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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief It's time to close out another season of the Ultimate Fighter tonight, as Vinny Magalhaes takes on Ryan Bader for the light heavyweight TUF crown and Phillipe Nover goes toe-to-toe with Efrain Escudero for the lightweight TUF crown. Join me as I provide updates throughout the night with round by round commentary and star ratings for the fights throughout the night. The show starts at the top of the hour, so stay with us here at MMATorch.com!
-Our opening video has Vinny saying he doesn't even need to count on his jiu jitsu to beat Bader up tonight. Nover says Efrain's going to get hurt. It's time! for the Ultimate Fighter Finale!
-Mike Goldberg informs us that donations can continue for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund at FightForTheTroops.com.
-Goldberg and Rogan run down the two finals fights tonight, as well as informing us that the first fight up next will be Dave Kaplan against Junie Browning. Browning says he believes he's the main event, the other fighters just don't know it yet.
[Commercial Break]
-Great quote from Goldberg on Junie Browning, "he makes Chris Leben look like someone you'd let date your daughter." Rogan also talked up how Junie's antics are what got him here.
FIGHT ONE: JUNIE BROWNING VS. DAVE KAPLAN (LIGHTWEIGHT)
PREFIGHT: Junie is expecting a battle in this fight. Kaplan says he thinks everyone wants him to knock Browning out. Browning says people are going to realize tonight that he's the real deal, and stop judging him from his antics and instead judge him on his fight. Kaplan dances out to the Octagon to some interestingly chosen entrance music. Yes, he danced. Browning comes out to Eminem's "Without Me." Very fitting music. Junie gets a mixed reaction from the crowd.
ROUND ONE: Early feeling out process, and then Junie lands a low blow early. Highly unintentional. Kaplan presses in right after, and they exchange a bit back and forth. Junie lands a combo and a couple of hard kicks. Kaplan comes in with a shot, but Junie tosses in a few more. Junie rocks Kaplan with a shot and he opens up a cut on Kaplan. Big knee from Browning. he unleashes som more punches and slips on a kick. Kaplan tries to grab an ankle but Junie gets out of it. Junie does a handstand to pass an dgets Kaplan's back. Kaplan gets out of it, and they get it back to the feet. Junie lands a couple of combos and puts on a ton of punishment to Kaplan. Dave grabs a body lock on the cage and takes Junie down. He goes for a leg lock and Junie gets out. Junie then takes Kaplan to the ground. Junie throws a back elbow in Kaplan's half guard. Kaplan tries to get up but Junie takes his back and gets a rear naked choke in, but Kaplan got out of it. He then spun to get on top of Junie, but Junie fights him off and gets to his feet. They exchange punches. Junie goes for a knee and then lands a hard elbow. Great round.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Browning. He put a ton of punishment on Kaplan that round and looked very sharp in his striking and on the ground. Kaplan managed enough to keep this from being a 10-8, but Junie was dominant there.
ROUND TWO: Junie lands a jab, and Kaplan goes for a looping shot, but he missed and Junie shot in. He took Kaplan down and got into Kaplan's half guard. Junie passes to side control. He steps over for an armbar and locks it in for the submission.
WINNER: Browning via armbar at 1:32 of the second round.
POST FIGHT: Junie credits his improvement here that he had to get with Xtreme Couture to train with people that do this sort of thing for a living. He said on the show "if I'm gonna get pissed I might as well make it entertaining." Junie apologized to Frank Mir and the coaches and said the show helped him grow up. He took all of the blame.
STAR RATING: (***-) That was a great performance from Junie Browning. That was all of the talent we saw for the show actually put into use, and he absolutely dominated Dave Kaplan in every aspect of the game in that fight. Great exchanges and a great ground game from Junie.
-Joe Rogan talks to Kevin James at cageside. James predicted Bader to win after a bit of prodding.
-Mike Goldberg runs down the rest of the card.
PRELIM FIGHT A: ELIOT MARSHALL VS. JULES BRUCHEZ
ROUND ONE: Marshal lands a right immediately as the fight starts. He lands a bunch more shots before getting a takedown and immediately moving to side control. He then quickly moves to the mount. Bruchez tried to get out and gave up his back. Eliot locked in the rear naked choke for the win. That was dominant.
