TUF 7 - Episode 7

At the end of last weeks episode, we hear Luke Zachrich complain about being over trained for his fight. Apparently, the only one feeling the affects of over training is Luke himself as both of his teammates won tonight, giving team Forrest a 6-1 record in the first round of fights.

The first fight of the night featured Amir Sadollah (0-0) of Team Forrest vs Gerald Harris (7-2) of Team Rampage. This was quite possibly the most boring fight of the first round. The entertainment value of this fight ranked somewhere between doing the dishes and a WHAM reunion tour. To start the bout, Gerald looked very focused and ready to take the fight to Amir. On the other side of the Octagon, Amir appeared cautious and unsure of what to expect. Gerald scored a few takedowns in the first round and proceeded to drop a few lazy elbows and half hearted punches. He seemed perfectly content with scoring the take down points and never really attempted to finish the fight. This strategy led to nothing more than giving Amir confidence that Gerald could not hurt him.

Round 2 opens and the fighters appear to be happy to stand and trade for a little while. Big mistake on Geralds part. Amir loads up and delivers a knee to the side of the head, which drops Gerald and mercifully ends the fight. For a while there, I could not tell if this was the UFC or Dancing with the Stars. Amir climbs on top and pounds him out for the win. Yawn. This is 7 minutes and 24 seconds of my life that I will never get back. The knee must have made Gerald lose track of his senses. For a mintue he forgets he is fighting in the UFC and proceeds to throw a hissy fit usually reserved for cast members of The Real World. His rant continues to the locker room where he claims he let his family down and that his 7 year old son would see him lose. News flash for you Gerald....you should be upset, you fought like a wussie. Worse than that though, not only did you give the fight away, but you acted like a child in the wake of your loss even refusing to acknowledge your opponent in the ring. No one likes a crybaby Gerald, especially Dana White. On a side note, Forrest told Amir that if he won, he would shave half of his head. Just when we thought he could not possibly get any uglier, he is now going to parade around with a stupid hair cut. Lucky us. Hey Dana, more shots of the ring card girls please!

Tonight was a special 2 fight episode. Luckily the producers of the show also realized that the first fight was garbage and decided to show a second bout. Fight 2 featured Cale Yarbrough (0-0) of Team Forrest vs. Patrick Schultz (7-1-1) of Team Rampage. Unlike the first fight, this one was loaded with action. The fighters remained on their feat and slugged it out for the majority of the round. Patrick found a home for his jab at the end of Cale's nose. The jab was incredibly effective and he was able to keep Cale off balance for most of the round. After a steady diet of leather, Cale takes Patrick down and for the last minute of the round showed a very effective ground and pound.

As we head to round 2, Patrick Shultz decided that the best thing to do would be to abandon his game plan of crisp jabs mixed in with solid overhand punches and lower leg kicks, and started throwing haymakers. His looping wild punches missed the mark time after time and you could see the gas tank rapidly drain. If memory serves, this is the same strategy that got him a nap in the preliminary round. Cale took advantage of this and quickly went for the take down. From the top, he moved Patrick to his corner and proceeded to punish him from the half guard for the rest of the round. This fight goes to the judges and Cale Yarbrough is the winner. This was a great fight. Cale is the type of fighter that could make a good showing in the UFC. He has great conditioning, likes to strike, and stayed active the entire fight.

Patrick wasnt quite satisfied with getting his ass handed to him, so he decided to pop off to Forrest with something to the effect of "We'll see what happens when you fight Rampage." Ummmm what?! You get your butt whipped and the best you can come up with is "My dad can beat up your dad?" This leads to a verbal outburst by Rampage who spouts "Betcha our fight dont go to no decision, betcha! I would bet my purse on it."

All in all, this has been a strange season of TUF. The producers have decided to show very little footage of activity in the house and have mostly shown training scenes and the fights. This season has also come up short on developing rivalries. With the exception of Jeremy May, who even his own teammate's cant stand, there has been no hatred or ill will among the fighters. I think adding some of the footage at the house and showing the arguments and disagreements would help to promote the fights and make them more exciting at the end of the show.

On the flip side, they are doing a good job of promoting Rampage. By beating Chuck Liddell, Rampage has set himself up to be the guy that carries the torch for the UFC and for big PPV draws. Rampage seems to be a charismatic and fun loving guy outside the ring. Couple that with the fact that he has the ability to kill someone with his bare hands, and you have the kind of guy you can market to new fans of the UFC. I hope they continue to show his personality and his roller coaster of emotions.

I have watched every season of TUF and so far, this season has been a disappointment. There doesnt seem to be a Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, or Joe Stevenson type fighter in the house. Hopefully the second round fights will be more competitive and a fighter or two will start to emerge as the dominate favorite. The problem I am having is that with this season, there isnt a fighter in the house that I care about. I dont have a favorite team. I find myself watching each episode with the hopes of seeing a big knockout, not a great fight by a fighter or team that I like. Hopefully round 2 will be better.

Next week on the blog I will review the final fight of the frst round between C.B. Dolloway and Nick Klein. Also, I will be posting a preview and prediction article for UFC 84 Ill Will.