The Ultimate Fighter 17 Live Finale Preview and Fight Picks

Welcome back, readers.  All three of you.  Tomorrow night is the big live finale where the 17th season of  The Ultimate Fighter will be wrapped up.  I, for one, cannot wait.  If you watched the show, then you are going to want to watch this finale.  Most of the guys from the house will be fighting this weekend.  Two of them--Adam Cella and Tor Treung--fought last weekend, with Tor wining by rear naked choke in the 2nd round.  Poor Adam walked into the house as an undefeated fighter but has now been finished in his last two outings.  For Tor's part, he managed to polish some of the tarnish off his reputation after getting pole-axed by Josh Samman on the show.

Anyway, let's break down all 12 fights on the card:

Prelims (To air on Facebook at 5:30 pm ET/2:30 pm PT)

Justin Lawrence vs Daniel Pineda

I'll be honest and admit that I don't remember ever watching Daniel Pineda fight.  Looking at his record, I see that he has 17 wins and 9 losses.  Plus, all 17 wins were finishes (11 submissions and 6 KO's/TKO's).  He has lost his last two fights and therefore will be facing the very real prospect of getting shipped back to the minor leagues if he loses this one since the UFC rarely keeps guys who have lost three straight.

Justin Lawrence, however, is still fresh in my memory.  He was a stand out on season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter, having displayed high-level striking skills.  He lost in the quarter finals to eventual winner, Michael Chiesa.  Nothing to be ashamed of there, Chiesa is still undefeated and has shown nasty submission skills.  After the show, Justin got back on the winning track with a head kick knockout of fellow cast member, John Cofer, before losing in his last fight against the surging Max Holloway.  At the weigh-ins on Friday, Justin looked to be in the best shape I've ever seen him in.  In the past he has been soft around the belly.  Not so on Friday.

Since both guy are coming off losses, I think they will be fighting with a measure of desperation.  Let's make no bones about it--if they want to continue fighting in mixed martial arts, they want to fight for the UFC.  No other organization offers the money or prestige that the UFC offers.  Consequently, I think this will be a good fight.  Justin will likely try to keep it standing and since 11 of Daniel's 17 wins have come by submission, I figure he will try to put Justin on the canvas as quickly as possible.

My Pick: Justin Lawrence by Second Round TKO.

Sam Sicilia vs Maximo Blanco

If you're unfamiliar with mixed martial arts outside of the UFC you may have never heard of Maximo Blanco.  Let me help introduce you to this monster.  Check out this You Tube highlight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOCwWJQJy4

I'm serious.  Go watch this right now.

Done?  Okay, now you know what he is capable of against international competition.  With that being said, he is on a two-fight losing streak and his last fight was almost a year ago.  He is bound to have ring rust.  That's not a good thing when you're facing a heavy handed puncher like Sam Sicilia.  Like Justin Lawrence, Sam Sicilia is an alumi of season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter.  Also like Justin, he scored a vicious knockout in his first post-TUF fight only to then lose his next match by knockout.

Regardless, these guys like to brawl, so I imagine this could turn into a barn burner.  If you don't yet have a Facebook account, it is worth getting one just to watch this fight.

My Pick: Maximo Blanco by Third Round KO.

Cole Miller vs Bart Palaszewski

This one should be good.  Bart Palaszewski is a grizzled pro.  He used to be a member of the Quad City Silverbacks, one of the teams in the defunct IFL (International Fight League).  He then moved on to the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting).  When the WEC was purchased by purchased by UFC parent company, Zuffa, and later dissolved, his contract was picked up by the UFC.  Since making it to the big leagues, Bart has gone 1-2, losing his last two fights by decision (though one of those earned him Fight of the Night honors).  Having fought 52 times already, Bart has seen just about everything this sport has to offer.  He is also one of the few guys to boast a victory over Anthony "Showtime" Pettis.

Cole Miller is a veteran of season 5 of The Ultimate Fighter.  Since then, he has fought 12 times in the UFC and always seems to put on a good show, win or lose.  He was the guy who ruined the infamous Junie Browning's UFC debut by choking him out in the first round.  Unfortunately,  for the first time in his career, Cole is coming off back-to-back losses.  Another loss could mean a UFC pink slip.  This is unfortunate because I really like the guy.  He came across as a nice guy on the show and always fights with heart and determination.

And so does Bart.