WINNER: Marshall via rear naked choke at 1:27 of the first round.
[Commercial Break]
POST FIGHT: Marshall said when he gets to the cage it's time to have fun after training hard.
STAR RATING: (**-) That was a hell of a submission and a dominant fight for Marshall. Bruchez was outclassed from the outset.
FIGHT TWO: JASON MACDONALD VS. WILSON GOUVEIA (CATCHWEIGHT)
PREFIGHT: Gouveia says every fight in the UFC you have to go in and kill a lion. MacDonald says he's he's always looking to end the fight. He says he wants to move himself one step closer to the top five.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND ONE: MacDonald shoots in early and Gouveia holds him off at the cage for a moment before Jason throws him to the ground. Gouveia kicks him off, however, and gets it back standing. They clinch at the cage and MacDonald uses foot stomps and some knees and they separate. MacDonald lands a body kick and they trade shots. Gouveia lands a shot that drops MacDonald. Gouveia pounces and starts throwing shots and MacDonald is covering up. Gouveia moves to throwing elbows and is absolutely relentless with the elbows over and over again until the ref stepped in.
WINNER: Gouveia via tapout due to strikes at 2:18 of the first round.
-First promo vid for UFC Primetime: St Pierre vs. Penn. That show's going to be awesome.
[Commercial Break]
POST FIGHT: Gouveia said it's great to win the fight. He said he plans on staying at middleweight and promises he'll never miss weight again.
STAR RATING: (**-) That was yet another semi dominant win on this card. Gouveia caught MacDonald with a nice left that dropped him and he was relentless with ground and pound to make MacDonald tap.
[Commercial Break]
-UFC 92 video package up now. I can't wait for that show. Christmas can't get here early enough!
FIGHT THREE: KEVIN BURNS VS. ANTHONY JOHNSON (WELTERWEIGHT)
PREFIGHT: They played up what happened in July with the "eye-poking" incident. Johnson was robbed of a victory there and he says he's just going to knock Burns out. Johnson says "he's got a double chin, I'm gonna make him double-ugly." Burns says it's important for him to make a statement to the UFC in this fight.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND ONE: Johnson lands an inside leg kick and Burns responds with one of his own. The exchange shots. Inside leg kick from Johnson. This is fast paced here off the bat. Burns lands a body kick. He comes in with a nice jab as well. Johnson lands a jab and then a body kick. Leg kick to jab to takedown from Johnson. Nice string there. Burns goes for a triangle, but Johnson pops up and comes down with a big shot and Johnson gets side control. Burns caught a triangle from the bottom, but Johnson got out of it and landed another hard shot. Johnson throws a couple of shots but Burns is doing a good job of controlling Johnson's body for the most part. Yamasaki stands them up with a minute left. Burns lands a right and Johnson drops him with a shot after a body kick. He throws some kicks as Burns is on his back. Burns gets back up and they throw shots at each other as the round ends.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Johnson. Johnson landed some hard shots from the top after taking Burns down a couple of times, and he did enough standing as well for that round to be his.
ROUND TWO: Johnson starts off the second round with a high kick. Burns lands a body kick of his own. They trade inside leg kicks. Burns shoots in for the single leg takedown, but Burns shoots nicely. Johnson stays with it, though, and gets him down. Burns tries for a kimura, but Johnson gets out of it and lands in Burns's half guard. Johnson connects on a couple of good elbows from Burns's full guard. Burns gets a couple of elbows from the bottom himself. Johnson is landing a bunch of body shots in the guard here. He continues with shots to the head and body. Johnson again lands a couple of really hard elbows. They both throw body shots in succession. Johnson postures up and lands a couple shots. Burns goes for an armbar but gets a hammer fist for his trouble.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Johnson. He controlled the action throughout that round and had another takedown. He connected on a lot more in that round as well.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND THREE: Leg kicks are exchanged early and Johnson lands a couple of nice jabs. He counters a shot with a high kick that knocks Kevin Burns out. Burns is out cold. What a head kick.
