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By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor The Ultimate Fighter review
June 11, 2008
By Frank Hyden
We start the episode off with Team Forrest training. The fight tonight will be Tim Creduer vs. Jesse Taylor. Both men talk about how they're good friends and about how they have to set that aside during the fight. It's decided that CameronDiffley will corner Tim and Forrest Griffin will corner Jesse. Then we head to the coaches challenge. This season the challenge will be HORSE. We don't get to see much of this as Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is absolutely horrible and Forrest is very good. Forrest ends the game with aLeBron James-style dunk. Well, maybe not but it was still a very impressive dunk. Words don't do justice to just how bad Rampage was. He may be a great fighter but he sucks at basketball. My mom is a better shooter. His performance was about as bad as the 2-for-18 John Starks shot in the '94 NBA Finals for theKnicks . At least Starks made a few, though. I guess Rampage can get his revenge for this and everything that happened this season when he crushes Forrest in their upcoming fight.
Back the house, Jesse gets a crappy haircut that's supposed to be a dollar sign. It looks like it's only the top half, though. Then he starts drinking and bouncing off the walls. He's Coco the monkey boy. Jesse's not exactly acting like The Ultimate Fighter, he's more like The Ultimate Warrior as he rambles and babbles incoherently like a madman. The other fighters start busting on him about his haircut. They're saying it looks like a D&B. I didn't get a good look, but I don't think it's as blatant as when John Madden draws a pair while diagramming pass patterns. Hey, I can't be mature all the time. What a surprise, Jesse's totally wasted again. He just peed all over himself. Does he not realize that the cameras have film in them? Doesn't he care that his family has to live with the fact that he's urinated on himself twice on national television? Tim acts as Jesse's babysitter and helps him out of his drunken stupor.
Both fighters are training hard for this fight. Tim is actually giving Jesse some tips about how to avoid certain submissions. He wants to fight Jesse at his best. Jesse has a 3 year old son and misses him dearly. I hope the kid never sees the footage from this season or that no one he knows sees it either. It'd be really tough for a kid to live that down at school. Tim was extremely close to retiring and the only reason he didn't was that his wife pushed him to continue. Both guys are spurred on by their loved ones.
FIGHT- Tim Creduer vs. Jesse Taylor
Tim has a 3 inch height and 1.25 reach advantage. Josh Rosenthal is the official.
ROUND 1- Jesse gets an early takedown. Tim is maneuvering around and trying to avoid any big blows. Jesse lands a few punches but Tim gets close with an armbar attempt. Jesse throws some elbows and punches while Tim tries to lock on a submission. That's basically the entire round right there.
ROUND 2- They scramble to start and Jesse gets on top. He lands a few shots but Tim reverses and now he's on top. Jesse escapes and gets back on top and throws more punches. Jesse takes side control but Tim fights back to guard. It's essentially a repeat of the first round.
ROUND 3- Jesse gets a takedown. Tim gets his back for a moment but Jesse reverses and gets back on top. Jesse lands a few more punches. Tim nearly locks in a submission. Again, this was just like the first 2 rounds.
WINNER- Jesse Taylor by decision
Both guys are crying as they embrace after the decision. I think it's relief and happiness, and probably some sadness and maybe even resignation of possible retirement for Tim. I'm crying as well, but mine are tears of boredom. This was a dreadfully boring fight. It had a sense of inevitability to it that Jesse would win a decision. Whether he would admit it or not, Dana White can't be happy that Jesse's in the finals. If The Ultimate Fighter finale match from this season even closely resembles what we saw here tonight ratings are going to be way down. It's hard to imagine a MMA fight being more boring than this fight. Maybe I'm being too hard on the fight but I expect a certain level of action in these fights. Watching one guy lay on the other for 3 straight rounds is a better sleep aid than Ambien. I hope next week is better.
NEXT WEEK- Amir Sadollah vs. CB Dollaway and a shocking ending eliminates a finalist.
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