.

[cornbread]

Spike is replaying it now.

[LEONARD]

I was able to catch Penn vs Pulver in the hotel lobby...good stuff. Penn looked great. Glad to hear he's getting the next LW title shot after Sherk-Franca at 73...

The No Contest was definitely odd...

Joe Lauzon looked good...

[LEONARD]

Un-aired prelims...high quality rips...

Wiman vs Geraghty (WMV)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dwxjcm1xlgp

Leonard Garcia vs Berube (WMV)
http://www.mediafire.com/?01twczy1ecu

[ATRAIN]

I was able to catch Penn vs Pulver in the hotel lobby...good stuff. Penn looked great. Glad to hear he's getting the next LW title shot after Sherk-Franca at 73...

The No Contest was definitely odd...

Joe Lauzon looked good...

Yeah that was my 1st no contest, and Joe did look good. I thought Penn was going back up in weight?

[LEONARD]

Yeah that was my 1st no contest, and Joe did look good. I thought Penn was going back up in weight?

Dana announced on ESPN News that he'd get the winner of Franca-Sherk...

BJ could fight at both weights from fight to fight I'm sure...

[dallaskd]

Gray was Ko'd. I think it was pretty obvious. what a break for rob.

[LEONARD]

More on the Finale's ratings...

Press release from Spike TV:

New York, NY, June 26, 2007 –The marquee match-up featuring baseball’s two most talked-about players, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, was no match for Spike TV’s telecast of the much-anticipated rematch between former UFC champions BJ Penn and Jens Pulver amongst young men on Saturday, June 23.

The Ultimate Fighter 5 finale on Spike TV drew 300,000 more Men 18-49 and 261,000 more Men 18-34 on Saturday, June 23 than the coverage of the Yankees and Giants on Fox earlier that day. In fact, during primetime, the 3-hour Spike telecast (9:00pm-Midnight) outdrew anything else on television – cable or broadcast — with Men 18-34 and 18-49.

“The reason our UFC programming consistently beats all other sports on broadcast, cable and pay tv is The Ultimate Fighter’s ability to build stars like Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz who resonate with our audience, stated Kevin Kay, General Manager, Spike TV.

Overall The Ultimate Fighter 5 finale reached 2.6 million people with a 3.0 rating in Men 18-34 (834,000), 2.6 rating in Men 18-49 (1.4 million), and a 2.00 HH rating. The telecast peaked with 3.4 million people at 11:30pm for the Penn-Pulver fight.

The UFC event also knocked out HBO’s boxing telecast of Ricky Hatton vs. Jose Luis Castillo which aired head-to-head that evening. Despite it being HBO’s most watched fight of the year for Men 18-34, Spike drew 153% more Men 18-34 and 106% more Men 18-49. Overall, the Spike finale drew 800,000 more total viewers.

Spike TV’s UFC ratings easily ran over competition from NASCAR on ESPN 2. The Ultimate Fighter 5 drew 393% more Men 18-34 and 195% more Men 18-49 than the live coverage of the Busch Series AT&T 250.

[Evan]

Interesting!

[LEONARD]

Jens to debut at WEC 30 at 145 lbs...live on Vs... :fro
http://ufcmania.com/2007/06/29/wec-30-former-ufc-champ-jens-pulver-on-the-card/

[dallaskd]

watch out 145

[LEONARD]

watch out 145

Jens is a nice addition, but Faber will handle up on him I think...and Kid Yamamoto could handle up on Faber (if that fight ever happens).

[cornbread]

I agree. I think Faber is too much for Jens to handle.

[Evan]

Lets not over rate Urijah just yet. Jens will be his toughest opponent and Urijah's ego might have over stepped his ability.

Delicious dynamic to the WEC. And as I have said before, TUF season 5 will be the WEC soon.

[dallaskd]

Jens is a nice addition, but Faber will handle up on him I think...and Kid Yamamoto could handle up on Faber (if that fight ever happens).

Norifumi is in WEC? should i feel stupid?

[LEONARD]

Norifumi is in WEC? should i feel stupid?

No, he's not yet...but Dana has said many times that he wants him signed. He was VIP / ringside at the TUF 5 Finale courtesy of Dana...

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=593874