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.

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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.

 

TUF Live: Cruz vs Faber Episode 2 recap

the first ‘proper’ episode of this season of The Ultimate Fighter was an entertaining one. Teams were picked, rivalries were formed, one fighter faced some extreme adversity, and perhaps most importantly, the fight that took place at the end of the show was a good one.

Once the fighters had settled into their new home for the next 3 months, the time came for the teams to be picked. Faber won the toss, and chose to pick the first fight, which left Cruz with the first pick. THe teams came out like this (in order)

Team Cruz

Justin Lawrence, Sam Sicilia, Myles Jury, Mike Rio, James Vick, Vinc Pichel, Chris Tickle, Jeremy Larsen

Team Faber

Al Iaquinta, Cristiano Marcello, Daron Cruickshank, Joe Proctor, Mike Chiesa, John Cofer, Andy Ogle, Chris Saunders

There were not too many surprises in the order of picking, with the likes of Lawrence, Mercello, Sicillia and Cruickshank getting snapped up early. I was intrigued by Al Iaquinta becoming Faber’s first pick, though perhaps it was unwise to get to caught up in how quickly certain fighters got thorugh their qualifying fight. Iaquinta obviosly has a solid, well rounded game that Faber and his team are well aware of.

Happily, Newcastle’s own Andy Ogle was not the last fighter picked as many had expected, and he was obviously thrilled to get join Urijah Faber’s team.

The rest of the episode was nothing new to TUF fans. There was not a great deal of insight on the actual coaching techniques utilised by each team, and the main focus of the episode was a bit of an introduction to Jakmes Vick and Daron Cruickshank once they had been selected to fight. Interestingly, there was not much effort made to paint either Faber or Cruz as hero or villain, and each was allowed to shine as a positive influence on the fighters in their team. Each contestant had a great deal of positive things to say about their coach.

The story running alongside the fight preparation in this episode was Michael Chiesa’s grief at his father’s death. He had died just hours after Chiesa’s qualifying fight was broadcast the previous week after a long battle with illness. Credit to the UFC and Dana White, the whole issue was handled in a very appropriate and sensitive manner. Chiesa was supported and allowed to travel home to be with his family for the funeral for a couple of days before returning to the UFC training centre with a renewed determination to win the series. This ordeal has surely provided every viewer with someone to root for. Chiesa seems like a very likeable character, and who can resist a story of a fighter overcoming adversity in the form of a bereavement and attempting to honour his father’s memory by winning the show.

On to the whole purpose of the show, the fight. In the build up, Cruickshank looked composed and confident, Vick looked nervous. The fight was Cruickshank’s for the taking, and it certainly looked like that would be the case early on as he threw all sorts of kicks, many of which landed. Vick could not get into any sort of rhythm, and looked completely lost in the cage.

However, Cruickshank let this early success go to his head and he got cocky. He ran in for a takedown and caught a knee (which had been thrown as a kick) clean on the chin, and slipped instantly into dreamland. Vick didn’t need to follow up with punches, his opponent was OUT. Vick was understandably pleased, but remained humble in his post-fight interview. Big props to Jon Anik for delivering the icing on the cake to Cruickshank by reminding that he now had a further 3 months in the house, with basically no real reason to be there.

Good night!

Post-fight, a rather amusing turn of events took place. Cruz, now in control of the match-ups chose Justin Lawrence to fight, and then asked Faber to choose his top guy to step up as well. No one had the balls to do it, so Cruz picked Faber’s No. 2 guy Cristiano Marcello, for what should be an intriguing fight next week.