TUF 18 female tryouts video

The UFC could seriously build some traction with this upcoming mixed season of The Ultimate Fighter.

There seems to be so much positivity surrounding the introduction of women, and their first major opportunity to have a spotlight shined consistently on them in a major MMA promotion.

The above video shows the open tryouts for TUF 18, which attracted notable names from women’s MMA including former Strikeforce Roxanne Modafferi, and former #1 pound for pound fighter Tara LaRosa.

Of course, this whole thing could turn into an enormous car crash once both male and female fighters are introduced into the TUF house together, but for now, let’s embrace this excitement and positivity shall we?

Don’t forget to follow TRIANGLECHOKEMMA on facebook and twitter

TUF Live Finale results: Kampmann stuns Ellenberger with dramatic KO

Though The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale was lacking very much high-quality or relevant action, it was still an entertaining little affair, capped off with the culmination of a proper feel-good story and a spectacular fight between 2 fighters with welterweight title aspirations.

Martin Kampmann def. Jake Ellenberger via knockout (knees) – Round 2, 1:40

I’d mentioned that I thought that Martin Kampmann could win this fight if he could weather Ellenberger’s early storm, and capitalise on ‘The Juggernaut’s’ suspect gas-tank. I thought that Ellenberger would still win though, and that looked likely when he landed a left hook right on the button that crumpled the Dane.

Kampmann quickly recovered, and completely stifled any offence from his opponent for the rest of the round. I remember being totally convinced that this was his fight to lose now. He had proved he could handle what Ellenberger could throw at him, and he just had to wait for an opportunity. I did not expect that to come at the start of the next round, when Ellenberger was wobbled with a hook, and then finished with a couple of precision knees to the face.

This is a HUGE win for Kampmann, and one that looks like it sets him up for a #1 contender’s match with Johny Hendricks later in the year. I’d have Hendricks as the favourite, but how can you count out the great Dane after his last 2 comeback wins?

Mike Chiesa def. Al Iaquinta via technical submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:37 

Sometimes it’s just nice to see a proper heartwarming story in MMA. Mike Chiesa lost his dad just as filming started, and he’ managed to win the whole show even with that huge weight on his shoulders. This result was a bit of an upset, but you wouldn’t have thought so from watching the fight. Chiesa was able to effortlessly take Iaquinta’s back and lock in the submission, choking him completely unconscious for the win.

Chiesa probably won’t make any great waves in the lightweight division, but he does seem to be a talented grappler who could be a serviceable fixture on FX and FUEL main cards if he can become a more well rounded fighter. Iaquinta probably has a similar future. He is raw, but there seems to be some talent there in all areas that suggests he could be moulded into a relatively successful fighter.

Charles Oliveira def. Jonathan Brookins via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 2:42

‘Do Bronx’ was arguably the most impressive fighter on the card on Saturday, earning himself a good win over a credible opponent. Both fighters exchanged knees and punch combinations early in the fight, with Oliveira landing some particularly significant punches that wobbled Brookins, while Brookins was able to bloody-up Oliveira.

Midway through the 2nd frame Brookins looked for a guillotine choke, but Oliveira was able to pull his neck out of danger. Up against the fence, he was then able to work his way into mount and find the elevation he needed to slide in a guillotine of his own using a D’arce grip.

I don’t think it’s too far out of the question that we could be seeing this guy fighting the division’s elite for title contention in the not too distant future. He is now fighting at the right weight class for himself, his striking is good, his submissions are about as slick as you can get in the UFC, and he is a young man indeed. At the very least, I expect many more exciting fights in the future.

Max Holloway def. Pat Schilling via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Pat Schilling won the evening’s race to the bottom as 2 fighters with a 0-1 record in the promotion inexplicably faced off to keep their jobs on the main card of a UFC event. Max Holloway will really have to be matched up well to survive in a 145lb division which is growing by the month, but he certainly has potential and he could grow into a half-decent fighter if he is given he opportunity to develop. His boxing was clearly above average as he mixed up precision punches that landed all over Schilling, including some vicious body punches that helped him control the pace of the fight.

