The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale Unaired Fights 6/20/09 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale Unaired Fights 6/20/09
The Pearl at the Palms
Las Vegas, Nevada

Welterweight Fight- Brad Blackburn (14-9-1) vs. Edgar Garcia (7-0)

Blackburn is a former IFL fighter who is 2-0 in the UFC. This is Garcia’s debut in the UFC but has fought for WEC.

R1- Blackburn hits some nice strikes early grabs a guillotine. Garcia slams Blackburn hard but he jumps right back up. Garcia seems to be finding his range as the round goes on. This was a pretty even round, really close to a 10-10.

R2- Blackburn seems like he’s landing more strikes as he’s hitting leg strikes and Garcia is not attempting anything but punches. Another close round that I gave to Blackburn.

R3- Very even but uneventful fight. Blackburn got a take down at the end of the round but then got nailed with a left hand and went down and popped back up. I honestly think this should be a draw, 29-29.

Judges score the fight: 29-28 Garcia, 29-28 Blackburn, 29-28 Blackburn.

Winner: Brad Blackburn by Decision (Split)

Lightweight Fight- Jason Dent (18-10) vs. Cameron Dollar (5-2)

Both of these fighters were participants on Season 9 of TUF. Dollar got some crazy butterfly tattoos put on his chest since the season ended.

R1- Dent is throwing more strikes early and is landing some decent shots. Cameron got him up against the fence and landed some nice strikes. Dollar went for a take down and Dent grabbed an Anaconda Choke and Dollar eventually tapped. Dollar dominated this fight and Dent did nothing until the finish.

Winner: Jason Dent by Submission (Anaconda Choke) R1 4:46

Lightweight Fight- Melvin Guillard (40-8-3) vs. Gleison Tibau (29-5)

R1- Not a lot of action in this round but Tibau got a couple of take downs which will swing the round in his favor.

R2- Melvin had the advantage in the stand-up in this round and even got a take down. This is a very even fight that I’ve got 19-19 so far. When Gleison’s gotten take downs he hasn’t done anything with them.

R3- Melvin started this round with a couple of strikes and Gleison answered and got a take down. Tibau controlled on the ground until about a minute and a half left in the round. Tibau got another take down at the one minute mark and ends the fight with some Ground and Pound from the mount position.

I’ve got Tibau winning this 29-28. Tibau clearly took round three. The other two rounds were very close.

Judges score cards say: Split Decision in favor of Guillard. Wow.

Winner: Melvin Guillard by Decision (Split)

Welterweight Fight- Nick Osipczak (3-1) vs. Frank Lester (3-3)

Nick has a 6” reach and 3” height advantage. This is the official first UFC fight for both of these TUF fighters.

R1- Nick grabbed a kick and took Frank down early. Nick was just the better fighter in there and won by Rear Naked Choke. Lester was trying to muscle through the fight and he just didn’t get it done.

Winner: Nick Osipczak by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 3:40

Catchweight Fight- Mike Ciesnolevicz (18-3) vs. Tomasz Drwal (15-2)

Ciesnolevicz weighed in at 208 lbs thus making this a catchweight fight instead of a Light Heavyweight Fight.

R1- Drwal landed some good strikes in a clinch against the cage about half way through the round and also landed some nice strikes after a stand up with about a minute and a half left in the round. Drwal landed a big time knee that dropped Mike and then he hit some Ground and Pound for the TKO victory.

Winner: Tomasz Drwal by TKO (Strikes) R1

TUF 9 Episode 10 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 10

Last week we saw Jason Pierce pulled from competition, Frank Lester upsetting David Faulkner, and Bisping spit water in Damarques’ face. We are down to the Semi-Finals in both the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions and both the UK and USA have 2 fighters left in each weight class. I see Ross Pearson (UK) and Damarques Johnson (US) as the guys to beat in their respective weight classes.

Dana and the coaches get together to talk about the Semi-Finals fights. They call the fighters in and talk to them about who they want to fight. Both James and Damarques clearly want to fight each other. Cameron Dollar says he wants to fight his teammate Jason Dent and this gets Dana thinking about putting USA against USA and UK against UK in the Lightweight division. Dana wants to set up Team UK versus Team USA in the finals so it looks like he’s going teammate against teammate. He says not to tell them anything and that they will bring in the fighters and call out the match-ups.

First Fight: Nick vs. Damarques
Second Fight: Andre vs. Cameron
Third Fight: Ross vs. Dent
Fourth Fight: Wilks vs. Frank

Dana tells Frank that he is the first guy in the history of TUF who has been brought back and won his fight. If I had to pick winners I would go with Damarques, Ross and Wilks. The Andre/Cameron fight looks like the closest to me and from what I’ve seen could be a toss up. I’ll pick Cameron just cause I think he’s more scrappy.

