THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER SEASON 18 : Fights, fighters and overall review

A little late review. Despite being a MMA fan for a while, i didnt jumped on the TUF 18 wagon until now. The reason for that was being stuck watching other fighters, and considering theres have been so many TUF seasons , i just wanted to see Rousey vs Tate 2 .

However, this week out of nowhere, i decided to watch the entire season, and to my surprise it was quite the entertaining one. Now a lot of things that have happened from december to the date make much more sense. 

Teams 

First of all, of anything, of absolutely anything, lets shortly explain the whole Miesha coaching situation:

1. Ronda was all smiles as she came into the TUF house she had so long dreamed about
2. Miesha walks through the door - and surprisingly- Ronda laughs about it thinking its a prank on her
3. Miesha sees the opportunity to tease Ronda and doesnt tell her whats going on
4. Rondas face changes in a 360° move as she storms out looking for Dana
5. (She thinks Dana replaced her for Miesha as they have had some dispute about her contract the day before)
6. On the verge of tears, Ronda hears that Cat Zingano blew her knee and thats why Miesha is in
7. We got a happy Rousey and we are good to start!

Rousey 

- Edmond Tarverdyan (Rouseys personal coach)

- Marina Shafir (Rouseys friend, not in the UFC nor had her pro debut yet)

- Manny Gamburyan (former TUF 5 contestant)

Tate

- Bryan Caraway (UFC fighter in the Bantamweight division and boyfriend)

- Ricky Lundell (grappling coach of Jon Jones, Travis Browne, Frank Mir, Goyito Perez, Miesha tate, Carlos Condit, among others)

- Thonglor Armatsena "Master Thong" (Muay thai coach in Team Alpha Male)

Tryouts  [Episode 1]

Jessamyn Duke vs Laura Howarth: Winner Duke via triangle

Danny Martinez vs Davey Grant: Winner Grant via armbar (but with some considerable illegal punches)

Revelina Berto vs Jessica Rakoczy: Winner Rakoczy via armbar (with some shoulder movement - not an exact name)

Emil Hartsner vs Michael Wootten: Winner Wootten via decision

Peggy Morgan vs Bethany Marshall: Winner Morgan via TKO 

Roxanne Modafferi vs Valerie Letourneau: Winner Modafferi via rear neck choke

Tim Gorman vs Lee Sandmeier: Winner Gorman via TKO 

Tonya Evinger vs Raquel Pennington: Winner Pennington via guillotine choke

Chris Beal vs Sirwan Kakai: Winner Beal via decision

Josh Hill vs Patrick Holohan: Winner Hill via decision

Shayna Baszler vs Colleen Schneider: Winner Baszler via armbar

Louis Fisette vs Chris Holdsworth: Winner Holdsworth via choke

Gina Mazany vs Julianna Peña: Winner Peña via decision

Matt Munsey vs Anthony Gutierrez: Winner Gutierrez via decision

Tara Larosa vs Sarah Moras: Winner Moras via decision

Rafael de Freitas vs Cody Bollinger: Winner Bollinger via TKO

Teams

Tate:

1. Julianna Peña

2. Sarah Moras

3. Raquel Pennington

4. Roxanne Modafferi

1. Cody Bollinger

2. Chris Holdsworth

3. Josh Hill

4. Tim Gorman

Rousey:

1. Shayna Baszler

2. Jessamyn Duke

3. Peggy Morgan 

4. Jessica Rakoczy

1. Chris Beal

2. Davey Grant

3. Anthony Gutierrez

4. Michael Wootten

Fights 

[Episode 2] Pre-elims

Previous to any fight, Tim Gorman from team tate gets out of the competition due to a torn muscle in the leg that suggested 4-6 months of rehab, allowing Louis Fisette ,who had lost by sumission to Holdsworth, to come to the TUF house.

#1 Julianna Peña vs Shayna Baszler: Winner Peña via rear neck choke.

This was considered the big upset of the season. Baszler was a definetely favorite, not only cause her experience but also for her agressivity.

They went full on striking at the first round and the big moment came in the 2nd round when Peña took Baszler to the ground and kept herself on top, taking the back and finally submitting her.

Queen of spades lost and caused a lot of drama coming from Rousey towards Tate due to her celebrating Peñas win (we do need to remember that Peña was Tates fighter and friend)

First sign of Rouseys opened emotions towards her fighters that continued during the season.

[Episode 3]

#2 Chris Beal vs Chris Holdsworth: Winner Holdsworth via guillotine

The episode goes through a now aislated and "hated" Julianna Peña, as her teammates accused her of giving the fight picking list to rouseys team. It should be the beginning of the house animosity towards Peña.

