Ultimate Fighter 5 Premiere - SPOILERS

RayPowers · #1 04-06-2007, 11:11 AM

Did anyone watch this last night?

First of all, Unleashed right before it was good. I was super surprised to see Guillard get taken out by the choke so easily/quickly. He was cocky and got nailed. Joe Stevenson was the pinnacle of a good sport to him, seeing the poor guy was crushed at being beaten so handily. Joe's quote about "if I can keep avoiding being hit, I'm gonna be the prettiest man in UFC" was hilarious.

In general, this unleashed was better fight wise than I expect this Saturday's PPV to be. I'm not even bothering with the PPV. True there were no big name fights last night, but the fighting itself was still good stuff.

Then we saw the ads for "Dana White vs Tito Ortiz, the fight we can only talk about now?" WTF? Did this really happen? Did they actually fight, or is this all hype?

A quick google showed this on the first hit I found ( link )
[ QUOTE ]
3/24/2007 8:14:00 PM

Ortiz vs. White result

Is that Tito Ortiz no-showed the weigh-in and the fight never happened.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission was not happy with this turn of events as they had officials there. Dana White was there and got weighed-in. There was no communication from Ortiz as to why he wasn't there. Ortiz did call White and leave him a messages saying that he was letting him off the hook, but White didn't think that message meant he was cancelling the match.

Spike TV was scheduled to air a 90 minute television special building up the PPV of the fight.

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So, is next Thursday's show going to be a lot of build up for a no show? That will be really crappy. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

And then, we saw the premiere of Ultimate Fighter 5. This entire season is all 155 lb fighters, which Dana comments as being "insane as all get out with short man's syndrome." The previews show that this season looks like it actually has at least two real fights breaking out in the house, and the guys just seem insane. My wife was watching it and called it "Ultimate Fighter 5: a bunch of young punks."

It was kind of hard to argue it. The whole thing started wacky as hell with Jens (Little Evil) Pulver as one coach and BJ Penn as the other. I don't think this was a good drawing coach selection. Not everyone knows Jens, and certainly no one knows that there is any feud between Jens and BJ. I had never heard of one before last night. And maybe someone with better insider knowledge than me can help me, but does Jens have any experience as a coach? He appeared to be doing fine as a coach in the first episode, but I don't recall having any information about him coaching before hand.

And wow, there's a 6 ft 4 tall black guy in the 155 lbs category? That guy is going to look interesting in the ring.

In general, the whole house is coming across like a train wreck waiting to happen, and seems to have me sucked in on that basis alone.

Anyone else see it? Any comments, thoughts?

Ray

(P.S. Dear Dana White, do whatever it takes, but get Pat Millitech as one of your coaches next season. Please please please please please.)

Rearden · #2 04-06-2007, 11:18 AM

Millitech vs Couture as coaches would be sick...

The one issue I have with this though... the time frame. Conditioning and techniques can't be covered that in depth in such a short (relatively) period. All you can do is try to polish the good fighters a bit and make the terrible ones not as bad.

RayPowers · #3 04-06-2007, 11:24 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Millitech vs Couture as coaches would be sick...

The one issue I have with this though... the time frame. Conditioning and techniques can't be covered that in depth in such a short (relatively) period. All you can do is try to polish the good fighters a bit and make the terrible ones not as bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, the first fight, BJ Penn basically said "the guy picked first had 1.5 years of experience and three fights, and we had two days. He gave 100%, and I gave him 100% for those two days, but there was no way he was winning that fight."

I have never been a huge BJ Penn fan, but he's been entertaining as heck so far in this premiere. Between that comment, the comments about the overweight guy "what the heck was he thinking coming into a 155 weight class Ultimate Fighter at 175, its not like he didn't have enough time to cut weight before he got here" and "He's gonna have to lose 22 pounds, that's like, his whole head," and his his ploy during the initial selection of "ok, everybody who wants to be on my team and doesn't want anything to do with Jens, raise your hand" cracked me up to no end.

The fact that Jens was willing to take the only 6 people who didn't raise their hands vs the 10 people who did not was hilarious as well, and a testimony to the level of alpha mail dick waving that seems like it will be going on this entire season.

Ray

JasonK · #4 04-06-2007, 11:42 AM

For some reason I have an east coast Spike feed and missed it.

Hoya · #5 04-06-2007, 11:43 AM

I thought it was a huge dick move to try and humiliate Pulver by asking the guys to raise their hands. Of course, this is what is bound to happen when one coach is much more well rounded than the other (see Shamrock vs. Ortiz).

RayPowers · #6 04-06-2007, 11:49 AM

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I thought it was a huge dick move to try and humiliate Pulver by asking the guys to raise their hands. Of course, this is what is bound to happen when one coach is much more well rounded than the other (see Shamrock vs. Ortiz).

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It was. It still cracked me up. The show this season is so much dick waving it's hilarious. BJ Penn did it because he felt that Jens ran the guys ragged on purpose in his review of them so that the guys were exhausted when BJ Penn came in and he couldn't get a good read on them.

Btw, do people really think Jens is one dimensional? He is a Millitech camp fighter, although he does have most of his wins by TKO.

Hijacking my own thread, Holy Crap Fedor vs Lindland! What a weird mismatch? I love Lindland, but... do we really think he stacks up against Fedor?

Ray

Hoya · #7 04-06-2007, 11:52 AM

Jens has been fighting long enough that he "knows" how to do everything. But boxing is far and away his best skill, and he isn't particularly strong in wrestling or jui-jitsu. However, he has a wrestling and submissions coach with him, so it may not matter.

BJ is certainly far more skilled, and if I was on the show I'd prefer that he'd be my coach - but I never would have raised my hand. Jens seems to be doing a good job as well and no reason to show him up.

A S U · #8 04-06-2007, 11:59 AM

I was flipping channels and noticed this guy Justin I sorta know doing some fight promo. I'm like WTF he's UFC now? Sweet. I waited and watched his fight, it was pretty boring, but he schooled his opponent really hard. He almost got arm-barred though. We play in the same home game, I always knew he was MMA, but didn't hear about this fight from anybody. Pretty sweet.

JasonK · #9 04-06-2007, 12:00 PM

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Hijacking my own thread, Holy Crap Fedor vs Lindland! What a weird mismatch? I love Lindland, but... do we really think he stacks up against Fedor?

Ray

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I can't stand Lindland and can't wait to see Fedor punch a hole in his face.

Predator314 · #10 04-06-2007, 12:04 PM

I watched the show last night. All the guys on the show are pretty much unbearable to watch. I'll probably continue to watch though, just because nothing better is on.

BTW, I LOL'd when the black guy "Turned into DMX". What an idiot. I really wish these shows would do a hidden camera type thing. The fighters wouldn't know they were on camera (in the house) until after the taping was done. You would get much much less drama and annoying behaviour. But I guess that's what sells to the mouth breathers of the world.