For some reason they let Pierce stay in the house and him and Richie Whitson get into it a little bit. Richie heard Faulkner talking about how Pierce was telling team UK about the US fighters and how they train. Hendo asks Pierce about it and Pierce denies it.

Nick says that he got Faulkner to get some info from Pierce about Damarques and that he will definitely use it in his strategy.

Welterweight Semi-Final Fight- Damarques Johnson (13-6) vs. Nick Osipczak (3-0)

Damarques beat Dean Asaminger by Submission (Triangle Choke) in round one of his last fight. In the previous fight he defeated Ray Elbe by TKO (Punches) also in round one. Nick beat Mark Miller by KO in the second round of his last fight. In the previous fight he beat Tommy Maguire by KO.

R1- Damarques hit a good combo early. Damarques got a take down when he basically threw Nick to the floor but Nick got up before any damage could be done. Damarques is looking good early and connecting with some decent shots. Damarques gets a second take down about two minutes into the round. Nick did a good job of defending and got some shots in from the guard. When they stood up Nick hit a short right uppercut that stunned Damarques and Nick then had Damarques up against the cage and was landing shots and had Damarques on the ropes but Damarques held on and actually came back after Nick punched himself out. Damarques clearly won that round until the last 30 seconds and Nick did his best to steal it. I would still give the round to Damarques but Nick really just landed that one good shot and then couldn’t finish off Damarques while Damarques controlled just about the entire round. Good round and it might have gone either way. Both guys are clearly in this fight.

R2- Damarques got in a brief clinch at the beginning of the round and looked like he hit a good knee. Damarques looks a little tired but keeps pushing forward and got a take down. Damarques went for a kimura but could not lock it in. Nick gave up his back and Damarques got in some shots and Bisping is yelling about back of the head hits as his fighter has his face buried in the mat. Nick got lucky as the fight was about to get called if it last 10 more seconds. Nick had trouble getting up after the round was over. This round clearly went to Damarques. I’ve got him up 20-18.

R3- Damarques is landing more strikes early in this round but he’s leaving his hands down. Nick looks really tired. Damarques got a take down about half way through the round. Damarques was able to mount but Nick gave up his back and was able to flip Damarques over with about a minute left in the round. Nick finished on top but didn’t really look to land anything substantial the entire round. I’ve got Damarques 30-27, although I could see it 29-28.

Winner: Damarques Johnson by Decision (Unanimous)

It looks like we’ve got both Lightweight Semi-Final fights next week!

Remaining Fighters:

Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn, Richie Whitson)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden, Martin Stapleton)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning, Jeff Lawson)

Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills, Frank Lester)
US- Frank Lester (defeated David Faulkner)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger, Nick Osipczak)

My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA)

Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)
Jeff Lawson defeated by Jason Dent (Episode 8)
Jason Pierce eliminated by Dana White (Episode 8)
David Faulkner eliminated by Frank Lester (Episode 9)
Nick Osipczak eliminated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 10)

TUF Season 9 Episode 4 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 4

Last week we found out that Dan Henderson gets to pick the first fight for Team USA. The UK fighters have had two weeks off from fighting and some of the US fighters have only had days off. It will be interesting how that affects the US squad in the first few fights.

We start off with Team UK and Michael Bisping introduces his two assistant coaches: Mario Sukata (wrestling and submissions) and Dave Jackson (tae boxing coach). Bisping says that these are his coaches in “real life.” Dan Henderson’s assistant coaches are Gustavo Pugliese (boxing and footwork), Ricardo Feliciano (jiu jitsu) and Cyrille Diabate (Muy Thai, knees and elbows) and Heath Sims (2000 Olympic team member for Greco-Roman wrestling). You may recognize Diabata as he’s a former Pride fighter and also fought on one of the Elite XC/ShoXC shows. His most high profile fights have been losses to Shogun Rua and Babalu Sobral. His most recent fight was a win over TUF Alumni Lodune Sincaid in January of this year.

Dan Henderson picks Mark Miller to fight Nick Osipczak in a Welterweight Fight. Henderson made the decision on who wanted to fight and who could make weight the easiest. I wasn’t particularly impressed with either of these guys in their first fight. They both showed some good skills but neither really stood out in their wins.

Bisping missed the Team USA elimination fights so he and his team go over the tape of Mark Miller’s fight. Then Bisping is shown working with Osipczak on a strategy for the Miller fight. Both fighters make weight. Based on the pose after making weight Osipczak has a clear height advantage which probably also equates to a reach advantage. Later on in the show Bisping talks to his fighter about some videos he watch on Youtube and further explains the strategy to Osipczak.

The US team writes on a Team UK shirt that is left in the house and on some Team UK wrestling shoes that are left at the practice facility.

Welterweight Fight- Nick Osipczak (Team UK) (3-0)vs. Mark Miller (Team USA) (10-4)

Osipczak has a 4” height and 5” reach advantage for this fight.

