The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs Team Sonnen *Spoilers*

I thought the fight at the end, Gilbert Smith vs Luke Barnatt was good. They kept trading takedowns, and Barnatt hit a particuarly impressive one where he just picked up Smith by the leg and dumped him, I also liked all his trip takedowns. Barnatt got the better of Smith the whole time with more precise striking and by constantly going for kimuras while defending Smith's takedowns. That finish where he ko'd Smith with a flying knee as he shot in was fucking awesome.

I also like the new camera style they're using.

What the Hell did you guys think?

I wasn't surprised. Gilbert's problem was himself. He...nor did anyone else for that matter...had no faith in his chance. Just like Jones said, he lost before he even went into the octagon. It was pretty sad that Jones picked such a lop sided matchup for their first fight...just reminded me of Monson/Silva...physically looking at the two Gilbert should've mashed Barnatt into hamburger meat...but long limbs and good takedown defense are a 5'6" muscle bound fighter's worst nightmare.

Oh, and I'm ready for Josh Samman to lose. He thinks he's the coach. He's gonna get a reality check soon when someone lays him out that he thought was his perfect matchup.

I agree about Samman. He thinks he's the coach and he likes the camera a little too much. He's way too concerned about not getting the perfect matchup.
Life would be easy if you only had to fight the best guys on paper. At some point, if you are worth more than shit as a fighter, you are going to have to fight someone whose really good at your weaknesses.

I wish they hadn't given too much away already about next week's fight. The one thing I liked about last season was the live fights since they couldn't blow their cover with the editing to perfectly lead up to what happens in the fight.

As for last night's fight, I actually thought Smith was starting to do much better with his standup, but he just kept going for that takedown. I think we was better at the standup, as JJ said, Barnatt looks real flustered when he gets hit. He really paid for that last takedown.

I agree about Barnatt looking flustered when he gets hit...and also agree that Smith was almost turning things around before he got blasted with that flying knee

Meh, decent enough fight I suppose. I don't buy the "he beat himself" spiel. Especially when Jones went on to say "he had some problems leading into the fight, for instance his cardio"
Well, if you knew he had a problem or two and one was with cardio... why, as his coach, would you not hold off with him fighting as long as possible and work on his weaknesses and cardio? Rather than put him in a fight immediately, where he has multiple disadvantages... Poor fight pick is what lost this fight IMO

I think Jones was picking the fight based on physique. You have a guy that looks like a roided up mini Mike Tyson badass against a string bean with no muscle mass.
I think the game plan was off. I think if he went in there head hunting he may have had a decent chance. Barnatt didn't look all that sharp standing, imo and Smith didn't seem to have all that much trouble closing the distance and landing some punches. Part of the reason he was getting gassed was that he never stopped going for takedowns.

btw, Jones and sonnen seem to be getting along just fine. I bet the coaches challenge will be fun. Any guesses on what it might be.
They haven't done golf yet.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about Jones and Sonnen getting along. As much as Sonnen got under everyone's skin before Silva II...he's actually a really nice guy.

i think the whole thing about sonnen and his being under evrybodys skin (mine included) is he knew when to stop...granted it was maybe at the very last minute but he got beat twice and stopped talking like as much of a lunatic as he had been.

on that note, i havent seen any of this season yet....anybody know where i may be able to view it.

It's bad enough crying fighters after losing a match. But COM'ON crying during the pre-fight interview... naw Gilbert lost before he got in the ring, no heart, too emotional and really....
I always lose it when a fighter says "I don't want to hurt anyone!"

Well Gilbert.... you met your goal ... you didn't hurt anyone AND you probably won't ever have to hurt anyone again.

I see him better off as a body builder than a pro fighter. Most guys with physiques like that don't do so great in the octagon...too much muscle...wear out quickly.

Coaches challenge this year should be beer pong!!!! nothing would make me happier then seeing Samman getting laid out. the dude really annoys me and no matter what you think about a fight line up you never tell your teammate his chances are slim to none. What a douchebag. to be honest neither guy overly impressed me either. Gilbert lacks that killer instinct and confidence in himself while barnatt may have won but man that guy looked really slow for 185 and his ground game was far from good. He has good take downs but i think his size is what helps him along with that and his striking was good but once again if not for his size i question how effective his striking would be.

I honestly figured that with his height advantage Barnatt would set up the jab and follow in with a heavy straight. It's a solid striking technique, especially when you have such a crazy reach advantage. I don't think I saw one solid straight thrown though...

The weird thing about that fight is Barnatt only had like a 2.5" reach advantage despite the huge height difference.

so it looks like uriah may be the loser next week, the way they showed chael bone out to the octigon and how surprised dana sounded with his "are you fucking kidding me"....or it could all be editing

I tend to agree with you norcalmatt...

Heh ... I tuned in primarily cause of the clips of the "worst KO I HAVE EVER SEEN" from Dana ... only to find out its next week.... bastards!

The way Gilbert was pushing his head in for the take-down attempt I'm surprised a knee didn't take him out earlier.

Well there's really not much to say...Uriah has sick striking...and I feel bad for Jones' guy....that was pretty nasty.

I was thinking the same thing as norcalmatt. On top of the weird misdirection-type stuff in the previews, they also showed a quick clip of someone looking just like Uriah (maybe it was him from a later episode) getting taken away in an ambulance right at the end of last week's show.
I'm glad he's still in it. He was my pick to win the whole thing from the get-go.

Many times I'm a fan of the underdog...but in this case I really wanted Uriah to win because he has so much more potential and IMO wants it more.

I kinda suspected that Uriah was the KO guy. After knowing it was one of the next two guys, I did some looking into their past fights and a few highlight vids. Uriah was in kickboxing... maybe the Chuck Norris one... and he has some bad ass highlight vids. He has only 2 losses on his record... the are to Wiedman and Costas Philippou. I could only assume it was gonna be him after comparing their past performances.

Best/Worst KO I have seen in some time.

nice kick!.....side note, i think i may dislike bubba-gump more than samman and in a perfect world they would fight eachother and get the simotanious knock out and eliminate each other.

I totally agree norcal...I think I dislike Bubba more than Samman too...both think they're the leaders of their groups for some reason and don't like to take matchups and advice from the big dogs.

Oh I for sure still hate that Samman dipshit waaaaay more than Bubba. Bubba's a tool, but Samman is the Tool of Tools.

I agree with every one else bubba and samman are annoying and both need to go.