September 24, 2009, at 2:08 am
Tell me if you you’ve seen this one before…
Episode 2 of the Ultimate Fighter was standard fare. Rampage and Rashard argued, Roy Nelson continues to be fat, we learned that Kimbo got shot and we got another crappy fight. At what point does this become formulaic and boring? I understand what the Dana White and co. were going for this season. Four former NFL players, Kimbo Slice, and a former IFL champion…the promo makes itself. But, two episodes in you can’t help but think they sacrificed fighter quality for name value.
James McSweeney is a solid kick-boxer but he has very little on the ground. Wes Shivers is a big dude with no MMA experience, who has heavy hands but very little else.
It was absolutely painful to watch these guys fight.
In round 1 Shivers came out looking to throw bombs, while McSweeney wanted to circle, keep distance and chip away at Shivers with leg kicks. Right off the bat Shivers rocked McSweeney and took him to the ground. Shivers with his size and strength should have had a huge advantage. Except for one big problem…he had no clue what he was doing. He tried to isolate an arm for what looked like an attempt at an Americana, which was a solid plan but his execution was awful. Meanwhile the whole time he was attempting the submission McSweeneys guard was wide open and he could have passed into mount. Eventually McSweeeney would reverse the position and pick apart Shivers with strikes for the rest of the round. Round 2 was similar to round 1. McSweeney was more aggressive and landed harder shots including some brutal leg kicks. Shivers did manage to take McSweeney’s back at one point but couldn’t finish him.
McSweeney won a decision, in a terrible terrible fight.
Neither fighter kept his hands up, Shivers at one point doubled over in exhaustion and should have been easily KO’d. It really looked like he wanted out, you just can’t do that in MMA and expect to win. The fact that McSweeney couldn’t finish him speaks volumes to what a terrible fight this was.
Here’s the thing; there are so many good MMA fighters in the world who can’t catch a break. In Atlantic City there’s a pretty dominate heavyweight, his name is Ricardo Romero. He fights for Ring Of Combat and I’ve seen him fight many times. Go ahead look him up on Sherdog.com…I’ll wait.
What’s that? He beat James McSweeney? Choked him out in just over two minutes? You don’t say…
So McSweeney gets on the show (and will eventually get at least one UFC fight) because he’s Evans boy yet the guy who destroyed him is fighting in front of small crowds in Atlantic City….
Through two fights I remain totally unimpressed with the cast. Am I suppose to believe that any of these guys could even beat low level UFC competition, let alone small time promotional fighters?
Which brings us to the close of the show with the announcement that Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson will be fighting Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Don’t get confused by Nelsons appearance, he’s the most legit fighter on the show. Nelson is a former IFL Champion and on paper the perfect match-up for someone like Slice. Nelson is a well decorated ju-jitsu fighter and should easily be able to sub Slice. But, of course in order to sub Slice he has to get him down first and despite his obvious weaknesses Kimbo does have solid stand-up skills and the ability to knock him out.
So far 4 of the 16 fighters haven’t impressed me at all…hopefully that changes next week.
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