UFC Fight Night 18 Preview

UFC Fight Night 18 will air next Wednesday, April 1st. The card features former WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit v. Martin Kampmann. After the show will be the premier of The Ultimate Fighter Season 9. With 8 undercard fights, expect some quick finishes to make the two hour timeslot.

Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann- I expect these two to test it on the feet before Condit attempts to get the fight to the ground. Carlos Condit (23-4, 0-0 UFC) is a superb grappler with 13 submissions 10 T/KO's on his resume. Condit won the WEC WW title against John Alessio and defended against Brock Larson, Carlo Prater and Hiromitsu Miura. Condit has fought in Pancrase and Rumble on the Rock with wins against Frank Trigg, Koji Oishi, Ross Ebanez and Renato Verissimo.

(WEC Champ Carlos Condit pictured)

Martin Kampmann (14-2, 5-1 UFC) comes from a kickboxing background, but he has an excellent submission game. He is most popular for the come from behind arm triangle victory against Drew McFedries at UFC 68. Kampmann's UFC victories have come against Jorge Rivera, Crafton Wallace, Thales Lietes and Alexandre Barros.

(Martin Kampmann kicks Thales Leites)

Ryan Bader vs. Carmelo Marrero- This is a grappler v. grappler match-up that favors TUF 9 champ Ryan Bader. Bader won TUF 9 with a nasty KO of Vinny Magalhaes. Bader (8-0, 1-0 UFC) may stand and trade with Marrero, denying his takedown attempts. To get to the finals of TUF, Bader subbed Kyle Kingsbury, KO'd Tom Lawlor and won a unanimous decision over Eliot Marshall.

(Ryan Bader pictured)

Carmelo Marrero (10-2, 1-2 UFC) was also wrestler in college, but competing in the junior college circuit doesn't compare to Bader's All-American status at ASU. Marrero is most known for his split decision defeat of Cheick Kongo at UFC 64. After that win, Marrero lost to Gabriel Gonzaga and Wilson Gouveia and was cut from the UFC. Marrero has stormed back, winning 4 fights straight with his last over Steve Steinbeis in the WEC.

(Carmelo Marrero pictured)

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tyson Griffin- Tyson Griffin (12-2, 5-2 UFC) is a top level wrestler with some big wins in and out of the UFC. Inside the UFC, Griffin was within grasp of a title shot, but lost to Sean Sherk last October. Before the UFC, he TKO'd Urijah Faber and Duane Ludwig. Inside the UFC, Griffin has decision wins over Clay Guida, Marcus Aurelio, Gleison Tibau and Thiago Tavares while submitting David Lee.

(Tyson Griffin pictured)

Dos Anjos (11-3, 0-1 UFC) was dominating Jeremy Stephens with excllent grappling for two rounds of his UFC debut. Unfortunately, in the third round Stephens unleased an uppercut that put out dos Anjos out. Outside the UFC, dos Anjos has wins in Brazil and Japan, with his biggest win over Takafumi Otsuka

Junie Browning vs. Cole Miller- Surprising Cole Miller is the one running his mouth before this fight saying he will give Junie a beatdown in this battle of TUF veterans. Cole Miller (14-3, 3-1 UFC) is a lanky 155 pound fighter, who has an excellent triangle. Miller has a last second submission of the night victory over Jorge Gurgel in his last fight. Prior to that, Miller lost to Jeremy Stephens, beat Leonard Garcia via decision and Andy Wang.

(Cole Miller pictured)

Junie Browning (3-0, 1-0 UFC) looked impressive in the TUF 8 finale, beating up Frank Mir favorite Dave Kaplan. The first round Junie looked to have good stand-up and in the second was able to get an arm-bar. My guess is that Junie will look to keep the fight standing, getting inside to take away Miller's reach.

(Junie Browning's Hand Grenade Tattoo)

UNDERCARD

Jeremy Stephens vs. Gleison Tibau
Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Horwich
Brock Larson vs. Jesse Sanders
Nick Catone vs. Tim Credeur
Nissen Osterneck vs. Jorge Rivera
Rob Kimmons vs. Joe Vedepo
Tim McKenzie vs. Aaron Simpson
Ryan Jensen vs. Steve Steinbeiss (bout canceled after Jensen admitted Adderall usage)

TUF 8 Finale Results

The TUF 8 finale lived up to the hype as it featured some excellent fights. Gameplans proved to be key in the tournament finals, as Bader kept the fight standing and Efrain used his superior wrestling.