Justin Lawrence def. John Cofer via knockout (kick) – Round 3, 0:19

I wasn’t even going to mention this fight, but Lawrence’s great high-kick KO means that it gets a mention. He got a nice $40,000 knockout of the night bonus for his trouble too.

Undercard results:

Daron Cruickshank def. Chris Tickle via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Myles Jury def. Chris Saunders via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 4:03
Sam Sicilia def. Cristiano Marcello via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:53
Joe Proctor def. Jeremy Larsen via TKO (knee and punches) – Round 1, 1:59
Erik Perez def. John Albert via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:18

Don’t forget to follow TRIANGLECHOKEMMA on facebook and twitter.

The Ultimate Fighter results. Andy Ogle bows out

Al Iaquinta (centre) and Andy Ogle (far right) train for their quarter final fight with coach Urijah Faber

The semi-finals have been decided for this season’s TUF, after Al Iaquinta and Vinc Pichel overcame Andy Ogle  and Chris Saunders respectively in the second set of quarter-finals.

The Pichel/Saunders fight came first, and ended with a bit of controversy after most people thought that Saunders took the 1st round, with Pichel taking the 2nd. I would disagree with that. Almost every analysis of the first round says that the round was close and could have gone either way, but if pressed Sauners had to be the winner. I would ask why? 10-10 rounds exist in MMA, and that’s how I would score the 1st round, giving Pichel a 20-19 victory.

In the fight that everyone was waiting for, Tynemouth MMA legend Andy Ogle fell short to one of the tournaments Al Iaquinta. Ogle looked tentative circling his opponent, trying to find his range, but eventually he started landing and scoring points, though Iaquinta was defending well and landing punches of his own. One of these counter attacks dropped Ogle, and though he got to his feet, he went straight back down again as he got absolutely decked by an ENORMOUS right elbow from Iaquinta, who followed up with an academic hammerfist before ref SteveMazzagatti stopped the fight.

gif via mma-core.com

Ogle remained upbeat after the fight and I’m sure he will get a chance in the UFC at the The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale next month. As I’ve mentioned before, I am biased towards Ogle being a fellow Geordie, but Jon Anik also stated that he has become a fan-favourite, and that is also the impression I get from around the internet.

To round off the show, the semi-finals were announced. They are Mike Chiesa vs. James Vick and Vinc Pichel vs. Al Iaquita. An interesting pair of fights for sure.

Also, because of Dominick Cruz’s knee injury, Renan Barao was announced as Urijah Faber’s new opponent at UFC 147 for the UFC interim bantamweight title.

Don’t forget to follow TRIANGLECHOKEMMA on facebook and twitter.

The Ultimate Fighter Live: Cruz out, Faber to fight for interim title at UFC 148

Dominick Cruz has torn his ACL and will be unable to defend his UFC bantamweight title against Urijah Faber at UFC 148 this summer. This is unfortunate news, particularly seeing as the fight is being hyped up quite nicely thanks to the two fighters’ presence as coaches on this season of The Ultimate Fighter. If there is a silver lining to this story, Dana White confirmed on UFC Tonight that Faber would still be fighting for the interim belt against a opponent that has yet to be determined. He said:

“What’s going to happen is Urijah Faber is going to fight still. He is going to fight on the same card. Now I’m looking for the right opponent who will fight Faber.”

Faber himself has identified Renan Barão, Michael McDonald and Ivan Menjivar as the logical list of potential opponents for the title, and it is hard to disagree too much. Barão has been consistently winning fights since he came to the U.S, and his last couple of wins against Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett have been particularly significant. McDonald could also be a viable candidate thanks to his recent KO of former WEC champ Miguel Torres, which is a high profile win over a big name. Menjivar is probably a little way away from contention yet as he lacks a really outstanding signature win to make him an outstanding candidate.

Hopefully Cruz should recover in around 9 months and be ready to face the winner of this interim title fight.

