Dustin Hazelett was awarded Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night bonuses for his performance Saturday night. This bout was on the undercard so many UFC fans didn’t get to see it. UFC.com has pushed this fight video to its video player for viewers to watch for free (they usually charge $1.99 for fight video).
WATCH Hazelett vs. Burkman fight video.
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Las Vegas, Nevada – Due to the beauty of a timing mechanism, I am able to post some of my thoughts about last night’s TUF 7 Finale while I am on a plane heading back to Philadelphia.
Enjoy my random rantings.
– I’m still kind of shocked as to why C.B. Dalloway was so stunned when last night’s fight was stopped against Amir Sadollah. When I started watching MMA in ‘93, I thought the universal method of submitting was three taps in succession. However, a lot of rules that I thought were written never actually were, and a lot of rules that I have seen written have been changed over the years.
Regardless of what the written rule is for a submission, fighters are taught to be extremely deliberate of their actions when they are in trouble. They are not supposed to give the referee any room to stop a fight. If Dalloway didn’t want out of the hold then he had no business making that gesture with his hand. There’s no reason to tap even once in that situation if you have any aspirations of continuing to fight.
Furthermore, I believe the unified rules of MMA afford the referee the right to stop a fight via technical submission (stopped a fight while a submission hold is being applied even though a fighter has not submitted). We saw such a thing when Tim Sylvia had his arm broke by Frank Mir and Herb Dean stepped in and stopped it. We saw it last June when Frank Shamrock choked Phil Baroni unconscious. Even if Dalloway didn’t mean to tap, he was done. When Sadollah re-committed to the hold and started cranking again, he had the armbar in so tight that I don’t see how it would have been possible for Dalloway to escape.
If you don’t think that Dalloway was on the verge of tapping, behold the following quote he gave during the post-fight press conference:
“I was definitely thinking about tapping,” said Dalloway. “I did hit it once, but I thought the rule was you had to do it (multiple times). Just as I hit once, I felt that I was in a position where I could get my arm out.”
– I believe Sadollah is going to emerge as one of the UFC’s biggest stars. I just want to know though, where did his jiu-jitsu game come from? It seems like it just evolved overnight. Looking long-term, I can’t help but wonder though if Sadollah’s best competitive weight might be 170 pounds.
– Evan Tanner’s demeanor during last night’s fight was somewhat perplexing to me. Granted, I am not a mind reader, nor even a “body language expert,” but there were times during last night’s main event in which Tanner looked completely disinterested in the fight. Watching the damage he took during the fight wasn’t an easy thing to do. In light of Tanner’s candidness about his financial situation, I can’t help but be concerned that he might only be fighting at this stage for no other reason than it’s a way to make a paycheck.
– Can someone please explain why last night’s main event was a split decision? How can one judge score the fight 30-26 in favor of Kendall Grove and then another judge score it 29-28 in favor of Tanner? Grove deserved to win that fight via unanimous decision.
Las Vegas, Nevada – Amir Sadollah may have earned the title of the winner for the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but it was Dustin Hazelett who perhaps is walking out of the TUF 7 live season finale as the event’s biggest winner.
Hazelett, a member of Team Jorge Gurgel in Ohio, fought Josh Burkman during the non-televised portion of the fight card. Despite giving up noticeable strength to Burkman, Hazelett still walked away the victor after executing an armbar following a whizzer.
The beautiful sequence earned Hazelett a bonus for “Submission of the Night,” which will be paid to him on top of his guarantee and win bonus. However, Hazelett was awarded a second bonus when both he and Burkman were awarded”Fight of the Night” honors.
The value of each bonus for the event is $20,000, meaning that Hazelett will receive a total of $40,000 in bonus money.
Drew McFedries was also awarded a bonus for the “Knockout of the Night,” following his lopsided first round TKO over veteran Marvin Eastman.
News and Views:
– A source has revealed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is likely to defend his interim UFC heavyweight title against Frank Mir during the UFC’s year end event on December 29.
Here’s the results of the TUF 7 FINALE event:
Undercard
Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough - canceled due to Credeur testing positive for the ADHD drug Adderall.
Check out more TUF 7 Finale content on 5 Oz. of Pain.
Las Vegas, Nevada – FiveOuncesOfPain.com attended today’s weigh-ins for the live season finale of “The Ultimate Fighter 7” Friday at the Palms Hotel & Casino.