Efrain Escudero def Phillipe Nover via unanimous decision for the TUF lightweight tournament championship- Efrain dominated in the takedown and ground and pound department to win a unanimous decision. It was a great strategy as Phillipe didn't have an answer from Efrain's relentless attack. Phillipe's best offense came in the third round when he was able to lock in a shoulder lock/omaplata attempt. Phillipe just couldn't finish the move. Efrain, at 22 years old, has some definite potential in the 155 pound division.

(Efrain Escudero pictured)

Ryan Bader def Vinny Magalhaes via TKO (strikes) R1, 2:18 for the TUF light heavyweight tournament championship- Bader's strategy for the fight was to keep it standing to avoid Vinny's submission game. Bader threws some punches and kicks before a launching a big overhand right. The punch was partially blocked but clipped Vinny in the temple. Vinny crumpled to the canvas, and tried to roll on his back. Unfortunately, Vinny had to eat a few more punches before the ref stepped in. Bader showcased superior power throughout his stint on the show. He will give 205 pounders problems for some time.

(Ryan Bader pictured)

Anthony Johnson def Kevin Burns via KO(kick) R3, 0:28- Johnson got revenge after sitting out 5 months after getting poked in the eye in their last fight. Burns was close with a triangle choke attempt in the first but was unsuccessful. In the second, we saw mostly Johnson ground and pound. In the third, Johnson let loose a nasty high kick that saw Johnson's shin strike Burns directly in the jaw. Burns went straight back, knocked unconscious. That kick will be on the UFC's highlight reel for years to come.
*Johnson won KO of the night.

Wilson Gouveia def Jason MacDonald via sub (strikes) R1, 2:18- Gouveia made short work of Jason MacDonald, despite missing weight by 3 pounds the day before. Gouveia landed a straight right to MacDonald's jaw then a barrage of hammerfists and punches to win the fight.

Junie Browning def Dave Kaplan via sub (armbar) R2, 1:32- Junie looked crisp in his striking and cardio. He landed strike after strike on Kaplan in the first. To his credit, Kaplan wasn't knocked out. He was armbarred in the second round however, as Junie looked much improved from his time on the show.
*Browning and Kaplan won fight of the night.

Krzysztof Soszynski def Shane Primm via sub (kimura) R2, 3:27- Krzysztof's awkward stand-up style looked to confuse Shane Primm from the start, as he was able to land punches on Primm. Near the end of the first, Krzysztof almost had a kimura. In the second, Krzystof went for the submission again and tweaked Primm's arm for the tapout.
*Soszynski won submission of the night.

Eliot Marshall def Jules Bruchez via sub (rear-naked choke) R1, 1:27- Marshall walked through Bruchez to get the rear naked choke.

Tom Lawlor def Kyle Kingsbury via unanimous decision
Shane Nelson def George Roop via split decision
Roli Delgado def John Polakowski via sub (guillotine choke) R2, 2:18

TUF Episode 6 - Brown Out

In this past week's episode of The Ultimate Fighter reality show we finally get to see Junie fight again after all the hype. I really hope the later episodes focus more on the training and less on the Junie antics. The episode kicks off with Mir asking Junie if he wanted to take out Roli Delgado. Delgado is a skinny 6'3" 155 pound fighter, who Junie sees as a nerd and team Mir's weakest link.

Celebrating the win, Team Mir coaches go to the TUF house. While there Frank Mir asks Roli about getting his black belt. Roli has a long a circular story. Simple fact is belts don't really matter too much when punches are flying.

Junie does his usual trash talking routine, which at this point is getting kind of old. Everyone on team Nogueira wants Junie to lose as they are sick of his antics. At fight selection, Junie takes a blackbelt with McDojo BJJ on it and throws it at Roli's feet and pushes him. Then he spits on it.

At this point Anderson Silva, Antonio Nogueira and quite a few other guys are very angry. They see it as a sign of disrespect. Roli next seen with Stankie, Al Stankiewicz, the veteran trainer throwing punches in a training montage. Stankie is a master motivator, keeping his fighter in high spirit as Roli hits his targets.