The Ultimate Fighter Live results: Andy Ogle defeats Mike Rio

photo via theultimatefighter.com

I’m not usually in the business of being partisan, but there was excellent news on Friday when Tynemouth MMA sensation Andy Ogle defeated American wrestler Mike Rio via rear naked choke in the second round to advance to the quarter-finals of this season of The Ultimate Fighter Live.

Rio was the heavy favourite for the fight seeing as the wrestling game is usually kryptonite for European fighters. In addition, Ogle seemed like he was one of the smallest fighters on the show (he usually fights at featherweight) and  lacking in high-level experience. The one caveat was that Rio had been shown to have been struggling with a knee injury in previous weeks, though coach Dominick Cruz assured viewers before the fight that this issue had been resolved.

The weigh-ins took place the day before the fight, and to my surprise, Ogle seemed to be of a very similar stature to Rio. It appeared that with the right technique in place he would stand a lot greater chance of defending the takedown than many people had predicted.

For the first few minutes of the fight, Ogle’s life was made extraordinarily easy by Rio, as he basically just circled in the centre of the octagon, ate punches, and made no attempt to go for the takedown. When the takedown attempt eventually came, Ogle was taken to the mat, but Rio could not establish dominant position, and Ogle was able to get back to his feet.

In the second round, Rio was a bit more active, and was able to land some strikes and get Ogle to the mat again, even taking his back. However, in an unexpected turn, Ogle was able to reverse the position and take Rio’s back. Then, Rio inexplicably flattened himself out and left himself open to the choke.

The win sparked jubilant scenes from Team Faber, though Faber ran straight to Team Cruz coach and fellow North-Easterner Ross Pearsonfor a congratulatory hug. In the post-fight interview, Ogle must have been delirious with happiness, because he was talking quite a bit of nonsense, “Mike had good stand up,” which is quite obviously not correct. And “Mike’s the nicest guy in the house, so if I could beat anyone in the house, I’m glad it was him,” which seemed a little odd. Another bonus for Ogle was the $5,000 bonus he will receive for finishing the fight.

At the end of the episode, the first two quarter-final fights were announced for this week. James Vick of Team Cruz will fight Team Faber’s Joe Proctor, and Team Cruz’s Justin Lawrence will fight Team Faber’s Mike Chiesa.

The Ultimate Fighter Live: Andy Ogle fights tonight!!!

TONIGHT! ESPN! 3AM!

Team Faber’s Geordie superhero ANDY OGLE takes on Team Cruz’s American wrestler Mike Rio to determine the final quarter-final spot in this season’s competition. This is the fight that Ogle and Team Faber wanted, so let’s all hope he pulls through and gets the win for all the fans watching in Newcastle and the rest of the UK. Howay Andy!

Don’t forget to check out the TRIANGLECHOKEMMA facebook and twitter pages.

The Ultimate Fighter catch-up

I’ve been fairly quiet regarding the current season of The Ultimate Fighter over the past few weeks because quite frankly apart from the fights, the programme is not really all that that interesting. However, after a few entertaining scraps, and the increased exposure of future UFC hall-of-famer Andy Ogle I thought it would be worth recapping the goings-on from the last few episodes before the round-of-16 concludes this coming Friday.

In Episode 5, Mike Chiesa beat Jeremy Larsen despite having a point deducted after an incredibly stupid illegal knee. Much of the episode was focused on Cruz trying to persuade Sam Sicilia to help prepare Larsen for the fight as he is Sicilia’s team-mate outside of the show. Cruz was not successful, but it did not matter too much thanks to Chiesa’s vastly superior grappling.

At the end of the episode, Chris Tickle (who was being portrayed as a complete jackass) was matched up with Joe Proctor. The audience had got to know Tickle quite well over the course of the series thanks to his 1st round KO in the first round, his ‘injury’ issues, and constant verbal sparring with coach Dominick Cruz regarding his commitment. Cruz had identified Tickle as a talented fighter with the ability to go all the way in the competition if he could stay focused. However, the signs had not been good for that, and the fact that he was drunk on the night of the previous week’s fight only emphasised that point.