The weigh-ins were not held in the Pearl concert venue, but instead in a ballroom that was located in the same area. The weigh-ins were jammed packed.
Results and bout order are as follows:
Non-televised undercard…
Las Vegas, Nevada — When I first read an Associated Press article last year that covered the in-person tryouts for the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” I was struck by the coverage devoted to Virginia-based fighter Amir Sadollah.
I had never met the man or had even seen him fight. However, based on the circumstantial evidence, I was less than enthusiastic when hearing he made a strong impression with casting officials.
The article extolled his virtues as being a humorous guy. We also learned from the piece that he was 0-0 as a professional with limited amateur experience. So I thought “Great, another fighter with no pro fights under his belt who is being selected because they believe he could make great television.”
Then I thought, “Didn’t the UFC and Spike TV learn their lesson with Blake Bowman?” Bowman had a reputation for being a character; someone who could call attention to himself and drive viewership. The problem was, by UFC standards, he couldn’t fight a lick. In spite of being an upstanding citizen the entire time he was involved with the taping of the show, he was not invited to be a part of the finale.
Bowman was the only fighter involved with the cast of TUF 6 not to be invited to the finale that hadn’t either quit or been kicked off. It also turned out that he wasn’t the over-the-top character that many had purported him to be. Bowman seemed like a nice enough guy, but not someone who was so entertaining that it compensated an obvious lack of fighting experience.
Las Vegas, Nevada – As Matt mentioned, I am out in Las Vegas to view a presentation of THQ’s new “UFC 2009″ video game. Hopefully, I will get a chance to play it, but at the very least I will get to see what it’s all about and talk to the people responsible for making the game and give you guys the lowdown. My goal is to at the very least have a review for you guys here on 5 Oz. before I head back to Philly.
While I am out here, I will be taking in the live season finale for “The Ultimate Fighter.” Check back here as well for weigh-in results as well as undercard results. If anything breaks, I’ll have that as well. There’s already one potentially large story that I’ve been looking into.
In the meantime, I wanted to list the money lines for some of tomorrow’s fights, as per the Sportsbook at the Palms. At initial glance, this is a tough card to bet:
* Evan Tanner (-210) vs. Kendall Grove (+175)
Grove hasn’t looked good in his recent fights but was has Tanner done to be such a prohibitive favorite? Maybe there’s a lot of money coming in on him. I don’t like either line but I might be tempted to put a little bit on Grove.
* Josh Burkman (-210) vs. Dustin Hazelett (+175)
Hazelett is really underrated and I picked him to win in CBSSports.com’s Head-2-Head poll. It only makes sense that I put down a couple of bucks on him to win at the Sportsbook.
* Diego Sanchez (-500) vs. Luigi Fioravanti (+400)
I like Sanchez in this fight but at -500? No way. That’s too cost prohibitive. This is MMA where anything can happen. If Vegas wants me to take money out of my pocket and place it on Sanchez, I need a better rate of return. Fioravanti is tough and with that kind of payout, I might put $20 on him for a few laughs.
* Jeremy Horn (-130) vs. Dean Lister (+110)
Horn is favored!? Huh!? He’s been subbed in each of his last two fights and Lister is one of the best grapplers in all of MMA. I like Lister all the way here.
* Drew McFedries (-135) vs. Marvin Eastman (+115)
I like McFedries in this one. I think this line is just about right but McFedries is inconsistent so I wouldn’t bet more than a couple of bucks on him.
* Spencer Fisher (-210) vs. Jeremy Stephens (+175)
-210 means you need to put up $210 in order to win $100. Fisher is the better fighter, but not so much that you should have to put up that much money in order to win $100. That’s bad value. The problem is, Stephens doesn’t really offer good enough value to play the underdog.
BTW, as of 9:00 am PT there was no line for the middleweight final between Amir Sadollah and C.B. Dalloway. As soon as I see the line, I will post something.
Las Vegas, Nevada — Thursday’s airing of the final taped episode for the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” brought mixed emotions for me.
On one hand, I think Jesse Taylor is the biggest idiot in the world for blowing the biggest opportunity in his life over something as trivial as alcohol.
On the other hand, I think
White was one hundred percent correct in his assertion that
That said, I can’t help but wonder though if his decision to remove
I got the chance today to speak with Tim Credeur, the most recent fighter to be ousted from The Ultimate Fighter 7. In last night’s episode, we all saw Credeur drop a unanimous decision loss to finalist Jesse Taylor.
