The Weekly Wrap: Nov. 28 – Dec. 4
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Jack Encarnacao Dec 6, 2009
The Weekly Wrap walks readers through the last seven days in
MMA, recapping and putting into context the week's top story,
important news and notable quotes.
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The most-watched season in the 10-season history of "The
Ultimate Fighter" has come down to former pro football player
Brendan
Schaub and former International Fight League titlist Roy
Nelson.
Schaub defeated Marcus Jones and Nelson defeated James McSweeney on this week’s final episode to advance to a fight for a multi-fight contract Saturday in Las Vegas on Spike TV.
It stands to reason, as Slice’s fight with Roy Nelson on the Sept. 30 episode was the most-watched fight in UFC history, and his live Spike TV debut could rival it. The Nelson fight, when factoring in viewers who watched on DVR within seven days of the initial airing, drew a staggering 7.25 million viewers, according to The Wrestling Observer. Even without DVR viewers, the fight's 6.1 million audience beats the 5.9 million drawn by the Sept. 2007 Quinton Jackson-Dan Henderson fight at UFC 75.
Ratings for the first all-heavyweight season dipped from the Slice-Nelson peak, but still settled in at a level that comfortably outpaced any other season of the reality series that changed the UFC’s fortunes. The final Dec. 2 episode drew a 1.9 rating for an average of 2.6 million viewers. That brings the TUF 10 season average to 2.2, beating the record 1.7 average rating for TUF 3, the 2006 season featuring Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock as coaches.
Producers waited until the final episode to formally write Slice off as a potential participant in the semi-finals. Doctors determined Slice was suffering from arthritis of the knee that would haunt him for the rest of his career; Slice said he was 40 percent on his movement, and not being able to fight on his toes, he bowed out of the potential McSweeney fight, a move that looked to stun UFC President Dana White.
Slice has been working with American Top Team for the last eight weeks in preparation for Alexander this Saturday, but was chilly in his responses to whether he’d gained anything from the camp. "For what it's worth, I guess it's OK,” Slice said of his experience in the Florida camp this week and wouldn’t answer whether he’d continue to train there afterwards.
In Schaub’s semi-final win, he was taken down early and mounted by a very active Jones, but was able to kick away and come up firing. Schaub landed an overhand right that put Jones down and dropped several hits on the floor for the knockout.
McSweeney got a lot of strikes off on Nelson, but Nelson landed a big right that stunned Rashad Evans’ teammate, opening up the takedown. Nelson worked to side control and got the crucifix position, much as he did against Slice, and rained down punches for the first round TKO. Though White said Nelson has "the worst physique in sports," he said his performance against McSweeney "finally impressed me."
The final episode also saw McSweeney topple the flaky Matt Mitrione and Jones soundly eliminate undefeated Darrill Schoonover to advance to the semi-finals. McSweeney ate some heavy punches from the former pro footballer, but took advantage of Mitrione's ill-advised dive for an ankle lock to hook a guillotine choke for the tap with 1:22 left in the first.
In the other quarterfinal, Marcus Jones quickly swept undefeated Darrill Schoonover to the mat and worked an aggressive position game until he could land some impressively heavy shots from inside the guard for the first-round TKO.
Earlier in the show, Jones had gone ballistic in Mitrione's face when it appeared Mitrione’s eye poke in an earlier fight with Scott Junk resulted in a career-ending eye injury. It was announced Jones will face Mitrione on Saturday's Spike TV broadcast, and that McSweeney will face Schoonover, who is due to be called to active Army duty after the fight. Two other cast members, Justin Wren and Jon Madsen, will also fight on the card against each other.
Season 11 of “The Ultimate Fighter” is set to debut March 31. The coaches have not yet been announced.
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Schaub defeated Marcus Jones and Nelson defeated James McSweeney on this week’s final episode to advance to a fight for a multi-fight contract Saturday in Las Vegas on Spike TV.
Ratings king Kimbo
Slice, citing an arthritic knee, declined to take a seminal
fight with McSweeney as a fill-in if needed. Still, the second the
two-hour TUF finale episode wrapped, the focused hype train began
for Slice's bout on Saturday's finale broadcast on Spike TV against
Houston
Alexander, tagged "The Stand-Up War You've Been Waiting For."
Slice said he struggled to make the 215-pound catch-weight against
Alexander, who fights at light heavyweight. By the weekend, the TUF
finale fight had clearly ceded the attention to Slice (who weighed
in at 212 pounds to Alexander’s 208 pounds.)
It stands to reason, as Slice’s fight with Roy Nelson on the Sept. 30 episode was the most-watched fight in UFC history, and his live Spike TV debut could rival it. The Nelson fight, when factoring in viewers who watched on DVR within seven days of the initial airing, drew a staggering 7.25 million viewers, according to The Wrestling Observer. Even without DVR viewers, the fight's 6.1 million audience beats the 5.9 million drawn by the Sept. 2007 Quinton Jackson-Dan Henderson fight at UFC 75.
Ratings for the first all-heavyweight season dipped from the Slice-Nelson peak, but still settled in at a level that comfortably outpaced any other season of the reality series that changed the UFC’s fortunes. The final Dec. 2 episode drew a 1.9 rating for an average of 2.6 million viewers. That brings the TUF 10 season average to 2.2, beating the record 1.7 average rating for TUF 3, the 2006 season featuring Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock as coaches.
Producers waited until the final episode to formally write Slice off as a potential participant in the semi-finals. Doctors determined Slice was suffering from arthritis of the knee that would haunt him for the rest of his career; Slice said he was 40 percent on his movement, and not being able to fight on his toes, he bowed out of the potential McSweeney fight, a move that looked to stun UFC President Dana White.
Slice has been working with American Top Team for the last eight weeks in preparation for Alexander this Saturday, but was chilly in his responses to whether he’d gained anything from the camp. "For what it's worth, I guess it's OK,” Slice said of his experience in the Florida camp this week and wouldn’t answer whether he’d continue to train there afterwards.
In Schaub’s semi-final win, he was taken down early and mounted by a very active Jones, but was able to kick away and come up firing. Schaub landed an overhand right that put Jones down and dropped several hits on the floor for the knockout.
McSweeney got a lot of strikes off on Nelson, but Nelson landed a big right that stunned Rashad Evans’ teammate, opening up the takedown. Nelson worked to side control and got the crucifix position, much as he did against Slice, and rained down punches for the first round TKO. Though White said Nelson has "the worst physique in sports," he said his performance against McSweeney "finally impressed me."
The final episode also saw McSweeney topple the flaky Matt Mitrione and Jones soundly eliminate undefeated Darrill Schoonover to advance to the semi-finals. McSweeney ate some heavy punches from the former pro footballer, but took advantage of Mitrione's ill-advised dive for an ankle lock to hook a guillotine choke for the tap with 1:22 left in the first.
In the other quarterfinal, Marcus Jones quickly swept undefeated Darrill Schoonover to the mat and worked an aggressive position game until he could land some impressively heavy shots from inside the guard for the first-round TKO.
Earlier in the show, Jones had gone ballistic in Mitrione's face when it appeared Mitrione’s eye poke in an earlier fight with Scott Junk resulted in a career-ending eye injury. It was announced Jones will face Mitrione on Saturday's Spike TV broadcast, and that McSweeney will face Schoonover, who is due to be called to active Army duty after the fight. Two other cast members, Justin Wren and Jon Madsen, will also fight on the card against each other.
Season 11 of “The Ultimate Fighter” is set to debut March 31. The coaches have not yet been announced.
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