Proctor taps Tickle. Gif via ironforgesiron.com

Ultimately, Tickle’s 1st round submission loss to Proctor looked to be largely down to how raw of a fighter he is. He claims to have had limited formal training before the TUF process, and it certainly showed when a skilled fighter like Proctor was able to quickly take his back and lock in the rear-naked-choke. This was the 3rd win in a row for Urijah Faber’s team which took them into the lead for the series.

In episode 7, it appeared some of the fighters were really starting to feel the pressure of being trapped in the TUF house. Andy Ogle in particular had a particularly severe episode that required a break from training. I defy anyone not to sympathise with the fighters and down-play any emotional difficulties they are having. Dana White gave his customary profanity-laden speech to motivate the fighters and remind them that they are there for an opportunity of a lifetime and to improve as fighters etc. However, I can only imagine how empty these sentiments will be for some of the fighters who have already been knocked out of the competition and will never get a chance in the UFC.

Pichel rocks Cofer on his way to victory

At the end of the episode John Cofer and Vinc Pichel squared off for what was probably the most entertaining fight of the season so far. The fight was back-and-forth as Pichel defended Cofer’s takedowns to keep the fight on the feet where he wanted. However, Cofer’s striking was probably better that Pichel had anticipated, and it was enough to clinch him a round, so that the fight was taken into a third, decisive round.

At the restart, the two fighters quickly exchanged with a flurry of punches that Pichel got the better of. He landed cleanly on Cofer’s jaw a couple of times that took the Team Faber man completely out of his game. He was unable to defend the takedown, and from side control Pichel easily set up an arm-triangle-choke and tapped the former Division-1 wrestler for the win.

In this week’s episode; number 2 pick Sam Sicilia was upset in controversial fashion by last-picked Chris Saunders after another thrilling fight. Sicilia was stalking Saunders early on, backing him up waiting for the right time to strike. The whole complexion of the fight changed when Saunders landed a head-kick that buckled Sicilia. He was quickly back to his feet, but he was left fighting on instinct for the rest of the fight as he came forward with his hands down and tried to counter Saunders’ shots and land massive power-punches.

With the devastating high-kick and some additional successful strikes Saunders deserved to take the first round, but he  could not stand up to Sicilia’s mounting pressure in the second. Sicilia did not help himself by constantly jumping for guillotines which ended in failure, but he always got back to his feet and battered his opponent, dropping him to the mat with one perfectly placed hook. The fight looked set to go to a third round, but the judges inexplicably awarded Saunders the split-decision victory.

Not that I would wish misfortune on any of the other contestants, but I really hope Sicilia gets the chance as an alternate later in the series, or at least a fight at the finale because he did not deserve to go out of the competition after that perseverance through adversity.

Next week ANDY OGLE fights Mike Rio for the final spot in the quarter-finals. Much has been made of Ogle’s struggles coping with the isolated existence in the TUF house, but Urijah Faber has been keen to point out that Ogle has been performing well in training and developing well as a fighter. In the other corner, Rio was struggling with a knee injury earlier in the season but there has been no word on whether he has recovered in recent weeks.

 

MMA news catch-up

Due to work/Newcastle United/hangovers I have been sadly unable to post over the last week, so here’s a quick recap of the important goings on in MMA over the last week.

On Friday night at Belllator 63, David Rickels, Karl Amoussou, Ben Saunders and Bryan Baker advanced to the semi-finals of the Bellator Season 6 Welterweight Tournament. While Saunders and Baker were slightly underwhelming, Amoussou and Rickels impressed with first-round stoppages of their opponents. I expect Saunders will remain a serious threat in the tournament despite the laboured nature of his victory, but Baker may run into trouble if he is forced to a battle of attrition and his stamina is seriously tested. Karl Amoussou could well be the new favourite to go all the way and secure a fight with the Ben Askren/Douglas Lima winner. highlights of the event in the video above 

In the fourth episode of TUF Live: Team Cruz vs. Team Faber, Al Iaquinta took a hard fought decision over Miles Juryin an entertaining fight that went the full three rounds. Iaquinta had the best of the striking exchanges, and it was really only when Jury managed to lock-up with him that he looked like he might be in some danger. However, Jury did not manage or even attempt to grapple with Iaquinta anywhere near enough to win either of the first two rounds in my opinion. The judges thought otherwise, and the fight went into the third round where Iaquinta carried on as he had done in the previous rounds, winning relatively comfortably.