[Commercial Break]
WINNER: Johnson via ko at :28 of the third round.
POST FIGHT: Burns is alright after being knocked out cold, and Johnson's a bit speechless with the win. He says he really just started training his kicks a couple of months ago. He said he just decided to throw the kick and it just connected. Johnson thanked the UFC and his plastic surgeon.
STAR RATING: (***) Very good fight. Good pacing, good ground back and forth, and a great knockout from Johnson. Highlight reel kick to gain redemption for Johnson.
[Commercial Break]
-Rogan's cage side with Forrest Griffin and Frank Mir. Forrest and Frank will be at the Spike TV video game awards. Mir's video game character will be unveiled tomorrow. On the UFC 92 fight with Rashad Evans, Forrest says he trains for everything. If the arena should set on fire, if the cage should fall apart, he's got a plan for it. Mir says the fight with Nogueira will be the toughest fight of his life. He said he knows what he's stepping into the cage with. He said his training's like an obsession right now, because it has to be. He said he feels like he knows Noguiera more than he knows his wife right now.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT FOUR: RYAN BADER VS. VINICIUS MAGALHAES (LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT ULTIMATE FIGHTER 8 FINAL)
PREFIGHT: We get a run down of what both fighters did during the show to get to this final tonight. Crowd seems very much behind Bader in this one.
ROUND ONE: Bader with an outside leg kick. Vinny lands a body kick. They both trade a punch. Bader misses a flurry. Body kick again from Vinny. Bader lands a right hand. Bader runs in for a knee. They trade body kicks and Bader went down. He popped up quickly though. Bader goes for a high kick and it's blocked. Vinny does the same. Bader lands a right and then lands a body shot. Bader drops Vinny with a hard right hand and then pounces with a couple more shots that Vinny can't defend and there's your fight. Big power from Bader there.
WINNER: Bader via tko at 2:18 of the first round to become the Season 8 Ultimate fighter in the light heavyweight division.
[Commercial Break]
POST FIGHT: Dana White awarded Bader with the trophy. He said his gameplan coming into the fight was to keep it on his feet. He said Vinny's a stud on the ground so he wanted to keep it on the feet.
STAR RATING: (**) Good back and forth in that round that was very much even until Bader clipped Vinny with that right hand. He pounced immediately with those hammer fists to take the title of the Ultimate Fighter.
[Commercial Break]
PRELIM FIGHT B: KRZYSTOF SOSZYNSKI VS. SHANE PRIMM
ROUND ONE: Krzystof lands a couple of hard punches early, and then Primm shoots in and eventually gets a takedown. Krzystof keeps control of Primm and kicks him off to get back to his feet. Krzystof lands another combo. Primm shoots again and Krzystof sprawls nicely. Primm rolls and pulls guard, but Krzystof picks him up and slams him. Finally he backs off and lets Primm stand back up. Primm clinches Krzystof against the cage. Krzystof throws a few uppercuts and Primm keeps coming forward. Primm with another takedown attempt but Krzystof sprawls again. He goes for the back but Primm rolls to guard again. Krzystof gets top control. After a little back and forth Krzystof gets a kimura but he can't hold it. He gets back up and lands onemore big dropping shot as the round ends.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Soszynski. He was in control throughout that round, and had Primm rocked in spots as well as almost having the kimura locked in.
ROUND TWO: Primm comes in with an overhand right to start. He follows up with a high kick. Krzystof lands a few shots in succession. Primm shoots in again but Krzystof once again sprawls and gets to his feet. They clinch at the cage. Krzystof lands a couple of shots as they separate. They trade shots here with Krzystof getting the best of it. Primm shoots again and then tries to pull guard when he can't get a takedown. They have a bit of a positioning battle for a bit. They get back to Krzystof in side control going for the kimura. He got it locked and wrenched the arm back, and Primm tapped in obvious pain.
[Commercial Break]
WINNER: Soszynski via kimura at 3:27 of the second round.