My Pick: Bart Palaszewski by Unanimous Decision


Prelims (to air on Fuel TV at 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT)

I am heart broken to admit that I do not get Fuel TV and I will not be getting it in time to watch these fights.  Too bad, because many of the season 17 alumni will be beating the crap out of each other and I will be missing it!

Clint Hester vs Bristol Marunde

Clint Hester is an impressive specimen.  First of all, he looks like he was genetically engineered to destroy things.  Really.  The guy showed a ton of athleticism while in the house and is one of the only cast members who I think could hold his own against Uriah Hall in a pure striking affair.  If you don't believe me, check out this clip of his Muay Thai match from August of 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Sx4la4ePg

How was that for striking?

However, his ground skills betrayed him on the show.  He was out wrestled and eventually submitted in his first fight after making it into the house.  Even in his loss, though, he showed potential.  He was landing punches from off his back that sounded thunderous.  This guy has loads of potential.  I just hope he has been working his ground skills like a mad man since leaving the show.

Bristol Marunde is a veteran of The Ultimate Fighter (Team Carwin vs Team Nelson).  While he did beat Julian Lane, infamous for his drunken "Just let me bang, bro!" outbursts, he lost in the quarter finals to long-armed Neal Magney (who was later knocked cold by Mike Ricci...).  Bristol took a leadership role while in the house, but I wasn't really impressed with his overall fighting skills.  In his lone appearance since the show, he was submitted by ground wizard Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in Strike Force.

My Pick: Clint Hester by Unanimous Decision

Dylan Andrews vs Jimmy Quinlan

It is a crime that Dylan Andrews is not fighting on the main card in place of Bubba McDaniel and Gilbert Smith.  Dylan looked great against everyone except Uriah Hall.  In that fight, he seemed paralyzed, unable to let his hands go--almost like he was hypnotized by Uriah's majestic striking skills.  None-the-less, he earned a main card spot for his gut check win over Luke "Big Slow" Barnatt.  That fight was awesome.

Jimmy Quinlan is a great wrestler.  There's little doubt he will try to put the New Zealander on his back early and often.  However, he admittedly quit against Josh Samman as soon as Josh started landing those absurd double punches.  That makes me question his resolve in the face of adversity.  Dylan should be able to provide some adversity.  My gut, however, tells me that Jimmy will score takedowns and control with ground-n-pound.

My Pick: Jimmy Quinlan by Unanimous Decision

Luke Barnatt vs Collin Hart

Luke looked good in his first two fights on the show.  In fact, he looked good enough to be the #1 pick overall.  He didn't look bad in his fight against Dylan Andrews, but he did show that he needed to work on his take down defense and that he needed to keep his hands up when guys are throwing haymakers at him!  For the past 8 weeks or so, he has been training with Chael Sonnen, helping him prepare for his fight with Jon Jones.  I can't think of a better guy to work with on take down defense and wrestling in general.

Collin Hart is a strong wrestler.  Of course, he is no Chael Sonnen, but he's good.  If Collin decides to make this a wrestling match, he could win a decision (or even sink a submission), but I have a feeling he will be tempted to stand and trade, just like he did against Kelvin Gastelum.  Unlike some fighters whose base martial art is wrestling, Collin does not seem content to lay-n-pray his way to a decision.  That cost him against Kelvin and might cost him against Luke.

My Pick: Luke Barnatt by Unanimous Decision

Josh Samman vs Kevin "King" Casey

I'm going to make this one short and not so sweet.  Josh Samman showed skills and knockout power while he was in the house.  More importantly, he displayed an insane amount of self confidence.  You could tell he truly believed that he was destined to win the whole thing.  Kevin Casey was a polar opposite.  In both of the fights he lost, he seemed to give up (he literally gave up against Bubba McDaniel), he lacked enough self confidence to push through the pain.

For that reason alone:

My Pick: Josh Samman by 3rd Round TKO.


Main Card (to air on FX at 9:00 pm ET/6:00 pm PT)


Robert "Bubba" McDaniel vs Gilbert Smith

Bubba McDaniel is getting a lot of deserved heat from mma fans; mostly because of his perceived arrogance, his less than stellar performances on the show and his getting the wild card shot over Clint Hester (who seemed more deserving).  But let's add a little perspective, the only two guys to beat him on the show are the two guys who are fighting in the finale.  Plus, let's not forget that Bubba is one of Jon Jones's primary sparring partners.  That means he gives Jon good work a lot of the time.  Jon Jones, of course, seems to fight on an otherworldly level.  If Bubba can hang with that, he is probably better than what he showed on TUF.  With that being said, in his win over Kevin Casey, he initially looked out of his depth.  Casey put him on his back and then ran a jiu-jitsu clinic on him.  In the second round, however, Kevin seemed to gas and Bubba controlled the round.