It was a risky strategy for Team Cruz to pick out such a dangerous fighter for Jury to face, and it did not pay off. With Team Faber in control, next week’s fight was decided as Mike Chiesa vs. Jeremy Larson.

On a final note, how do these shows over-run so much? Surely the producers know that the fight at the end could go for up to 15 minutes, yet they don’t plan accordingly, and my recording cuts off before the end. Of course there are ways to fix this at home but it seems unnecessary as it could easily be solved by sorting out the show’s running time.

In Andy Ogle news, the geordie representative of the show seemed to jump at the chance to fight injured Mike Rio when Daron Cruickshank suggest he might be a weak link as an older member of Team Cruz, even despite the fact that they seemed unaware of his knee injury he suffered during the previous week. Unfortunately the fight was not made, but hopefully we’ll get to see Ogle in action, and get himself a place in the quarter-finals next week.

The major news of the week was that Alistair Overeem has tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone (as we all feared would happen one day), and will likely be suspended and be unable to challenge Junior Dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight title in 7 weeks. Dana White had a typically unreserved reaction to this news.

“It’s beyond – what’s the word I’m looking for – it’s beyond belief. It’s beyond comprehension. You’re an absolute moron, a brain-dead absolute fucking dummy. It goes beyond a guy have any common sense whatsoever.”

Nothing has been decided yet due to the fact that Overeem has not actually been suspended yet, though White made it clear that this was a big problem for the upcoming event.

I don’t have a plan B

To me, it seems fairly obvious what the plan B should be. They have a main card consisting entirely of heavyweight fighters and they can fight one of a few solutions there. Pick either Cain Velasquez or Frank Mir to fight Dos Santos. Mir has been winning fights, and Velasquez would have the chance of a rematch. Whomever does not get the call will have the opportunity to beat someone else up to guarantee the next title shot. They have 3 more fights to pick another opponent for either of these men, and it wouldn’t take too much negotiating this far removed from the event to completely resolve this situation. Another alternative would be to encourace Fabricio Werdum to take the shot, or get matched up with Mir/Velasquez.

Whatever happens, Overeem is is some serious hot water with the UFC after assuring them no problems of this nature would arise during his UFC tenure. He is a potentially valuable commodity for the promotion, but I’m not sure if such a huge transgression such as this will be tolerated.

The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil – Wanderlei has a super-sized cup

The first episode of the Ultimate Fighter: Brazil is online, and can be viewed here. Its basically highlights of the 16 qualifying fights in the middleweight and featherweight divisions, with an all Brazilian cast, and it is very entertaining.

Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva both seem very natural at giving their thoughts on the fights, and come across as extremely charismatic and likeable. The moment where Wanderlei hinted aat his massive piece of action slayed me. It remains to be seen whether they will remain cool and jovial for the entire season, or begin getting aggressive at each other. Lest we forget, the two men will be fighting each other at the next UFC event in Rio, and it is well documented that they do not like each other.

The same can be said for most of the fighters so far. unlike their American counterparts, they all seem humble and respectful, but lively at the same time. Having spent a couple of sessions at Brazilian Top Team last year this is not surprising to me. It is a wonder any Brazilian fighters get any training done with the amount of fun they always seem to be having making fun and laughing at each other.

With that said, I am sure there will be plenty of confrontation in TUF hose too. Brazil has a pretty macho culture, which often results in tempers flaring at the slightest of comments. Putting two teams of competing fighters in the same house is bound to result in some beef. Whatever happens in the house, I’m sure the fights will be something to look forward to. They did not disappoint in qualifying, that’s for sure.

