1) I’m not surprised Schultz lost the 2nd round 10-8. He looked gassed and out of it. He did nothing. I’m also glad they addressed his little snap at Forrest Griffen. Insert comment about the Southie here.
2) For anyone who argues that the “pranks” and “drama” on these reality shows aren’t staged, can they tell me where Forrest would get his hands on a net gun? I mean, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume those aren’t generally available in your local Wal-Mart. They’re pretty much riot gear, no?
3) Watching this, I can’t decide if Rampage is pissed off about the netting thing or if he’s taking it in stride. He certainly made some jokes about the idea of a white guy netting a black guy on national television, but I have no idea if he’s ok with it or real angry. I think that’s the scariest part of the whole thing. Would you want a possibly angry Rampage Jackson in the room with you? Wouldn’t you prefer to know one way or another?
4) CB was Rampage’s first pick in the draft (which gave Forrest control of the match-ups). During training, CB submitted Rampage… interesting.
5) The referee’s “back of the head” warnings don’t seem to carry a whole lot of authority if he never does anything about it. You could definitely make the argument that CB took quite a few liberties with illegal shots in the first round. I don’t actually know the rule for this… is it a point deduction or a full on DQ? I will say, Nick kept going into a hands and knees position and covering the sides of his head; why CB didn’t go for a choke there is beyond me. Nick kept giving him chances.
6) First round really could go either way. CB was pressing most of the action but he was pressing it right in to submissions and holds. He had a pretty decent stretch from 2:30 to 1:00 where he was just in mount position and unloading but he didn’t seem to do much damage. If you’re voting on pure offense, CB probably won. If you’re voting on controlling the pace, picking spots, and finesse, the other guy probably won. Tough call.
7) Doesn’t matter, though. In the 2nd round, Nick seemed way too scared. He was throwing very tentative shots until he got caught in a take-down. There was a ton of good ground work by both guys until CB eventually caught a guillotine. Good fight.
8) Of all the seasons I do like the “winner of the fight gets to pick the next fight” format. However, I’m interested to see if this turns out to be another case where the two best on one team win and wind up winning the whole thing. It seems like it helps the fodder of one team get through by matching them up correctly against weaker opponents. The problem is that only the best guys from the team NOT in control get through. Curious to see if this ends up with a guy from Rampage’s team ends up winning.
9) One of my favorite parts of the seasons and I wish they’d give it more time is when the guys pick who they want to fight. A lot of the guys usually seem pretty thoughtful on to who they want to fight. It’s interesting to see how guys think they match up with each other.
10) Do we consider the preliminary matches on this show the same as the Bad Singing Weeks on American Idol? If not, can we?
