I just got done watching the first show of the Ultimate Fighter Season 10 and my big question is why did they eliminate the preliminary fight format to determine who gets a spot on the Ultimate Fighter? This season for some reason they went back to the original preset fighter format and well... the first fight was a prime example of why they shouldn't have went back to that format. That fight was just flat out horrible. The guy that lost the first fight had no business being there. The only reason I can think of why they didn't use the preliminary fight format like they have done in past Ultimate Fighters was due to Kimbo Slice. I guess they wanted to make sure he got enough face time on that show or some BS for ratings. I mean, what is the Ultimate Fighter turning itself into, Celebrity Fighter now? Ridiculous........

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I completely agree with you. The change in format was obviously a ploy to milk the whole Kimbo thing. Image if Kimbo lost in the prelims? It would have been a disaster and all that ad money would have been flushed. I can almost guarantee that Kimo's first fight will be the last of the 1st round fights and I wouldn't be surprised if his opponent will be Bitch Tits (who looks like the weakest fighter - well before watching Abe get is butt kicked). As far as the first episode it was horrible. You're right Abe had no business being there. Did he even have 1 strike land? I was hoping Jackson would get up and throw in the towel mostly to save the viewer from watching that train wreck.

On a positive note, I lloved how Jackson choose the cameraman over the last guy.

They may have changed the format cause they couldnt find 32 worthy big guys of being on the show. Hell they can barely find 16 quality heavyweights. The protecting Kimbo thing is a bit of a reach if they did the other format couldnt they have just fed Kimbo a random off the street if they wanted to keep him on the show as we've all seen on youtube Kimbo does well against random bums. James Thompson is probably much better competetion than anyone on that show other the Roy Nelson has ever fought. I dont understand the ex NFL guys hating on Kimbo for being on the show just cause of his name when there really on there just cause there ex-NFL players.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/9/11/10 ... fighter-10

Here's a link to how Bloody Elbow has the contestants ranked. This article was actually put up prior to the start of the show, so it's pretty interesting to see that they picked Abe as a "solid underdog pick" despite the fact that he was the first eliminated. That of course could be attributed to Rampage's terrible match-making.

As far as talent goes, this is probably one of the most talent rich casts we've seen since the lightweight season with Lauzon, Maynard, Diaz, etc. Most of the guys on the show have at least 4 or 5 pro-fights on their record while some have had 10 or more.

Heavyweights generally tend to be a little slower and don't quite have the best conditioning, thus making their fights a little slower-paced, but I have high hopes for this season and think we'll see some legit UFC fighters come out of it.

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UFC Predictions Game Results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... 38pEj7scHA

See that's where I will disagree. Dana White has a lot of potential money riding on Kimbo and putting just some random guy off the street in the preliminaries so that Kimbo be pretty much guranteed a spot on TUF would put the UFC's legitimacy under fire if people found out that Dana White was doing that sort of stuff.

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Wow, Kimbo's ground game is just plain laughable. I have some sympathy, as my jiu jitsu coach has a Roy Nelson belly that's hard to get past. The whole idea of a 'closed guard' goes right out the window. But, I also know there are things you can do in the positions Kimbo was in, and he just layed there and waited for the TKO. I thought the stoppage was legit, and thought it would've been legit if stopped in the 1st round. Nelson was hitting him with a TON of medium shots, and Kimbo wasn't doing sh!t to defend himself.

I do find it disappointing that Dana talked down about Nelson's win, as Roy Nelson could be a star and draw in ratings just like Kimbo. The very least you could say about Nelson was that he looked better than all of the other fighters so far, which isn't saying much as they all gassed about 3 minutes into the fight. Yeah, Roy Nelson wasn't killing Kimbo with crucifix shots, but he was pacing himself well and had the conditioning to be consistent throughout the fight. In wrestling terms, Nelson seems like a good heel character for the show, and no one pays to see a sh!tty heel get his a$$ kicked. Build him up so people will want to see him get torn down.

The results of tonight's show aside, there is absolutely NO WAY that this will be Kimbo's last TUF fight. Someone is going to sneeze in Dana's direction and get kicked off the show to get Kimbo back on.

