Thursday, September 26, 2013

Review of The Ultimate Fighter 18 episode four

The big question on this episode of The Ultimate Fighter is can Team Rousey get off the schneid and into the win column. The fight on this show is Roxanne Modafferi of Team Tate vs Jessica Rakoczy of Team Rousey. But this episode begins with a ridiculous confrontation between two guys who shouldn't be in the spotlight on this show. Team Tate brought in former UFC fighter Dennis Hallman as a guest coach. He was in the finals of TUF10 and his fighting career can best be described as that of a journeyman. When he starts giving the evil eye to Ronda Rousey's coach Edmond Tarverdyan, Ronda suspects that Hallman was brought in to get Tarverdyan kicked off of the show. Shayna Bazsler says that she and her other Team Rousey teammates thought that too. I asked her if any of them said it on camera. She said yes. None of that was used. Hallman has nothing to lose. He's only there for one day. Knowing that he could get kicked off the show, Tarverdyan suggests to Hallman that they could get together some other time. Not surprisingly, Hallman suggests they can get together now. Ronda steps in to prevent Tarverdyan from doing something stupid. But even if she hadn't, Dana White was there and he wasn't going to allow anything to happen regardless. On camera, White lectures Ronda. This is one of those occasions where I would like to see the outtakes. What was filmed and wasn't used? So now we get to the two fighters on this show. Jessica has a separated shoulder which was why she was chosen. She talks about childhood abuse from a stepfather and how boxing saved her from going down a bad road. In the house, she is kind of like mom cleaning up after everyone. She realizes that at age 36, this is her last chance in MMA. Of course Roxanne lived in Japan for several years and was a pretty good fighter a few years ago. She has just moved back to the US. Of course everyone in the house loves her. So of course they all want her to win and get that UFC brass ring. But Roxanne is on a five fight losing streak. The stuff she did when she was winning fights in Japan a few years ago isn't working for her anymore. Her major flaw as a fighter is she won't punch anyone. That's a mental block, not a physical issue. This is not grappling. In MMA when someone punches you in the face, you have to return fire or be taken advantage of. So I thought Roxanne won round one. She took Jessica down but wasn't able to do anything. Jessica's defense was good as she kept Roxanne in her guard. Of course Roxanne could have postured up and thrown some ground and pound but she won't punch anyone. Jessica started to exert herself in round two and rocked Roxanne with a punch. While in the clinch, the ref warned Jessica about grabbing the fence. When the fight resumes, Roxanne looks very tired and she isn't defending herself on her feet. Remember she won't throw a punch. Remember that power bomb that Sarah Kaufman used on Roxanne a couple of years ago. That's what Jessica did. It didn't knock Roxanne out but she couldn't get up. The fight should have been stopped. The ref didn't recognize that and after a few more punches, he stopped the fight. Jessica wins and control goes back to Team Rousey. I understand the sentimentality about Roxanne's loss but if she would just throw punches, she could have won that fight. Next week's match will have David Grant of Team Rousey vs Louis Frisette of Team Tate. And we get a special appearance by Ronda's mom, former judo champ AnnMaria De Mars. That should be interesting. Enjoy the video.
UFC The Ultimate Fighter S18E04 - Full Show (HQ) by WrestlingVidsUploaderHQv2

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