Thursday, June 08, 2006

TUF 3 Semi Finals

Wow, where do I start with tonight's episode... The show opens up with Dana coming to the house and treating the guys to a catered dinner which was very cool.

The first surprise of the show was after dinner when Dana brought all the losing fighters back to hang with the guys in the semis. A nice kind of reunion follows but a couple of the guys are a bit dismayed to hear that they are going to hang at the house an help them train, feeling that would be a distraction.

Surprise number 2 was a best of 3 pool game between Tito and Ken for a cool ten grand in cash. Tito was excited to do it apparently he has billiard skills, unfortunately for him Ken smoked him 2 games straight for the 10K.

Later on it's revealed that Matt would not be able to continue due to the injury he suffered to his arm in training and his exhaustion after his "fight" with Mike Nickles. In a strange way I'm glad he's not coming back. Mike could not come back either due to a broken nose and that's probably best...

Now Dana has a dilemma on his hands because he has to bring someone back and his first choice was Tait Fletcher. Shockingly Tait declines the golden opportunity to return because he won't be able to get his head straight before the fight.

Tait said that he had already turned a corner mentally after his close loss to Josh Haynes and didn't think he could be prepared mentally to fight again. I can sort of see what he's saying but if he really wanted this that bad you would get your head straight asap.

So next Dana goes to Kristian Rothaermel and offers him the same deal and again is turned down. If there was anyone in this competition that didn't belong there besides that wuss Noah Inhofer it was Kristian, good riddance.

Well Dana is blown away, but he does have one guy in mind that he knows will take this fight and that is Ross Pointon. Ross immediately jumps at the chance which I think is cool, plus he gets to fight at his more natural weight of 205. I liked Ross from the start and I'm glad to see he's going to get a 2nd chance.

What a great fight tonight too especially after that poor excuse for a MMA fight last week. 1st in the semis is Kendall Grove vs. Kalib Starnes.

This is how 2 guys fight and leave it all in the ring! Round one was fairly even but I'd have to give the edge to Kalib for the big slam and generally having the control in round one. But it was close, Kendall is no joke and he held his own despite Kalib's persistence.

Round 2 was a turning point for Kendall, Kalib got him down a couple times but Kendall fought his way thru the take downs and returned some punishment on Kalib in a big way with some big kicks, knees, and punches. At the end of round 2 Kalib is complaining that his rib is injured and Kendall immediately takes notice of that.

Round 3 Kendall comes out hard and strong and goes to work right away on Kalib's injured ribs. Kalib shoots in for a take down and the ref breaks them up prepared to deduct a point from Kalib for continuing to grab Kendall's shorts. It's at this point that Kalib verbally signals that he can't continue due to the rib injury.

Kendall gets the win and will now move on to the finals June 24th for a chance to be the ultimate fighter. I thinks thats great I like Kendall, you gotta give it up to him, he stuck in there took some big shots but never gave up. Dagger!!!!

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

8 comments:

guppyman said...

I hate the idea of the losers being in the house with the guys who are still there...

It's a huge distraction by guys with nothing to lose.

And I had hoped never to have to hear the word dagger on this show again. Those two together are one of the most annoying things I have ever seen... almost enough to make me want to train and get good enough to go kick both their asses (yeah right... that'll happen)

Anyway.... good fight. I was a bit dissapointed Kalib didn't try to continue... but I understand. Even if he'd won, he'd be hard pressed to go into another fight pretty soon with screwed up ribs...

Ken kicking butt at pool was pretty funny.

Overall, they did a much better show than they have in recent weeks... i was starting to think this season was going down in flames.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the fight, but I did have a little more fun watching Shamrock con this way to the $10,000. That was hilarious!

Oh and there isn't a second round in the semifinals. You'd need eight fighters to make that happen, however there's only four left.

Gapper said...

It was a good fight I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was also happy to see a big inprovement in the show after last weeks "fight" *cough cough*

I threw in that Dagger just for you Guppyman. =)) It just cracks me up for some reason.

Whoops... thanks for correction Hart I corrected the post and thanks for stopping by.

Aurelius said...

You cat's didn't like Matt's fight last week? Tito liked Matt to win it, and so far he's been proven right more often than not (except that pool game), so I was disappointed Matt got screwed up and fought a stand up fight with a bad arm.

I was inclinded to think that if Kalib had had the stones Matt had, he would have tore into round three without hesitation. Reading Guppymans' comments here, however, have got me thinking. Yeah, what's the point if that cracked rib means you ain't going nowhere in the finals.

Can't wait to see Ross fight again.

Gapper said...

I think Matt did an ok job of standing up and striking against Nickles but the fight was soooo sloppy and Mike fought like a girl.

Head down, windmilling punches, not listening to his corner was what made that fight as bad as I thought it was.

In no way do I think any less of Kalib for having to call that fight, thats just how it goes sometimes.

I agree, I think Ross is going to make the most of his 2nd chance.

Aurelius said...

I dig ya.

I guess it just goes to show that all sorts of tats on your neck doesn't mean your tough.

I also thought that the fight was a good example of where Matt's disability did make a difference. Mike got all sorts of advice during the fight, but Matt fought that match alone.

Gapper said...

Heh that’s for sure. Yeah Mike did get tons of advice too bad he didn't take any of it he may have actually been able to win that fight.

That’s an interesting point regarding Matt, threes no way that interpreter would have been able to sign fast enough during a fight to pass any useful information along to him.

I can't wait to see what tonights TUF3 episode brings.

Gapper said...

It certainly appears too be the case in MMA too. You could have the scariest tats out ther and still get your ass handed to you just like Mike did.

He's a heck of an artist but not much of a fighter.