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Hippo pretty much hit everything worth saying about this episode, but I thought Roy Nelson's idea of having his corner count the unanswered punches was absolutely genius strategy. I mean what else is a ref going to think when a guy has taken 15-20 unanswered shot to the head (hard or not). If someone is taking that many unanswered shots, than the whole "intelligent defense" is obviously not happening.

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UFC Predictions Game Results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... 38pEj7scHA

I know I said I was done watching TUF this season but I just couldn't resist to see what the overhype machine Kimbo Slice was going to do and yep just what I expected, but It's the "Kimbo fighter" this season; and you just know he will fight again regardless of this lost. I agree his ground game was just horrible. I'm a black belt in Judo and I have seen better effort from white belt beginners then that. I mean, it's not like Kimbo was just pulled off the streets last week. He's been on the MMA scene for a couple years now and was training with Bas Rutten while he was in Elite XC. You would think he would have learnt something on the ground, but apprently not. Kimbo said it himself “I'm not a mix martial artist, I'm a fighter." Well then you are in the wrong sport then. Go try your hand at boxing then if that's how you feel.

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I was pretty disappointed with the fight. Nelson's strikes looked like they had very little effect on Kimbo but Herb Dean had no choice but to stop it as Kimbo was laying there doing absolutely nothing. If Kimbo had to lose, this was probably the best way for it to go down as now we've got the heel Nelson who comes off looking way too cocky and proud of a victory that wasn't exactly a blow out. People are going to want to see Kimbo get revenge and Dana will probably set up a rematch between these two on ppv and do a pretty big buyrate, I'd suspect.

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Well that fight went how any MMA fan thought it would. Roy got him to the ground and toke a dominate postition and didnt give it up. LOL at Rampage treating kimbo like a 6 year old in little league "well you defended that one take down attempt im proud of you". Kimbo is just to small at heavyweight and really not that good. Any decent wrestler can just take him down. His stand up looked alright but really not worth the hype it gets his hands arent that quick and we've never really seen him drop anyone. One positive i guess is Kimbos cardio looked better than it did in the thompson fight. Boy there really burying Roy Nelson one week his not a team player the next week hes overly cocky after a win.

Kimbo might not be the greatest but I've been impressed by his behavior on the show. Pretty humble guy and really chill. I'm rooting for him, whether he gets back into the competition or not.

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Man I'm thinking Rampage's retirement is coming from a severe self esteem drop. He's been made to look the fool so many times on this season. I'll say it....I think he's afraid of Rashad/losing in general.

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UFC Predictions Game Results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... 38pEj7scHA

I've wondered if they would do anything different with the production of the show since Rampage left the UFC, but for the most part it seems like they haven't. They're still hyping a fight that isn't going to happen. Although, I have to say that I did find the comparison to Ken Shamrock a little odd and out of place. You know who else threw hissy fights every time his team lost? The current LW champion, BJ Penn. Not to mention that next week, we'll see Titties "finally confront Rampage after weeks of torment."

Season after season, it seems like momentum is a complete b!tch to turnaround. I think it just speaks to the psychological nature of the game, and how hard it is to rebound mentally after a loss.

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One small note, I do like that they've been showing some more of the fighters in the house than they were the first couple of episodes. Whether it is like talking about the fights or fooling around, it's a cool change of mood. It was some funny stuff when they were picking on Zek Jensen.

Was really disappointed in Wes Sims this week, expected more from a guy who had as much experience that he did. Was just looking over his past fights, and he actually has fought some big names. Dan Severn, Frank Mir, Tim Sylvia, etc. Problem is he lost to every big name I saw on the list.

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JR: Natural Disasters has defeated Money Inc. for the Tag Titles!
Brain: Well That's Not Fair!
JR: What do you mean it's not fair? Why not?
Brain: Cause the belts won't fit them!

Rampage has already called Rashad out outside of the ring if he wants some bad enough, but Rashad won't fight him outside of the ring, because their is no money involved.

All Rashad is doing is trying to bait Rampage back into the UFC, to hype this match up soo much that it's going to be a huge event which will equal a huge payout for not only Rashad, but for White as well.

