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TV Reviews
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The Ultimate Fighter
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER REPORT 11/19: Hyden's rundown of all the fights, all the drama on Spike TV By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
Nov 19, 2008 - 10:09:21 PM
The Ultimate Fighter review
November 19, 2008
By Frank Hyden
Tonight's fight is the final preliminary fight and its between John Polakowski and George Roop. John seems crazy and he loves to hug. He commissions Phillipe Nover to draw a picture of a cannon firing. It's supposed to bring energy. George Roop works extra hard to prove all the doubters wrong. He was picked on as a kid and he uses that now to fuel his desire.
While rolling with teammate Shane Primm; Roop hurts his hand. His right index finger was hyper-extended and his thumb looks swollen as well. George is right-handed so this is bad news for him. One morning John wakes up and finds that all of the marshmallows in his Lucky Charms cereal are gone. He's pissed and flips out. Some of the other fighters make fun of John for getting so upset. John trains hard but this seems to make him train even harder. Roop is trying as hard as possible to reduce the swelling in his hand. He can't even make a fist without intense pain.
John and George both make weight. John actually came in at 153.5 pounds. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira visits the house again for dinner. Nog plays around with Roop by saying he's going to beat him. Both John and George are feeling pretty good about their fight. The swelling in Roop's hand is down. It's still painful but it's better than before.
FIGHT- John Polakowski vs. George Roop
Roop is 2 inches taller and has a 2 inch reach advantage. Steve Mazzagatti is the ref.
ROUND 1- Roop comes out with some head kicks. Both fighters exchange punches. Roop keeps throwing high kicks when John comes in close. Roop gets a nice takedown and starts landing some good shots. Roop moves into side control then back into guard eventually. Roop takes John's back and throws a few punches. Roop is on his own back as he has John's back. John spins and gets into guard on top of Roop. John throws some punches and the round ends.
ROUND 2- Both guys trade punches. John hits a few really good shots to Roop and nearly knocks him out. They clinch. John keeps advancing forward and is almost throwing caution to the wind. John lands a strong left and this is turning into a slugfest. Roop gets another takedown and gets into guard on top. Roop throws some elbows that connect. Roop takes John's back and it looks like John is cut around his nose. Roop smartly throws elbows into John's side when John lifts his arms to protect against a rear-naked choke. More guys should work the body in situations like this. Roop keeps throwing some soft punches. John does have a cut on his nose. Looks like a good one, too. The round ends with Roop holding a body triangle on John. Everyone's expecting a 3rd round but the judges have a decision.
WINNER- George Roop by Decision
Dana White totally disagrees with the decision. He feels as though the fight should have gone to a 3rd round. I thought so, too, but I guess the judges saw something else. John's not going to comment on the decision one way or the other. He understands that that's a risk you take when you go to the judges. Frank Mir and Krzysztof Soszynski are both whooping it up and badmouthing Nogueira in the dressing room. One of Mir's coaches is also being a jerk. They're just being themselves, I guess. Roop is very subdued, almost like he disapproves of the way they're acting.
A quick clip is shown of Krzy and Primm throwing eggs at some of the guys who are in the jacuzzi. Junie Browning gets extremely pissed and nearly goes after them, but he restrains himself. That was basically a Spaghetti Cat moment. It was very random.
Dana, Mir, and Nogueira meet with the semi-finalists separately to discuss the match-ups for the next round. Ryan Bader wants to fight Eliot Marshall. Eliot wants to fight Bader. Krzy also wants to fight Bader but Vinny Magalhaes wants to fight Krzy. Vinny says that Krzy has talked trash about him in the house and now he wants to beat Krzy.
Phillipe wants to fight Roop. Roop wants to fight Phillipe. Junie wants to fight Efrain Escudero. Efrain wants to fight Junie. The fight match-ups for the next round seem pretty easy to figure out given this information.
Dana announces that the semi-final match-ups will be Ryan Bader vs. Eliot Marshall and Phillipe Nover vs. George Roop on the next episode. And then Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Vinny Magalhaes and Junie Browning vs. Efrain Escudero on the one after that.
This episode was mainly about the fight between John and Roop. There wasn't a whole lot of the usual antics inside the house. It was insinuated that Tom Lawlor was the one who removed all of the marshmallows from John's cereal but never confirmed. That, and the egg throwing, is about as exciting as it got in terms of in the house activities. The fight itself was fairly good. It wasn't great, by any means, but for this series it was good. I generally judge TUF fights on a different scale than I do pay-per-view or Fight Night cards. That's especially true as the seasons pass and the talent pool diminishes. I especially want to see the next two episodes. When they have 2 fights on a show that usually gives a better chance of having an exciting or good fight. The fights this year have been pretty quick. Hopefully the fight quality improves as we move on. Roop's eye looks pretty nasty, though. I don't know if he'll have enough time for it to fully heal before he has to fight Phillipe. For his sake, it better.
On Wednesday, December 3rd the final two episodes of The Ultimate Fighter will air on Spike TV. The first episode starts at 9pm EST, and is followed by the second episode at 10pm EST.
