Mayhem Miller and Michael Bisping brought a little fire back onto The Ultimate Fighter after a coaches’ friendlier version last season. It was well needed too. The show is on its last legs of the current revision, but thanks to Michael Bisping as one of the great heels going today and Mayhem as the goofy good guy, as well as some exciting fights from the bantamweight and featherweight guys, it was a really good season. Next season, the show moves to FX and the fight is live every Friday night.
1. Louis Gaudinot vs. Johnny Bedford
Bedford tooled him the entire round. He was on top of him and in the mount for most of the round with Gaudinot only able to cover up because he couldn’t buck him off. Near the end of the round he was back to his feet but took a lot of punishment and his eyes show it.
Bedford had Gaudinot up against the cage and he was unleashing punches, but he doesn’t have much power. He took it back to the ground. He beat up Gaudinot more on the ground and basically just got bored, and maneuvered into an arm bar. He couldn’t separate Gaudinot’s hands as the bell ended. Gaudinot may be stopped in the next round.
Bedford landed a pretty vicious knee that sent Gaudinot down and he followed up with some ground and pound and finally got the stoppage. Thankfully.
Winner: Johnny Bedford by way of 3rd round TKO
2. Tony Ferguson vs. Yves Edwards
Fantastic first round. Edwards looked really good for about 2 1/2 minutes. He was landing some nice counter punches and had Ferguson off-balanced. But Ferguson has the heavier hands and landed the bigger shots. Edwards spend the last minute of the fight trying to stay on his feet. Ferguson has him timed a lot better now.
Edwards surprisingly bloodied Ferguson’s nose. Rogan keeps saying that Edwards’ shots aren’t flush or as on the money as Ferguson’s, but the blood says differently. Ferguson is throwing a lead uppercut. Ferguson tried to steal the round at the end with a takedown. Edwards tried too, but he was stuffed.
Another strong and competitive round. These last two rounds were hard to score. I think I’d give the fight to Ferguson because he was setting the pace and landing the more consistent shots. Edwards was hard to root against though. He was throwing a lot of high kicks and fought a really strong fight.
Winner: Tony Ferguson by unanimous decision
The scores were 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28.
3. John Dodson vs. TJ Dillashaw
Wow. Dodson rocked him with a left hand and Dillashaw went down into a split, came back up but was woozy and was put right on his back with another left. Dodson followed it up with hammer fists.
Winner: John Dodson by way of 1st round TKO
Dodson did two wall walks into back flips and then did a Randy Orton pose. After he was announced the winner, he did a back flip and his infamous laugh. Then he started dancing with his trophy. I can’t wait to see this guy fight again.
4. Dennis Bermudez vs. Diego Brandao
This is the second best one-round fight of the year (Diaz/Daley). Bermudez started off well, leading the engages. Then Brandao finally connected and Bermudez went down. It looked like it was going to be over quickly, but Brandao came in a little carelessly and was hit with a short right and went down. Bermudez looked like he was going to upset Brandao and then he got careless on the ground and Brandao grabbed his arm and tapped him out quickly.
Winner: Diego Brandao by way of 1st round submission
5. John Albert vs. Dustin Pague
Albert knocked him down with a left-right combination and he jumped into the mount and tied up Pague’s right arm. Pague’s arm hit the canvas and Herb Dean called for the tap.
Winner: John Albert by way of 1st round submission (from strikes)
6. Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Michael Bisping
Bisping came out to loud boos. Bisping looks much stronger. Even more so than I’d have expected. Mayhem’s boxing isn’t crisp, but it’s effective. Bisping is throwing short and direct punches. Mayhem got a takedown and held Bisping up against the cage in a sitting position and landed some shots while holding Bisping’s legs in a figure four underneath him. Bisping ended up finishing strong. Close round, but it might go to Mayhem.
Bisping controlled the round and he was unloading big right hands. Miller is very tired. He took a beating. He shot in late in the round, didn’t get it, and Bisping got on top of him and nearly finished him. Miller can barely lift his arms.
It was all Bisping. Mayhem could do nothing. The fight ended with Bisping pounding Miller who was on all fours and wasn’t defending himself.
Winner: Michael Bisping by way of 3rd round TKO