I still don't know how good or bad Gilbert Smith is.  I know he likes to walk around without a shirt.  He also likes to rip his shirt off Incredible Hulk style, and to his credit he is built like the Hulk.  Of course, Luke Barnatt turned him into Bruce Banner when he knocked him out with that perfectly timed flying knee strike.  I think most guys would have been knocked out by that knee, so I'm not yet ready to say he has a suspect chin.  Other than that, I know the rest of his team didn't think he was "ready" to fight.  That tells me the other guys were probably tooling him in practice.

My Pick: Robert "Bubba" McDaniel by Unanimous Decision

Travis Browne vs Gabriel Gonzaga

Gabriel Gonzaga will always be remembered as the guy that beat Mirko Cro Cop at his own game.  When he landed that high kick on Mirko's dome, the world gasped in unison.  It was his finest hour.  Since then, he has gone 6-5 with a couple two-fight losing streaks.  The good news is he is now on a three-fight winning streak.  His last fight was especially impressive since he submitted the always tough Ben Rothwell.

Travis Browne was a fast rising up and comer until he was matched against Antonio "Big Foot" Silva.  Silva stretched him.  But Silva has stretched a lot of guys--guys with names like Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem.  It's too soon to tell if Browne is still a future contender, but fighting Gonzaga should tell us plenty.

Both of these guys are huge.  Browne is listed at 6'7" and 239 pounds while Gonzaga is listed at 6'2" and 261 pounds.  Browne should have a significant reach advantage, but I believe Gonzaga has more one-shot knockout power.  If it comes down to a jiu-jitsu battle, Gonzaga probably has the edge there, but Browne likely has an advantage in sheer athleticism.

To me, I think this comes down to Gonzaga's track record.  Every time he seems ready to make a significant impact on the heavyweight division, he loses--sometimes consecutively.  It is almost like he is cursed.  My feeling is that the curse strikes again.

My Pick: Travis Browne by 3rd Round TKO

Miesha Tate vs Cat Zingano

Here is another moment when I have to admit that I have never seen one of the participants in action.  That would be Cat Zingano.  I am even more ashamed to say that I don't recognize any of the names on her record, which is a sterling one at 7-0.  I have seen Miesha Tate fight three times.  She looked good in all three fights, even the one where she was arm barred by UFC champion, Ronda Rousey.

For the record, I am happy to see women fight in the UFC and hope to see more of it.  Of special note, whoever wins this match will get to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter against Ronda Rousey and will get a title shot as well.

Since I have never seen Cat fight and since I have no idea of how good her opposition was, I am not going to make a pick.  However, I will predict this will be a good fight.  In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a boring women's fight.

Uriah Hall vs Kelvin Gastelum

I'm going to say what everyone else is saying: Uriah Hall looks like a beast.  I expect him to defeat Kelvin Gastelum.  Now with that said, Kelvin has the tools to beat him.  Kelvin was the underdog in each of his fights.  Since he is just 21 years old, no one expected him to be as tough and skilled as he was.  No one expected him to walk into each fight showing no sign of jitters, no sign of fatigue and no sign of giving up.  The man handled Bubba McDaniel easily.  He then knocked out Collin Hart with a short, perfectly executed left hook.  If that wasn't enough, he finished the semifinals by dominating early favorite Josh Samman and submitting him with a rear naked choke.

While Uriah definitely showed superior striking skills, Kelvin displayed a greater overall skill set.  He looked dangerous everywhere it went.  Wrestling, striking, jiu-jitsu--he had it all.  And a seemingly unwavering confidence.  Bottom line is the kid has never lost a fight.

For his part, Uriah seemed like a head case.  He lashed out at cast members, lost his temper while sparring, talked too often about being bullied as a child, and seemed to lack confidence in his abilities.  He was also polite, compassionate and self aware.  Truly, Uriah Hall is a fascinating character study.  Plus, he knocks people out with an artistry that Picasso would envy.

I love this fight.  It should tell us a ton about each of these warriors.  While Uriah has the hype train behind him and the greater commercial upside, Kelvin looks to have all the makings of an outstanding professional fighter.

