Ultimate Fighter – Episode 12 – Quick Review

Archive

By Ian Brewster

The following are results for episode 12 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” This is the last Ultimate Fighter Epiosde. The final bout takes place on the 9th.

On this week’s episode which is the last taped show of the series before Saturday’s live finale’, we’ve got both of the remaining Light Heavyweight semi-final bouts. But who’s fighting who?

It was announced last week that Mike Swick would fight Stephan Bonnar in the battle between Team (Randy) Couture teammates, while the Team (Chuck) Liddell semi-final match was still a smoke-screen due to Forrest Griffin’s cut. Will he be able to compete in time to fight Sam Hoger, or will his hand-picked replacement Bobby Southworth get another chance since being eliminated by Stephan Bonnar earlier in the season? Well, they started off the first-half of the show with the focus on the Team Liddell match, so it won’t take long for us to find out!

Forrest Griffin was examined by a Nevada State Athletic Commission doctor, and told he was in fact able to fight and was simply warned not to panic if the cut re-opened during the match. Of course the wildman Forrest was completely fine with that. However, his attitude wasn’t as animal-like as it was when he stepped in to fight Alex S. in his first fight on the show. He seemed a lot calmer. Sam Hoger had the arrogant smile on his face and arrogant talk leading up to the fight, in his typical fashion. I believe both guys weighed in at 206 lbs. I don’t quite remember. Which warrior will advance to the finals on April 9th on SpikeTV? We’ll find out after the commercial!

Griffin/Hoger round one starts with both guys feeling each other out for a solid minute. Forrest is throwing a lot of leg-kicks and constantly coming forward, while Hoger is not doing too bad in his own right. He’s mixing his kicks up a lot from leg-kicks, to middle-kicks, and even some really good head kicks. One of those head kicks caught the front of the f! ace with his foot, not the head with the shin, the desired effect. In any matter they were thrown with good power, some landed, and even the ones that were blocked scored on the judges cards. Pretty slow, albeit a decent first round. I’d give it to Hoger, although an argument can easily be made for Forrest. Forrest did finish the round with a good punch, probably one of the better punches in the round.

Round two begins with Forrest coming in more aggresive. He’s landing combinations now and finishing them with leg-kicks. Pretty early in the round Forrest takes his corner’s advice and gets into the clinch where he throws about three or four knees, one of which puts Hoger on the ground. Forrest jumps on top and throws down punches until referee “Big” John McCarthy steps in to stop the fight and declare Forrest Griffin the winner via TKO in round two. Forrest will advance to the live finals now on April 9th to fight the winner of the Mike Swick vs. Stephan Bonnar fight, which is! up next!

Bonnar weighs in at 206 lbs., while Swick weighed in at 192 lbs. They made some light of the situation by handing Swick a ten pound weight to stick in his back pocket to try and even things out on the scales. Swick is naturally a 185 lb. fighter who’s only loss was by knockout to fellow cast-member Chris Leben – who is an 185 lb. fighter as well, who was eliminated in both of his fights, the first time by boring decision to Josh Koscheck, the second by a cut in a fight he dominated against Kenny Florian. Bonnar is big even for a Light Heavyweight, and has some serious striking power. Dana White made mention of all of that when breaking down the fight, but saying not to count Swick out because he’s got a lot of guts and is very aggressive in his fighting style. Randy Couture, the two fighters coach mentioned the same thing when breaking down the fight. Here we go, after the commercial break we find out who will be fighting Forrest Griffin in the finals!

R! ound one begins with Swick coming in swinging. Pretty early into the round Swick gets the fight on the ground. He’s not doing much on top. Swick goes for a guillotine choke and has it in very deep. Bonnar turns to try and get out of it, exposing his face to the camera which is purple and he begins making the gurgle noises, which means he’s almost out! He did get out, just barely. Later in the round Bonnar is on top and Swick quickly reverses the position to claim the top position. Some light ground and pound from Swick as he moves Bonnar towards the fence. Bonnar is getting his legs up high for a triangle choke, all the while Swick is ignoring his corner’s advice to get out of Bonnar’s guard, which was wide open and begging to be passed. Swick didn’t though, and Bonnar slaps on a triangle with about 15 seconds to go in the round. Swick is fighting to survive the round when with only 5 seconds left in the round, Bonnar grabs Swick’s arm and pulls on the armbar to which Swick tapped t! o with only 2 or 3 seconds remaining in the round to give Bonnar the win via submission in the first round. Bonnar will now advance to the finals!

So here’s what we’ve got for the April 9th season finale’ of The Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV this Saturday:

Main-Event:
-Ken Shamrock vs. Rich Franklin

Light Heavyweight Finals:
-Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar

Middleweight Finals:
-Diego Sanchez vs. Kenny Florian

Prelim Fights (non-televised):
-Chris Leben vs. Jason Thacker
-Nate Quarry vs. Lodune Sincaid
-Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Sanford
-Alex Karalexis vs. Josh Rafferty