Also, Miesha picking Chris Beal for fight furies Rousey once again as Beal had his striking hand injuried. 

The big thing of this episode, prior to the fight, was the encounter and almost brawl that Caraway/Tate had with Edmond/Rousey. Lets make it simple:

1. On the road to the Tate/Rousey fight back in 2012, Caraway send a tweet to a Rousey fan claiming how bad he can break her teeth

2. Rousey fired back and since then things have gone down hill

3. Tate and company claim that Caraway have apologize +100 of times 

4. Rousey and company dont give a shit and still go for Caraway any chance they can, especially Edmond.

Finally the fight. Holdsworth makes a clear statement by giving Beal hard punches proving hes not only a submission guy. When in good position, applied the guillotine and Beal loses seconds away from the end of the 1st Round. Tate back again with the picking. 

[Episode 4]

#3 Jessica Rakoczy vs Roxanne Modafferi: Winner Rakoczy via KO (KO of the season bonus)

Right of the bag, episode starts with a (new) brawl between the coaches. This time it focuses between Edmond vs Dennis Hallman due to supposed superiority feeling problems. Funny thing about this brawl is that Tarverdyan calls out Hallman claiming he will beat his ass and that he will "give him a call" to when and where. To this, Hallman answers with a good ol' -right here and now- and to that Tarverdyan goes full on victim mode claiming Hallman knows he will get kicked out of the show if the so called fight happens. 

So.. who started? who is right? Doesnt really matter. What did matter - at least for me- is how Ronda ONCE AGAIN puts on her bully mask and goes right in the face of Hallman trying to intimidate him and boss him to shut up. Here is my question.. Cant Edmond defend himself? Didnt he asked the fight.. and then backout? WHY Rousey insists - and insisted through the show- to be a bully and try to show how badass she is. Emmm Hello... you are badass enough with your amazing armbars, no need to be a bully that no one likes and that it will do - just as Dana said- NO good for your image, especially since it was already on the rocks (good image = $$$$$$PPV)

Onto the fight. Jessica looked awesome despite struggling a little bit with Roxannes look for submissions and ended up going for a clean ass KO once Roxanne had fell to the ground.

[Episode 5] 

#4 Davey Grant vs Louis Fisette: Winner Grant via rear neck choke

Team Rousey recives the visit of the former judo champion and mother of an armabar killer, AnnaMaria de Mars a.k.a Rouseys mom. Not much to talk about that rather than the apple definetely didnt fall far from the tree. 

Little thing prior the fight was a prank made by team Tate regarding Edmonds unibrow that again, set rowdy into flames (but this time undercontrol).

The fight went quite as expected, Grant went hard at it and in the 2nd round submitted Fisette via rear neck choke. I do think Fisette fought harder in the fight agains Holdsworth.

Rousey in her 2- win streak.

[Episode 6]

#5 Jessamyn Duke vs Raquel Pennington: Winner Pennington via decision (Fight of the season bonus)

Nothing about the episode, straight into the fight. Best and most even fight of the season. Duke came in with her reach advantage while Pennington brought her striking power to the table.

They went on 3 rounds, pretty much a striking match through all  the rounds but with the addition of constant knees and kicks (especially from Duke). Neither of them backed down at any moment but Duke, physically, took the bigger beating leaving her face very very bruised up. End of the 3 rounds and Pennington wins via unanimous decision. 

Tate back in control.

[Episode 7]

#6 Josh Hill vs Michael Wootten: Winner Wootten via decision

Since last episode was a no-drama one, this one had to have some. This time, its was Team Tate - again - who leaded up the fire. Apparently, there was a character in a movie that looked like a pretty accurate mix between Edmonds flawless features and Rondas cute buns (hair wise). With this marvelous vision, they printed tons of copies of this perfect creature and put them around the gym. Luckily (?) Dana came into the gym before Rousey arrived and took all the copies out.. except for 1. The lucky print was discovered in the sauna and was - of course- reported to Ronda, who once again - leaving me happily surprised- didnt take actions and stayed "calm", if thats posibles in Rowdys world.

Fight time. Im pretty sure this was the 2nd most boring fight in the season, Wootten participating and winning both. Main thing was - Danas favorite thing to watch - the fact that Hill, a former wrestler, spend all the time pushing Wootten to the fence, eating all the time and passing the 3 rounds with no big shockers. Wootten won by decision but not at all an impressive win. I do feel that maybe with other opponents he could off showed better skills. In both occasions, tryouts and this one, he faced wrestlers that did nothing but push him to the fence, making him lose a ton of time just to get out of that position. 

