...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Alvin Benjamin Carter III, MMATorch Specialist
The Ultimate Fighting Championship's reality television show, The Ultimate Fighter, is in its seventeenth season, and this installment has featured a few fighters to watch on both Team Jones and Team Sonnen. At the beginning of the season it seemed as if the fireworks on the broadcast would come from UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and his fellow coach and current UFC Light Heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen. Instead, the talented pack of up and coming fighters has given enough stoppages and unscripted drama to keep the show interesting.
Two of the biggest standouts on the show are Uriah Hall and Josh Samman (both 9-2 in their professional careers). Both fighters have made it to the semifinals with Hall facing Kelvin Gastelum and Samman squaring off against Dylan Andrews. Hall and Samman will face stiff competition in their next bouts, but they are clearly the front-runners to win the whole television tournament. It makes sense that UFC President Dana White has Hall and Samman angled to meet at the Ultimate Fighter Finale providing they make it through the next round.
Hall and Samman will most likely find a spot in the UFC after the show, but positioning these two to meet in the Finale is sure to lead to fireworks. Neither can look past their semifinal matchups, but their potential meeting in the Finale could be in a fight similar in stature to that of Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar Finale matchup... this time with a finish.
The spinning hook kick knockout Uriah Hall handed Adam Cella, along with his quick knockout of Jon Jones' training partner Bubba McDaniels proves he does not just have the power to finish, but that he can finish in exciting fashion. Samman knocked out Tor Troeng and submitted Jimmy Quinlan and looked impressive doing it. Hall and Samman are two of the most exciting contestants in recent memory, and, like Griffin and Bonnar, most fans had not heard of them prior to the Ultimate Fighter.
I had the opportunity to see Uriah Hall in his second professional fight at Bellator 11 in July of 2009. He finished Edwin Aguilar with a third round head-kick knockout. I thought he was impressive, but then he faded from my radar as he fought primarily for Ring of Combat, where he eventually lost two in a row to Chris Weidman and Costa Phillippou in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Since those losses Hall has won his last three fights and his three Ultimate Fighter exhibition fights. The argument could be made that he has not fared well against relatively proven UFC caliber fighters in the past, but his recent performances prove is that is truly the past.
Honestly, Josh Samman was not much more than a confident fighter who seemed to have a complete tournament matchup wish list when the season started. He has been able to back up his talk, and he has proven that he understands strategy and the value of matchmaking.
Both fighters have the ability to score a knockout or a submission. Predicting a matchup that is still not set may be a vanity exercise, but humor me. The possibility of witnessing another iconic Ultimate Fighter battle is exciting. Recent seasons of TUF have not been as exciting as earlier ones, and the number of TUF cast members to become big names has seemed to decrease over the years. Now, fans are potentially weeks away from seeing the next big thing in MMA. As naive as that sounds that is the premise of the show, and it is exciting that it could live up to its promise.
Some MMA fans will watch TUF because it is MMA programming vetted by the UFC, and some might understand that less exciting seasons are to be expected from time-to-time as personalities and talent will vary. This construct makes it easy to write off TUF competitors, but the potential Hall vs. Samman could be the Finale fight to breath life back into the reality tournament. This is not to say that any combination of the semi finalists to move on to the Finale will not make for an exciting fight. The cream has definitely risen to the top this season. Still, there is something polarizing about Uriah Hall and the prospect of him facing Josh Samman (an opponent who might possess the tools to beat him). The weight of their potential bout even makes watching the semifinals exciting.
Follow me on Twitter: @awwwsnap
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