Tim had a bunch of thoughts regarding the fight itself, the show in general, his upcoming fight at the TUF finale show on June 21, and the upcoming fight between coaches Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Forrest Griffin.
Paul Balsom: After waiting a long time, you finally got to see last night’s episode. What are some of your thoughts?
Tim Credeur: I thought the fight was… a lot better than I thought it was. I think from my vantage point in the fight, on the bottom eating elbows for fifteen minutes, that fight was pretty difficult and I thought it was a lot more one-sided. When I was watching the fight, I feel like I did a lot better than I thought I did. I threw pretty much every submission I knew, but it was tough. Training with a guy like Jesse, who’s big and strong, for six weeks, he knew a lot of my game by then. It was just tough to catch him in anything. I think the fight, all in all, was pretty exciting, and the show was pretty exciting. I think America got to get a firm understanding of Jesse Taylor and his intensity. But yeah, I enjoyed the whole time I was on the show; it was unbelievable. So, all in all, I think the season went much better than I thought it would.
PB:There was one scene in the show last night where you were telling Jesse how to defend the triangle, and you got a little bit of flack for that. After fighting him, would you take that back, or do you stand by what you did?
TC: Jesse is my friend, and I’m probably a better instructor than I am a fighter. If I see a friend of mine doing something wrong, I’m going to let him know. I’m going to give him my best advice on how to help him. It may be that that did backfire on me during the fight, but I don’t care. If I’m going to beat a guy, I want to beat a guy doing his best. I don’t want to beat a guy that keeps doing the same stupid stuff in practice everything then catch him with it. It sounds stupid because it is a six-figure contract with the UFC on the line, but my integrity can’t be bought. I’m going to be the guy I am regardless of any of that other stuff. I was friends with Jesse before, and I’m going be friends with Jesse for the rest of my life. So no, I don’t take it back. I didn’t really think about what I was saying, or what I was telling him at the time, but that’s just the kind of guy and the kind of coach that I am. I definitely don’t regret it, and I don’t take it back. During the fight, he did get out of a lot and he did manage to get out of a couple triangles, so maybe it backfired on me, but I don’t really care.
According to MMA Weekly’s rumors section, a fight between Matt “Chipper” Riddle and Dante Rivera has been scheduled for The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale. The two jokingly talked trash to one another inside the house and now it looks like they will get to go at it inside the cage.
Riddle, a Team Rampage member, beat a talented jiu jitsu guy in Dan Simmler, knocking him out and breaking his jaw in the opening bouts. That victory got him into the house but then he lost in a spirited affair to Tim Credeur in the prelims, a performance which earned him an XBox 360.
Rivera beat John Wood via kimura in the first round of the opening bouts to win his way into the house. He then went on to beat Brandon Sene via decision in the prelims but suffered a loss at the hands of Jesse Taylor during the quarterfinals.
A broken ankle has caused middleweight Alessio Sakara to pull out of a scheduled fight vs. Rob Yundt during live final for the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” MMAjunkie.com is reporting.
According to the site, middleweight Rob Kimmons has been signed to a UFC contract and will make his debut in place of Sakara during the June 21 event vs. Yundt.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com has also learned that top-rated middleweight prospect Jake Rosholt was approached as potential opponent for Yundt, however, a deal between Rosholt and the UFC was not agreed upon.
The finale is scheduled to take place at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas and will feature headlining matches between Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove and Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti in addition to the finals of the TUF middleweight tournament.
It’s another battle of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) contestants as season six alumnus Matt “No Regard” Arroyo (3-1) is scheduled to face season seven’s Matt Brown (6-6) on The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale at The Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, June 21, 2008, at 9 p.m. ET on SpikeTV.
MMAmania.com exclusively learned of the welterweight bout earlier this evening.
A lot of the TUF 7 castmembers are no longer with the UFC but it looks like Matt Brown showed that he had what it takes to at least have one fight on the big show. This will be a rematch of an earlier fight in these two fighters’ careers. Brown holds a previous second round TKO victory over Arroyo so these two have a past history.
According to MMA Junkie, UFC-vet Alessio Sakara will take on Rob Yundt at The Ultimate Fighter Season 7 Finale. The event takes place on June 21 at The Palms in Las Vegas and live on Spike TV.
