TUF 17 Ep. 10 and 11: Working Down to the Final Four

@SaidSimmons Well, I suck.  You’re getting two episodes in one because I managed to leave a post sitting idle in my Drafts folder thinking it was published.  Sorry about that and because of the mistake I have tried to shorten each post into a more digestible single article … but we’re covering FOUR fights!

Tuf 17 Ep. 10 Blow by Blow
We made it to the semi-finals and the episodes are moving at a much quicker pace.

The first one started with Coach Jon ‘Bones’ Jones talking to Bubba McDaniel, who is apparently scared as all hell to go fight Uriah Hall.

Kelvin Gastelum (5-0) feels doubted -- he doesn’t believe the other competitors think he can box.  Coach Chael Sonnen indicated Kelvin has grown significantly over three weeks from the last pick on his team to a competitor, and he sees him as a brawler and a wrestler.  Sonnen mentioned that Colin Hart (4-1) is a difficult opponent, but not for Kelvin and he hopes his fighter can eliminate one of Coach Jones’ better options.

Coach Jones described Colin as “extraordinary” at jiu-jitsu and good at everything else.  Colin indicated he’s eager to prove he can box and isn’t a boring fighter after admittedly sitting on his last opponent.

Rhonda Rousey kept her word and came to the gym to train with Team, Sonnen and an excited Kelvin.  Rousey does a terrible Sonnen impression, but has his cadence down pretty well.  She taught the team some judo throws and more.

Coach Sonnen discussed the Luke Barnett (5-0) and Dylan Andrews fight (16-4-1), stating he thinks is interesting because it’s the first pick versus the last pick, and because Luke has a tremendous size advantage.  But because of the latter, he doesn’t see Luke losing.  Luke also added that, “England is a horrible place,” and it motivates him to get better.  (And, jeez, kind of harsh on the homeland, eh?)

Dylan has been working with Coach Stonehorse Goeman, who was Jones’ first muay thai coach.  Jones sees them as both tribal types and connecting on a spiritual level.  Dylan values his friendship and says Stonehorse has become a father figure.  Coach Jones indicated he thinks Luke is the type that doesn’t like to get punched.   Dylan feels a desire to be great and shuns a Monday to Friday-type life.

Mike Tyson came to watch the Luke and Dylan fight and meets the fighters before the fight.  Understandably, everyone was amped, as Tyson was king of the fight world for a period and is a living legend in many respects.

Fight 1-of-2

From TheUltimateFighter.com.

Both fighters came out swinging and Colin pushed Kelvin to the fence and connected with a hard left hook in defense.  After a quick clinch, the fighters returned to the center of the cage and began exchange haymakers and *BOOM* Kelvin landed a bomb.  He landed a hard left hook in a flurry and Colin went down face first.  Kelvin pounced and began to pound, but stopped his attack before the referee could even stepped in knowing his opponent was knocked out.

Fight 2-of-2
Dylan quickly shot and took Luke down to the mat, but had a hard time pinning down the larger fighter.  Dylan struggled to mount any offense from the top, and Luke scored with strikes from his back before standing back up.  In total, Dylan took Luke down three times on the road, but struggled to keep him down.   He even went for a choke to end the round, but was unable to sink it in for the finish.

The fighters began the second round by boxing for 30 seconds before clinching and moving to the fence.  Luke scored his first takedown of the match, but Dylan soon resversed positions, but again struggled to score from the dominant position.  As the round continued, it strangely mirrored the first and even ended with another failed choke attempt by Dylan.

Courtesy CageWall.com.

Somewhat surprisingly, the fight went to a third round and both fighters looked exhausted to start the round.  Dylan tried to shoot, but didn’t appear to have the remaining strength to manage the takedown.  After a clinch the fighters began exchanging sloppy, tired blows, yet Dylan had more power.    As the round wore on, Dylan started landing big blows and a series of connections took Luk down.  Dylan landed one final hammer fist before Herb Dean stepped in to end the affair.

After the fight, Stonehorse gave Dylan and hug and told him, “I’m so fucking proud of you … you’re going to do this.”


