Cagewriter - UFC

It's Wednesday night, and that can only mean one thing: the week is half over! Also, it means that "The Ultimate Fighter" is on. Huzzah! Last week, Darrill Schoonover got back at Quinton "Rampage" Jackson by beating his fighter, Zak Jensen. Marcus Jones, Matt Mitrione, Scott Junk and Mike Wessel still have to fight. Rashad Evans' team still has a shot at a sweep. Can they do it?

The show starts with Rampage and Rashad making fun of each other. So original! Tiki Ghosn continues to be the Ed McMahon to Rampage's Johnny Carson, laughing a bit too hard at Rampage's jokes, and repeating them at will. Then Rampage comes out with, "Gay-shad! Gay-shad Evans!"

Alright, this paragraph right here is for just for Rampage. If your name is not Rampage Jackson, you should skip to the next paragraph. Rampage, it's 2009. Let's stop with the stupidity. Calling someone gay as if that's a derogatory term is SO 1996. Cut it out. I'd tell you to grow up, but that ship has clearly sailed. At the very least, stay current with teasing trends. 

Once they get through the stupidity, the fight is announced: Scott Junk vs. Matt Mitrione, which means the final fight will be Mike Wessel vs. Marcus Jones. Junk and Mitrione face off, and Junk doesn't actually put his hands up. He just keeps rocking back and forth. The Wessel/Jones faceoff is nearly as comical, as Jones towers over Wessel.

Hey, you're going to be shocked at what happens next -- Rampage and Rashad get in each other's face. Rashad tells Rampage, "I'm gonna make you quit, like you quit this competition, and I'm gonna make you quit in the fight." Rampage continues his, "I'm not a coach" BS until the two came really close to punching each other. All of this build-up leading to no fight only guarantees one thing: there is no way in hell I'm going to buy a ticket to see "The A-Team." 

Mitrione really is not here to make friends

Back at the house, Junk says that Matt showed him a note saying Mike is afraid to fight Scott, but Mike is not afraid to fight anyone, darnit. Team Rashad is ticked at Matt for saying it. Does it sound like junior high? Because that's what it felt like. At practice, Rashad tells Matt to focus on what's important, namely, winning your own fight and growing up.

Junk is annoyed by Mitrione's game playing, and he's looking forward to fighting. Junk is the best, most experienced fighter on Rampage's team, so he probably has the best chance to win.

In Mitrione's never ending quest to be a jerk, he drinks Madsen's orange juice without asking, which prompts Madsen to say he's going to slap Mitrione in the face. At practice, Mitrione goes full out in a sparring session that is supposed to be light. He gets extra meatheaded by flipping out when Madsen walks away from the session. Rashad then puts together his most coach-like speech of the season, telling Mitrione:

"Have you fought yet? So why the [expletive] are you so concerned about what he says to you when he's on your [expletive] team when you haven't even fought yet? Please tell me! Why don't you save some of this [expletive] aggression for the fight you have in a few [expletive] days ... If you don't go out there, and you don't fight like this at your fight, I'm gonna [expletive] you up myself."

The good news for our own Zak Jensen is that the teasing in the house has moved from him to Mitrione. They made a new calendar, counting down to the day Mitrione cracks. Inexplicably, this leads to Wes Sims dressing up in a black gi, sneaking arond the house like a ninja, and jumping out of the bushes to scare Mitrione. Not shockingly, Mitrione doesn't take the teasing well, but he doesn't flip out again.

Despite all the team unity with Team Rashad, you get the feeling that Mitrione's teammates aren't cheering him on.

Matt Mitrione (Team Rashad) vs. Scott Junk (Team Rampage)

Round 1: Mitrione knocksJunk down early, but Junk gets back up. This happens again. And again. Mitrione clearly wants to avoid the ground, even when it looks like he could finish Junk by going to the ground. Mitrione easily avoidss a Junk takedown attempt, and Junk doesn't land many punches. Round one ends with Junk finally fighting back, and Dana White saying "Holy [expletive]." The fight must have been more impressive in person.