Anyways, Rouseys favourite little boy gave her once again the control.

[Episode 8]

An episode exclusively dedicated to Ronda, Miesha and Dana reviewing the first 7 episodes, and - what really was about - explaning the heated situations and what lead up to them.

As someone wrote on twitter one day, this episode seemed like an attempt from Dana and the UFC to clean up a little bit the bad image that Rousey had made of herself through the season. They went on to explain why she reacted the way she did, why the hate towards Miesha, why the feud with Caraway, why why why.. They didnt said much we didnt knew but i guess they needed to protect the champ. It was nice to hear Ronda on a more calmed note.

[Episode 9]

#7 Cody Bollinger vs Anthony Gutierrez (Cody misses weight, Anthony moves to semi finals by forfeit)

Bollinger, Tates first pick, struggled to make weight as he was one of the biggest guys of the house and it was known he would struggle with such a weight cut. The day of the fight he woke up at 145 pounds, 15 pounds away from the mark. During the day he ran, did the bath with salt routine, put himself through towels and stayed in the sauna, but still wasnt on weight less than 2 hours away from the weigh ins. Having 1 hour left, he couldnt take it, gave up the cutting and went to drink water. He was inmediately kicked out by Dana. Anthony was asked about what he wanted to do and he took the forfeit.

#8 Peggy Morgan vs Sarah Moras: Winner Moras via armbar (Submission of the season bonus- highly promoted by Chael Sonnen)

Pretty one sided match. As the round began, they exchange some punches and some attack to the fence, then Moras took Peggy to the ground and as soon as she was on top, she started with strong punches, rolled her, took the arm, throw herself back, heavy armbar, tap, the end.

[Episode 10] Semi Finals

#1 Chris Holdsworth vs Michael Wooten: Winner Holdsworth via choke

Another impressive fight for Holdsworth. The round starts, they exchange some few punches, Holdsworth starts cornering him to the fence, pulls out a ninja move in which he jumped to the side of Wooten, hanging from his neck but with his body at his ribs, starts moving -like a spider- towards his back and from there he starts presioning and presioning till he gets hes arm around Woottens neck and chokes him till submission. There was more than 1 minute left to the end of the 1st round. Applause for Wootten for having a much better fight than the two previous ones with the wrestlers.

#2 Sarah Moras vs Julianna Peña: Winner Peña via guillotine choke

This fight had quite the background and drama. As for background, this ladies had fought in the past, where Moras took the win via submission. Everybody in the house, considering the -I hate Julianna campeign-, was expecting a similar result in this new fight. 

As for drama, being both girls from team Tate, it turned out quite ovbious that one of them would feel that the other had preference. As expected, the finger was pointed at Julianna - correctly pointed- as she spent the mayority of the time training with Tate and Caraway. This feeling was also shared by the other teammates and in the mens case, the preference was pointed at Holdsworth. 

As Moras emotionally collapsed prior to the fight, Tate removed herself from the equation and was in neither one of the corners.

About the fight. Peña came out fast and banging, taking Moras quickly into the ground, putting her on her back and leaving her like that for the rest of the 1st round. The 2nd round didnt last  much as Peña took once again Moras - who was expected to dominate on the ground- to the ground, opened her forehead (or eyebrow) with an elbow and quickly grabbed the neck for a guillotine choke. The tap didnt take too long to appear. Peña to the finale.

[Episode 12] 

# Coaches challenge: Rockclimbing, $USD 10.000 for the winner and
$USD500 for each team member. Winner Rousey via hurrying the fuck up when she saw it was even.

#3 Anthony Gutierrez vs Davey Grant: Gutierrez misses weight and Grant moves to the final via forfeit.

For the 2nd time (!!!) in the season, a guy missed weight  by giving up an hour prior to the weigh ins. This time, it seemed that nobody had Gutierrez back as he was constantly seen eating big portions and tons of junk food, and even eating mayonese the night before the weigh ins. Similar case to Cody, he woke up at 145 pounds, moved a little bit here and there - but with tons of breaks- and was clearly far away from the goal. He didnt showed for the weigh ins - just like Cody-  leaving Rousey very emotional about her responsability in it (she did said to Miesha when Cody missed that it was the couches fault) and a Dana White with the biggest bitch face.

As all of that wasnt "innovating" enough, Gutierrez case was even worse! He officialy became the first TUF fighter to get a free pass to the semi finals and still quit. Dana was over the moon with joy. Grant took it pretty bad as well and Ronda threw the promise of making weight herself.

