The Ultimate Fighter 7 Episode One Re-Cap

Episode One Re-Cap The Ultimate Fighter- Show 1 Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest They start off with Dana bitching about the posers on the show that claim they want to be fighters taking up spots for the guys who really want to be there. Dana says the solution is that instead of 16 he has invited 32 fighters and over the next 48 hours they will be fighting their way onto the show. Forrest and Rampage will be evaluating them based on the fights. Dana says they will see who the posers are and who the real fighters are. “I think some of them crapped their pants…I smelt it”- Rampage Jackson “What I’m looking for are guys that are uglier than me. Any handsome guys…put them on Quinton’s team”- Forrest Griffin Elimination Fights- winner moves into the house, loser goes home. Prince McLean (5-4) vs. Mike Dolce (4-4) Mike Dolce seems a little more confident in the pre-match interviews. He seems like he’s ready. They are swinging pretty wildly to start off and then Dolce jumps on top but Prince flips him over. They get to their feet and Dolce takes him down and is in side control. Dolce is in great position but isn’t doing anything. Finally he starts to hit a couple of elbows but Prince gets out and then Dolce nails Prince when they stand up. Dolce looked pretty good, really reckless and unrefined but good senses and strong punching. Lots of potential in Dolce if he can put it all together over the next six weeks. Cale Yarbrough (0-0) vs. John Clarke (6-2) Wasn’t Cale Yarbrough a Nascar racer back in the day? Cale is from Athens right down the street from me. Clarke had to cut 17 pounds for the fight. Clarke takes him down early after wanting no part of the stand up game. Clarke is on top and getting a couple of shots in. They are battling for position. Clarke is in side control now. Going for a kimura. Clarke is punching him in the back of the head a lot. Clarke has his back. Clarke hits like a belly to back suplex but I think he hurts himself. Cale is on top now but not really doing anything and Clarke goes for an armbar. Cale slips out. Clarke looks real winded. Cale with a big kick up against the cage. Clarke trying to grab him but is too tired to get up. Cale jumps on top and fight is stopped as Clarke just gassed out. Cale looked good considering that it was his first fight but he’s not in the league of Dolce in terms of experience. I’ll keep a running tally of who I’d pick if I was picking fighters for my team: 1. Mike Dolce 2. Cale Yarbrough Steve Byrnes (6-1) vs. Amir Sadollah (0-0) Steve Byrnes is a Marine. This is Amir’s first fight. Byrnes was on Ultimate Fight Night 7. Amir starts out with 2 kicks. Byrnes goes for the take down and they battle. Finally Byrnes throws him down and mounts. He’s in half guard and then seems to move himself into full guard. Amir showing some good defense from the bottom. Byrnes trying to pass the guard and gets in some good elbows to the face. Amir is really making him work. Amir flips him over in a really nice move and now he’s on top in guard and is landing some shots. Byrnes grabs an armbar and is trying to hold on to it but loses it. Amir is in half guard. Byrnes flips him over and is on top but Amir goes for a triangle and is nailing Byrnes with elbows. Byrnes gets out and is getting some punches in. Really close round. I think I would barely give this round to Amir. I think he did more when he was on top and showed better defense when not. Really good round, definitely the best of the 3 fights so far. Round 2- Amir goes right at him but almost jumps into Byrnes guard. Byrnes is really winded loses it quickly. Amir lands some nice shots and they are up against the cage. Amir is hitting most of the offense here and Byrnes is pretty much just lying on Amir. Amir has side control and is getting some shots in. Really nice elbow by Amir. Amir almost had full mount but lets Byrnes get on top. Amir grabs am armbar and it’s over. Amir tries to jump up on the cage and celebrate but falls down. Amir looked good here but I think he gave up his advantages way to soon. Rankings: 1. Mike Dolce 2. Amir Sadollah 3. Cale Yarbrough David Baggett vs. CB Dollaway Only highlights shown of this one. Dollaway looked real good from what they showed and he just finished Baggett. I would probably rank Dollaway first if I saw the whole fight and he was that impressive during the fight as he was in the highlights. Dante Rivera vs. John Wood Only highlights shown for this one. Dante dominated this one in quick fashion from what they showed. He just picked the guy up and brought him to his corner and kimura’d him. Nick Klein vs. David Mewborn Only highlights shown of this one. David Mewborn is another guy from Athens, second friend of Forrest’s. Klein finished him pretty quickly. Paul Bradley vs. Reggie Orr Basically Paul wrestled Reggie to the ground for 10 minutes. Dana and the coaches didn’t seem to really like this much. Said this was a bad fight. Paul’s definitely going to need to add some excitement to his repertoire in order to be accepted in the UFC. Dave Roberts (4-5) vs. Jeremy May (6-5) Roberts is a high school friend of Rampage. They trade some kicks to start. Neither guy looks like a good striker but May is landing a couple of punches. Roberts grabs him. Jeremy swinging for the fences and Roberts seems to be wilting but takes him down. May grabs an armbar and Roberts taps. Good opening episode as this one was pretty much all about the fighting. I’ve only seen two of the seasons so far (one and six) so I don’t have too much to compare this to but I like that they are having to fight immediately whereas in season’s past you may not see a guy fight until several weeks into the competition. Here are my preliminary rankings so far based on what has been shown: 1. CB Dollaway 2. Dante Rivera 3. Nick Klein 4. Mike Dolce 5. Amir Sadollah 6. Jeremy May 7. Paul Bradley 8. Cale Yarbrough