Round 2: Junk lands a few clean shots, but doesn't cause much damage. After a lot of trying, Junk gets a takedown and both fighters halfheartedly throw punches. The ref stands them up, and though Mitrione gets the better of the stand-up. They are both clearly exhausted.

"Those two stood in front of each other and threw bombs," Dana White says. Huh? Were we watching the same fight? I saw two exhausted guys praying for the bell to ring. Dana, that's not what you saw? 

Mitrione is the winner, 19-19, 20-18 and 20-18. In case you were wondering, this is the episode where Rampage rips apart the door. 

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209 Comments

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  1. F.U.B.A.R.
    1. Posted by F.U.B.A.R. Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:12 am EDT

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    this has been the worst season in the history of the show, plus no fight at the end what the point
  2. bobd
    2. Posted by bobd Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:25 am EDT

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    none of these guys will ever do ANYTHING in the UFC. Imagine Mitrione vs Lesnar...
  3. mrbugchan
    3. Posted by mrbugchan Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:29 am EDT

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    ^^ agreed
  4. s
    4. Posted by s Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:31 am EDT

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    In complete agreement with FUBAR. The fighters are pretty pathetic to say the least. They're all out of shape and can't even last one round without gassing out. Dana made himself look dumb when that first round ended and he acted like it was the greatest round he's ever witnessed. All this season is doing is making me appreciate the top fighters in the sport, like Anderson Silva and GSP even more because they're the real ultimate fighters. Is it just me or did everybody else get annoyed by the constant UFC 106 promo? Now that we know that fight won't be happening for another couple of months why did they have to run that thing so many times?
  5. Donald_Cerise
    5. Posted by Donald_Cerise Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:39 am EDT

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    To those that haven't figured it out yet. Those figthers were supposed to fodder for Kimbo. This TUF was his big showcase. The only problem is when they pitted him vs one of the ok figther of the lot, turns out he's not there yet. I am suprised they did that.
  6. JJ
    6. Posted by JJ Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:50 am EDT

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    Dana must have been on something. I thought I had missed something spectacular and rewatched the episode, only to be disappointed by the same lame fight. Matt landed some good punches in the beginning and I'm left wondering why he didn't just pound on Junk when he fell.
    3 minutes in and the guys could barely lift their arms...but I didn't expect them to last that long.
  7. JimS
    7. Posted by JimS Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:51 am EDT

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    Only the last 15 of the show is worth watching... the actual fight.
    The first 45min is nothing but fluff.
  8. ClifT
    8. Posted by ClifT Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:59 am EDT

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    An absolute disgrace of a fight. Why are these guys on the show if they can't go 2 rounds without gassing out so badly that they can barely lift their arms. Mitrione had his hands down the whole time and was just asking to be KTFO'd and Junk could barely stand upright to try.
  9. JimS
    9. Posted by JimS Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:01 am EDT

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    Also, I agree this season sucks.
    With all the time they have to train, one would think they could train cadio... you know, 15-20min on the Stairmaster.
    I have never seen MMA fighter less capable of even one round... there is no excuse for how badly out of shape this season's fighters are.
    I'm completely embarrassed for Dana White.
  10. Steel Town
    10. Posted by Steel Town Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:01 am EDT

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    I think it's funny that before the season started Maggie posted an article saying that this would be the worst season ever. Then, everybody hated on her for it. Looks like she was dead on to me.
  11. Barry McCociner
    11. Posted by Barry McCociner Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:19 am EDT

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    You coulda saved a few keystrokes maggie...rampage doesnt read your blog. Oh, and speaking of jokes from 1996, I guess making fun of peoples weight is current events? wasnt it just a few days ago you had a header making fun of ben rothwell's somewhat unathletic looking body? I guess if rampage called him fat-shad you woulda been ok with that?
  12. jtpz
    12. Posted by jtpz Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:20 am EDT

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    i did think the 1st couple minutes of the fight was good. matt threw some hard punches and took a few himself and never went down. after that, dear God was it awful. have none of these guys ever heard of training for their stamina. these guys would get demolished by every light heavyweight in the ufc. id like to know when the last time these guys went for a run and the finish line wasnt old country buffet
  13. Robert C
    13. Posted by Robert C Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:25 am EDT