[Episode 13]

#4 Jessica Rakoczy vs Raquel Pennington: Winner Rakoczy via decision

All around stand up fight. Rakoczy kept the control the entire fight, throwing punches here and there, and showing impressive takedown deffense. Pennington looked off, as she was unable to start the fight and really put Jessica in danger. As the first round finished, it was quite ovbious who was handleling the fight and it stayed that way till the end. Rakoczy showed impressive boxing but also control and takedown deffense. Rakoczy wins 30-26. Pennington ends up having an emotional moment with Tate about not delivering.

Finale Stare downs: Rowdy is back.

Nothing to say about the firsts staredowns. Moving to the coaches..
Rousey enters full on anger and Miesha pulled out her last prank as she takes out a sock with middle fingers in it and showed it to Ronda.
The socks didnt even last 5 seconds on Mieshas hands as Ronda lashes them out almost bitch slapping Miesha with them.

 Then Miesha pulls out my -oh so favorite- kiss during the stare down and Ronda goes off on her outside the octagon very mean girl like, but hey, it was the time to do it as she had saved herself from it during at least 5 episodes... thats a lot. 

TUF 18 FINALE

I'll skip the others fights that went down on the finale. Only Peña vs Rakoczy, Holdsworth vs Grant and Diaz vs Maynard III.

#1 Julianna Peña vs Jessica Rakoczy: First ever Female TUF winner: Julianna Peña "Venezuelan Vixen" via TKO

Fight didnt went as i expected. Of course i expected Peña to go out and throw billions of punches but didnt expect that much control over Rakoczy. Peña won the fight from the "ok, fight" to the "stop stop".Rakoczy looked useless as she was taken down very fast and easily and didnt put on much of a deffense when Peña was on top. It shocked me that Rakoczy didnt had the moment to show her boxing AT ALL. When on the ground and Peña fisting her down, it seemed - to my eye- that Jessica had no motivation to move position. Not much body movement nor feet movement that would off told Jessica has trying everything to get out of that. It was much a more a -protect your head- kind of situation and really, wait for the round to be over. Peña went full of punches towards the last minute of the 1st round and since Jessica wasnt fighting back, the referee stopped the fight less than 10 seconds away from the end of round 1.

Disappointed for Rakoczy but excited that Peña, who was highly overlooked and criticized, took the win and became the first ever female TUF winner (and a latina one).

#2 Chris Holdsworth vs Davey Grant: Winner Holdsworth via rear neck choke.

Once again, Holdsworth looked amazing and dominated the entire fight. He truly is a Jiu Jitsu ninja. First round was totally handled by Holdsworth as he punched Davey,gave him a solid knee to the chest, cornered him and even took him down by the end of the round. Davey did very well defending his submissions
attempts and facing him in striking (giving some decent punches), but was never the true agressor. Second round started with a little bit of back and forward in striking, Davey throwing punches and even a big kick to the chest that didnt seem to have a significant effect. Holdsworth took him to the fence, went for the legs, took him down and the submission ritual started once again as previously watched during the season. Didnt took much time until he had his back, put the arm round the neck and it was pretty much over. Davey tapped soon but stood up inmediately after the stoppage. Big Heart.

What impressed me so much about Holdsworth was when i first saw him at tryouts, i though of a skinny teenage boy that would get rocked soon. WRONG! He proved not only having excellent jiu jitsu but also having the strength and power enough to get the guys into submission position, being something that not always happens (take for example Roxannes knowledge vs her lack of strenght to keep girls down).
He stood focus and was a favourite through out the show.

As far as Davey goes, he was also one of my favourites for his striking and big mind set on winning. But i think his main issue was realing too much on his striking and not showing much control in any other position. At least in the finale, he couldnt control the takedowns and didnt showed a good guard. Still feel like he won a lot in this season, and he will be seen again (he was set to fight at UFC Fight Night 37 in March but the fight was cancelled last minute as the UFC considered Grant was too injuried to fight. He apparently had tored his meniscus. Both fighters were paid anyways as they had already made weight).

After TUF, Holdsworth (6-0-0) is set to fight Chico Camus (14-4-0) at UFC 173, May 24th.


#3 Nate Diaz vs Greyson Maynard III: Winner Diaz via TKO

Amazing fight for Diaz. First minute and a half went by some exchanges, Maynard going first, Diaz moving here and there and even took a nice punch that rocked him a little. After that, mm well OVER. Diaz went full on 209 and destroyed Maynard by amazingly accurated punches that had Maynard in other planet unable to defend himself and just standing while Diaz went on and on. A little surprised the referee didnt stopped it early as Maynard was not defending at all and was just moving his body as a response of the beatdown.
Fight was stopped at 2:38 of the first round ending this  TUF 5 trilogy as well as Maynard UFC career.