After an interesting ninth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” it was finally time to determine the winners of the Lightweight and Welterweight divisions Saturday night. In addition to the six-figure contracts that would be awarded to the winners, there was a certain degree of national pride on the line, as this season was dubbed “U.S. vs. U.K.”
For most of the season, most fans didn’t really care about the match-up of nations, because the American team obviously didn’t represent the country’s best talent, plus the U.K. guys were generally more likeable and respectful anyway. The only thing that really got the patriotic juices flowing was U.K. coach, and former TUF winner, Michael Bisping, who was either talking trash or whining every time he was on camera. DeMarques Johnson was the only American fighter to make it into the finals. He faced James Wilks for the Welterweight contract, while Brits Ross Pearson and Andre Winner battled it out for the Lightweight crown. The most anticipated action of the night came in a couple of featured Lightweight fights. Nate Diaz and Joe Stevenson squared off, while Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida got medieval in the main event.
Lightweights: Nate Diaz vs. Joe Stevenson
This fight had a weird connection to the main event, as Diaz lost his last fight to Guida, while Stevenson was most recently beaten by Sanchez. The loss to Guida was the first of Diaz’ career, but Stevenson had suffered a string of defeats (he lost to B.J. Penn and Kenny Florian prior to Sanchez) recently. Needless to say, both fighters were hungry for a win. The first round was spent grappling with Stevenson dominating most of it. The last two rounds were very similar, with lots of grappling and transitions, but Stevenson almost looked like he took a page from Clay Guida’s playbook. He never really threatened to end the fight, but he was relentlessly stifling. I had him winning the first two rounds going away and squeaking out the third. In the end, all three judges scored it 29-28 in Stevenson’s favor.
TUF Lightweight finale: Ross Pearson vs. Andre Winner
Two former training partners squared off to determine the Lightweight winner of the season. Winner is a technical striker, while Pearson is more of a stereotypical, tough brawler. Coming into the fight, my inclination was that it was going to come down to heart, which I felt Pearson had more of. All three rounds were extremely close. The only real consistent advantage that I saw was Winner keeping Pearson backed up against the cage while they were clinching. Pearson came on strong late in the third round, but I honestly had no idea how the rounds had been scored. Ultimately, all three judges saw Pearson as the winner and awarded him the decision.
Welterweights: Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns
Lytle held a distinct experience advantage in this fight, but Burns showed very quickly that he was a game opponent. In fact, Burns landed a punch that dropped Lytle with just under a minute left in the first round, but Lytle was able to hang on until the bell. Lytle came back with a solid second round, methodically attacking the mid-section of Burns, who was visibly slower by the ten-minute mark. A big right from Lytle opened a nasty cut next to Burns’ left eye early in the third round. He carried on, though, and after a few more minutes of brawling, the fight went to the judges’ scorecards. All three of them had Lytle winning by a score of 29-28.
TUF Welterweight finale: DeMarques Johnson vs. James Wilks
As mentioned in the intro, Johnson represented the U.S.’ only hope to win one of the contracts on the line. Wilks is the stereotypical, smug Brit that Americans love to hate, but he represented a very serious threat to Johnson’s hopes. Wilks overwhelmed Johnson with submission attempts in the first round and shockingly, submitted him with a rear naked choke just eight seconds from the end of the round.
Lightweight Main Event: Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez
On paper, I was almost as excited about this fight as any other fight this year. Guida’s high-energy, caveman style is notorious, as is Sanchez’ pseudo-Zen master persona. It always cracks me up when commentators make serious statements about the mental strength of Sanchez. Personally, I think he’s a few Fruit Loops short of a necklace, but I always enjoy watching him fight. They came out like Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, but Sanchez definitely got the better of the first exchange. Guida was visibly shaken, but as he always does, rallied and got a take down. After they stood back up, Sanchez landed a left high kick right across Guida’s jaw. On nothing but heart, Guida survived the first round, but it could easily have been scored 10-8 in Sanchez’ favor. Guida got an early take down in round 2 and spent almost all of the five minutes on top. Sanchez landed some vicious elbows from the bottom, but it was still Guida’s round in my book. The third round was all over the place, but ended up with Guida on top again. The scoring possibilities were all over the place and there was not only the potential for either guy to win, but also for a draw. In the end, Sanchez got it via split decision.
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