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    It seems like the best strategy for these guys might be simple cardio.
    It was a good fight for 3 minutes or so, then both guys were gassed. The last round was pathetic. Those punches wouldn't KO my cat. The guys had zero left.
    So my advice would be to just train cardio like crazy. Withstand the first 3 minutes, other guy gets tired...pounce on him then.
    Watching those guys makes me tired.
  14. Sam R.
    14. Posted by Sam R. Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:29 am EDT

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    shorten all the fights to one 30 second round and these fights might be interesting lol
  15. havin_fun1976
    15. Posted by havin_fun1976 Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:54 am EDT

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    Honestly, one of these guys is supposed to get into the ufc and fight a Lesnar, Mir, Couture. You gotta be kidding me! Any of these guys get in the cage against a real UFC fighter, they'll leave on stretcher.
  16. gsenabrasa
    16. Posted by gsenabrasa Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:54 am EDT

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    Makes me appreciate fights like Machida vs. Shogun, even though the outcome is not popular, still a close, tactical, high quality battle from 2 unparalleled athletes...something you won't find at TUF. Makes you think, what the hell are people complaining about?
  17. poopooface375
    17. Posted by poopooface375 Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:08 am EDT

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    Another terrible fight by two dudes who can't even make it a round with getting gassed. How was Scott Junk ever in the UFC? Seriously!!! But there were some good parts to this episode. Wes dressed as a ninja, Mitrione freaking out like a retard, Rashad verbally pwning Mitrione (watch the parts where Rashad talks about Matt's "injury", you can tell Matt is extremely uncomfortable, so great), and Rampage ripping a door in half.
  18. poopooface375
    18. Posted by poopooface375 Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:12 am EDT

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    Oh and in Dana White's defense (kinda), the beginning and end of round 1 was fairly exciting. Everything else was beyond awful.
  19. Caligulus
    19. Posted by Caligulus Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:45 am EDT

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    Nice blog - didn't bother to watch lol.
  20. EL Grubbo
    20. Posted by EL Grubbo Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:07 am EDT

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    ugh, what a horrible fight. I wanted Mitrione to meet an actual fighter and get wrecked, but as it turns out neither of them are worth it. For god's sake, they fought like I would, and I make these guys look like athletes. whatever. As far as the house drama, looks like fun and all, but someone actually NEEDS to snap, a'la Junie or uh...big-head from the first season.
  21. Sarah
    21. Posted by Sarah Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:10 am EDT

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    This was one of the worst fights I have seen. I wanted Junk to win so bad, and instead he looked like a [profane] and gassed out with Mitrione. What is going on with this season?
  22. Sandman
    22. Posted by Sandman Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:11 am EDT

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    TUF must die. As juvenile and retarded as it may be, the Bully show is a million times more entertaining than TUF.
    Idea for a quality series:
    Pick 8 top level fighters per season. Each episode gives us a unique look at how the fighter trains. No BS, No hype, nothing but training, style, and technique. The Upshot: We get to see real fighters, like GSP, Anderson, and Penn in action, working on training and technique. (We jokes aside, we hope BJ is training.) It’s an educational show, designed to educated fans and acquaints fans with different philosophies of training and technique. Personally, I would find such a show worth watching. As I see it, the show would have broad appeal. It would give the novice a look at real training and the lives of fighters, learning technique and style. For the advanced MMA crowd, it would give a technical look into the training of elite guys, their style, philosophy, and coaching.
  23. Chad
    23. Posted by Chad Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:17 am EDT

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    This was the best TUF fight ever. Those guy were throwing some leather. Nice to finally see some guys with stamina.... Thanks Dana!
  24. hookers4jesus
    24. Posted by hookers4jesus Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:42 am EDT

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    i think gina carrano wasnt as gassed out as these guys were 3 mins into the fight. what a sad display of UFC future talent. if season 1 was the savior of the UFC, season 10 might be the undoing. sheesh. that was disgusting.
  25. mike5o
    25. Posted by mike5o Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:44 am EDT

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    I used to like Rampage's humor and disliked Rashad overall. This season sucks overall, but it's caused me to do a 180 on the way I feel about these two individuals. Still wish I could see them fight. Does Rampage quit before the season finishes? Did he quit before the editing was finished? Hmmm

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