After Junie struggles to make 156, the fight is on. The first round is all Delgado who lands jabs, leg kicks, body kicks and combo's. Junie is able to catch a couple kicks and send Delgado to the floor by sweeping the plant leg, but Delgado keeps popping up. Junie showboats by allowing Roli to tag him with free shots, but this just gives the round to Delgado.

In the second, Junie starts finding his mark with his jab and body punches. Near the end of the round, he hits Roli flush and probably gets a flash KO. Roli regains his composure and makes it back to his feet. As the round ends, another overtime round is required.

In the third, Junie continues to find his mark with Delgado throwing mainly counters. Junie probably wins of getting Delgado down after a kick then standing over him throwing leg kicks. A tough fight ends and Junie gets the split decision victory. One thing is for sure, some serious kinks have been found in Junie's armor.

*Junie's hand grenade tattoo

Darth Bader Strikes First

The 3rd Episode of Ultimate Fighter debuted on Wednesday. It is the fighters introduction to the house as the previous two episodes featured fighters fighting for their spot in the house

Unfortunately quite a few fighters were injured during the first round of fights to get into the house. I can see how that can happen with wanting to make it in the house, trying to impress the coaches and Dana White, and other factors will lead fighters to go all-out. Karn Grigoryan and Brian McLaughlin had very short stays in the house. Each sustained fractures to the nose which prompted 180 day suspensions from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In addition, Krzysztof Soszynski noted in his blog that he had injured his hand during the KO of his first round opponent.

In to replace Grigoryan is Kyle Kingsbury, who fought hard in the opening round against one of the front-runners Ryan Bader. Replacing McLaughlin is originally a mystery fighter before Roli Delgado. Both fighters seemed very happy to be back, with Kingsbury sporting a little bit of a black eye.

Next, teams are picked with Mir using his first pick on Soszynski. Nogeria chooses Ryan Bader. Nogeria won the right to choose the first match as Mir got first pick.

Team Mir
205
Krzysztof Soszynski
Vinny Magalhaes
Eliot Marshal
Tom Lawlor

155
Junie Allen Browning
Shane Nelson
David Kaplan
George Roop

Team Nogueira
205
Ryan Bader
Shane Primm
Kyle Kingsbury
Jules Bruchez

155
Phillipe Nover
Efrain Escudero
John Polakowski
Roli Delgado

We got to see a decent amount of training time. Mir introduced Ken Hahn for stand-up and Robert Drysdale for BJJ as his two coaches. Drysdale is world class in his ju-jitsu game as he is a blackbelt and ADCC champ. Mir looked pretty good teaching technique to his fighters. He remarked that fighting is an individual thing, even though you are on a team, you are fighting for yourself.

Nogeria in contrast talks about having respect for the team and coaches. He wants to build team unity, reminding me of Tito Ortiz when he was a coach on TUF 3. Nogeria has dinner with the guys the day before the first fight and they all sit around a table like a big family. Nogeria has Daniel Valverde for his BJJ and a 67 year old maniac Al "Stankie" Stankiewicz.

In the meantime, Junie Browning got pretty drunk and Soszynski and others shrink wrapped Team Nogeria's undies to the diving board. Bader also had some clothes shrink wrapped to his bed.

The first fight is set by Nogeria as Ryan Bader v. Tom Lawlor are set to fight. Each has a pedigree in wrestling, but Bader has the 2X All American thing going for him. Neither fighter has a problem making weight as Lawlor looks to maybe have a little extra weight on him.

The fight starts with brief exchanges of punches. Bader next tried to get a take down and failed. After, Bader was able to get the takedown and was trying to work in some punches and another arm triangle, but Lawlor was able to escape back to his feet.

Lawlor next rushed in on Bader, however that is not a smart thing to do against a wrestler. Bader got the double leg slam take down that took the wind out of Lawlor's sails. Bader landed a couple punches, and then was standing holding one of Lawlor's feet. After an attempted up kick, Bader threw a nasty punch directly to Lawlor's face, knocking him out.

After the victory, Stankie led the cheers and Bader was eventually hoisted on someone's shoulders. Nogeria will be picking the first 155 pound bout next week.

*Picture of Ryan Bader from photobucket

TUF 8 Premier Episode

By MMA Blaster

The first episode of TUF 8 did not disappoint. From the get go you know it will be a crazy season. Phillipe Nover fainted in the opening frame of Dana White's speech. The look on the guy standing in front of him is hilarious as Nover initially starts to lean and then goes out.

