The Ultimate Fighter Live: Cruz vs Faber – First Episode impressions

The first episode of the new, revamped version of The Ultimate fighter has come and gone, leaving us with plenty of talking points with regards to the new format of the show as well as the fighters that fought to make their way into the TUF house. I’m going to ignore the underwhelming ratings from U.S. TV and focus on the good and bad of the new format and the fighters.

The fighters

• The vast majority of the fighters involved did themselves proud by fighting hard and looking for the finish. The UFC has dangled a $5,000 bonus for fight finishes in TUF in the past but it has rarely resulted in an increase in finishes. Whether it was for the money, desperation to not have their fate decided by a 1 round decision, or an attempt to impress Dana and the coaches, there was barely a fighter who did not leave everything in the cage as they searched for an explosive end to the fight.
• Despite their in-cage performances, the fighters still seem like they’re going to be yet another selection dim-witted buffoons, without a shred of intellect between them. Prepare for some painful comments in the talking-head sections of future shows.
• Cristiano Marcello looks to be one of the early favourites thanks to his experience as a fighter, experience as coach to some of the best fighters of all time, and legitimate BJJ credentials. He displayed true black-belt level grappling, smoothly transitioning around Jared Carlsten (an Eddie Bravo black belt) and setting up an easy rear-naked choke to proceed into the house.
• Sam Sicilia looks like a lightweight Johny Hendricks, and acted like one, knocking out his opponent in 8 seconds. I’m not sure if the referee was a little early on the stoppage, though allowing Erin Beach time to recover may have resulted in little more than several more punches to the face and the same result. Big KO power at lightweight is rare, so it will be interesting to see if Sicilia can repeat the feat throughout the season.
• Chris Tickle may have the least intimidating name, but he also impressed with a quick KO in the opening seconds of his fight with Austin Lyons.
• Newcastle lad Andy Ogle looked lively early in his fight with Brendan Weafer, and did well to keep his composure and survive as Weafer, who was a much bigger fighter, attempted to lock up a triangle-choke for most of the fight. He was able to pick some shots and win the decision. However, he should never have got himself into that position, and he looks like he will have a serious size disadvantage against most of the other fighters on the show. Here’s hoping he can go further than most of the other British fighters that have been on TUF recently.
• I can’t wait to see Justin Lawrence and Daron Cruickshank again after their striking displays in this opening round of fights. Flashy kicks go a long way to attracting interest, and when they are used effectively, they can lead to some spectacular results. After his KO of WEC veteran James Krause I would have to imagine Lawrence proceeding farther in the tournament, but however both fighters do they should provide excitement.
• Vinc Pichel, Myles Jury and Michael Chiesa all look like they could be a threat in this tournament.
• It was a shame that Jon Tuck broke his toe, as he looked like he had the beating of Al Iaquinta. That, and it must have hurt like hell, ugh!

The new TUF format

• 1 round fights are a horrible way to decide who gets into the TUF house. Fortunately half of the fights ended with finishes, and half of the decision were not close, and didn’t look like they would have been if they’d gone another 2 or 3 rounds. This could be a problem in future.
• With that said, the constant flow of fights, fighter profiles, brief interviews kept the show ticking along nicely. Each break was actually necessary to add as breathing space between what was often 5 minutes of furious action. Once again, my opinion of this may chance in future seasons if we see, for example, a group of light-heavyweights taking part in a series of 1 round clinch/lay-and-pray -fests.
• The continued lack of commentary on TUF shows is as welcome, but this kind of fight presentation will never completely come into its own until each fighter has a proper team and set of coaches barking orders at them for a full fight. The sparse comments from Cruz, Faber and Dana White were reserved, and not substantial enough as a companion to the fights.
• Everything else from the White/Cruz/Faber trio was excellent. Little vignettes between fights were interesting and gave a nice little insight into the fighter’s opinions. They were also very cordial with each other, which was nice to see. Dana was not shouting for what must be the first time in his life, and was almost the perfect middle-man, providing questions for Cruz and Faber.
• Jon Anik is a good presenter, but his announcements after each fight were abrupt and unnecessary. The little interviews with fighters straight after their victories were a nice touch though.
• This was a one off episode. The show on Friday will be the real test, as that will be for the format that will be stuck to for the rest of the season. For what it’s worth, this show was handled very well.

Overall, it was a good first episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Cruz vs. Faber. Hopefully the UFC can build on this and embrace this change of format and change the content of the regular episodes that will be coming up in the next few months.

