I wrote a book about The Ultimate Fighter that never saw the light of day. But Bloody Elbow will publish excerpts for the next 10 weeks. Here’s the story of the book … Source: Inside The Ultimate Fighter: The best-selling tell-all book that never was – Bloody Elbow Continue reading Inside The Ultimate Fighter lives … at Bloody Elbow
What we learned this week: – My cable company doesn’t have The Ultimate Fighter on demand. I had to wait to catch the Sunday rerun. – Some guy from American Top Team is really good at climbing ropes. – American Top Team finally picks Hayder Hassan to fight. They don’t mention the hand injury ruled him out of the last four. – The Blackzilians pick Andrews Nakahara, who claims a world championship in Kyokushin karate. He is seen training on a beach. Then a 250-pound guy comes up to kick sand in his face, and Nakahara signs up for a Charles Atlas … Continue reading The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 5: The streak ends
What happened in this episode: – “Creepy Steve” Montgomery botched his weight cut and had a terrifying seizure. The panic on his American Top Team teammates’ faces was one of the harshest moments of reality on this long-running reality show. He’s OK. And he seems like a great guy, saying he just wants to spread positive energy, either through fighting or smiling. Most people watching would probably love to buy him a beer. – Carrington Banks, the Blackzilians’ choice to fight this week, also seems like a great guy. He spent a lot of his childhood in Georgia, so I’m … Continue reading The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 4: A scare for Creepy
A few observations on this week’s episode of the biggest fight series in South Florida since Kimbo beat Afropuff and Big Mac on the same day in the boat yard. – The new theme song is as lame as it gets. The credits tell us nothing. No idea why they did this. – Is American Top Team saving its best fighters for when the point values increase? But then the best fighters don’t get to fight twice. Are they just not that good? – Was Valdir “Baby Monster” Araujo motivated by ATT’s Michael Graves stealing his wine? – Does the … Continue reading The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 3: Please, please throw a punch
How do you keep The Ultimate Fighter fresh after 10 years? Give the UFC credit for trying. In 2011, they used it to introduce their bantamweight and featherweight divisions. T.J. Dillashaw has gone on to do pretty well for himself, and John Dodson isn’t bad, either. In 2012, they tried a live season. They decided it didn’t work, so they backed away. Then — women! First as coaches and half the cast as Ronda Rousey yelled at Miesha Tate for a while. Then as the whole cast last season, with the winner getting the belt. (And, sadly, not successfully defending it.) This … Continue reading The Ultimate Fighter 21, Episode 1: These teams matter
Let’s get this straight: Women’s MMA is fantastic. Women’s fights are often the highlights of a typical fight card, especially when they’re sandwiched in between a couple of wrestling stalemates with one dude leaning against the other up against the cage. And the athletes are compelling. Don’t believe me? Let Tommy Toe Hold sing the profane praises of all-women’s organization Invicta. Tommy was also ahead of his time in spotting the extraordinary talents of Rose Namajunas, one of the finalists in … The Ultimate Fighter 20: A Champion Will Be Crowned Yes, a champion will indeed be crowned. This is … Continue reading The (sex!) marketing of (catfights!) women’s MMA
My enthusiasm for this one was diminished ever so slightly when I saw a headline with more fights announced for the TUF finale. Obviously, the fighters with new matchups are the ones who lost in this episode. Note to self: Just stay up and watch this show live. But we’ve got two fantastic matchups here. This could’ve been a viable Invicta pay-per-view main event and co-main event. We’re getting it free. Cheers. To recap: 1. The two quarterfinals today are: Carla Esparza-Tecia Torres (winner faces Jessica Penne) The one I’ve been waiting to see for weeks, Rose Namajunas-Joanne Calderwood (winner … Continue reading The Ultimate Fighter 20, Episode 11: No quarter
