I trust you all enjoyed The Ultimate Finale, because it was a hell of a show.
First things first:
As I stated in my introductory column, Ed and Bisping were my picks to win.
As I also stated, I love Matt Lindland, and did you guys SEE all that Lindland in the training videos for Ed and Josh!? Rrrgh! Rampage is gonna get owned! Dear July 22nd: why are you so far away from me?
The non-fight parts of the night consisted of hyping up (as though it needs it) Ken/Tito II. If we didn’t know before, we now know that Ken and Tito hate each other. There were no new trash-talk gems from Ken, but Dana gave them cars, and they both wanted the black one (I’d have gone for the yellow one. All my cars in Burnout are yellow. Vrrrooom.), so in a colossally unnecessary bet, the winner of the fight on July 8th gets the black car. Which is to say, Tito gets the black one, and Ken’ll probably get his repainted.
The other non-fight parts of the night consisted of hyping up the Blade series that will debut on SpikeTV after Wednesday’s Ultimate Fight Night Live. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ll be watching the premiere, anyway, because Blade’s half man, half vampire, all sexy. Sticky Jones was in attendance and they talked to him and he said that MMA > boxing and that if they got some Don King-like figure involved in the UFC, it’d blow up like whoa. Okay, my words, not his, but you get the idea. People on the internet are all like “oh noeez that is teh last ting we need!” but I’m all like “Haha, I bet Dana White liked that comment.”
Randy Couture was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame with a brief ceremony. It was a nice segment.
Kendall vs. Ed: Middleweight Finals
I’m completely surprised that Kendall defeated Ed (via unanimous 29-28 decision). I’ve been shouting “Ed was robbed!” all over my apartment for the past two days.
Without getting into a lengthy rant on judging and how nobody, including myself and the judges, really knows how it’s supposed to work, I was just surprised that the judges seemingly placed so much of the decision on Kendall’s effort to finish the fight during the last 30 seconds of the 3rd round, in which he caught Ed in a rear naked choke. I don’t personally think it was enough to win him the round, but enough of the judges apparently did.
I won’t complain, though, because the fight was beautiful, a real pleasure to watch. Kendall’s improved so much, and Tito was out there with him for his fight. Ed was offered a contract as well, anyway, so there’s not really anything to complain about.
Bisping vs. Josh: Light Heavyweight Finals
I thought Bisping would finish Josh much more quickly, honestly, but Bisping secured the victory via ref stoppage at 4:14 of the second round. Josh is so tough, and he lasted through a barrage of strikes (and one illegal knee) until the very end.
Bisping was awarded the contract and Joe Rogan, who smokes too much marijuana, kept saying he needed subtitles to understand what Bisping was saying.
Matt Hamill vs. Jesse Forbes
Matt outclassed Jesse and beat him down on the mat until the ref stopped it at 4:47 of the first round. It’s good to see Matt wrestling and mauling people like he ought to be. Matt leaped into Tito’s arms at the end and it was all very, I guess, cute.
Keith Jardine vs. Wilson Gouveia
Jardine won this via unanimous 29-28 decision that no internet entities contest, to my knowledge. There was a lot of leg-kicking, and it was pretty entertaining. The fight was good and Jardine’s face was bloodied early.
Sam Stout vs. Kenny Florian
Do you know HOW MANY people picked Sam Stout as the favorite? Like, all but ten people in the country. And those people won money. KenFlo took Stout down fast, mounted him, took his back, and then won with a rear naked choke 1:46 into the first round. It was very impressive. Stunning, even. I’m not a KenFlo hater by any means, and it was good to see him win so decisively when so many people (myself included) were sure he’d go down.
Fights not aired:
Wes Combs vs. Mike Nickels = Nickels, RNC, 3:10 of the first round.
Luigi Fioravanti vs. Solomon Hutcherson = Fioravanti, KO by solid left hook, 4:15 of the first round.
Danny Abbadi vs. Kalib Starnes = Starnes, RNC, 2:56 of the first round.
Rory Singer vs. Ross Pointon = Singer, triangle choke, :44 of the first round.
In closing
It was fun recapping the show for you guys. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback will debut in August.