R1- Nick got a quick take down but couldn’t do anything with it and Miller flipped him over and took his guard and then they went back to their feet. Miller was able to throw Nick down during a flury of punches by both guys but didn’t hurt him. Nick got another take down with about 2 minutes left in the round. Nick couldn’t really do anything and Miller got back to his feet but then Nick grabbed a guillotine and pulled guard and nearly got a submission. Pretty even first round that I score to Osipczak 10-9 as he came closer to finishing the fight.

R2- Miller went for a guillotine early but Nick easily got out of it and had side control but put himself into half guard and Miller grabbed a guillotine attempt again. Nick hit a big right high kick out of nowhere and ended the fight by KO. Not a very impressive showing for either guy. I really can’t see Nick getting past his next opponent but I’ve been wrong before.

Winner: Nick Osipczak by KO (High Kick) R2

Post-match Michael Bisping talks about how he is being a “tactical dick” by bragging about his guy after the fight.

Remaining Fighters:

Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Martin Stapleton (defeated Dan James)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Santino Defranco (defeated Waylon Lowe)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)

Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- Dean Amasinger (defeated Alex Reid)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
US- Frank Lester (defeated Kiel Reid)

My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA) and Martin Stapleton (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)

Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)

TUF Season 9 Episode 1 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 1

Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson are the coaches for this years TUF. This season we will see a UK versus USA theme. Episode 1 features 16 UK fighters fighting it out to see which 8 guys end up in the house. Dana White meets up with Michael Bisping at the Wolfslair and it looks like that is where this season of TUF starts off. This season will feature Lightweight and Welterweight fighters. Both Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson are at the fights. This is prior to their fight to see who would be the TUF coach so Dana has flown them both in to observe.

Lighweight Fight- Gary Kelly (2-1-1) vs. Andre Winner (9-2-1)

Kelly trains at Wolfslair with Bisping.

R1- Winner looks like a much bigger Lightweight than Kelly. Winner hit a big knee to the head at the two minute mark to win the fight. Neither guys looked particularly good up until that point but Winner hit the big shot and advances.

Winner: Andre Winner by KO (Knee) R1

Lightweight Fight- Jeff Lawson (13-2) vs. James Bryan (3-1)

R1- Lawson showed some jiu jitsu and got a tap out victory with an armbar.

Winner: Jeff Lawson by Submission (Arm Bar) R1

Welterweight Fight- Che Mills (7-2) vs. James Wilks (5-2)

R1- Mills rushed in and took Wilks down but quickly found himself in a heel hook and tapped.

Winner: James Wilks by Submission (Heel Hook) R1

Lightweight- Martin Stapleton (5-1) vs. Dan James (3-0)

R1- Stapleton got a take down to start the fight. Stapleton got some Ground and Pound and landed a Rear Naked Choke and got the tap. So far Stapleton looked like the most complete fighter based on what has been shown.

Lightweight- A.J. Wenn (7-2) vs. Ross Pearson (9-3)

R1- Lots of clinching early. Pearson got a sweep to get Wenn down but Wenn popped right back up and they clinched some more. Pearson got a take down at the two minute mark but again couldn’t hold Wenn down. Pearson hit some knees at the end of the round and Wenn got saved by the bell.

R2- Pearson hit a big shot to open the round and then finished off Wenn with some Ground and Pound.

Winner: Ross Pearson by TKO (strikes) R2

Welterweight Fight- Tommy Maguire (5-2) vs. Nick Osipczak (3-0)

R1- Maguire got Nick down early in the round. Maguire grabbed a guillotine when they stood up and then pulled guard with it but Nick broke the hold but let Maguire up. Nick is really thin but took advantage of Maguire and controlled the stand up and finished off Osipczak.

Winner: Nick Osipczak by KO R1

Welterweight Fight- Alex Reid (10-9-1) vs. Dean Amasinger (4-1)

Not a great record but Reid shows some fire in his ring entrance.

Only highlights are shown of this fight. Dean looked like he controlled the fight. Alex caught him in a triangle but Dean survived. This is the first fight that goes to the third round. Seemed like Alex was more worried about showboating then winning the fight but he did end up with Dean in a triangle when the bell rung. Dean looks like he has some good skills, he just looked really green.

Winner: Dean Amasinger by Decision

Welterweight Fight- James Bateman (2-1) vs. David Faulkner (2-1)

Faulkner is a Wolfslair fighter.

R1- Both of these guys looked like they knew what they were doing in the cage. Faulkner was able to get a leg lock on Bateman and tapped him.

Winner: David Faulkner by Submission (Heel Hook) R1


Lightweight Fighters:
Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly)
Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
Martin Stapleton (defeated Dan James)
Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)

Welterweight Fighters:
James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire)
Dean Amasinger (defeated Alex Reid)
David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)

If I had to pick one fighter from each division as “guys to watch” I would pick Martin Stapleton and David Faulkner.