TUF 17 Cast

It appears the "wildcard" is back for the 17th installment of The Ultimate Fighter as the UFC released the 28 preliminary 185 pound TUF fighters.

The debut episode will be a two hour affair for the middleweightfighters to get into the house. Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen are the coaches, and you can be sure Sonnen will be talking major trash throughout the season.

My initial thoughts on the cast is that there are several decent veterans along with some unknown undefeated fighters. There are some interesting prospects who have big time knockout power. One fighter is rumored to have the whole house scared to fight him.

Uriah Hall (7-2)- The Jamaican born, New York trained kickboxers only two losses are to UFC title contenders Constantinos Philippou and Chris Weidman. He has a TKO over Edwin Aguilar in Bellator and is currently on a 3 fight win streak. Hall also competed in Chuck Norris' WCL kickboxing league on the New Jersey Tigers.

Tor Troeng (15-4-1)- The Swedish veteran fighter is 11-1 in his last 12 fights only losing to Thales Leites. He has submission wins over Rafeal Silva (38-13) and Mark Weir.

Zak Cummings (15-3)- The Bellator and Strikeforce fighter has fought around the midwest, defeating Terry Martin and Rudy Bears. He has 8 submission wins and 4 TKO wins on his resume.

Nik Fekete (5-1)- An All-American wrestler out of Michigan State, Fekete suffered his lone defeat via submission in Bellator. He has fought primarily at 205, picking up wins over Ovince St. Preux and Mark Griffin in Bellator.

Bubba McDaniel (20-6)- The Elite XC and Bellator veteran has won 6 straight with 15 total submission wins on his resume. He has defeated several legit veterans including Eric Schambari (15-3), Johnny Rees and Kala Hose.

Dylan Andrews (16-4-1)- The New Zealander has 10 KO's on his resume fighting at 205 and 185 mainly on the Australian fight circuit. He has a win over Shonie Carter.

Luke Barnatt (5-0)- The 6'6" English fighter has fought in BAMMA and UWC defeating Lee Johnson (5-2) via submission and won a decision over Ben Callum (5-1).

Josh Samman (9-2)- The Florida fighter and WWFC champ last defeated Bellator vet Mikey Gomez via submission due to punches, and has beat Chris Cope via KO.

Mike Jasper (6-0)- The Elite MMA fighter has won twice in BAMMA USA, last defeating Manny Murillo (previously undefeated at 4-0) via split decision.

Adam Cella (4-0)- A member of Finney's Hit Squad in Missouri, Cella has a kickboxing background. He has 2 KO's and 2 submissions in the first round.

Jake Heun (3-2)- The former fullback and linebacker at the University of Hawaii has fought exclusively at heavyweight during his career, only losing to NCAA champ Mark Ellis and undefeated Richard Odoms. He has tons of power, but is very raw with 2 KO wins and 1 submission on his resume.

Timothy Williams (7-1)- The "Southside Strangler" has 5 wins via choke submission and 2 TKO's. Williams has defeated UFC veteran Andrea Gusmao, Bellator veteran Tiawan Howard and Joey Kirwin. His only loss is to UFC vet Dustin Jacoby.

Scott Rosa (4-1)- The 6'6" normally fights at 205 and has KO'd UFC vet James Irvin.

Kito Andrews (9-2)- Fighting primarily on the west coast, the oldest fighter in the cast at 34 years of age, has won 7 straight.

Leo Bercier (7-2)- The Montana trained fighter and Native American swings for the fences and has 6 KO wins.

Jimmy Quinlan (3-0)- The Massachusetts fighter was a successful collegiate wrestler and brown belt in BJJ. 2 of his wins are via first round submission.

Nicholas Hohring (3-0)- The Cesar Gracie fight team member in undefeated but hasn't fought since 2010.

Kelvin Gastelum (4-0)- The 5'9" spark plug has 2 KO's and 2 submissions while fighting less than stellar competition.

Eldon Sproat (3-1)- Not one of the Hawaiin brawler's fights have gone past 2:14 in the first round.

Clint Hester (7-3)- Fighting pro for 4 and half years, the former boxer has several quality wins fighting in the southeast.

Gilbert Smith (5-1)- The Colorado fighter has 4 submission wins.

Andy Enz, (6-1), 21, Anchorage, Ala.
Collin Hart (4-1-1), 23, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Eric Wahlin (5-1), 29, Taylorsville, Utah
Ryan Lee Q. Bigler (9-3), 28, Guam
Fraser Opie (10-5), 25, Milton Keynes, England
Kevin Casey (5-2), 31, Hawthorne, Calif.