Hopes for future episodes

• Focus on the training – too often in the past, TUF has spent most of its time getting to know the contestants by showing their idiotic antics in the house. It would be nice to see what kind of a fighter each guy is, and present them through their attitude to training rather than observing how they react to having water poured on their pillow.
• Focus on the trainers – Amongst others I spotted UFC fighters Phil Davis and Ross Person form Cruz’s gym helping out with fighters in this first episode. No doubt we will also see the likes of Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez helping Team Faber in the near future. This is a good opportunity to give some more quality UFC fighters some exposure.
• Focus on the coaches – And not just how they’re getting under each other’s skin. Cruz and Faber are both fantastic fighters and notoriously hard workers. They will be preparing for their fight during the season, and it would be great to see a bit of a spotlight on how the highest level fighters train on a week-by-week basis

Even without these improvements, the fact that there are 16 lightweights getting ready to fight for a UFC contract leaves me in no doubt that we can at least look forward to some entertaining fights this season. Add to that two quality bantamweights as coaches with engaging personalities and great teams backing them, and we could have one of the best TUF seasons yet.

UFC 143: Diaz vs Condit Extended Preview and the tired hype techniques of the UFC

First of all, here is the extended preview from the UFC for UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit, which goes down at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, this Saturday night on ESPN in the UK. It’s as sleek a production as ever, with some cool highlights to show off the fighters at their most exiting, and get the viewer hyped up for this promising event.

What I would also like to do, is address the shortcomings of this video, pretty much entirely focused around Joe Rogan’s ‘analysis’ of the four featured fighters.

Before I begin, I would like to point out that I do not dislike Joe Rogan, and do not intend this to be attack on him. I actually happen to think he does a fairly decent job as a co-commentator for the UFC, filling a role that requires him to draw on a deep knowledge of several disciplines of martial arts and the history of the sport, as well as covering for the many, many inaccuracies in Mike Goldberg’s commentary. Although he can often resort to excessive use of hyperbole and screaming when nothing of note has actually happened, his enthusiasm is infectious and he has no problem identifying when a fight stinks, or when a referee of fighter has behaved in an unacceptable way. Rogan usually manages to usually pull this off without any bias or agenda (support for Jason Miller in his fight with Michael Bisping excluded). He also does a fantastic job as a presenter at the weigh-ins, exciting the crowd (mainly through his uncontrollable screaming), and though not perfect, remains Zuffa’s most competent  post-fight interviewer to this point. Rogan is not a journalist,  and often has to contend with fighters who do not want to be interviewed, or simply have nothing of interest to say, but still stands above Craig Hummer, Kenny Florian, Gus Johnson and (for now) Jon Anik.

What cannot be escaped from, however, is the torrent of nonsense that is sprayed at the viewer, every time one of these ten minute preview videos is released for a forthcoming UFC pay-per-view. It used to be the case that Dana White would contribute hyperbolic analysis for these videos, but now Rogan has sole responsibility, so unfortunately  I have focused criticism on him. I’d first started to get frustrated at this sort of inaccurate build-up around the Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort fight. Rogan attempted to sell the fight by stating:

Before the fight goes to the ground, Anderson Silva has an advantage over almost every single human being in the world … but if you wanted to build a perfect fighter to defeat a guy like Anderson Silva, it would be a guy like Vitor Belfort.

Ignoring the fact that Rogan also said Belfort was capable of ripping off 50-60 punches in a period of five or six seconds (really, check out the UFC 126 broadcast), this is simply rubbish. The world had seen the perfect way to go about beating Anderson Silva in his previous fight with Chael Sonnen. Rogan had explained this at the time. Silva then went out and showed why Vitor Belfort was not the perfect foil for him by knocking him into another dimension and evaporating all credibility form Rogan’s pre-fight hype.

Let’s have a look at what he says in this preview, starting with his opinions on the main event between Diaz and Condit:

“To have these guys throw down for the interim title is the absolute perfect match up”

This is fair enough. Rogan has his hype hat on, and needs to make the fight sound as though it will be exciting. Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit are probably the most exciting fighters in the welterweight division at the moment. They are both well rounded, with a range of ways to finish an opponent, whilst being difficult to finish themselves.

“He absolutely put on a show and dismantled the veteran BJ Penn in one of the finest performances of his career”

Once again, I have no complaints. I have never seen BJ Penn hurt like he was in his fight against Nick Diaz. It was truly impressive, and entertaining to boot.

“It is an opportunity [for Condit] to fight a guy … considered the number one contender in the welterweight division”

Once again, I have no issue with this statement. It is an opinion that is up for debate, but given Jon Fitch’s recent defeat, and Diaz’s run, I would also consider him the no. 1 contender in the division. However, here is where things to start to be removed from reality.

“If he can get through Nick Diaz, it shows that he is amongst the best if not the very best at 170 pounds.”

this is where things start to veer slightly away from the truth. Condit will not be the outright best fighter at welterweight. There is still the small matter of Georges St. Pierre, who has ruled the division since he beat Matt Hughes in December 2007. I’m not sure why Rogan really has to say this. Even the most casual fan of the UFC knows who GSP is. identifying him as the most dangerous threat to GSP would be more accurate, and would not undermine their biggest star.