My Pick: Uriah Hall by TKO (Referee Stoppage--Kelvin Won't Tap)

Urijah Faber vs Scott Jorgensen

What is left to be said about Urijah Faber that hasn't already been said?  He is the former poster boy of the WEC, the guy who single handedly brought a spot light to fighters weighing less than 155 pounds.  His chin dimple is nearly as famous as Kirk Douglas's (okay, I admit that's a stretch).  Some people say he is overrated, that he keeps getting title shots because of his immense popularity and not because of his fighting ability.  Others say he has earned every shot.  I fall somewhere in between.  He is undoubtedly a gifted fighter.  Has has also undoubtedly benefited from his star power.  Regardless, he always puts on a good show and for that reason I am a fan.

Scott Jorgensen is Urijah's friend.  They have known each other and trained with each other for years.  Now they're putting that friendship aside to beat the crap out of each other for our entertainment.  God bless'em both.  Scott is a darn good fighter, with a great all-around skill set.  However, I think Urijah has more explosiveness, athleticism and experience and that will spell the difference.

This fight will eventually hit the ground.  When it does, the two of them will scramble like Tasmanian Devils.  My gut tells me that Urijah will lock up a choke during one of those scrambles.

My Pick: Urijah Faber by 1st Round Submission

The Ultimate Fighter Season 17, Episode 12 Wrap-Up

Well, I batted .500.  Kelvin Gastelum proved me wrong by defeating Josh Samman with relative ease.  Kelvin got him on the mat, started dropping hard punches and elbows, then took his back and sunk in a rear naked choke.  The 21-year-old now finds himself in the live finale this Saturday night facing off against none other than teammate Uriah Hall.

As expected, Uriah Hall beat Dylan Andrews.  It was curious to watch, because the fighter with tons of heart, the guy who gutted through a brutal match with Luke Barnatt, the man who summoned strength to pound Luke into submission even though he was a huge underdog, didn't show up.  Instead, the Dylan Andrews who didn't really believe he could win walked into that cage against Uriah.

For the entire first round, Dylan ate jab after jab.  Uriah took his time and turned Dylan's face into a butcher's block.  The second round was mostly the same until, for a moment, Dylan rediscovered that guy who fought his way into the semi-finals against all odds.  Dylan lifted Uriah off the mat and then slammed him.    This is something I had been waiting to see.  Uriah has looked unstoppable against guys who stood with him, but we hadn't yet seen what he was capable of off his back.  Well, he showed us some tonight.  As soon as he hit the canvas, he locked up a kimura (arm lock) on Dylan's right arm.  He never really came close to submitting Dylan with that kimura, but it limited what Dylan could do.  With his right arm out of commission,  all he could do was drop weak left hand punches to Uriah's exposed side.  He didn't try anything else.

That seemed to go on forever.  Uriah held the armlock and Dylan threw pitty-pat punches.  Then, it was as if Uriah realized that he may be giving the round away.  Suddenly, he let go of the arm lock and started throwing punches from off his back.  These punches had real power behind them.  I have never seen a man knock a guy out with a punch from guard.  I bet Uriah hasn't either.  But he sure as heck tried to be the first. He softened Dylan up with punches and then easily reversed the position.  He got on top of Dylan and dropped bombs.  The New Zealander curled up, trying to protect his face, but offered no real defense or offense so the referee had no choice but to stop the fight.

Now, I guess I should have seen this coming.  For those of you who frequent mma message boards, there has been a thread floating around for awhile about a promotional poster that, pretty much, let everyone know who was going to the finals.  Here is the poster:

If you'll notice, all four of the semi-finalists stand at the front of the line for their teams.  In fact, those four stand in order of how they fought: Josh/Kelvin and Dylan/Uriah.  This was a dumb move.  The UFC brass get so worked up when they hear that a fighter has broke confidence and told someone results before they are aired, yet their marketing department basically spelled it out in this poster.  Had a Team Jones fighter made it to the finale, I am sure these boneheads would have placed them right up front next to the Team Sonnen representative.  However, with both finalists hailing from Team Sonnen, I guess they feel this poster was adequately mysterious.  It wasn't.

