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)

UFC Ultimate Fighter TUF 3 Kendall Grove Kalib Starnes Dana White Ken Shamrock Tito Ortiz

New heavyweight fight matchup added to UFC 61

The UFC has added a heavyweight fight to the card at UFC 61 Gilbert Aldana vs. Cheick Kongo. I have to admit I know very little about either fighter other than what I've been able to glean from fight stats published on the internet.

Gilbert Aldana is coming off a tough loss to Paul Buentello in UFC 57 where he lost the fight by TKO at 2:27 in round 2. Most of Aldana's experience comes from Rage in The Cage where he was undefeated prior meeting up with Buentello.

Cheick Kongo is a relatively un-known fighter here in the US and has done most of his fighting in Holland with the Rings Holland organization where he holds a 7-2 & 1 MMA record.

Both men seem to be solid fighters with big punches and this promises to be an exciting fight.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)

MMA Mixed Martial Arts UFC 61 Ultimate Fighting Championship

Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral at UFC 62

According to the UFC 60 recap in Sundays Boston Herald article, it seems to be confirmed that light heavyweight titleholder Chuck Liddell will be squaring off against Renato "Babalu" Sobral at UFC 62 on August 26th for the belt.

Hopefully Sobral will fare better then their last meeting on 11-22-02 at UFC 40 where Babalu took a brutal kick to the head from Chuck at 2:55 in round one and was knocked out.

That same kick is the one that you see during the opening sequence of every UFC Unleashed and is one the great fight highlights ever.

I really think Chuck has Sobral's number and that he will again prove his dominance at 205 with another win. It will be interesting to watch the build up to this fight as the summer progresses.

See my previous post on this subject here.

Mike
(MMA Fanatic)
UFC Chuck Liddell Renato Sobral
UFC 62 Ultimate Fighting Championship MMA