The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale 12/13/08 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale 12/13/08 Re-Cap

Lightweight Fight- Junie Browning (2-1) vs. Dave Kaplan (3-1)

Since leaving the house Junie has been training at Xtreme Couture and working on his stand up game and his ability to be a civil person. Kaplan is a former Division 1 wrestler. Kaplan comes out wearing sunglasses and a gold chain and dancing to some pop tune. He gets a laugh out of Joe Rogan. Junie Browning fittingly picks an Eminem song for his entrance. "Without You" is a better song to hype up a fighter but he goes with a song that is more fitting to his personality. Junie has a 3 inch reach and height advantage in this fight.

R1- Junie shows good stand up and Kaplan gets cut early. Kaplan shows a good chin in the first round. Junie takes round one with his stand up and is up 10-9.

R2- Junie got a take down and an arm bar and finished Kaplan pretty quickly in Round Two. Junie looked good in this fight.

Winner: Junie Browning by Submission (Arm Bar) R2 1:32

Light Heavyweight Fight- Eliot Marshall vs. Jules Bruchez

R1- Marshall just imposed his will on Jules in this fight and dominated.

Winner: Eliot Marshall by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 1:27

Middleweight Fight- Jason MacDonald (22-10) vs. Wilson Gouveia (11-5)

MacDonald has a 4 inch reach advantage and a 2 inch height advantage. Gouveia failed to make weight in this fight as he came in 3 pounds over the acceptable threshold. MacDonald chose to take the fight anyway.

R1- Gouveia caught MacDonald coming in early and then hit a ton of elbows, cut MacDonald and finished him.

Winner: Wilson Gouveia by Submission (Strikes) R1 2:18

Welterweight Fight- Kevin Burns (8-1) vs. Anthony Johnson (5-2)

This is a re-match from early this year from a fight that Burns continually poked Johnson in the eye and finally finished him off with a big eye poke and was given the victory. It was one of the worst decision's I've ever seen in MMA. This is the re-match and a chance for Johnson to get his win back. The win was not overturned on the early fight basically because Vegas had already paid out the bets for the Burns win by the time the appeal was heard. AJ trains with Cung Le and Josh Thomson and has a 3 inch height and 4 inch reach advantage in this fight. AJ is a former JUCO wrestler and Burns is a jiu jitsu fighter and taekwondo black belt.

R1- This was a close first round with the stand up being pretty even. AJ got 2 take downs and Burns had 1 submission attempt. AJ took this round 10-9.

R2- AJ got a take down in this round and controlled the action. AJ 20-18.

R3- AJ hit a HUGE big left kick for the KO. Wow! They had just talked about him training with Cung Le and then he Cung Le'd Burns.

Winner: Anthony Johnson by KO (High Kick) R3 0:28

Forrest Griffin and Frank Mir are interviewed and they talk about UFC 92 and the Spike TV Video Game Awards.

Light Heavyweight TUF 8 Finale: Ryan Bader (8-0) vs. Vinny Magalhaes (3-2)

Bader is a two-time All American College wrestler and beat Kingsbury, Lawlor and Eliot Marshall (who won impressively earlier) to get to the finals. Bader is training with CB Dollaway. We'll see if CB can teach him how to avoid an arm bar. Vinny is a 4 time Jiu Jitsu World Champion and a Jiu Jitsu Black Belt. He beat Lance Evans (Rashad's brother), Bruchez (who got destroyed earlier) and Krzysztof Soszynski (who I thought would make the finals) in order to get to the finals. Forrest Griffin has been training with Vinny lately.

R1- Pretty even fight in the first couple of minutes. Bader hit a big right hand shot that put Vinny down. The shot was partially deflected but it put Vinny down and then Bader jumped on top with hammer fists and Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight.

Winner and TUF 8 Light Heavyweight Winner: Ryan Bader by KO R1 2:18

Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Shane Primm

Dan Henderson is in Krzysztof's corner.

R1- Good first round. Krzysztof controlled as he was the superior striker in the round but Primm did a good job trying take downs and staying close to Krzysztof to avoid a lot of striking opportunities. 10-9 Krzysztof after one round.

R2- Krzysztof got a kimura half way through the round and tapped him out.

Winner: Krzysztof Soszynski by Submission (Kimura) R2 3:27

Lightweight TUF 8 Finale: Phillipe Nover (6-0-1) vs. Efrain Escudero (11-0)

Nover was a relative unknown coming into this season of TUF but has developed into the favorite to win the fight. He defeated Joe Duarte, Kaplan and George Roop to make the finals. Nover has just recently received his jiu jitsu black belt. He is a nurse from Brooklyn. Efrain defeated Pariente, Shane Nelson and Junie Browning to make the finals. He is a former high school and JUCO wrestler and is described as a "free style" fighter.

R1- Escudero got a good shot in on Phillipe early as he was getting up from a take down. Efrain got Phillipe's back and then later got in some good Ground and Pound. Really good first round that was controlled by Efrain to the tune of 10-9. Nover had a couple of near submission attempts.

R2- Efrain controlled this round with his wrestling and goes up 20-18. The round ended with a bang as Nover came at Efrain and hit a kick but Efrain absorbed it and slammed Phillipe to the mat.

R3- Nover's stand up looked better at the beginning of this round but he still got taken down. Nover worked his way into an Omaplata attempt in this round and nearly got it locked in. Phillipe stole this round by working that submission attempt for about two minutes at the end of the round. Efrain wins the fight 29-28 on my score card.

Judges all score the fight 29-28 in favor of Efrain.