The coaches Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Big Nog, come out and the fighters don't seem too excited. Reason being, they have to make weight the next day and fight to get into the house.

It will be interesting to see how much talk time each coach gets. Big Nog, a native Brazilian, seems to have the subtitles flowing after every sentence. Mir is a well spoken guy as a WEC color commentator.

We don't see how they are matched up to fight, so I hope that Joe Silva seeded them somehow and Dana White didn't just randomly match them up.

*Pic of Frank Mir as champ

While weight cutting, Jason Guida has by far the worst time. He is 217 off the start, and needs to get down to 206. During his cut, Mir commented on how it looked like Guida was having the worst of everyone else. The next scene brings those comments to life, as Guida, with a towel slightly covering his groin experiences some bad leg cramps. His legs go stiff, like a grounded Frankenstein, and he has a couple guys try to loosen him up.

When they manage to get him on the scale, he comes in at 207, one pound over. The doctor monitering the situation and Ken Kizer of NSAC end up not letting Guida continue. To Guida's credit he wanted to lose the pound, but he just wasn't allowed to as the doctor knew how dehydrated he Guida had become.

Mike Stewart jumps in to replace Guida in his fight against former IFL fighter Krystof Soszynski. Soszynski is a big guy who had a spat in pro wresting before MMA. In his mma career, Soszynski has fought in the IFL on the big stage, then at heavyweight. Stewart looks to maybe have an amateur fight or two on his resume.

The fight is quick as Soszynski drops Stewart with punches and keeps going as Stewart goes to his knees. The ref stops the fight shortly thereafter.

The next fight is Fernando "The Machete" Bernstein and Dave Kaplan. While Bernstein threw some snapping kicks and looked decent on his feet, he proved to lack a ground game. Kaplan took him down from the clinch, got his back, and the fight was done in a couple minutes.

Phillipe Nover and Joe Duarte faced off next. I was a little disappointed because I thought each of these fighters would have decent showings in the house. They battled back and forth on their feet in the first. Both throwing some mean punches and kicks. Duarte almost had Nover finished in the first before the bell sounded.

In the second, Nover pressed the action getting a takedown, elbows, then sinking in a rear naked choke. While losing, Duarte still looked good and I wouldn't be surprised seeing him back in the house if a fighter was injured.

Eric Magee and Jules Bruchez faced off next in what I would call a lackluster fight. Neither 205 pounded looked in great shape or to have too much skill. Bruchez was able to get a rear naked choke victory and talk some junk after the fight. He is a farmer and gets his power country style.

Vinny Magalhaes and Lance Evans- The first round was more of a highlight montage, and we see Evans get kicked in the ribs. Evans, brother of Rashad Evans, clutches his ribs as he goes to his corner at the end of the round. He is not able to continue and sent packing. Magalhaes looks in good shape and moved well on his feet.

Antwain Britt and Ryan Jimmo also get the highlight montage treatment. Britt wins a split decision.

Brian McLaughlin and Garner fought next, as McLaughlin looked to be winning the bout in the first. In the second Garner threw a knee while McLaughlin had both knees on the ground. McLaughlin when to the canvas and told the doctor he was dizzy. The ref called the bout a no contest and the knee unintentional, but Dana White decided McLaughlin would move on.

Junie Browning fought Jose Aguilar in the final bout of the night. Aguilar talks some interesting trash talk as he proclaims himself to be on the level of historic greats, like Napoleon and Alexander the Great. If Aguilar was in the BC times, he'd be conquering people. He proclaims himself as a, "straight up criminal."

Browning says there is no way Aguilar will beat him and that he has a, "better chance of getting me pregnant than beating me." Well Browning's trash seemed to be a little more accurate. Aguilar was taken down and punched and elbowed until the bell was rung. Aguilar promptly tells the ref that he has had enough.

If Ghengis Khan was in mma, he'd answer the bell, knock you out, then conquer your village.

Moving into the house are:
LHW - 205
Krzysztof Soszynski
Jules Bruchez
Vinny Magalhaes
Antwain Britt

LW - 155
Dave Kaplan
Phillipe Nover
Brian McLaughlin
Junie Browning