I was looking forward to the three hour season finale tonight on SpikeTV and had mixed emotions after watching it. The action was fantastic but the show's production left much to be desired. This review will differ from previous reviews thus far.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship ('UFC') did not tinker with their time-tested formula for major television events; though I wished they did! The UFC approached The Ultimate Fighter 2 season finales similar to the way they broadcast their pay-per-views. No lessons were learnt from season one's finale and perhaps that was because nobody complained or gave them feedback. Hopefully, this review will be a initial wake-up call to Dana White and the UFC.
The line-ups scheduled for the night included seven fights, though only four fights were broadcast. Viewers can expect to see the other fights in SpikeTV's future Monday showing of UFC unleashed. Tonight's fights were:
- Diego 'Nightmare' Sanchez vs. Nick Diaz (Main Event)
- Rashad Evans vs. Brad 'The Hillbilly Heartthrob' Imes
- Joe 'Daddy' Stevenson vs. Luke 'The Silent Assassin' Cummo
- Kenny 'KenFlo' Florian vs. Kit 'Havoc' Cope
The fights that were cut from the show were:
- Keith Jardine vs. Kerry Schall
- Marcus Davis vs. Melvin Guillard
- Josh Berkman vs. Sammy Morgan
The night began with a striker vs. grappler match-up. Kenny Florian once again proved his worthiness as contest fighter by submitting Muay-Thai specialist Kit Cope not once but twice! The first arm-bar submission was nullified by the ending of round one, but the second rear naked-choke did not fail Kenny.
The welterweight ultimate fighter prize showcased two young fighters. Joe at twenty-three years and Luke at twenty-five shined a bright future for mixed martial arts. Dana White compared this fight to last season's epic "Stephan Bonner and Forrest Griffith" rumble, only that it was on the ground. My dark house pick, Luke Cummo did his best but did not register enough aggression and match control to win the judges over. Joe Stevenson was the deserving welterweight winner. Though, nobody could describe Luke as the loser as it was hard-fought all the way.
Two lumbering heavyweights traded heavy fists to determine who will be the heavyweight ultimate fighter. The heart shown by both fighters were admirable but Brad Imes lost a split decision to Rashad Evans because he was knocked down twice during the fight. When I saw Rashad's elation, I thought of Cuba Gooding Junior's performance in Jerry Maguire and was waiting for him to say "Show Me The Money!"
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Article comments
1 - Graham
Yeah...the production left a little to be desired, which is weird. It's not as if the UFC hasn't been doing these events live on PPV forever....
The sponsorship stuff is just killing me, but I guess Zuffa needs the cash to keep the sport moving forward in the public's eye. I don't mind paying for a comerical-free pay-per-view, and I'd support an ad-sponsored free show, but this show came on cable, which I already pay out the nose for to begin with.
I think they do need to stop fighters from hawking companies in the post-fight interview. I want to hear a fighter talk about the fight he just had, not about how "Joe's Tire Barn and Gym rock!" However, in order to get to this point, the UFC needs to actualyl PAY the fighters enough money so that they don't have to become walking advertisements just to pay the bills.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard several times that a no-name fighter in a real UFC PPV might get literally a few thousand dollars to fight. Come on! The UFC can't pay NFL-level salaries yet, but they need to get the fighters paychecks up a little more!