Wrestlers Rule The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale

On the evening of Saturday, Dec. 13th, the wrestlers reigned supreme at The Ultimate Fighter Reality Show Season #8 Finale. The most anticipated match of the evening was the lightweight final between Dana White and pretty much everyone else's favorite, the fighting Flipino nurse from Brooklyn, Phillipe Nover and the macho Mexican conqueror of The Lunitic Junnie Browning, an act which in itself had guarentied fan favor, Efrain Escudero.

On paper the boys looked pretty even, but Dana White's gushing praise of Nover as "The New GSP" and then the upgrade to "The New Anderson Silva" had most fans convinced that "The Filipino Assasian" couldn't be defeated at this level of compitition and that maybe the battleing Brooklynite was even ready for the top of the lightweight division. Nover had first been noticed as the guy who passed out at the initial fighter's meeting. But the Brooklyn emergency room nurse quickly went from "Fainting Phillipe" to "The Filipino Assasian" as he tore through his lightweight compitition on TUF 8, with power and style, displaying slick technique both standing and on the ground. Nover has been a student of Praying Mantis Kung Fu Master and former PKA Kickboxing Champion Ralph Mitchell, since the age of 9, and his striking abilities mirror the skills of his mentor. Nover has backed up his standing skills with a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu and had put his submission skills on display durring the show. In short, Phillipe seemed unbeatable.

But ----------- someone forgot to mention all this to former NCAA wrestling standout and all round quiet tough guy, Efrain "Made In Mexico" Escudero. Efrain had done his homework and knew that Nover's right hand was to be avoided. He also noticed that Nover tended to throw that punch with full abandon, so Escudero not only practiced avoiding the shot, but also ducking under it and coming in for the double leg take down. This technique seemed to take Nover completly by surprise and it worked all night long for Escudero, who used it for clean take down scores in every round. He also controlled the action on the ground and used his wrestling balance and riding skills to thwart all of Nover's submission attempts. In the end Efrain Escudero won the decision and the big UFC contract while the fans won not one but Two New MMA stars to watch.

The light heavyweight final matched 25 year old wrestler Ryan "Darth" Badder against the 24 year old four time Brazilian Jujitsu national champion Vinicius Magalhaes. During the taping of the TUF show much was made of Magalhaes' jujitsu resume and it was even implied that he considered his skills in that area to be better than coach Nogueria's. Magalhaes did back this talk up with some slick submissions on the mat, but during Saturday's introductions it was noticible that the Brazilian was only sporting a 3-2 record while the wrestler was 8-0. Badder's last match on the show had been a less than exciting display of ground and clutch that had left most fans expecting him to sucome to a Magalhaes submission, but these two grappling masters of different styles kept the entire fight on their feet ..... all few moments of it! There was a little sloppy back and forth grappler stand up and then --- Bang! Badder drives a big right hand past Vinnie's guard and into his head, knocking the Brazilian to the mat. Badder was on his fallen foe like a starving hyena and a few hammer fists later, he had his hand raised, with his contract in it. Perhaps even more importantly Ryan "Darth" Badder had shown that he can be an exciting fighter who is worth following.

Also on the card was the rematch of Anthony "Rumble" Johnson and Kevin "The Fire" Burns. Their first match had ended controversially when Johnson had been repeatedly poked in the eyes by the fingers of a hand that Burns can't close due to previous injuries. Both fighters were out to avoid a repeat of these circumstances and much of their match featured over cautious stand up technique. In the first round, Johnson got a take down and Burns attempted a guillitine choke. In the second round the wrestler Johnson scored another take down and Burns again nutralized him on the ground and there was some more inefectual stand up. Johnson had recently been garnishing his wrestling skills with the stand up training of San Da Chinese Kickboxing Legend and MMA Star Cung Le and in the third round Johnson seemed to momentarily channel his striking mentor and caught his antagonist with a perfect round house kick to the head ...... knocking Burns cold before he even hit the canvas.

In a match up of middleweight journeymen, Brazilian Wilson Gouveia failed to make weight and came in four pounds over the 185 LB limit. Canadian Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald agreed to fight Gouveia anyway and as it turned out this was a disasterous decision. MacDonald tore out of his corner and scored a take down, but Gouveia worked his way right back up. Both men got busy with their hands, but the Brazilian quickly slipped in a counter punch which deposited the Canadian on his backside. Gouveia leaped on his fallen opponent and rained down an array of fists and elbows which opened Macdonald's brow and the stunned and bleeding Athlete was forced to tap. Would Gouveia have had the power advantage without the weight advantage? Probably, as it was only four pounds, but we will will never know now.

Probably the second most anticipated match of the evening pitted Season 8 Bad Boy --- Crazy Man --- Complete Hillbilly Dickweed, Junnie Browning against "Iron Jaw" Dave Kaplin. "Diamond" Dave is a BJJ brownbelt, wrestler, striker, who prides himself on the strength of his chin. Oh yeah, and he once won some big singing contest too. Dave is quite the showman, but his showing his jaw to Phillipe Nover hadn't worked out so well for him on the TUF show. His ring enterance was really good though, Saturday and his new hair do made the match "The Battle of the Bleach Blonds". For his part Junnie had been training diligently at the famed Xtreme Courture Gym in Vegas and claimed to have stopped drinking which had been the source of his antics at the TUF house. Junnie was of course unrepentent and retained his Bad Boy image. He was also calling himself Junnie "THE LUNATIC" Browning to capitolize on this image. True to form Junnie landed a very low blow in the first few moments of the match --- but his apology to Kaplin actually seemed sincere. In the rest of the first round Diamond Dave scored a couple take downs while Junnie managed to cut Kaplin with some decent punching. The second round was all different though, as it was Junnie who scored the take down and immediatly worked Kaplin into an arm bar and tapped him out. In his post fight interview Junnie was gracious towards his defeated foe and actually apologized to his TUF coach, Frank Mir for the hard time that he had given him during the taping of the series. Could this be a new Junnie? The Lunatic is fun to watch ............. and apparently the boy can fight.

This was another good show from Dana White and the UFC crew. Next up will be their big end of the year gala, ULTIMATE 2008. This one will have three fights all of which could headline a show themselves. TUF 8 coaches Big Nog Nogueria and Frank Mir will fight for the right to take on Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title that he recently snatched from the waist of the legend Randy Couture. The ever popular TUF #1 winner Forrest Griffin will defend the light heavyweight strap from fellow TUF winner, the undefeated wrestler "Sugar" Rashad Evans, who KO's Chuck Liddell in his last fight to win this go at the title. And -- Vanderlei "The Ax Murder" Silva and Quentin "Rampage" Jackson will hook up for a third time. Silva defeated Jackson in Japan, under the Pride banner ... twice! But now, Jackson and much of the MMA world think that Vanderlei has slipped a bit too far and that Jackson can finally get his revenge. Personally I think that no matter what of his previous skills have eroded, that Silva can simply out think Jackson. I mean -- come on --- Silva is facing a man who a few short months ago tried to out run the police in a high speed chase ............. in a truck which had a full sized picture .... Of Himself... on the side of it! The UFC Ultimate '08 -- Saturday December 27th -- Be There Or Be Square!

Good Night - Good Fight,
Frank "The Snake"