Winner and TUF 8 Lightweight Winner: Efrain Escudero by Decision (Unanimous)

The Ultimate Fighter 8 Episode 12 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter 8- Episode 12 Re-Cap
Team Noguiera vs. Team Mir

The fights on today’s show are:
Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Vinny Magalhaes
Lightweight Fight- Efrain Escudero vs. Junie Browning

Vinny and Krzysztof are not only team members with Team Mir but also with Team Quest. I think this should be a very good fight with probably the Top 2 Light Heavyweights in the house.

Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Vinny Magalhaes

R1- Vinny pulls guard about one minute into the fight and is delivering elbows and strikes to the top of Krzysztof’s head. Vinny has Krzysztof in a rubber guard type move but Krzysztof gets out of it. Krzysztof hits several leg kicks. Vinny comes forward but slips a couple of times and then pulls guard again on Krzysztof and goes for the arm bar and Krzysztof taps. Really strong finish for Vinny and I think he’s the favorite to take down a much more inexperienced Bader in the finals.

Winner: Vinny Magalhaes by Submission (Arm Bar) R1

The next segment is all about Junie Browning’s pity party. He’s saying that he doesn’t want to fight and that he hasn’t had any good training since he’s been in the house. Back at the house Junie over reacts and throws something at Shane Primm when some guys are having a conversation outside. What a hot head. Dana comes into the house later on to talk to Junie. Dana talks to Junie and then talks to the other fighters. Dana basically tells the guys to keep Junie in the house so that they can beat him off the show. They agree with Dana.

Lightweight Fight- Efrain Escudero vs. Junie Browning
R1- Junie starts off with an advantage in the stand up game so Efrain takes him down. The rest of the round was pretty even but I think Efrain got more quality strikes in. This round could have gone either way. I give a slight edge to Efrain.

R2- Junie went for a take down early but was denied. Junie definitely played the aggressor in the opening part of this round. Efrain got a take down about two minutes into the round. Efrain caught Junie in a submission that didn’t look that dangerous and Junie tapped. Junie immediately left the ring and went back to the dressing room.

Winner: Efrain Escudero by Submission (Choke)

“There was a part of me that enjoyed seeing Junie get choked out”- Frank Mir
“Justice was served”- Dana White

Big Nog and Frank Mir had a side bet and it ended in Frank Mir getting his head shaved.

So the finals are:

Light Heavyweight Fight: Vinny Magalhaes vs. Ryan Bader
Lightweight Fight: Phillipe Nover vs. Efrain Escudero

The finals will be held on December 13th live on Spike TV.

Light Heavyweight Rankings:
1. Vinny Magalhaes
2. Ryan Bader

Lightweight Rankings:
1. Phillipe Nover
2. Efrain Escudero


Eliminations:
Tom Lawlor (ranked #2 LH) eliminated by Ryan Bader (Round Two)
Shane Nelson (ranked #5 LW) eliminated by Efrain Escudero (Round Two)
Shane Primm (ranked #5 LH) eliminated by Eliot Marshall (Round Two)
Roli Delgado (ranked #7 LW) eliminated by Junie Browning (Round Two)
Jules Brunchez (ranked #3 LH) eliminated by Vinny Magalhaes (Round Two)
Dave Kaplan (ranked #1 LW) eliminated by Phillipe Nover (Round Two)
Kyle Kingsbury (ranked #5 LH) eliminated by Krzysztof Soszynski (Round Two)
John Polakowski (ranked #5 LW) eliminated by George Roop (Round Two)
Eliot Marshall (ranked #4 LH) eliminated by Ryan Bader (Round Three)
George Roop (ranked #4 LW) eliminated by Phillipe Nover (Round Three)
Junie Browning (ranked #3 LW) eliminated by Efrain Escudero (Round Three)

The Ultimate Fighter 8- Episode 7 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter 8- Episode 7 Re-Cap
Team Noguiera vs. Team Mir

Frank Mir gives Junie a good talking to after his victory. Krzysztof hurt his thumb in training (he’s one of the Light Heavyweight’s that still hasn’t fought since getting into the house). Mir takes his guys through some interesting cardio work and they hype Vinny as the best jiu jitsu guy in the house.

Jules and Phillipe bake Big Nog cakes for his birthday and Team Nog cooks dinner and eats together.

Team Mir has control of the selection and they choose Vinny to fight Jules. Big Nog had been hinting early that this was the fight that he wanted as well. Big Nog and Vinny get into it later in the show about something that Big Nog heard Vinny was saying about him.

Light Heavyweight Fight- Jules Bruchez vs. Vinny Magalhaes

R1- Vinny has a 3” reach and height advantage and a much bigger mouth. Vinny hits some kicks early. Jules is not really doing anything at all. Vinny continues to hit some body kicks. Vinny went for an arm bar but Jules spun out of it and Vinny quickly got guard and trapped Jules in a submission and quickly tapped him out. Jules looked like he didn’t want to be in this fight and Vinny looked good.


Light Heavyweight Rankings:
1. Krzysztof Soszynski
2. Ryan Bader
3. Vinny Magalhaes
4. Eliot Marshall
5. Kyle Kingsbury

Lightweight Rankings:
1. Dave Kaplan
2. Phillipe Nover
3. Efrain Escudero
4. Junie Browning
5. George Roop
6. John Polakowski

Eliminations:
Tom Lawlor (ranked #2 LH) eliminated by Ryan Bader (Round Two)
Shane Nelson (ranked #5 LW) eliminated by Efrain Escudero (Round Two)
Shane Primm (ranked #5 LH) eliminated by Eliot Marshall (Round Two)
Roli Delgado (ranked #7 LW) eliminated by Junie Browning (Round Two)
Jules Brunchez (ranked #3 LW) eliminated by Vinny Magalhaes (Round Two)