Sakara is currently 3-4 in the UFC, with one no contest. He has mild success in the light heavyweight division in the UFC, with most of his bouts ending inside the first round. He has recently dropped to the middleweight division, and most recently lost at the hands of TUF 1 veteran Chris Leben.
Yundt celebrated an undefeated career in Alaska Fighting Championship before he made the transition to the UFC’s middleweight division. His most recent bout resulted in a losing effort at UFC 81 against Ricardo Almeida.
The final episode for “The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest” will feature Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner in another middleweight collision.
Log on to Five Ounces of Pain for more Ultimate Figher 7 coverage!
The UFC on Thursday added four more official bouts to it’s June 21st The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale show. Joining previously announced matches Evan Tanner vs Kendall Grove and Diego Sanchez vs Luigi Fioravanti are:
It should be noted that outside of Fisher vs Stephens the other three fights will be on the undercard that evening. Of course a couple of these fights had previously been rumored back as far as three weeks ago but Horn vs Lister is new to me. Many figured after losing three of his last four fights that Jeremy Horn was about to call it a career and turn to training but he’s accepted another dangerous challenge considering Lister’s pedigree and the fact Horn has been submitted in his previous two fights.
Eastman vs McFedries was originally an anticipated bout for last October’s UFC 77 card but McFedries had to pull out with a staph infection.
PreSale tickets for The Ultimate Fighter Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest go on sale today.
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MMA Junkie is reporting that a lightweight match-up between Spencer Fisher and Jeremy Stephens has been confirmed for The Ultimate Fighter 7’s season finale on June 21st.
Fisher (20-4) comes to this fight after pulling out of a fight with Marcus Aurelio at UFC Fight Night 13 due to injury. His last actual fight was at UFC 78 where he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Frankie Edgar. In that fight Fisher was unable to defend Edgar’s takedowns and spent the majority of the fight on his back. If everything goes as expected, Fisher shouldn’t have to worry about working off his back against Stephens, who is very much stand-up oriented.
Stephens (13-2) also comes to this fight after pulling out of a previously scheduled match-up. Stephens had agreed to face Terry Etim on the undercard of the upcoming, UFC 84 but had to pull out due to a “minor legal situation”. Stephens differs to Fisher in that the last time he stepped inside the caged walls of the UFC Octagon, he tasted victory. He impressively dispatched TUF 5’s Cole Miller via a 2nd round TKO earlier this year.
This fight is the 5th “non-TUF” fight to be scheduled for the TUF 7 finale which is in stark contrast to last year’s TUF 6 Finale which, except for the main event and Jonathan Goulet, was entirely made up of fighters that participated in that season of the Ultimate Fighter.
The event will be headlined by a welterweight clash between Diego Sanchez and Luigi Fioravanti. Other bouts on the card include, Drew McFedries vs. Marvin Eastman, Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove and Josh Burkman vs. Dustin Hazelett.
Read more TUF 7 Finale content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com.
UFC middleweight fighter Marvin “The Beastman” Eastman revealed this weekend via a blog post on MySpace that his next fight will be against Drew McFedries on June 21 during the live season finale for the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
“The next victim of ‘The Beastman’ is on June 21 at the Palms Casino on the finale of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Forrest vs. Rampage (is) Drew McFedries,” the former IFO middleweight champion wrote.
Eastman last fought on February 2 at UFC 81, where he recorded a unanimous decision against Terry Martin. The win improved his overall record to 15-7-1 and served as his first victory while fighting for the UFC.
According to Eastman’s blog, the planned bout vs. McFedries is the last on his current contract with the promotion.
“(It) is my last fight under contract with the UFC,” Eastman stated. “This contract was a buyout from the purchase of the WFA by the UFC. I got ‘ripped’ (off).”
McFedries, 6-3, is 2-2 lifetime in the UFC. He lost his last fight to Patrick Cote at UFC Fight Night 12 in January when he was knocked out at 1:44 into round 1. The fight was McFedries’ first since June, as he was sidelined while recovering from staph infection and also mourning the loss of his mother.
The UFC has yet to officially announce the proposed bout between Eastman and McFedries, but if the fight is in fact a reality, it is uncertain whether it will make the Spike TV broadcast. The June season finale for the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is scheduled to be headlined by Diego Sanchez taking on retired Marine Luigi Fioravanti in a welterweight contest. Also, the finals of the TUF middleweight tournament will be featured as well.
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