POST FIGHT: Soszynski says the kimura is one of his favorite submissions. He said he put as much power as he could into it, but felt bad about the angle. He said he apologized to Shane right after but he wasn't going to let go until the ref stepped in.
STAR RATING: (**) Another good fight. Primm put up a good effort, but Soszynski landed a lot of shots on him and really hurt him with that kimura.
PREFIGHT: We get a run down of what the guys did in their fights on the show.
ROUND ONE: Nover with a high kick to start. Nover counters a punch with a kick. Escudero shoots in and gets a takedown. Phillipe kicked Efrain off and tried to get up but Efrain landed a combo on him and then got his back on the ground. Escudero moves to the mount. Phillipe kicks him off but Escudero lands some hard shots. Phillipe threw some up kicks and tangled Efrain up. Efrain got himself out and they stood up again. Efrain took Phillipe down again. Phillipe tried to go for a triangle, but Escudero got out and they stood up again. Phillipe got taken down again and Escudero dropped down with another hard shot and got into Nover's half guard. Efrain steps up again looking for another bomb as Nover tries to throw some up kicks. Phillipe gets back to his feet again. He comes in with two knees and they clinch at the cage. They trade knees as the round ends.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Escudero. Hell of a first round. Efrain had some nice takedowns and some serious bombs from the top, but Phillipe's constantly looking for submissions and he's come close a couple of times. Good start to this final.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND TWO: Phillipe comes out firing a bit wildly, and Efrain takes him down once again. Again Phillipe gets Efrain to stand up and they exchange kicks with Phillipe on his back. Phillipe gets a nice up kick. He then gets up and lands a knee and a body shot. Efrain clinch's him again. Nover throws a few knees in the clinch. Efrain throws a couple himself. Nover backs out and lands a right hand. Inside leg kick from Efrain. Phillipe presses forward again and Efrain ducks under again. Efrain gets another takedown on the cage. He's avoiding shots and taking Nover down here very nicely. Efrain throws some knees from half guard. Phillipe gets up at the end and lands a big knee but Efrain picks him up and drops him once more as the round ends.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Escudero. Effective use of the takedown's and his superior wrestling once again in that round. Phillipe's getting frustrated that he can't land anything and he's having difficulties with Efrain here. Another really good round.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND THREE: Nover with a kick to start. Nover lands a couple of hard shots but Efrain again gets a takedown. Phillipe again gets back up. He lands a body shot. Phillipe with a couple more shots. Two successive jabs from Phillipe. Another few shots from Phillipe and then Efrain grabs a leg and takes him down yet again. Efrain's doing nothing in his position here as Nover pulls rubber guard and throws some shots to get in the omoplata. He throws some punches to try to improve this position. Escudero gets out of it and Phillipe tries to come down with a shot. Nover's on top of Efrain as the round ends. Hot finish.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Nover. He dominated that round and almost had the omoplata in, but it's going to be too little too late in this one for Nover. He got too frustrated and couldn't execute his gameplan in the first two rounds and Efrain was able to hold off long enough in the third.
[Commercial Break]
WINNER: Escudero via unanimous decision to become the Season 8 Ultimate Fighter in the lightweight division.
POST FIGHT: Dana presents Escudero with the trophy. Efrain says he knew Phillipe was going to come out with the right hand so he was ready for it and shot with the takedowns. Efrain says that training together made him a better fighter because he knew Phillipe would know his strengths and weaknesses.
STAR RATING: (***+) Another exciting battle tonight, although it was a bit disappointing that Escudero didn't do much on the ground with the amount of takedowns he had in this fight. Nover came up short and just couldn't get past the wrestling of Efrain on this night.
-Goldberg and Rogan recapped the night of fights, including going back to Junie Browning's completely upgraded performance tonight.
-Well there's another show in the books. We've got new Ultimate Fighter winners in Bader and Escudero, and now we've got UFC 92 to look forward to in two weeks' time. We'll be around later tonight with an audio update on this show, and we'll have more coverage throughout the week on this show and all that's upcoming. Thanks for sticking with us through the night here on MMATorch.com!
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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