| Date: 04/02 | 9:00 PM |
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Even more MMA action! Hit F5 or refresh for live updates. It's Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest on Spike TV, and it starts RIGHT NOW.
We are shown every season of Ultimate Fighter up until now beginning with sixteen men. Some seized the moment and went on to glory, others wasted the opportunity of a lifetime and were sent home by Dana White. This season it's all going to change! Team Rampage v. Team Forrest.
We're at the UFC training center and a ton of guys are there. CB Dollaway, middleweight, says he feels great to finally make it to UFC. Gerald Harris sees the posters on the wall and says he's gonna be up there with those guys. "Then I see another 8 guys come in, and I was a little confused, like what the hell!" CB: "That was a big surprise." Gerald: "A total of 32 and it was downhill from there." Amir Sadollah: "Everybody looked around and it got a little more quiet." Jeremiah Riggs: "Damn, something's up!" Dana White walks in and gathers everybody around on the mat. "Alright gentlemen, welcome to the Ultimate Fighter. First I'm gonna bring your coaches out. From season one of Ultimate Fighter, he won, and he just destroyed Shoguan Rua, the first coach this season is Forrest Griffin." Griffin: "My first thought, the same one I had on the first season, oh {shit} what have I gotten myself into." White introduces Rampage Jackson as a PRIDE star and "the only man to ever knock out Chuck Liddell." Jackson: "Man, let me think about it, I've never really coached nobody, I thought 2 seconds and said AIGHT, I'm a coach."
White: "What drives me crazy every season is the {pussies} and the poseurs. It makes me sick to my stomach cause I think of the guys who wanted to be there. I found the {fucking} solution. The next 48 hours are gonna be the most important of your {fucking} life, because you're gonna fight your way onto the show." Jackson: "I think some of them crapped their pants. I could smell it!" White: "Rampage's assistant coaches will corner half of you, Forrest's coaches will corner the other half of you. We've matched you up already, and we're gonna see who the real fighters are and who the poseurs are. You're gonna get right over the next 2 days, anything in this gym is at your disposal, we're here to help you." Reggie Orr: "You gotta fight your way into the {fucking} house." John Wood: "It's nice to make it to the last 32 but it kinda sucks we have to do it this way." Brandon Sene: "The thought of going home in 48 hours is devestating." Riggs: "{Fuck} it, he coulda gave me one hour." Steve Byrnes: "At the end of it all, we all came here to fight, so let's get it on."
The sun rises over the desert as we go back to the UFC fight center for our official middleweight weigh-ins. John Clarke makes 185 and he's dying of thirst. One by one everybody makes weight at 184, 184.5, 185. Forrest: "A bunch of naked dudes. Fantastic!" 7 minutes in and it's already FIGHT DAY in our first episode of the season. Rampage: "I'm gonna sit back with the popcorn andsee who the baddest!" Forrest: "I'm looking for guys uglier than me. Any pretty guys, put 'em on Jackson's team." All the fighters warm up as we see our first fight is Prince McLean vs. Mike Dolce, brought to us by Burger King.
* Prince McLean v. Mike Dolce
McLean is 5-4 and fighting out of Cincy. Mike Dolce is 4-4 and he fights out of Belmar, NJ. Dolce: "What do you mean now what, now you get to beat the living hell out of somebody on TV! I'm gonna put the hurt on him real quick. I'm gonna make him want to quit and go home." We'll find out if that's exactly what he did after this commercial break!
Here we go with our first elimination fight, two five minute rounds with a third for sudden victory if necessary. Herb Dean: "C'mon let's do it!" Both men swing wildly. Dolce knocks McLean down but he responds with a nasty upkick. Dolce mounts, McLean rolls him over, but Dolce picks him up for a big slam. White is already impressed by Dolce. Dolce takes side control and grinds an elbow against his face. McLean scrambles and gets back up but he eats a combo that drops him like a sack of potatoes. Rampage: "DAYUMN!!" WINNER: MIKE DOLCE. Jackson: "Did you smell that dude, that funk probably had something to do with that knockout. You can have that guy, I don't care how hard he punch." McLean has to be helped up by officials and trainers, he got ROCKED. "That's my first time ever getting knocked out, I don't know, better luck next time I guess. It hurts to lose." Next up!
* Cale Yarbough v. John Clarke
Yarbough's 21 and has a 0-0 record. Clarke is 6-2 and had to cut 17 pounds just to make the weight for this fight. He says it's all or nothing here because he can't be a bar fighter in Boston making $500 a fight forever, so if he doesn't cut it here he's ready to give up on an MMA career. Commercial!
Time for the second elimination fight. Rampage can't get over how tentative the fighters are. Griffin seems unimpressed two even as a takedown occurs. One minute in and we've seen nothing except some body jabs from guard. Forrest yells for a scramble. A kimura is nearly sunk in but Cale survives, although he's getting hit in the head repeatedly. Rampage: "I take it back, I'd take this guy." Forrest: "You'd take fatty!" Rampage: "Yeah he'd have to cut a lot of weight all the time." 2:20 left in the round and we're back on the ground. Dana wonders how tired Clarke has to be after cutting all that weight. Forrest yells for Cale to get to his feet. 1:30 left. White: "Cut the weight dude'll be tired in the second round." Jackson: "Look he tired already." With 58 seconds left Cale punches him out. WINNER BY TKO: CALE.
