Sunday, April 10, 2005

The Ultimate Fighter Finale

So here we go, the 1st reality show I've watched. All comes down to 1 fight for each round in the 1st televised live MMA event ever. This is big for Martial Arts since it's seen as being much more brutal than boxing, it hasn't been able to break into the mainstream. I hope that some of the readers have tuned in or seen some of the clips I've posted to learn more about it, maybe you'll enjoy it.
OK, they started off in the Middleweight division where Diego Sanchez fought Kenny Florian. This match started and ended exactly how I thought it would, as I've said before KenFlo is an excellent fighter with great skills. He normally fights at 170 and sometimes cuts down to 155, he just gives away to much strength and power at 185. After circling around for a full minute it took Diego just over a minute to completely destory Kenny and end the fight. Diego was crowned the ultimate middleweight fighter, given a car, a watch and a 6 figure contact in the UFC. I think he will need a little more work now that he is in the 'big leagues'.
On a side note I give a huge amount of credit to Kenny Florian, he went after this opportunity knowing full well he was out of his weight class, if you've never wrestled or boxed you may not fully understand what a difference 15 pounds can make in a fight. I believe Kenny will be in the UFC someday fighting at 155 or 170.
On to the Light-heavy's. Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar. I thought Forrest was going to dominate this fight. This may have been the best MMA fight in the history of the UFC, Forrest and Stephan both showed tremendous heart and stood toe to toe for 15 minutes. Due to the fact that in MMA 4 ounce gloves are used this is unheard of. (in boxing they use 16 ounce gloves, takes a lot off a punch) Even though I wanted Forrest to win I do believe that Stephan won the fight. The judges however all felt Forrest won 29-28. In an odd twist the President of the UFC proclaimed Forrest the Ultimate Fighter, gave him his car and his watch and then offered both fighter a 6 figure contract to the UFC. Good choice Dana! In post fight comments Stephan asked Forrest if he could have the car.

I would just like to take the time to say that even though I picked Syracuse and UConn to meet up for the final four championship game I did successfully pick not 1 but both winners of the ultimate fighter. I picked both Diego and Forrest at the beginning of the show!!! Kudos to me for all my worthless knowledge about fighting!!

After the 2 championship fights Ken Shamrock, the worlds most dangerous man, fought Rich Franklin, an up and coming fighter. Shamrock has been around forever, he was at the 1st UFC in Denver, CO in the fall of 1993. He is one of the most well known fighters in the world. This was an odd fight for him to take, really a no win situation. If he wins, he beat someone with a ton less experience than him. If he loses, his career may be over. Ken looked to come out and swing hard early and ofter, slipped a couple of times and Franklin was able to catch him with a big left cross, he followed that up with a quick flury that Shamrock could not defend. It was over quick. Sahmrock has been a great fighter and I'm sure he will be back but I firmly believe he is at the end of his road. Congrats to Franklin on a dominate win.

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