The Ultimate Fighter Finale: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir

[Marquis]

The Ultimate Fighter Finale: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir.

December 13, 2008

Main Card
Phillipe Nover vs. Flag of Efrain Escudero
Ryan Bader vs Vinicius Magalhães
Kevin Burns vs Anthony Johnson
Wilson Gouveia vs Jason MacDonald
Junie Browning vs Dave Kaplan

Preliminary Card
Krzysztof Soszynski vs Shane Primm
Eliot Marshall vs Jules Bruchez
Kyle Kingsbury vs Tom Lawlor
Shane Nelson vs George Roop
Rolando Delgado vs John Polakowski

Looks like a decent card. Most of the fights consist of fighters on the Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir. While i am not very excited for the card i do look forward to seeing Nover fight. He was the only fighter to really stand out on the show, Great stand up and a decent ground game makes him very dangerous. While this season was airing on tv Nover earned his BJJ blackbelt making him even more deadlier on the ground. I see Nover beating Efrain Escudero by 2nd round TKO.

Baders fight also catches my interest since he is basically a one trick pony with his wrestling only. But some wrestlers have developed into some of the worlds best fighters, so its gonna be interesting to see how much he has improved since his time on TUF. While i would have picked Bader to win his fight against Vinicius Magalhães. I found out recently Vinicius has been training at Xtreme Coture. So you can expect him to come in with a great game plan. Ether way i say Bader by Unanimous Decision.

 

[jmt225]

It's not as solid as some of the previous finales, but still a good card for free TV nonetheless.

I'm heavily pulling for Phillipe Nover in his fight against Efrain. While I wouldn't go as far as to call him the next GSP, Nover is unbelievably talented regardless and seems like a really great guy outside the octagon. When he passed out on the first episode this season, I thought he was going to be a pussy, but he's anything but that. I wish him well.

I see Vinicius Magalhães finishing off Bader like he has all his other opponents on the show this season. I respect Bader, but his style is perfect for Vinny to catch him in an early submission. However, while I do respect Magalhães, I'm not sure how well he'll do once he steps in there with some real competition. You can't be a one dimensional fighter these days. But if he works hard on his weaknesses like Koscheck has, then this dude could become unstoppable in the Lightweight Division.

Kevin Burns vs. Anthony Johnson has been a rematch I've been looking forward to. Their first fight was great, just with a bullshit ending. I'm a huge fan of Anthony Johnson and I hope this time around he can knock this dude out as quickly as he did Tommy Speer.

Wilson Gouveia vs. Jason MacDonald could easily steal the show. They're both vets and both have some very impressive victories on their résumé. I'm very much looking forward this, and see Gouveia pulling off the victory.

Junie Browning vs. Dave Kaplan is a hilarious match-up to me. It's like Dana White and Joe Silva came together and said, "Let's have the two biggest douchebags on the show fight each other!" Nevertheless, hopefully it'll end up being a good stand-up bout. I see Junie knocking Kaplan out, even though Kaplan swears that's impossible, which of course isn't if you saw the episode where Tom Lawlor clocked his ass, lmao.

And as far as the Prelims go, I'm rooting for Shane Primm, Eliot Marshall, Tom Lawlor, Shane Nelson and John Polakowski.

 

[jmt225]

Another great, free show brought to us by the UFC.

Junie Browning looked AWESOME tonight in what was a great fight against Dave Kaplan. Junie controlled the stand-up and ground game. I thought he would come in looking much better then he did on the show, but he still impressed me with his performance tonight. I don’t really buy this "change" bullshit, but the guy is still talented nonetheless and looks to only be getting better as the months go buy. It’ll be interesting to see where his career is headed.

Wilson Gouveia impressed the fuck out of me with his mauling of MacDonald. Jason MacDonald is no fucking scrub and Gouveia whooped his ass with ease. This guy can really start making some noise in a very limited Middleweight division. A match-up between him and Maia sometime soon would be fucking sweet.

Eliot Marshall fucking killed Bruchez. He’s another guy with a bright future, but I personally think he should move down to Middleweight. He has the frame for it and I think he’d be able to make a lot more noise there instead of the stacked Light Heavyweight division the UFC has. Nevertheless, he’s one of the ’losers’ from the show with one of the brightest futures.

