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By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor The Ultimate Fighter report, Episode 1
December 3, 2008
By Frank Hyden
The episode starts quickly with Ryan Bader training hard for his fight. He works a lot one-on-one with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Eliot Marshall is also training hard for the upcoming fight between he and Bader. Eliot has very good jiu-jitsu skills. Both men are confident in their abilities.
FIGHT- Ryan Bader vs. Eliot Marshall
Both fighters are the same height but Eliot has a 4 inch reach advantage. Josh Rosenthal is the ref.
ROUND 1- The fighters exchange blows. Eliot lands a nice head kick. Eliot keeps throwing kicks and connecting. They trade some more shots and then Bader gets a takedown. Bader lays on top of Eliot for the rest of the round and does very little.
ROUND 2- Bader scores a takedown and gets on top. Bader continues laying on top of Eliot and bores us all. There's the occasional punch or elbow but not much is really happening here. Rosenthal stands them up. Bader gets another quick takedown and lays on top of Eliot until the rounds ends. This is bad, this is really bad.
ROUND 3- Bader gets an immediate takedown and I nearly change the channel. He lays on top of Eliot until Rosenthal stands them up. It doesn't matter as Bader gets another takedown and keeps acting like Eliot is a mattress. Eliot's trying a little bit here and there to try to do something but he can't. Rosenthal stands them up again but Bader gets yet another takedown. The round ends. That was horrible.
WINNER- There's no winner in a fight like this, but Ryan Bader gets the Decision
We get some clips of Phillipe Nover and George Roop training hard for their upcoming fight. Nover is confident and is a great striker. Roop has been working on his striking so this might be an exciting fight. It probably won't be a long fight but surely it'll be infinitely more exciting than that cesspool fight between Bader and Eliot.
FIGHT- Phillipe Nover vs. George Roop
Roop is 4 inches taller but both men have the same reach. Josh Rosenthal is the ref.
ROUND 1- Nover throws some quick punches and gets an early takedown. Roop reverses it into Nover's half-guard. Phillipe turns it into full guard and cranks a great-looking kimura to win the fight.
WINNER- Phillipe Nover by Kimura
Every fight fan's worst nightmare was on display tonight. I've seen fights that were more boring than this slog but they were usually live. There's no excuse to put crap like that Bader/Marshall fight on television on a pre-taped show. That was channel-changing horrible. One of the best parts of MMA is the feeling that anything can happen. A fight can change in an instant. All it takes is one punch, one kick, one momentary lapse and the fight can be over. But in a fight like that there is no feeling like that. Halfway through the 1st round it became obvious that we were in for a 3 round crap-fest.
I'm sure some people think I'm too critical of groundfighting. I don't really like it and I don't want to watch it. I think it's boring, for the most part. A fight like this only serves to reinforce that belief for me. It's true that this is the worst elements of groundfighting but I can't get excited for something when there's a chance garbage like this can happen.
On a happier note, Phillipe Nover showed how great a fighter he can be. George Roop looked like a bum out there. That's more a testament to Nover than an indictment of Roop.
NEXT EPISODE- The final 2 semi-final match-ups, Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Vinny Magalhaes and Junie Browning vs. Efrain Escudero
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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