The full list of qualifying round results are listed below

Featherweights

Rony Mariano def. Dileno Lopes by TKO Round 1
Godofredo de Oliveira def. Johnny Goncalves by Submission (Triangle Choke) Round 1
Hugo Viana def. Alexandre Ramos by TKO Round 1
Rodrigo Damm def. Fabricio Guerreiro by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) Round 2
Wagner Campos def. Fernando Guerra by Decision
Anistavio Medeiros def. Rafael Bueno by Decision
John Teixeira def. Giovanni Souza Jr. by Submission (Armbar) Round 1
Marcos Vinicius Pancini def. Peter Noble by TKO Round 1

Middleweights:

Francisco Drinaldo def. Charles Maicon by TKO Round 1
Cezar Ferreira def. Gustavo Sampaio by Submission (Guillotine Choke) Round 2
Daniel Sarafian def. Richardson Moreira by Decision
Sergio Moraes def. Thiago Rela by Submission (Heel Hook) Round 1
Thiago Perpetuo def. Joao Paulo De Souza by Decision
Delson Heleno def. Gilberto Galvao by Decision
Renee Forte def. Fabio Bolinho by Decision
Leonardo Mafra Teixeira def. Samuel Trindade by Decision

The Ultimate Fighter Live: Cruz vs Faber Episode 3 recap

This season of The Ultimate Fighter Live: Cruz vs. Faber is firmly under way now, and Team Cruz has begun to establish a little bit of dominance over team Faber. Justin Lawrence became the second Team Cruz member to win a round-of-16round fight, and did so by eliminating one of Team Faber’s top picks, Brazilian jiu jitsu master Cristian Marcello.

It was obvious that Marcello was going to be able to find success on the ground, so Team Faber’s goal was to make sure he could avoid getting hurt on the feet  before he could take Lawrence to the mat. Team Cruz was definitely focused on making sure Lawrence was ready for Marcello’s arsenal of jiu jitsu takedowns, which are quite different to the kind of wrestling takedowns that Lawrence was used to.

Faber and his coaches had attempted to drill the idea into Marcello’s head that keeping his chin down and guard up was of vital importance in this fight, as he wouldn’t be hurt by Lawrence’s punches if he maintained a good defence. Unfortunately, Marcello is 34, and has been fighting for many years. If a fighter has developed a bad habit over that period of time, it is very diffficult to correct, especially in just one week. It was obvious that Marcello could be hurt with Lawrence’s dangerous left hook as he constantly backed up and left his chin up in the air, instead of circling away with his chin down.

Marcello did actually have some success standing with Lawrence, but as he began to tire in the second round, his lacklustre defence and Lawrence’s superior striking meant that the eventual KO was inevitable.

I still can’t understand why Marcello did not take this fight to the ground. So often in MMA, we see jiu jitsu masters such as Damien Maia and Gabriel Gonzaga lose fights because they want to stand and bang rather than grapple, and that was the case here. Marcello had clearly lost the first round, and was clearly losing the second, so surely it would have been in his best interest to at least try and take the fight to the mat where he would have had an overwhelming advantage.

Justin Lawrence marches on, though he certainly looks more fallible than his qualifying fight suggested. However, he does look to have a great set of skills in several areas, and hopefully more time in the house will help him develop into a true prospect. Despite his elimination, Team Faber have an asset in Cristiano Marcello, he has trained champions such as ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Axe Murderer’ Wanderlei Silva in the past, and his expertise will be invaluable helping his other team-mates prepare for their fights. It appears that he has formed something of a friendship with Newcastle’s own Andy Ogle, which can only be beneficial to the young Geordie’s development.

At the end of the show, the next fight was announced, and Team Cruz’s Myles Jury will fight Team Faber’s Al Iaquinta in a battle of two highly fancied contestants.

Note – many people may not have seen the fight announcement if they recorded the show as it ran over-time. AGAIN. How does this show keep going beyond its planned running time? Everyone knows that the fight could be up to 15 minutes, and they should construct the rest of the show accordingly. The fact that neither fight so far has gone even 2 rounds, yet they run over 60 minutes is quite incredible. That aside viewers were treated to another great fight, and I guess that’s all that matters in the long tun.