Tuf 17 Ep. 11
The second semi-final episode began with Team Jones training, but Bubba is lying on the sideline.  After a number of fights in a short period of time, Bubba is wearing down -- physically and mentally -- and has some off pain in his back near his kidney.  Bubba feels like he is being given the hardest road possible to achieve his dream.

The attention turned to Josh Samman with is fighting Jimmy Quinlan, the fight that Josh wanted and Team Jones desired as a reward for Josh, who has been a leader for the team.  Bubba believes Josh is the superior fighter, but Gilbert Smith has concerns about the Florida-based fighter defending Jimmy’s takedowns.

Jimmy stated that his confidence comes from his past success -- and likely should, as the young fighter is still undefeated.  Despite his confidence in his jiu-jitsu, Jimmy also explained that he wants to set up his takedown with striking.

After being reintroduced to the fighters, Bubba’s back again becomes a concern -- and Atlanta’s Chris Hester continued training to take his place if needed -- and blood work is done to check his kidneys.

And the blood work came back good, so Bubba was cleared to fight and was left believing the pain was caused by a muscle strain.  His confidence seemed to buoy with a clean bill of health, but Bubba is still afraid of Uriah Hall.

Uriah heard Bubba is afraid to fight.  Uriah provided a comment about twitchy, scared fighters being dangerous, but he knows he has the upper hand before entering the ring.  Uriah even compared himself to The Spider, Anderson Silva – wow -- but Sonnen admitted Uriah is the toughest and hardest working member of TUF 17.

And then the concern for Bubba poured in.  Both UFC mastermind Dana White and coach Sonnen commented that Bubba is in for a tough fight, followed by Luke explaining that seeing a teammate dropped with a devastating spinning kick with mess with you, and he expected Bubba to be thinking about it.

Fight 1-of-2
Both fighters squared up eager to throw punches, but Jimmy quickly shot on Josh after eating a blow to the head.  Despite a strong sprawl, the grappler picked up Josh and slammed him to the mat and took the top position.  However, Jimmy soon began bleeding significantly -- evidence that he did take a hard punch from Josh.

They don't coach you to do this.

And then Jimmy figuratively sat on Josh.  The wrestler fought to maintain position, but Josh was clearly landing the more significant strikes from his back as his opponent climbed across him continuously.

After scrambling up from  the mat, Josh took Jimmy’s back .  With just 30 second left in the round, Josh gave up on a choke and began swinging synchronized punches from both hands at the same time to Jimmy’s head – seemingly boxing his ears with punches -- and the grappler tapped from the pressure.  Yes, TAPPED from bizarre punches.

Afterwards, Jimmy admitted that he simply quit.

Fight 2-of-2

Awesome GIFs come from FanSided.com.  Go check 'em out.

Holy wow.  Does this count as a fight?  In a flash, Uriah started throwing punches and the second one caught and knocked out Bubba -- and seemingly crushed his eye socket.

This was one of the scariest moments in TUF history.  After the referee called off Uriah, Bubba lay motionless on the mat face down.   When Bubba came to, he began stating he couldn’t move and something was significantly wrong with his eye on the inside.

Per FanSided, Bubba's face was broke in three places from Uriah's blow.

Fortunately, Bubba soon regained his own ability to move and met with his team and doctors before going to the hospital.

Uriah was obviously perturbed by another devastating knockout and he seemed to still be learning how good he is -- and still coming to terms with how dangerous he is.  While still in the ring, Sonnen told Uriah he is a contender -- not just for TUF, but the UFC championship as a middleweight.

After the fights, UFC lord Dana met with the coaches and fighters to discuss potential semi-final matchups (and again color-coded for ease of use!):

Josh called out Kelvin for the semis and Uriah in finals. 
Dylan said he does not care.  Whoever.  Wherever.
Uriah wanted Josh.
Kelvin said he wants Dylan.

Jon Jones indicated he wanted their original plan -- Josh v. Uriah and Dylan v. Kelvin -- and Chael seconds that.  Dana said this is the first time the coaches have agreed, which of course meant …


Dana announced that the semi-final fights would be:

Josh v. Kelvin
Uriah v. Dylan