“Carlos Condit shows no weaknesses … every time you see him you see improvement, you see growth, you see him rising to the pressure of being amongst the very best fighters in  the world at 170 pounds”

Now this is just false. Even just looking at Condit’s UFC run you can identify many shortcomings. After losing a close decision to a very good technical striker in Martin Kampmann, Conndit was nearly decapitated in the first round against Jake Ellenberger, who dropped him repeatedly with wild strikes, which Condit left himself open to. Ellenberger also managed to take him down by countering kicks and by double-legging the static Condit. In Condit’s next fight with Rory MacDonald, he was beaten for two rounds, out-struck and repeatedly taken down. Condit did manage to miraculously win both of those fights, but he had to battle though adversity, thanks to his lack of takedown defence and porous striking defence.  The jury is out on whether he has improved in these areas after he has given his opponents little opportunity to mount offence against him, knocking out Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim in the first round. He has  improved the power he generates with his striking at least.

“[Diaz] even fought some fights at 185 pounds dismantling Frank Shamrock and Scott Smith at that weight class.”

Diaz fought Shamrock at a catchweight of 179 pounds, and Smith at 180 pounds. I understand that Rogan would not highlight the fact that these are distinctly sub-par fighters, but he could at least be accurate about the facts of the fight. Maybe he doesn’t even realise this.

“I guarantee you the Carlos Condit that you see against Nick Diaz  for the interim welterweight championship will be a new level of Carlos Condit. He will reach his full potential and rise to the occasion.”

This is pure conjecture. It is just as conceivable that Condit will be completely shut down by Diaz and be made to look as bad as he has done in the UFC. It would be nice for him to qualify his statement.

Rogan has less to say about the Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce with it being the co-main event, but there are still several examples of  embellishment

“They’ve both taken to striking very well”

Whilst both fighters certainly pack a great deal of power, they are hardly channelling the abilities of pro boxers. Pierce’s striking remains rudimentary and Koscheck’s has gaping holes. Lest we forget this is a man who was knocked out by Paulo Thiago and jabbed to a five round decision by GSP.

The comments that follow highlighting each fighters wrestling ability are fair. Rogan explains their credentials and success in adapting their amateur wrestling for use in MMA. He does not go overboard and state that their wrestling is the best in MMA, the UFC or even the welterweight division. When referring back to striking however, Rogan drops the ball once again.

“It’s safe to say that Josh Koscheck has faced a guy who can punch as hard as Pierce, has Pierce faced a guy who can punch as hard as Koscheck? I don’t think he has.”

Now this is purely my own opinion, so perhaps not completely fair to use as a criticism, but I believe there is validity in this argument. Last year Mike Pierce fought (and arguably defeated) Johny Hendricks over three rounds. Johny Hendricks recently became the first man to stop Jon Fitch in the UFC after a blistering left hook after only 12 seconds. The only men Koscheck has knocked out in the last three years are Matt Hughes and Frank Trigg. Two fighters who were in their prime seven years ago.

I understand that Joe Rogan has to sell the fights and the event as a whole in order to get fans to put down their hard earned cash for the PPV, so must be allowed some leeway to draw attention to the positive and accentuate what the most enticing aspects of each fighter are. However, the extent to which he exaggerates a fighter’s abilities and status is embarrassing to the educated fan, and simply unnecessary. By identifying a fighter’s shortcomings, particularly in relation to another’s strengths, Rogan could identify likely opportunities for fireworks within a fight. For example – Mike Pierce hits hard, and Josh Koscheck has poor defence and a suspect chin, allowing for the possibility for a huge knockout upset. Surely this could be an effective marketing possibility given everyone’s appreciation for knockouts and Koscheck’s unpopularity. Similarly, the unwillingness to identify attributes such as the durability of Diaz and Condit, or the less stellar tendency of each fighter to sacrifice sound defence for offensive output in fights eliminates the opportunity to describe how the fight could develop into a five round masterpiece.

The UFC and Joe Rogan do not need to lower themselves to this level for the purposes of promotion. It has the effect of over hyping a fight, which will in turn leave the audience feeling short changed if the event disappoints, and put them off future pay-per-views. Selling inaccurate analysis reduces credibility, leading people to believe that they will say anything to sell a PPV. Then, when an event such as this comes around with lesser known fighters that is truly deserving of everyone’s attention a lack of confidence in the brand could further affect PPV sales. It is frustrating to see the leading organisation of a sport that is so desperately chasing legitimacy and mainstream appeal resort to such tactics when the same kind of promotion is rarely seen for other sports. Hopefully in  the future either the fighters can speak for themselves, or at the very least have an analyst comment clips of previous fights to show us why we should be interested, rather than relying on fabrication.