Penick's Take
PENICK: TUF 14 Finale Notebook - Incredible Brandao-Bermudez bout; Josh Rosenthal; Bisping over Miller; John Albert, and more
Dec 4, 2011 - 4:45:02 PM PENICK: TUF 14 Finale Notebook - Incredible Brandao-Bermudez bout; Josh Rosenthal; Bisping over Miller; John Albert, and more

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

-I was out attending a wedding reception on Saturday night, so first off big thanks to Matt Pelkey for filling in on the live report for the The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale.

-This was a fantastic fight card. There was exciting action in every fight broadcast on Spike, decisive finishes in each of the finals for this season of The Ultimate Fighter, a couple of standout bantamweight performances from TUF 14 contestants, and a brutal beating from Michael Bisping in the night's main event.

-Let's talk about Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez, shall we? This was one of the single most thrilling rounds of fighting you're ever going to see, and if you missed it, find it, watch it, and revel in its awesomeness. I'm not kidding. Stop reading this for a few minutes, watch that fight, and then come back. Don't worry, I'll wait. Alright, so you agree, incredible. For as crazy and back and forth as Nick Diaz-Paul Daley was in April, this pushed it even further. Brandao dropping Bermudez early, only to see Bermudez come right back and attack was crazy enough for a good fight. Then Bermudez landing a counter-right to send Brandao crashing down elicited an audible outburst. Then Brandao pulled off a beautiful armbar to snatch the fight right back and take the Ultimate Fighter title. It was just an absolutely insane sequence of events at an amazing pace, and was simply one of the single best rounds seen in the Octagon maybe ever.

-Speaking of that fight, referee Josh Rosenthal deserves recognition for a fantastic job in the fight. When Brandao came in and got dropped with the short right to the jaw, he could have stepped in right then and there. However, he immediately recognized that Brandao had his wits about him and was beginning to recover. Had he stopped the fight there it would have still been a crazy one round fight, but Brandao was clearly able to continue intelligently, and ultimately then scored that armbar win.

-In the bantamweight finals, John Dodson was really impressive as well in capturing the title of The Ultimate Fighter himself. He's fast, and packs a lot of power into his 5'3" frame. He's not an entirely complete fighter yet, but there's a lot to like in his game, and he's got a sellable personality for the UFC as well. He absolutely made a great impression in this one, and will be exciting to watch at 135 lbs. until the UFC finally brings in the flyweight division.

-Michael Bisping started slow against "Mayhem" Miller, but a switch flipped for him after an accidental headbutt in the second round. Miller was getting more and more tired as the fight went on, but it wasn't entirely on an adrenaline dump in the first round, as Bisping's assault drained him significantly as well. He was lighting him up with combinations late in the second round, picking his shots and connecting on a high percentage of strikes. The assault continued in the third round, and when it hit the ground and he began throwing those brutal, brutal knees to the body, it was time for the fight to be stopped. Miller was far too tired to hold off the assault, and by keeping a relentless pace Bisping became just the second person to score a TKO win over "Mayhem."

-Finally, huge congratulations to MMATorch TUF blogger John Albert for an immensely impressive win over Dustin Pague, and thanks again to him for providing his thoughts on this season to our readers for the last 11 weeks. The combination he delivered to score the knockdown was fantastic, and then he got the stoppage after smartly trapping Pague's arm around his head and not allowing him to defend his strikes. It was a great UFC debut, and was the only undercard performance to be broadcast on Spike. One fight that would be excellent for his next fight would be against fellow cast member Johnny Bedford, who looked really good himself against Louis Gaudinot. Albert's got a good all around game, and I'm very excited to see what he can do in the UFC's bantamweight division.