Spike TV TUF4 Finale Party.... And Fights
by: DarthMolen 2 years, 2 weeks, 5 days, 22 hours, 18 minutes ago
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The Ultimate Fighter Finale was a lot better than I expected after a less than stellar year of “The Ultimate Fighter” TV series. Each fight that they showcased was action packed and gave the crowd plenty to cheer for.
I have to admit. I was in the optimal conditions when I watched the matches for the first time. I attended Wizard World and happened to secure free tickets to a viewing party that Spike TV was putting on for their darling program, “The Ultimate Fighter”. Everybody that was there, wanted to be there and were hyped up about the fight. There was a free bar, plenty of cha-chi’s from Spike TV, and great company all around.
I happened to get a seat by two stand up fighters from the IFL, Brad Blackburn and Shane “Battlecat” Johnson. Brad fights for the Seattle Tiger Sharks and Shane is an Ex-Tokyo Sabre that will be fighting for the Arizona Scorpions next year. You can’t find two nicer guys. They were extremely approachable, open, and great with all the fans. I had the opportunity to interview both that morning and they still put up with me at the evening event.
Shane and Brad both ended up playing ping-pong against each other during the matches and alternating off with various other IFL employees and fans that wanted to jump in. I truly was torn between watching these two fighters play ping-pong and watching the fights. It was a weird dilemma to have.
Maurice Smith, the coach of the Seattle Tiger Sharks and a legendary MMA fighter in his own right, was also present and circling among the fans.
I did have a defining moment during the festivities. While we were waiting for the Matt Serra / Chris Lytle fight to begin, I catch Brad Blackburn waving at me from across the table. He’s a quiet guy so I guess he didn’t feel like yelling. I look over at him and he asks me, “So who do you think is going to win?” The question blew me away. Here was a professional fighter and athlete asking MY opinion on which way the match was going to go. I told him my honest opinion in that if Serra got it to the ground, it would be over but if Chris Lytle was able to capitalize on his range then Serra was in trouble. His thoughts were that Chris was good enough to neutralize Serra on the ground and that Chris had way too much range for Serra to overcome. The great thing is that Brad wasn’t being facetious and really valued my opinion. It really made all the time I spend preparing and studying worthwhile.
Anyways, I digress. Every fight that they showed was great. The finale matches went exactly the way I thought they would but there were some great surprises in the prelims.
I think the first surprise of the night was how good the Scott Smith / Pete Sell fight was. Both came out swinging for the fences and in good spirits. It was bewildering to see two fighters try to knock each others blocks off and high five as they were doing it. Neither was pulling punches and they both kept trading jabs and crosses that would fell a lesser opponent. Scott Smith was definitely the crisper fighter and by the end of the first round, Pete Sell had a cut under each eye and swelling was setting in.
The second round was just as wild with each fighter punching and counter-punching. Even though Scott was the cleaner fighter, Pete still wouldn’t take it to the mat. Eventually Pete got in a nasty hook to the ribs of Scott Smith and Scott fell back in pain wincing with his hands covering the place where he got hit. Pete immediately jumped in but he made the fatal mistake of lowering his hands as he arrowed in for the kill. Scott threw one last perfect straight right that started from a kneeling position and ended up on Pete Sell’s chin and knocked Pete out. Scott then stumbled down onto Pete and John McCarthy jumped in and separated the two. Scott fell back in pain to join Pete on the canvas and they both lay there as they were being attended. I heard the doctor say to Scott, “Yeah, we are definitely going to get you a chest x-ray...”. Scott won by TKO.
The Middleweight finalists, Travis Lutter and Patrick Cote, fought a lightning quick match. Before the match, the UFC did a pre-fight interview with Travis and he looked straight at the camera’s and said (paraphrasing), “Patrick, I am going to shoot in and take you down. I will then take an arm or leg and it will be over.” Travis Lutter doesn’t lie and that is what he did. Travis circled for a second, and then shot straight in, backing Cote up to the fence. He was able to get in deep with a double leg grab. Patrick looked bewildered by Travis strength and no matter what he tried, he could not dislodge the BJJ expert that was wrapped around both his legs. Travis then lifted him up and pushed him off to the left and crawled into half-guard. From half guard he was able to secure the back. When Cote tried to go out the back door, he made the fatal mistake of leaving an arm out there which Travis then latched onto and stretched it out for an armbar. Game Over. Travis wins :42 in the first round. I just want to go on the record and state that I called it from the first time I saw Travis fight on the series...
The Serra match was a lot longer but the results were the same. The first round had Serra rushing in to neutralize Chris Lytle’s reach advantage. Just take that sentence and repeat it ad naseum. Even when the referee took the fight back to the feet, Chris was way too tentative and worried about the take down to utilize his jab to maintain his distance. Serra took the match by decision after three rounds of stifling Chris.
There were other great matches but those were the most memorable ones. I wasn’t just biased by the party though (although thank you Spike TV for the good time). I went home and watched them again from my DVR and they still held up to scrutiny. I give the night 4 out of 5 stars.
It was a good night of fights. I think lytle did a great job of staying on his feet. But Serra kept him on the fence most of the time. I don’t think Serra has much of a chance against Matt or GSP. So he should just enjoy the money he made off this fight.
I thought Drago had the fight when he hit Smith in the ribs. Who could have seen that last punch coming out of nowhere. That’s one for the highlight reels.