The Ultimate Fighter

So this week on my favorite show, The Ultimate Fighter, the last fight of the first round occurred. So far this season Team Rashad has won every single fight leaving Team Rampage winless. Team Rashad has looked extremely skilled and everyone out there seemed to be significantly better that whoever Rampage put up to fight. This week however, Rampage’s fight was Marcus. Marcus is a giant ex-NFL player but he has no real formal training in mixed martial arts. Basically this week was David versus Goliath.
Marcus came out strong in the fight and was landing some really heavy blows which is what everyone was expecting considering he had such a huge size and reach advantage. Marcus was winning the stand up battle and the other guy didn’t want to stand and bang with him much longer so he shot the take down and put Marcus on his back. As a fighter with no formal mixed martial arts training the back position is very bad for a fighter like Marcus. Even if he were trained in a ground game it would most likely be wrestling and the back position for a wrestler means they are pretty much screwed because in Greco-roman wrestling when your shoulder blades touch the mat the match is over. Marcus was taking some heavy hits from the ground and pound but because of his strength he handled them very well. He tried to transition and start a rear naked choke, which he did, but the guy slipped it and he ended up giving his back which is a terrible mistake because when you give your back you hav pretty much no way of defending yourself.
At this point I was sure that the fight was over and that Marcus was done. Suddenly out of nowhere though Marcus snatches one of the guy’s arms and rolls into an arm bar and uses his extreme brute strength to submit him. The guy tapped so fast because Marcus was applying so much pressure he could have snapped his arm. This was a pretty crazy fight and the result was unexpected. I was sure that Team Rashad was going to run the table and Rampage would be gone by the second half of the season. Marcus changed that by winning the last fight and being the only Rampage fighter going to the second round. What was most impressive about this victory however was that Marcus won by using skills that no one though he had. He used finesse and ground game skill to win a fight everyone though he would lose. Everyone expected him to stand up fighting because of his power but he proved that he was the real deal and deserved to be there by showing that he was a real mixed martial artist by using other skills. Although I really don’t like Rampage I was glad to see Marcus win because he seems like he has the size and skill to beat Brock Lesnar.
Brock Lesnar is currently the Heavy Weight champion of the world and he is pretentious and acts like he is the best fighter in the world when he has only won a few fights and hasn’t really proved anything is his victories. He gives the sport a bad name and makes every fighter look like a meat head who just wants to fight people and hurt them. In reality the sport is really about respect and winning by inflicting the least amount of pain.
Also, this episode leads into the second part of the season in which all the victors of the previous fights now fight each other to try and get to the final fight and become the ultimate fighter. This is awesome because now I do not need to see really dumb one sided fights where one scrub fighter gets destroyed by a much more stout and experienced fighter. But this is also going to be somewhat weird. All the fighters who have won have been on Team Rashad. This means that all these fighters will be fighting their teammates. This may cause some awkward moments because a lot of these fighters have grown close to each other and have become friends and also they train with each other so they know each other’s fighting styles even better. This will cause some seriously close and good fights and hopefully make a very good season.
Right now the fighter I am most pulling for is Brendan Schaub. He was very impressive in his fight earlier this season and he won very quickly and convincingly. I really like the way he fights and the skills he has but the main reason I like him is because he used to play for the Buffalo Bills. As an ex-NFL player he has a good size advantage and he has a lot of power but he is different from the other fighters because he has actual mixed martial arts skills. He also showed that he was very skilled because he beat one of the best fighters on Rampage’s team. He really proved that he was one of the best fighers on the show and I would be very happy to see him win the season to become the next ultimate fighter.
Although I really like Brendan I’m not completely sure if with his size he will be able to stand up against Lesnar. Although Schaub is an NFL player he is one of the smaller ones because he was a fullback but still I feel like he could beat him. He has a lot of power and speed and he can really overpower Lesnar and use his skills to win the fight. Hopefully the season continues to be just as good as it has been in really excited for this Wednesday’s episode because it starts off with Team Rashad fighters fighting each other. The rest of the season is going to be crazy and I’m definitely looking forward to another thrilling season of the ultimate fighter.