Video of the Day - Manhoef v. Kang

Here is Melvin Manhoef fighting Denis Kang at Dream NYE 2012 which took place on 12/31/12 at the Saitama Super Arena.

Video of the Day - Cro Cop v. Suzukawa

Here is Mirko Cro Cop fighting former sumo wrestler and current pro wrestler Shinichi Suzukawa at IGF Inoki Bom Ba Ye 2012 which took place on 12/31/12 in Tokyo, Japan. The fight was Cro Cop's first since an October 29, 2011 loss to Roy Nelson.

This is one of the odder fights to come out of Japan in recent memory.

Video of the Day - Aoki v. McKee

Here is Shinya Aoki fighting Antonio McKee at the Saitama Super Arena on 12/31/12 in the Dream Glory NYE special. A replay of the event will air tonight on CBS Sports Net.

Goldberg Messes Up Rashad Evans' Name

Here is Mike Goldberg messing up Rashad Evans' name during a transition from Facebook to FX prelims at UFC 145. There is some solid cursing in this one.

Video of the Day - Aoki v. Black

Here is Shinya Aoki fighting UFC and Pride fighter Jason Black at Pride Bushido 12 which took place on 8/26/06 in the Nagoya Rainbow Hall in Japan.

Aoki will fight smothering wrestler Antonio McKee at Dream and Glory's New Years Eve event at the Saitama Super Arena on Monday. Jason Black, 23-4, appears to be retired last fighting at UFC 77, losing a decision to Matt Grice.

Below is the fight line-up for Dream 18 - New Years Special. Glory will hold a kickboxing event as well. No broadcast details for the United States have been offered.

Shinya Aoki v. Antonio McKee
Bibiano Fernandes v. Yoshiro Maeda
Denis Kang v. Melvin Manhoef
Georgi Karakhanyan v. Hiroyuki Takaya
Phil Baroni v. Hayato Sakurai
Will Brooks v. Satoru Kitaoka
Tatsuya Kawajiri v. Michihiro Omigawa

Big Country Goes Big

I have gotten a couple questions emailed to me lately inquiring about my thoughts on Roy "Big Country" Nelson's fighting skills, coaching job on TUF 16, his rankings among UFC heavyweights and a potential drop down in weight. Here are my thoughts:

Roy Nelson is an elite martial artist and gifted athlete. That has been evidenced several times, including KO's over Brendan Schaub, Stefan Struve, Cro Cop, Dave Herman and now Matt Mitrione. He has a legit BJJ black belt and has defeated Frank Mir in a grappling match. He can impose his will in fights, possesses an iron chin, and has excellent punching power combined with hand eye coordination.

I don't think Roy will ever drop to 205 pounds and have the prototypical UFC body. At 250 plus, I just don't see Roy wanting to lose that weight. Most fighters at 205 are faster than Nelson. There are some grapplers at 205 that could take Nelson down every round and stay away from his power.


Roy is at his best striking when he is able to counter and avoid power punches from big guys with reach on him. Long strikers should be peppering Roy with the jab and hitting him with kicks at distance. As far as his ranking, I'd guess Roy has a few more years left around number 10 with wins still left in the tank.

As evidenced by his championship TUF 10 run, Roy doesn't really like people telling him what to do. He knows what works for him and wants to do that. As a coach on TUF 16, it seemed like the fighters on Team Nelson wanted more instruction and harder practices. Roy deflected that sentiment by saying he couldn't teach heart, but really Roy probably just thought that's how his fighters should be trained to win the tournament.

Roy wasn't the best TUF coach, but look at the results. His fighters won 8 out of the 15 fights in the TUF tournament. His fighter Colton Smith emerged the champion of the show fighting the same way throughout the tourney. Smith imposed his will, got takedowns, threw elbows and attempted submissions. It wasn't the most pretty tournament run, but it was effective.

In the very first episode of TUF 16, Roy did say that the show is a marathon, not a sprint, and fighters should do anything they could to win. The goal is to win 3 fights in 6 weeks in the house to make the finale. The two worst things a TUF coach can do is burn his fighters out and pushing them too hard right before a fight or having a fighter get hurt during a practice. Neither happened under Roy's watch.

(Nelson was the first and only IFL HW Champ)