The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale

[INDYjon22]

Main Card

• Lightweight Bout: Anthony Pettis vs. Clay Guida
• Middleweight Bout: Tony Ferguson vs. Ramsey Nijem
• Welterweight Bout: Chris Cope vs. Chuck O'Neil
• Middleweight Bout: Ed Herman vs. Tim Credeur
• Light Heavyweight Bout: Fabio Maldonado vs. Kyle Kingsbury

Preliminary Card

• Featherweight Bout: George Roop vs. Josh Grispi
• Bantamweight Bout: Scott Jorgensen vs. Ken Stone
• Lightweight Bout: Daniel Downes vs. Jeremy Stephens
• Welterweight Bout: Justin Edwards vs. Clay Harvison
• Welterweight Bout: Shamar Bailey vs. Ryan McGillivray
• Bantamweight Bout: Reuben Duran vs. Francisco Rivera

The Ultimate Fighter season 13 has come and gone and all that is left is to crown the winner of the season. Tomorrow night that champion will be crowned and will join the likes of Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Rashad Evans, and a few others who have survived the grueling show and come out victorious.

The final fight of season 13 will feature Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem. Nijem carries a 4-1 record into the fight with only one of his fights reaching the judges. Ferguson on the other hand is 10-2 and has the experience advantage. I can't claim to know anything about either guy but I am always interested in the final fight of any TUF show and the future of the participants.

The real highlight will be between Clay Guida and Anthony Pettis. I am no fan of Pettis so I will get my biased feelings for him, and my hope that Guida will put him to sleep, out of the way now. That said, Pettis is a talented fighter and should give Guida a very good run for his money. The winner of this fight will most likely walk out with a title shot in the future, which will lead both guys to fight that much harder. I fully expect this fight to be an early FOTY candidate.

I am also interested in Ed Herman's return to the octagon. He has been gone for a long time and has always been a guy I really enjoyed. It will be interesting to see how well he does coming off of such a long layoff. His opponent is no pushover either. Tim Credeur is a very tough dude, who can take a good portion of the Middleweight division to the limit. Credeur gave Nate Quarry a huge run for his money and I expect him to do the same against Herman. I really hope Herman can make a successful return but it won't be easy.

Kyle Kingsbury is also a Light Heavyweight prospect to keep your eye on, so it should be fun to see if his career continues to rise or if he will hit a roadblock.

Should be a solid night of fights with two exciting fights in Herman/Credeur and Guida/Pettis. As well as the TUF 13 finale. The Pettis/Guida fight makes this card worth watching alone.

 

[Uncle Chester]

It was an OK show, nothing special. Tonight proved Pettis wasn't ready for the shot- I feel somewhat vindicated to be honest. Guida looked very good but I would give him one more foght against a top guy before the title shot though I wouldn't pick him against Edgar. I thought Maldonado won the close decision but I'm not complaining, it was close. Ferguson winning is shit and Nijem should really develop some cardio, dude was gassed byt the end of the round. And Chris Cope looked really fucking good. He'll never be anything special but he's capable of maintaining a position in the UFC over the next couple of years.

Oh and BTW


STRIKEFORCE > UFC

 

[INDYjon22]

I didn't get a chance to actually see the fights last night but here is my quick run down. Congrats to Tony Ferguson. I wish him the best in his career in the UFC. I also hope that Ramsey can learn from this loss and grow as a fighter. I like Clay Guida, but I don't think he is quiet ready for a shot at the belt. I would love to see him fight the winner of Bendo/Miller for a shot at the belt next. I may not be a Pettis fan, but the kid has a ton of potential. He'll be back. And, it was great to see Ed Herman return to the octagon and pick up a win after such a long layoff. Also, congrats to Kingsbury. I dig the kid a lot and I hope he can continue the roll he is on right now, even if people don't think he won that fight.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Stoked for the Guida win as he has recently become one of my 3 favorite fighters. He looked terrific, as he generally has recently. He's added a great deal more technique to go along with his legendary cardio and phenominal chin, and that makes him a MAJOR threat to anyone in the division. I am still concerned about his tendency to try to strictly outlast opponents and being unable to finish them off, even despite a relatively recent string of submission wins.

Pettis is for real, too. He wasn't ready for Guida's challenge, but Pettis is less than 25 years old and he very nearly hooked in a few submissions on Clay. He's very well rounded and could make a great deal of noise in the coming years.

I can't think of who else I'd have the winner of Maynard / Edgar 3 fight other than Guida. He's red hot right now, would draw fairly well in a title match, and he's beaten a fair number of other names, including the guy pegged to get the next title shot. Melvin Guillard and George Sotiropoulous are names I hear a bit, though Newark NJ's own Jim Miller may be a better bet. Still, I'd bet that the winner of Miller vs Henderson has to be pegged to take on whomever comes out of a fight between the winner of Maynard / Edgar and Clay Guida. He's so marketable right now.

I didn't see anything from Ed Herman that makes me think he's back for good. I think that fight was far more a result of Herman taking advantage of Credeur's errors than being that much better than him. Still, I like Ed Herman and it's noce to see him back with a "W" under his belt.

I was thrilled with how Chris Cope looked. For whatever reason, I really liked him on TUF this year and was bummed when he finally lost. He's an underdog I got behind, and he's clearly done a hell of a lot more work since the show ended than Chuck O'Neil. We're also seeing the results of that upset win Cope had over Shamar Bailey, since Shamar was relegated to the undercard. Cope has a strong future.

I was pissed Tony Ferguson won. I couldn't stand the guy. SO much to prove. Not just the night he got drunk, though that sealed it for me, but in general. The whole deal with Cope and the writing in the sand where Tony was just such a stand-offish prick rubbed me the wrong way. He's got a lot of work to do to change his image, and I hope he does it, because he's a very talented fighter. Stripped Ramsey just didn't look great against Tony.