In fact, I almost changed my pick from Samman to Gastelum in the last article--not because I thought Gastelum was a better fighter (though he is!), but because this poster was in my head.  I knew that Uriah would beat Dylan, so putting Dylan at the front of the Team Jones line made little sense unless none of their guys made it to the finale.  After all, Josh Samman had been the guy from Team Jones getting all the air time. Dylan was barely ever seen until the last few episodes.  Not having Josh at the front of the line basically told us that Team Sonnen was sweeping the semi-finals.

Oh, well.  Water under the bridge, as they say.  Regardless, this weekend's live finale should be awesome.  While I think Uriah Hall will win the tournament, Kelvin Gastelum is the perfect guy to test him.  He has good striking and good ground skills.  He'll likely try to dump Uriah onto his back right from the start.  I look forward to seeing how Uriah responds to that.  We also get to see some other interesting match-ups such as Meisha Tate against Cate Zingano, Travis Browne against Gabriel Gonzaga and Urijah Faber against Scott Jergensen.  If that wasn't enough, we will soon hear about the other season 17 competitors who will be fighting on the card.

While I know that Luke Barnatt fights this weekend, I am really hoping to see Clint Hester.  That guy was nasty on his feet (probably could have given Uriah a run for his money), but needed to work on his ground game.  I hope that's what he's been doing since they wrapped up filming.  If so, he could be a genuine threat.

Anyway, thanks for reading.  I'll have more to say after the live finale, so please check it out.

Until then, keep your hands up.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 17, Episode 12 Preview

Tomorrow night we have the season finale of season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter.  Looking back, It's hard to believe this show has already racked up 17 seasons.  It doesn't seem like it's been eight years since we were introduced to the first mixed martial arts reality show.  That first season boasted a remarkable cast.   Look at these names: Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Stephan Bonnar, Kenny Florian, Chris Leben, Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick.  Each of those fighters went on to have successful careers.  Most of them fought for a world title and Forrest Griffin actually became world champion when he upset Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.  How fitting is it that a coach from that first season, Randy Couture, will be involved in the next mixed martial arts reality show?  Fight Master will debut this summer on Spike TV, and the show will not be wearing the UFC brand, it will be wearing the brand of upstart competitor: Bellator MMA.

But I'll save Fight Master discussion for another day.  For now, let's discuss TUF.  Everyone seems to have preordained Uriah Hall (see above) as the season 17 champion.  Some people are already claiming he will be a contender for--read this as if you were Muhammad Ali--the Greatest Of All Time!  Nevermind the fact that he has yet to fight in a single official UFC match.  Remember, all the fights on The Ultimate Fighter are considered exhibition matches.  They don't count on the fighters' professional records.  Even though Uriah, Dylan, Kelvin and Josh will have all fought four times on the show, none of those fights will count!  I could spend a lot of time discussing why it's set up this way, but that would make this far longer than it needs to be.

While it is far too soon to be speaking about Uriah being one of the greatest of all time, it is not too soon to talk about his likely making it to the finals.  He has been matched with New Zealander Dylan Andrews.  Dylan has shown great all-around skills and a tremendous heart.  His fight with Luke "Big Slow" Barnatt was an eye-opener.  Few gave Dylan a chance in that fight and he proved all of us wrong.  In that fight he displayed an iron chin, and he will need it against Hall, who has sent every man he's faced on the show to the hospital.  Dylan's best chance at winning is to take Uriah down and work his ground-n-pound and submissions.  However, I think Dylan has a warrior's spirit.  He will want to test his stand-up game against Uriah.  And that will cost him.

Though I don't think Uriah will finish Dylan with one shot like finished Adam Cella and Bubba McDaniel, I do think he'll put together enough punishing strikes to win via lopsided decision or even via doctor's stoppage.

But the fun doesn't stop there, ladies and gentlemen!  There's still another semi-final match airing tomorrow night.  This one pits Josh Samman against Kelvin Gastelum.  Josh Samman (seen above, landing a jab against Tor Troeng) has received more air time than anyone in the house.  Even more than Uriah Hall.  My gut tells me that's the producers' way of letting us know he is an important player in this tournament.  And to his credit, he has finished every man they put in front of him on the show.  No one else has accomplished that--not even Uriah.  With that being said, I think Kelvin is a bad match-up for him.  Kelvin has shown strong wrestling, striking and jiu-jitsu.  Jimmy Quinlan controlled Josh with his wrestling for much of their fight.  If Kelvin can get Josh to the ground, he may be able to rack up some points.  These exhibition fights are only two rounds; if Josh starts slow, Kelvin may be able to do enough to earn a decision.  He could also knock Josh out.  He knocked out Collin Hart in his last fight with a single well-placed left hook.  Who's to say he couldn't do it again?

