The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 – Team Liddell Vs. Team Ortiz Episode 11
This is the last show until the finals and it’s two hours long. We’ll see if I can do two hours of TUF.
Rich Franklin’s assistant coaches are a bearded Forrest Griffin, Gray Maynard, and Tyson Griffin. Rich says he thought Tito would still be there.
Kris McCray said he thought the coaching change would affect him more, but he says it’s been good.
Chuck says it’s different because he was fighting a guy he hated and now he’s fighting one of the nicest guys in MMA.
It’s Brad Tavares vs. Court McGee, two guys who are friends. Chuck has them train together still, but just not spar.
The guys got McCray, Tavares, Yager, and Noke back for being loud in the evening by waking them up with silly string and air horns. Tavares had a fit and broke the chess board. What did the chess board do to him?
Brad Tavares vs. Court McGee
Pretty nothing round. Lots of hugging against the cage. It’s weird because since Tito isn’t here, there’s no real loud coaching. You don’t hear, “Under hooks, under hooks!” Probably a little too much respect for each guy from both fighters.
They opened it up a bit more and Tavares tested McGee’s bearded chin a few times. But there still wasn’t a ton of action.
Court looked great in the third round. He buckled his knees with an overhand right, took a knee to the head shooting, and kicked Tavares twice in the balls. Well, Tavares got him first. He threw a left hook that put him nearly down, then he got the takedown and sunk in the rear naked choke. Whatever they were holding back in the first two rounds, they forgot about in the third. Fantastic round.
Winner: Court McGee by way of 3rd round TKO
The Marines come in and hang with the fighters. They do some crazy training stuff like a four man team push-up and pugilist stick fighting.
Franklin, Forrest, Maynard, and Griffin are taking McCray’s strengths and making them stronger. Rich said McCray worked too hard the first fight against Josh and got tired.
Oh no, Yager’s trying to get the guys back for waking him up. First he hid shoes. Then Tavares put dry rice and beans together and threw it out the window at Hammortree who was sun bathing. Someone threw flour at him too and he thought it was Yager. I thought it was Yager too. He then dumped garbage on Yager’s bed. Yager dumped the rest of the rice and beans on his bed. They went nose to nose.
Then Yager tried to punk Kyacie and Kyacie got right in his face and challenged him to go outside. He went to get his shoes on and walked downstairs and Yager didn’t follow. Then Yager, sadly, started giving everyone their shoes back. Man, Chris Leben wouldn’t have punked out like Yager.
I wonder if Kyacie’s still outside waiting.
Dana White rightfully chose McGee in the first fight and chose Bryant to win the second fight.
Josh Bryant vs. Kris McCray
This is Kris’ fifth fight in six weeks. Jeez.
They let their hands go in the first. McCray’s stand-up is so terrible, but because of his length (and Bryant’s lack of recognition), he’s getting some shots in. But Bryant was sharper and just looks like he’s in better shape. He started picking him apart late in the round and it looks like he’ll be the fresher fighter.
Well, McCray didn’t gas out. But Bryant pushed him up against the fence for a lot of the round. McCray did land some nice punches. It seems that Bryant isn’t willing to get close because of the reach advantage for McCray.
Really sloppy round because both guys were so tired. Lots of lazy shots fired that were landing. McCray was working the takedown for a lot of the round and got Bryant down once, but he was right back up. If it’s up to me, Bryant wins the fight, but it was definitely sloppy near the end.
Winner: Kris McCray by way of unanimous decision
30-27, 29-28, and 30-27
Chuck thought Bryant held back too much, which I was thinking too, but I thought it was because McCray was reaching him with his punches.
It’s Court McGee vs. Kris McCray in a battle of two guys who were out of the tournament and came back in.
A fairly poor finale fight. I hope this wild-card thing goes away at TUF 12.
Additionally after all the crap that Yager started with various people, his fight at the finale is against Rich Attonito. I understand not giving it to Kascey because he sucked, but Hammertree wasn’t much better. He was 1-2 in the house yet gets a fight.
A fight between Yager and Kyle Noke would have been nice. Anyone have an idea why Noke didn’t get a TUF Finale fight?
I saw Noke at the Expo in Las Vegas, but I don’t know that it means anything. If I see anything, I’ll let you know.
Nevermind. Wikipedia was just missing one fight: Noke vs. Bryant.
Actually, that’s a pretty good fight.