Anthony Johnson’s knockout on Kevin Burns goes right up there with Koscheck’s and Evans’ knockouts as the ’KO of the Year’. Man, that was brutal. Also, Johnson’s wrestling and ground game looked great tonight as well. This guy will be a force to be reckoned with in the Welterweight Division. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite fighters and I can’t wait to see him go up against some more well-known names in that division.

Krzysztof Soszynski looked really good in his victory against Shane Primm. I thought Krzysztof was a bit of a tool on the show, so I’m not a fan, but there’s no denying his talent. I don’t think he’ll ever become a star in the UFC, but I do see him having some great fights and a couple of impressive victories in his future. Also, I marked the fuck out with Mike Goldberg’s mention of Bad News Brown. That’s awesome that Bad News not only influenced people in the wresting biz, but also in shoot fighting as well.

Ryan Bader vs. Vinicius Magalhães was a huge disappointment for me. I don’t know why Vinny feels the need to stand-up every single fight. He acts like he needs to prove something, but he doesn’t. All he needed to do to win that fight was either take Bader down, or simply pull guard. There was no fucking reason to stand-up with the guy. None whatsoever. But he did it, and he paid for it. I’m still not completely sold on Bader, but I do look forward to seeing how he does against some of the guys in the UFC’s terrific Light Heavyweight Division.

And Phillipe Nover vs. Efrain Escudero was awesome. Efrain was really awesome though. His wrestling, submission defense and GnP was very, very impressive. I sort of wish the fight could’ve gone five rounds, but I’m not taking anything away from Efrain. He deserved the victory tonight and deserves to be called this season’s Ultimate Fighter. I still see Nover having a more successful career, but regardless, Efrain was spectacular tonight and will provide us fans with some very exciting fights in the future.

All in all, great show. Much better then I expected. In fact, from top to bottom, I’d say this was the best finale since Season’s 3 finale.

Now looking forward to Season 9.

 

[CCS]

Well i picked both Bader and Escuardo to win even thou they was the underdogs. I knew that Erain's world class submission skills would take out Phillipe Nover. To me Nover has always been terribly overrated by Dana White and i think Efrain should have realy been the guy who was pushed as the next TUF mega star. He has all the tools to succeed and i fully expect him too. Now on to Ryan Bader , I dont know why i thought he'd win but i just thought he would. His knockout was brutal and i never seen that coming. With his great wrestling skills and growing striking i see alot of Matt Hughs in him. I see him dropping down to middleweight where his opponents will bw more his size. I see a bright future for Bader if he continues to improve.

 

[Kasey]

Phillipe Nover vs. Efrain Escudero
I loved that this fight was so even. So many times I've witnessed mismatches on the TUF finales and this one didn't fail to impress me. I do think that Nover should've let his hands and feet fly faster and more frequently in the last round. He was definitely gunshy because of his lack of takedown defense. Efrain owned him in the wrestling department and it was obvious that he got inside Nover's head. Well, now Nover at least knows what he has to work on.
Ryan Bader vs Vinicius Magalhães
I laughed my ass off at this. Vinny is such a douchebag and I really enjoyed watching Ultra-Bro go all cro-magnon and hammer Vinny's skull like an angry caveman should. Armbar that, ********.
Kevin Burns vs Anthony Johnson
This was how I felt their first fight would've ended and it's obvious that Rumble has been working his standup. Specifically, the setups for a headkick. This is right up there with Rory Markham's headkick KO from months back.
Wilson Gouveia vs Jason MacDonald
I kind of felt bad for MacDonald because he's always a gamer and is pretty personable in interviews. That, and Gouveia comes across as a knucklehead. Oh, well, at least I can always rewatch Gouveia getting thrashed by Goran Reljic.
Junie Browning vs Dave Kaplan
Dave Kaplan is more of an armchair champion than I am (and I watch a lot of TV when I can). Junie is hopefully complete with the whole process of removing his head from his own ass long enough to do something worth a shit. However, having him beat an exposed jobber like Kaplan isn't much to solidify his street cred. Now, if he takes on Nover or Escudero and doesn't get raped then maybe I'll toot a horn for the guy.

Summary:
Good fight card. The TUF finals were enough to keep me entertained, and because it was free I was all the more happy.