However, Josh is an experienced guy with more than twice as many professional fights as Kelvin.  His teammates seem to have accepted him as their team leader, which means he has earned himself an alpha male role in the group, probably by beating the crap out of them in practice.  That's saying something given the talent level of this cast.  His self confidence often crosses the line into arrogance, but so long as he backs up his talk, he can continue his love affair with himself forever for all I care.

I think we'll see Josh defeat Kelvin by decision, which will set up the finale everyone has wanted since the first episode: Uriah Hall vs Josh Samman.

That's it for now.  Thanks for reading, and please check out my next blog later this week.

The Ultimate Fighter 17, Episode 11

Uriah Hall versus Bubba McDaniel and Josh Samman versus Jimmy Quinlan.  What's not to like about these match-ups, huh?   So let’s get right to it.

Holy smokes, Josh Samman!  You finished Jimmy with those ridiculous double punches.  I did not expect that.  The round was gearing up to be one of those semi-boring ones where a superior wrestler held down a squirrelly fella who was active off his back, but ultimately couldn't keep the wrestler from holding him down.  Until he did.  And that was all Josh needed.  Once he took Jimmy’s back, it took him only a short time to start landing those double punches and it only took a few of them to convince Jimmy to tap.

"It basically comes down to quitting."  Jimmy admitted it.  I am going to use a word that I hate.  I mean, I really freaking hate this word.  But, in this case, the word is appropriate.  Refreshing.  It is refreshing to see a fighter straight up admit that he quit.  I'm sure he hates that he quit, but he's man enough not to lie to himself and to others by using some lame excuse for the loss.  He quit!  The going got tough and he pulled a No Mas.  The good news is that unlike Roberto Duran, Jimmy Quinlan is a mixed martial arts fighter.  A loss is not the end of the world.  Everyone loses.  It’s all about learning from the loss and becoming a better fighter.  Hopefully Jimmy can do that.

Speaking of learning from a loss, I’m not sure what Bubba is going to learn.  I can't help but think that Dana White was punishing Bubba for his post-fight comments by feeding him to Uriah.  I am paraphrasing here, but Bubba basically shouted to the world that he made King Casey quit.  Those comments would be okay had Bubba beat the living snot out of Casey, but that simply didn't happen.  Casey tooled him on the ground in the first stanza and claims to have had kidney problems in the second.  Who knows if the kidney problems were real?  Regardless, Bubba was rewarded with an oh-so-fun fight against the beast known as Uriah Hall.

Hall is a perplexing individual.  At times this season, he has shown compassion unlike any I have seen in 17 seasons of the Ultimate Fighter.  In his first fight to get into the house, he broke the arm of an ambitious young man.  No one knew until after the fight that the arm was broken.  The kid had fought through the pain.  Uriah waited for him after the fight and gave him, what appeared to be, genuine props for his heart and ability.  He also showed genuine concern for Adam Cella after he landed the spinning heel kick that rocked the MMA world earlier this season.  Yet Uriah has also shown glimpses of a completely different guy, a guy who asked Adam Cella if Adam's girlfriend was a bitch like he was.  For no apparent legitimate reason.  And this was days AFTER he knocked Adam stiff with that spinning heel kick.  He has called out a team mate ("I guess I would like to fight Luke") at a time when he should have been focused on fighting members from team Jones.  He has also lost his temper twice in sparring, once against Luke and once against King Casey.  At least, that's what made it on television.  Were there more outbursts?

With all that being said, Uriah is a monster in the cage.  There is a reason nobody wants to fight him: because he wrecks their s#*t.  What’d it take him?  10 seconds to knock Bubba McDaniel out?  And Bubba is one of Jon Jones’s chief sparring partners.  He is a guy that gives good work to the guy many people claim is the best fighter alive not named Anderson Silva.  As Joe Rogan would say, “That’s craaaazy.”

So that’s how the quarter finals played out and now we have a pretty fricking cool pair of semi-finals to look forward to.  The fights are:  

Josh “Double Punch” Samman versus Kelvin “Who’d Have Thunk?” Gastellum. 

And

Uriah “I Can’t Wait for my Rematch with Chris Weidman” Hall versus Dylan “I’m a Lot Better than You Thought” Andrews.

Should be good.  Tune in next time for my take on those fights.