One has to wonder how last night’s quarter-final matchup on The Ultimate Fighter 6 between Tommy Speer and Ben Saunders would have turned out had Saunders not been so sick. Such is the life of a fighter – especially one on TUF. Come hell or high water, if you are scheduled to fight you will, in fact, have to fight.
That said, the Orlando native ALMOST pulled a Michael Jordan on last night’s episode (remember when MJ was sick with the flu yet he still torched the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of the 1997 finals). It looked as though Speer was going to submit to an armbar applied by Saunders early in round one but, alas, “Farmboy” Speer fought through the pain and proceeded to beat Saunders down for the duration of their battle.
In case you missed it, problems arose when four of Serra’s fighters (Matt Arroyo, George Sotiropoulos, Troy Mandaloniz and Richie Hightower) were picked to fight each other. Obviously, Serra couldn’t corner two fighters at the same time so Dana White decided to flip a coin to determine which two fighters would train with Team Hughes for their quarterfinal showdowns.
While Arroyo and Hightower were chosen to train with Hughes, Serra was still unhappy. He refused to corner Sotiropoulos and Mandaloniz in their fights and thus left his fighters to fend for themselves.
This decision appeared to be a big distraction for Troy “Rude Boy” Mandaloniz as he prepared for his fight against Matt Arroyo. Coincidentally or not, Mandaloniz ended up losing to Arroyo via arm bar in the first round.
A tough loss for the Hawaiian and one he would surely love to forget – Mandaloniz will get another chance at UFC glory on 12/8 when he faces Richie Hightower on the TUF Finale.
Mandaloniz talked to me about his MMA career as a fighter and referee, his experience on the show and Serra’s decision not to corner him. Be sure to listen to his comments on Matt Hughes’ definition of what it means to be “professional.”
Clearly, Danzig is the best and most experienced fighter in the house. However, his past MMA triumphs didn’t faze the Indiana-native as Kolosci requested to fight Danzig.
Unfortunately for Kolosci, the fight didn’t go as planned and while he appears to have a bright MMA future ahead of him he hopes to someday get another shot at Danzig.
In the meantime, Kolosci will continue working at his job as a Supervisor of Enterprise Computing Services (Microsoft & Citrix Server Team) for a large health care organization while focusing on his goal to someday get signed by the UFC. Apparently, Luke Cummo and Joe Lauzon have created a computer-geek MMA revolution and I’m all for it.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Kolosci about his loss to Danzig, his experience on the show and his MMA future.
Last night, “the War Machine,” as he likes to be called, was eliminated from the show by Tommy Speer in a blood bath. It seemed as though victory was his for the taking when he landed a solid right hand and locked in a rear-naked choke but it was not meant to be as Speer overcame the submission attempt and dominated the rest of the first round as well as the entire second.
Following the loss, Serra paid him a compliment by saying he viewed the loss as a win (sure, it doesn’t make much sense but you know what he means). Serra and Koppenhaver seemed to have had a rocky relationship since day one but his performance in a losing effort must have pleased the Welterweight champ.
I spoke to “the War Machine” about his loss to Speer, being a late replacement on the show and his future in the UFC.
Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighterwas, by far, my favorite of this particular season. Finally, we had two dynamic characters butting heads in the form of Jared Rollins and George Sotiropoulos. Throw in the fact that we got a glimpse of what Matt Hughes is like when he is really pissed off and this was definitely interesting television.
Rollins always struck me as an intriguing cast member and last night, despite his loss, he certainly lived up to the hype. The scene with Rollins and Sotiropoulos eating breakfast just a few hours before their fight was tremendous. Whenever Spike produces a new “Tuffest 25 Countdown” that scene needs to be in the mix. Truth be told, I thought Rollins would put up a better fight but Sotiropoulos, and his coaches, deserve all the credit in the world as he was definitely the agressor throughout the entire fight. Speaking of Sotiropoulos (I should really start employing the copy/paste function more) what was the deal with his teammates calling him out for not waking them up? I hope those guys realize how dumb they looked after the fact. In any evet, Sotiropoulos, along with Mac Danzig (of course), have definitely emerged as the two favorites.
I had a chance to speak with Rollins about his loss to Sotiropoulos, his experience on the show and his thoughts on Matt Hughes saying he didn’t give 100% in his fight.
One has to wonder how last night’s quarter-final matchup on The Ultimate Fighter 6 between Tommy Speer and Ben Saunders would have turned out had Saunders not been so sick. Such is the life of a fighter – especially one on TUF. Come hell or high water, if you are scheduled to fight you will, in fact, have to fight.
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