* Steve Byrnes v. Amir Sadollah
Sadollah says he's his own worst critic, and wnats to earn his spot, not just be there because he "looks pretty and stuff." Byrnes is from Hawaii and he's 6-1 overall. "I started grappling while I was in the Marine Corps, so I'm more of a ground fighter. I fought in Ultimate Fight Night 7, got the big show jitters and lost, just glad I got a second chance now." Jackson: "Let's go marine. HOO-RAH!" Commercial.
Time for the third elimination fight! Sadollah is throwing head kicks right away but Byrnes backs him up into the fence and goes for a single leg. Sadollah sprawls well though to avoid the takedown, at least at first, but after 30 seconds he finally gets it and takes side control. Byrnes ends up in full guard. Rampage: "The loser gets a haircut!" Yeah between the pretty boy and the shaved stripes on the marine's head, I think that's not such a bad idea. Byrnes keeps all over Sadollah, spinning around trying to get better position. 2:45 left. Byrnes is moving back to the side and trying to either hit hammer fists or take an arm. Sadollah sweeps and ends up on top, grinding an elbow into Byrnes' face. Jackson: "Don't let him knee you in the ass!" Byrnes and Sadollah end up in a funky near submission that amounts to nothing in the end. One minute to go. Byrnes ends up back on top with Sadollah pulling down on his head and throwing some nasty elbows. His nose is bloodied up - so much for being a pretty boy. 10 seconds. Jackson: "You better win the round marine, win the round!" Our first elimination fight to go past five minutes. R2 after these messages!
Dana White: "Who's your boy!" Forrest: "I'm going for whoever's losing." Right at the start of round two Byrnes' ends up on top and Sadollah on the bottom, but he starts to roll out of it and succeeds, putting knees into his ribs along the cage. Jackson: "Take that back baby!" Sadollah does for a second, then opts to punch Byrnes in the face and rock him with a big knee. Byrnes tries to get a takedown and succeeds, ending up in side control. Amir and Byrnes keep rolling on the ground and Sadollah ends up on top, and throws some WICKED right elbows at his face. Byrnes rolls and ends up back on top but Sadollah takes an arm when he does for the submission. He tries to jump to the top of the cage but he's so tired he falls off! WINNER BY ARMLOCK: AMIR SADOLLAH.
Apparently we're only getting highlights of the next four fights, brought to us by the film "The Ruins." First is David Baggett v. CB Dollaway. CB takes the mount and obliterates his opponent before Herb Dean has to stop it. ADVANCING: CB DOLLAWAY.
Next up are Dante Rivera and John Wood. Jackson was HELLA impressed with Dante, saying he'd never seen somebody get a kimura against a cage before. ADVANCING: DANTE RIVERA.
Nick Klein and David Mewborn are up next. Forrest was excited to see his friend Mewborn, until he got overwhelmed and totally owned. ADVANCING BY HEAD ARM TRIANGLE: NICK KLEIN.
Last is Paul Bradley v. Reggie Orr. Jackson describes it as a "classic wrestler v. kickboxer fight." Griffin says it wasn't the best fight of the night - ten minutes of wrestling on the ground. White describes it as "watching turtles {fuck}." Speaking of which I think we're all glad Tim Sylvia is gone. WINNER: PAUL BRADLEY. That takes us to commercial with 10 minutes left in the hour.
Judging by the break we have eight more fights next week, so there must be one more left to go tonight. Dave Roberts: "I've known Rampage since 15, we wrestled in high school together." Jackson: "We told people growing up we were brothers that had two different dads, and people believed us."
* Jeremy May v. Dave Roberts
May has five losses and only one more win than that. Roberts is 4-5 though so he's equally unimpressive, but since he's friends with Rampage he gets my vote for the guy I want to win. May throws a high kick right away then a low leg kick. Jackson tells Dave to stay aggressive. Unfortunately May backs him up into the cage, lands a combo, rocks him, hits a right head kick, but Roberts makes a comeback with a takedown. May uses the position to put him in an armbar and taps Roberts out. Damn! WINNER BY ARMLOCK: JEREMY MAY. Jackson is just as disappointed as I am. May: "Who's in the house - I'm in the house!" Jackson says sorry I beat up your best friend, it's just my job. Jackson consoles him: "It ain't the end of the world Dave."
Roberts: "This is a dream, a goal to get into the UFC. I think I let Quinton down, for the loss, and me not being here." Jackson: "I'm proud of him for coming but I'm very disappointed because I wanted him to win the WHOLLLLE SHOW." That's the end of the debut episode of the new Ultimate Fighter season, with a end recap package naming the eight guys who have already advanced and remind us to tune in next week for eight more eliminations. The announcer promises "tendon popping submissions and brutal knockouts" in a quest to become the NEXT, Ultimate Fighter. I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy both shows but I hope UFC doesn't schedule four straight hours of shit on SpikeTV again for a LOOOOONG time.