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TV Reviews
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The Ultimate Fighter
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER REPORT: Hyden's rundown on all the fights, all the drama on Spike TV By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
Oct 8, 2008 - 9:33:28 PM
The Ultimate Fighter review
October 8, 2008
By Frank Hyden
The show begins as the fighters are watching UFC 84. Junie Browning and Shane Nelson are drinking and they start getting wild and talking trash to people. This leads to Junie throwing a glass at Kyle Kingsbury. The glass breaks and cuts Kyle on the arm. The cut isn't bad. Junie and Nelson are are trying to starts fights with anyone and everyone. Nelson trashes Efrain Escudero and says he'll destroy him. Junie and Nelson head outside and start breaking stuff and throwing things into the pool. Junie is cursing up a storm and decides to jump into the pool. Krzysztof Soszynski pushes Junie's clothes into the pool and the drunk doesn't like it. Junie gets out and starts yelling and threatening Krzy. As this is happening Ryan Bader puts Junie's clothes back into the pool. This leads to more cursing and shouting and it's The Jerry Springer Show. Junie kicks someone, I didn't get a good look who, and keeps yelling like a psycho. Eventually, cooler heads win out and Junie goes to bed.
Dana White comes the next day. He starts berating Junie and Nelson and questions their maturity. He also questions their intelligence but he surprisingly doesn't kick them out of the house. That's quite a shock, and apparently it's even a surprise to Dana himself. He hopes he's not making a mistake. Dana does announce that since Nelson wants to fight so much he's going to be in the first Lightweight fight.
Team Nogueira has retained control of the fight selection from last week and they choose Efrain Escudero to fight Shane Nelson. During Team Nog's training we find out that Efrain has really good wrestling and submission skills. That evening Junie is running his mouth again. He tells Efrain that Nelson will beat him. Efrain kind of smirks and Junie goes off, yelling that he's going to whoop Efrain.
During Team Mir's training we learn that Shane Nelson is really good at stand-up and submissions. Both guys weigh in at exactly the same weight. Junie talks even more trash about Efrain to Nelson after the weigh-in.
FIGHT - Efrain Escudero vs. Shane Nelson
Both men are equals in terms of height and reach. Steve Mazzagatti is the official.
ROUND 1- Both fighters circle each other to begin. They're both very tentative. A minute goes by like this. Eventually, they tie up and both throw a few punches in the clinch. The ref separates them after another boring minute. Efrain gets a takedown and has side control. They mainly just struggle against each other until the round ends.
ROUND 2- They both exchange punches and kicks before Efrain gets a takedown. He lies on top and there's a little action. They stand up and clinch. Nelson sits down while in the clinch and is on the bottom. Not sure how the judges will view that. However, Nelson spins it around and now he's on top. He goes for a leglock but Efrain turns it into a leg triangle. He flips Nelson onto his back and retains the hold. Nelson taps after fighting it for a moment.
WINNER- Efrain Escudero by Leg Triangle
After the fight Junie starts flipping out. He complains that UFC doesn't need another boring wrestler. I mostly agree with him, but he's acting like a d-bag. He starts going crazy and yelling like a maniac. This is when he jumps into the octagon and has to be restrained. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir are trying to settle him down. The show cuts off right there.
The fight itself was nothing special. The submission was cool, but that's about it. This show was all about the self-destruction of a man name Junie. At first it seemed as though this was a case of a dude who shouldn't be drinking. But Junie was still out of control even while sober. The guy has serious issues and needs to get those fixed above all else. He's going to get kicked off the show in the next episode and he needs to go straight to therapy or something. His overreactions are insane and I don't see how he existed in the real world for as long as he has. I don't know how he's not in jail. This doesn't really reflect well on the UFC's selection process for the show. Junie's a ticking timebomb and you'd think they would have seen this coming. Of course, UFC always encourages drinking and a certain amount of rowdiness in the house but this is way over the line. Throwing glasses, threatening people, and starting fights is bad news. Junie needs to go, but maybe UFC can help him out. Junie says he wants to change and he needs to, for his own sake.
NEXT WEEK- The fallout from Junie's actions and Anderson Silva stops by to help during training
