UFC

Unlike every past season of The Ultimate Fighter, this season begins with 32 fighters who have to earn their way into the Las Vegas house by winning a first round fight.  This is an awesome new facet to The Ultimate Fighter, because it will weed out the fighters that don't belong right away.  I'm surprised Dana White and company didn't think of this earlier.  The two coaches this year are Forrest Griffin and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.  The two are scheduled to fight at the end of the season.  Both are light heavyweights. 
  

UFC president Dana White explained the reasoning behind making this a 32 person tournament.  He's tired of the losers who show up and whine and don't have what it takes.  The 32 fighters show up and Dana explains what's going/  They have to fight their way onto the show.  Twenty four hours after showing up, they have to weigh in.  After that, it's to the fights.  Forrest and Rampage will make their evaluations based on the fights.  Teams will be picked after it gets down to 16 fighters.  Dana and company have already chosen the match-ups. 

All the fighters are Middleweights this season.  A lot of guys cut a lot of weight in preparation for the season.  Everybody made weight, which I found a little surprising.  After the weigh-ins, the episode jumped right into the fights.  16 fights is a lot of fights. 

Prince McLean vs. Mike Dolce

Neither guy has a great record.  Mike is 4-4, Prince is 5-4.  Both guys come out firing, and end up on the ground quick.  Mike takes Prince down again.  Prince gets to his feet, but then gets a huge punch to the face.  Prince is knocked out.  Mike advances. Prince is devastated after the loss.


Cale Yarbrough vs. John Clarke

Cale is 21, the youngest guy there, and has no pro record.  John is experienced, but had to drop 17 pounds to make weight.  John is making his last attempt at MMA glory here.  John takes Cale to the ground after a little bit.  They spend a lot of time on the ground, mostly with Cale trying to get to his feet.  Late in the first round, John gets really tired and Cale beats him into submission.  Cale advances. 


Steve Byrnes vs. Amir Sadollah

Amir has no pro record.  Steve is 6-1 and he's out of Hawaii.  He began as a wrestler and is a former marine.  Steve clearly wants to get to the ground as soon as possible – he eventually succeeds.  Amir lands some punches with his back to the ground.  Steve starts landing some elbows.  Amir eventually gets top position.  The end of the round was nasty, with both fighters exchanging elbows and punches to the face.  At the end of round one, Amir is probably ahead.  Round two begins, and Amir comes out firing, but Steve gets it to the ground. Steve is tired, though, and Amir bluudgeons him for awhile.  Steve won;t back down.  Amir lands a lot of nast punches to the face -it's amazing that Steve stays alive.  But, Amir ends up winning arm lock submission.
The nest four fights we only saw highlights of:

David Baggett vs. CB Dollaway

CB dominates quickly and soundly. 


Dante Rivera vs. John Wood

Dante takes John Wood to the ground and wins with a kimora. 


Nick Klein vs. David Mewborn

Nick wins very easily.


Paul Bradley vs. Reggie Orr

Kind of an ugly fight.  Paul won by decision.  Dana hates the fight, because Paul just lays on the other guy and wins the decision by default. 


The final fight of the night was...

Jeremy May vs. Dave Roberts

Dave and Rampage have known each other since high school, so there's some favoritism there.  May is 6-5 overall.  Roberts has a 4-5 pro record.  Jeremy hits him with a bunch of punches while standing, Dave then gets him to the ground, but Jeremy gets Dave with an arm bar rather quick.  Dave is devastated, and so is Rampage.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of UFC)