I want to see the next TUF coaches be Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. These guys like each other as much as Rashad and Rampage do. That would be an interesting Ultimate Fighter.

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Rampage is really coming out of this season looking like a bully and an all around prick. All of his fighters are losing and all that he's been doing about it is picking on Schoonover and talking trash to Rashad. The fact that he takes absolutely none of the blame for his team getting crushed and even refuses to get in the ring with his fighters after they've lost really says a lot about what kind of guy Rampage is. Rashad is a fighter whom I've never really cared for due to a lot of his early fights being boring, but I've gained a lot of respect for him after following this season. He's going to come out of this show with a lot more fans, I'd suspect.

Spoilers for week 6 ahead:
As far as this week's episode, I was starting to feel bad for both Schoonover and Jensen as they were both the target of ridiculous hazing. It was pretty uncomfortable watching all of the fighters place bets on when Jensen would snap while he was in the same room as everyone. I was glad to see Shoonover get the win even though I don't particularly care for him, simply because he'd be able to have some sort of comeback for Rampage's relentless insults. I'm looking forward to next week's episode as they seem to be hyping a good fight and the clips of Rampage headbutting the door and shattering it look hilarious.

Edit: Also, I just wanted to share how irritating Kimbo has become. Watching him celebrate as soon as Zak Jensen got cut in practice really soured me on the guy. I get that he's a name fighter and everything, but he lost his first fight decisively and there are more deserving guys who should get a second chance before Kimbo. (Wes Shivers maybe?)

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According to Rampage he really didn't want to do another TUF but at the time that was the only way he could fight Rashad to determine who would get another title shot. So it seems to me that's prob the biggest reason why he isn't taking this TUF seriously.

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That makes sense then. It really seems like his heart's not into the game at all.

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If he didnt wanna coach TUF he should have taken the Lyoto fight that Dana offered him then insted of doing a half assed job of coaching. And if he really wanted to fight rashad so bad i dont think he would have pulled out to make a movie.

Would love to comment on the show, but don't have time right now, and the past few posts I've tried in the MMA forum didn't go through, so I'm not going to waste my time again till I know the problem has been resolved.

But, if this post gets through, here's a funny video of Rampage speculating what that band-aid on Rashad's face was covering...

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Rampage was crazy at the end of TUF. I kind of agreed the fight this week was close enough that they should have went to a third round, but holy crap did he snap. Poor door. What did it ever do to anyone?

Rampage though, is helping me enjoy a somewhat dull season, especially with Kimbo eliminated and probably not getting back in. The whole "Titties" and "Big Belly" saga was funny as hell, especially when he had that poster made for Team Rashad.

I think the Team Rashad sweep might be spoiled by "Big Baby" Marcus Jones. I don't know anything about him at all really, but I just have a feeling he's going to use his size to his advantage in next week's bout.

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JR: Natural Disasters has defeated Money Inc. for the Tag Titles!
Brain: Well That's Not Fair!
JR: What do you mean it's not fair? Why not?
Brain: Cause the belts won't fit them!

So uh who else can't stand Roy Nelson? I'm praying somebody beats him like brutally.

Now everyone knows why his nickname is "Rampage" cause he tore that door down like it was a nothing.

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Looks like Kimbo vs Houston Alexander is in the works for the TUF finale on dec 5th

Of course did anyone expect Kimbo Slice not to be fighting again on TUF in some form. Dana miles well milk all the ratings that he can get from this season from Kimbo, regardless of how bad Kimbo is as an MMA fighter.

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I do agree with Dana White completely and Roy Nelson has not impressed me either. In fact, I don't think Nelson should have won that fight after 2 rounds. But man, it really does seem like Dana White does not like Nelson at all. I wonder if it really is just Roy's attitude that rubs Dana the wrong way, or if there's something else we don't know about it.

Of course, another week where Rampage keeps the show interesting with a funny as hell prank. That was pretty funny stuff with the chickens.

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JR: Natural Disasters has defeated Money Inc. for the Tag Titles!
Brain: Well That's Not Fair!
JR: What do you mean it's not fair? Why not?
Brain: Cause the belts won't fit them!