Wednesday night had 2 somewhat important events in MMA: the latest WEC event on the Versus Channel, or the final two episodes of "The Ultimate Fighter" for the season. Originally I was more interested in watching TUF, but after seeing that it wasn't on until late, I stuck with the WEC event.
I wasn't too enthusiastic about the WEC event since the only fight with promise was the Bantamweight title fight between champion Miguel Torres and Manny Tapia (Even that fight was terribly one sided). The rest of the fights tried to showcase some very promising talent, but proved as no real test for them. I also had a feeling that there wouldn't be anything impressive about any of the fights.
The first fight initially showed some promise as newcomers Joseph Benavidez and Danny Martinez went at it. Benavidez showed some promise with some unique striking you don't see too much (straight kicks to the face, spin kicks....mostly kicks actually), but other than that and a hard hip throw, he didn't dominate very strongly. Martinez didn't fight smart to begin with, throwing one punch at a time hoping for a knockout. Benavidez got the unanimous decision in the end.
Two other bantamweights fought as highly-touted Brian Bowles fought Will Ribeiro. I had a little more faith in Ribeiro, but most were expecting Bowles to get an easy win. This fight ended when Bowles submitted Ribiero with a guillotine.........in the 3rd round. Before that, though Bowles was winning, he wasn't showing why he's one of the top guys, and I wasn't impressed.
The third fight of the event featured the debut of two well-known featherweight fighters: Wagney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura. Fabiano was a huge favorite, and expected to put on a great show. Fabiano finished the fight with an arm triangle........but it took until the 3rd round again. This fight was even more boring than the previous one, and Fabiano took down Tamura, and looked for submissions, but all Tamura did was defend constantly, barely putting up a fight. Still, Fabiano looked as if he should've finished this early.
Luckily, the main event title fight was actually exciting. Tapia was a major underdog, and I expected a quick finish from Torres. The first round consisted of Torres out-striking Tapia with the extra six inches of reach he had. Tapia could do nothing. In the second round, Torres knocked down Tapia twice with some hard shots, and then knocked him down a third time, and threw a few unanswered shots that forced the referee to stop the fight in favor of Torres. Impressive as always, I expect Torres to stay the champ for a very long time.
I ended up watching "The Ultimate Fighter" yesterday since I had recorded it, and let me say I was very happy with the results. The last two episodes consisted of the semi-final fights in the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions. First they showed Ryan Bader vs. Elliot Marshall. Bader was initially my pick to win the light heavyweight when the show started, and I was confident we would win this fight. Bader won by unanimous decision by taking down Marshall constantly. Marshall wanted to attempt some jiu-jitsu, but could put up much of a fight. Still Marshall is a promising fighter, and although it wasn't the most exciting, Bader showed that if he can't finish, he'll dominate and grind you out.
Next they showed lightweights Phillipe Nover and George Roop. Nover was my choice for winning the lightweight contract as soon as I saw how impressive he was in his preliminary fight. And he continued to impressive in his fight after that when he knocked down a guy with a strong chin. Again, he ran through Roop easily, charging in and taking him down. Although Roop managed to get on top, Nover worked on a kimura (arm lock) and secured it a few moments latrer, forcing Roop to tap. Very impressive again Mr. Nover. He may be the next big thing at lightweight.
The second episode then kicked of with light heavyweights Krzysztof Soszynski (don't ask me how to pronounce it) and Vinny Magalhaes. Most expected Soszynski to win, but I thought better. I saw Magalhaes getting the submission. Although Soszynski looked good at the start, winning with his striking, Magalhaes did what he did his last fight: picked up the pace towards the end of the round, got it to the ground, and locked in an armbar that Soszynski tapped out to. Soszynski is a good fighter, but needs a ground game.
The last fight was between Efrain Escudero and Junie Browning. For those of you who've seen the show, you know that Junie was not only out of control, but not the greatest fighter either. And most of the viewers, including the other fighters on the show, wanted to see him get beat. Escudero answered our prayers. After a slow first round that Escudero won by getting some better strikes in, Escudero took Junie down in the second, and submitted him with a D'arce choke. Oh what a line-up for the finals we have now.
From that start of this season, I was impressed with a lot of the fighters on the show, more than I was with the last couple of seasons. Now any of the guys in the finals I would be more than happy to see win the UFC contract. However, I do have my favorites picked to win. I expect Bader to win by unanimous decision of Magalhaes much the same way he beat Marshall. Although it's likely that Magalhaes could sneak in a submission, I think Bader could keep him in check. As for the Nover vs. Escudero fight, this one's a little easier to call: Nover should get the win. He's the better striker, and his ground game looks perfect to take on a wrestler like Escudero. Still, these will be some great fights to see. Everyone who was on the show will be fighting on the event (even Browning, unfortunately, who somehow gets his fight televised), but at least it will be a good line-up. Two fights between veteran UFC fighters will occur too, but they'll easily be outshined by the new talent from TUF Season 8.
That's all for today (I know this was a lot, but I don't care because I got it all out). The blog coming up this weekend is a toss-up; aside from the NY Giants/Philidelphia Eagles on Sunday, I would also like to cover the week in television, and we'll see if anything else comes up. When it comes to entertainment, you never know what you'll be entertained by until you see it. See you again soon!
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