The Ultimate Fighter 4
By Vanessa McConnell: For twelve weeks, 16 Ultimate Fighters lived, played and fought together on the “Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback.” It all came down to the thirteenth week final show aired live on Spike TV Nov. 11th, from the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Team “Mojo” and Team “No Love” went head to head to eliminate 12 fighters and the allow the best four to advance to the finals for a chance to win $100,000, a $100,000 sponsorship from XYIENCE and a title shot. This season, Matt Serra won the Welterweight title shot and Travis Lutter won the Middleweight title shot, both fighters also won a 2007 TC Scion automobile and a limited edition two-karat diamond watch from Gerge. Serra’s title shot will be determined after this week’s UFC 65 fight in California between Matt Hughes and George St-Pierre.
All day long, on Saturday, ultimate fighting fans were able to see the entire hit season aired on Spike TV. Altogether the antics, games and frustration boiled down to the best comeback fighters given a chance to re-enter the octagon for a shot at a UFC title and a contract. It was an exciting night inside the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel as fans packed inside the place to see the 16 mixed martial artists fight inside the Octagon. I saw for the first time in Vegas history, scalpers were stopped and turned away from selling tickets at the door because “that’s what ticket counters are for,” said Hard Rock Executives that stood outside the venue confronting scalpers.
In the Middleweight three round cage match between Patrick Cote and Travis Lutter, Lutter placed Cote into an armbar, forcing him to submission at 2:18 (42 seconds) of the first round. “I didn’t expect it quite so fast,” said Lutter after the fight calling his victory “lucky.” Lutter successfully made a comeback into the UFC and will fight for the title against UFC middleweight Anderson Silva in 2007. Lutter is confident he will take Silva down and Silva admits that he’s going to have to “train some Jiu Jitsu.”
In the Lightweight bout between Din “Dinyero” Thomas and Rich “No Love” Clementi, Thomas dominated the first round with solid kicks to Clementi’s head and legs while throwing some hard-core punches. Both fighters were slowing down by the second round, but Clementi let his guard down and was taken down in the second round, losing the fight to Thomas by a rear-naked choke in 3:11 of the round. More than proud of his return to the Octagon, after the fight Thomas said, “Everybody needs a little break, now I’m back to break people.” His return to the Octagon catching the attention of the fans and the UFC, proving that he is made for the UFC.
The three round Middleweight bout between Jorge “El Conquistador” Rivera and Edwin “Bam Bam” Dewees was stopped at 2:38 of the first round when Rivera unleashed a flurry of punches while on top of Dewees, leaving him huddled in the corner of the cage like a baby. Rivera’s impressive TKO victory came after Rivera landed a mean body shot that sent Dewees down. Rivera jumped on him and pounded on him until the referee stopped the fight.
In the Welterweight preliminary bout between Jeremy “The Scorpion” Jackson and Pete “The Secret Weapon” Spratt, Jackson pounced on Spratt in the first round but lost control of the fight in the second round. In the second round, Spratt forced Jackson’s head down to avoid a take down and during the move Jackson aggravated an injury to his neck causing him to submit at 1:11 of the round. “When he was pushing my head down, it felt like it was gonna snap,” said Jackson after the fight, so he gave up the submission to save his neck from being damaged any more.
In the Middleweight preliminary bout between Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith and Pete “Drago” Sell, both fighters came into the cage playing with each other, giving high fives and joking back and forth. Things got serious in the second round, however. Smith was bleeding in the second round from a cut under his right eye, making Sell anxious for the victory. Smith was hit with a crushing body blow by Sell that buckled him over holding his stomach. As Sell moved in for the kill, Smith threw a quick right punch that sent Sell sailing to the mat forcing the referee to stop the match at 3:25 of the second round. This bout was, no doubt, the best fight of the night.
In the preliminary Middleweight bout between Gideon “The Gladiator” Ray and Charles “Chainsaw” McCarthy. McCarthy’s first UFC defeat came when he forced Ray to submit by an arm bar close to the end of the first round at 4:43. Ray left the ring very upset about the loss, not wanting to talk to fans still cheering him on. McCarthy gave him credit for being “fast” and admitted “going in, I had to be patient.” He thanked Dana White for the shot and left the ring to celebrate with his team.
In the preliminary Middleweight bout and first fight of the night between Thles Leites and Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann, the Hitman won the bout by unanimous decision when Leites took him the distance. Leites was upset to lose his UFC debut fight, but he gave a good fight. Leites threw some hard solid strikes and even knocked The Hitman down in the first round, and caused a nosebleed on The Hitman in the second. The Hitman woke up in the third round and swept Leites off his feet in the third round winning favorite pick from the judges.
It was obvious how tired Leites was; he even looked up at the monitor at some point to see how much time was left on the clock. You could tell he was holding on by a thread in the third round. He seemed to be giving up at some points of the fight, laying on his back taking a break and being warned by the ref to get up or he was going to stop the fight. The Hitman was clearly the crowd’s favorite and gave them a laugh after the fight saying, “He had a big head but he kept up so far.”
This weekend, “UFC 65: Bad Intentions,” will be at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA Nov. 18, featuring UFC World Heavyweight Champion Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia, and “The Snowman” Jeff Monson, UFC World Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes and No. 1 Contender George St. Pierre. Sylvia is defending his title for the third time against Jeff Monson, who is more than eager to take the title from Sylvia. It’s been two years building up to the bout between St. Pierre and Hughes. It was supposed to go down at UFC 63 but St. Pierre had to pull out because of a groin muscle injury and Hughes went on to defeat BJ “The Prodigy” Penn in UFC 63, instead. St. Pierre stepped in the cage after the bout and told Hughes how disappointed he was in his performance. At the time, Hughes laughed it off but now he’s going to have to get serious.
UFC fans have been more than patient and generous to the UFC and now the UFC is returning the favor. Next month, they are “giving the fans what they want” with a rematch fight between UFC World Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, who was said to have “sent a legend (Randy Couture) into retirement,” and Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz. It’s going down Dec. 30 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. “The New Year’s Eve fireworks are going to begin one day early this year when these two 205-pound stalwarts collide,” UFC. For more information, tickets, and fighters visit www.ufc.com.
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Posted November 13th, 2006 l 94 Views
