THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Sep 16, 2009 - 10:25:02 PM By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief The teams were picked and the first elimination fight took place on the debut episode of the Ultimate Fighter's tenth season tonight.
Rashad Evan's team this season consists of James McSweeney, Brenden Schaub, Justin Wren, Jon Madsen, Roy Nelson, Darrill Schoonover, Matt Mitrione and Mike Wessel.
Rampage Jackson's got Kimbo Slice, Abe Wagner, Demico Rodgers, Wes Sims, Scott Junk, Wes Shivers, Marcus Jones and Zak Jensen.
Rampage got the first pick for the tournament, and he chose Abe Wagner vs. Jon Madsen.
Madsen shot in immediately in the first round and got a takedown, tossing shots as Wagner pulled guard. Wagner held control of Madsen's body for awhile in his guard, but Madsen finally got in with some hard short elbows that cut Wagner open badly. Madsen held top position and got in some intermittent short punches and elbows but it was the opened cut that was damaging, as Wagner bled heavily on the canvas..
They managed to clean Wagner up and he came out for the second round. He was taken down immediately again, however, and this time in the center of the cage. They were stood up a few times in this round only to have Madsen immediately get the takedown again. Rampage could only yell "get up" at cage side to Wagner as he was stuck on his back. After the final takedown with under thirty seconds left Rampage just couldn't take anymore and he stormed to the back in frustration. Jon Madsen won the decision and took the first win of the tournament, giving Abe Wagner an early exit from competition.
Rampage said he picked the wrong match up for that fight and it cost their team. Wagner said he simply didn't have an answer for the takedowns. On another note from the fight, the cut opened on Wagner's forehead right up at the hairline was one of the worst seen in an MMA fight, a deep gash reminiscent of Marvin Eastman's infamous "view to the skull" cut. The preview for season showcased plenty of Rampage vs. Rashad, a green Zak Jensen and much more.
Check back for a full show report and tomorrow for Jensen's TUF 10 blog here on MMATorch.com. Send questions to Zak about this episode to Tuf10TorchBlog@gmail.com.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP