TUF 18 finale discussion *spoilers*

Everyone's thoughts?

Kinda boring night of fights IMO. I was pretty impressed however by Pena...over and over she's just been too overwhelming for her opponents...I think that's her key, nothing technical, just pure overwhelming in your face fighting. Nice job by Pena, I thought Jessica was gonna take it with technical striking.

And Diaz...holy shit he DESTROYED Maynard. I hate to be like your boss at work that gives you a compliment but has to follow it up with a "however"....

HOWEVER...the dude has garbage for brains. Every bit of respect I had for him after he put on that brilliant display of striking went down the toilet when he opened his mouth and let all that garbled thug junk spew from his mouth in the post fight interview. Please children do not look up to this joker...mixed martial artists are much smarter, much better assembled, more complete ambassadors of the sport we love. Good Lord I feel eons more stupid after hearing him speak.

Ranhi Yaya vs. Tom Ninimaki- This was a good back and forth grappling match and sadly (for me) Yaya was outgrappled by Ninimaki who besides impressively outgrappling the Rickson Gracie black belt and ADCC champion on the mat, also had some impressive throws which he used to transition straight into half guard. I remember watching Yaya in the WEC and thinking how he was a great BJJ guy with no standup, wrestling, or GnP ,but instead of staying that way he worked on all three and got a 3 fight win streak. Hope he's able to rebound.

Chris Holdsworth vs. David Grant- I thought Holdsworth was outmuscling and outstriking Grant with punches and knees in the clinch to takte the first, although Grant was landing some decent leg kicks. In the second Grant ate a head kick ,but caught it and almost turned it into a takedown, although it looked like he might go for a leglock, but Holdsworth defended, got the takedown, locked in a body triangle, and tapped Grant with a RNC for the win.

Julianna Pena vs. Jessica Rakoczy- I agree Pena was impressive. She got that clinch takedown early, but as she was going for an overhand right on the ground, Rokoczy kicked off and got back to her feet. Pena took her down the same way once again and started working ground and pound mixing up punches, Lesnar style hammerfists, and some elbows to get the TKO at the end of the round.

Gray Maynard vs. Nick Diaz- Diaz looked great, he was catching Maynard with straight punches while being chased. Caught him with a short punch and just unloaded on him after he trapped him on the cage. Maynard seemed out on his feet. I didn't see the interview so I'll take your word for it. Man it's sad what happened to Maynard, he's been brutally finished his past three fights. I mean the first time it happened he was winning at first and sort of beat himself by not attacking ,but the last two it was just a one-sided beatdown.

It's also crazy the differences between referees....Yamasaki IMO stopped the Pena fight early, although I think she'd have gotten the win anyway, I didn't really see a whole lot of damaging strikes that Jessica wasn't defending.

On the flip side Lavigne let the Maynard fight go on longer than it should've...he was getting pummeled just one after another...he could've stopped that fight several punches sooner.

Pena did what she had to to get the win. But she just looks like absolute garbage out there. Then she goes on in the post fight conference and other after interviews talking about how she wants a shot at Rousey after another fight or maybe 2....

I hate to be a hater... but she doesn't have what it takes to be in the UFC IMO
She has little technical skill and I'm pretty sure had it went to the 2nd round her gas tank would have been running on fumes. I also thought the stoppage was bullshit! The big excuse I see going around is that it's not a refs job to watch the clock.... REALLY!? So the ref should just be oblivious to the 10 second warning call? Thats just nonsense!

Depending on whether or not they try to build her up, she could be cut real fast! But since Dana seems to love her, I'm sure they will line her up against an underweight and if at all possible, lesser skilled opponent; for her first fight in. You put her in there against some one like Cat, Jessica Eye or even Carmouche and we will all see just how out of her league she is. She won't be able to overwhelm vets like that with slop. But like I said, I'm sure the UFC will bring in an underweight Invicta fighter for her official debut, rather than have her fight a tough fight against an already signed UFC fighter. Only time will tell I suppose. I did see that the UFC is planning on keeping Rakoczy, she has a profile on the site at least...

I agree with that. Each fight I've thought the same thing, but she just comes out guns blazing and overwhelms from the get go. The first person to catch on and crack her coming in should be able to beat her.

Chrom wrote:

I hate to be a hater...

LOL! Since when?

Obviously she's not ready to fight someone like Rousey, but when is the last time someone won TUF and we immediately compared them to the champ? As far as her actually saying she wants to fight Rousey, I don't read too much into that. I mean, isn't that the ultimate goal for everyone? On top of that, I'm sure her friendship with Miesha had a big part in her talking about Rousey, so again, I'm not gonna get too worked up about her saying that.
But IMO Pena is a killer. She fucking ragdolled Rakoczy, who was supposed to be this emerging underdog threat. And it's not like Pena was overhyped or something and she's failing to live up to it. She wasn't even supposed to win her first fight on the show, but she outlasted Baszler when Baszler's gas tank ran out and then finished her (which kind of tells me that had the Finale fight gone past the first, Pena's gas tank wasn't going to be a problem). As far as who she fights next, she's not going to be fighting top competition, and that's exactly the way it should be. As far back as I can remember, TUF winners are fed cans for their first few fights so they can get established. I don't see why it should be any different for Pena.

Holdsworth continues to impress me with every fight. At first on the show I was thinking he was one of the favorites to win it, but that doesn't mean much considering they only had to win two fights to get to the finale. But after he manhandled Wooten and then outmuscled Davey, I truly think this kid could end up being a contender in that division. I don't think he could hold Barao's jock right now, but I think he's currently better than about half the fighters in the division, and may end up improving with the step up in competion.

Pennington should not be feeling too good after her fight with Roxanne. Yeah, she won, but just barely, and in a predominantly stand up fight against a fighter with the stand up ability of Mayhem Miller. Couple that with her horrible performance in her last fight on the show and she better realize that she needs to change something and fast, or else she's gonna be out the door and back to the bush leagues in a hurry.

Diaz vs Maynard, what is there to say? It was beautiful, just beautiful. Diaz lit him up like a Christmas tree. It was somehow better than a clean KO, maybe because it was just so savage and overwhelming that there is now no doubt who owns the trilogy. It was a perfect win for Diaz, considering that (IMO) he got robbed in their last fight.

I think the one thing the show proved was that there is not enough women mma talent yet.

In the past everytime the TUF show has had a weightclass on it for the first time we got good fighters out of it.

LW - Nate Diaz, Gamburyan and Gray Maynard.

The little guys - Dodson, Bermudez, Dillashaw.

The women - Meh.

I think you guys are too tough on Pena. I don't usderstand you all using her size as an excuse. She makes the fucking weight, so who gives a shit? I don't see you GSP and Silva lovers saying the only reason they are good is because they are really big for their weight class.
On the show she walked through the favorite and then just destroyed Rakoczy, who folks on here claimed were going to just pick her to pieces.

She's a little raw, but she has decent standup and is a great grappler. Plus, she's strong which is a positive attribute; not one that should be used for folks to take away from her.
I think with a year or so of training she could be a killer. I think she would smoke Meisha NOW.

No no, you are misunderstanding my weight comment. I don't care about her weight. I'm talking about bringing in a fighter from invicta who fights at a lighter weight class and tossing her in this weight.
The UFC has already done that a few times in the women's division, so I just assume they may do it again.

Also, Trigger, I'm not the one comparing her to Rousey, that's her fans. Some of whom think that she could step in there today and dismantle Rousey. Because "She's more well rounded." That is just fuckin nonsense.
My major problem is this. I love that she has tons of heart, and is gritty and the Wandy-esque style, she is just too damn sloppy with it for me to enjoy though. She needs to be heavily polished IMO
I mean she closes her damn eyes and swings for fuck sakes. Thats like day one shit there.
But I will admit that she has raw potential... but potential can only bring you so far. Time will tell.

I'm with Chrom. I'm not trying to tear the girl apart, but she does need some polishing. I think her wins thus far have come from "beastiness" of just overwhelming her opponent with constant movement and constant action.

There's nothing wrong with that, it makes for a very exciting fight and heck I'd rather see that than someone standing back and counter punching Machida style, but it's also a style that exposes weakness and eventually gets you caught.

I just think she needs to polish up and put some skill into those flapping arms of hers. As was said...time will tell.

Chrom wrote:

Also, Trigger, I'm not the one comparing her to Rousey, that's her fans. Some of whom think that she could step in there today and dismantle Rousey. Because "She's more well rounded." That is just fuckin nonsense.
My major problem is this. I love that she has tons of heart, and is gritty and the Wandy-esque style, she is just too damn sloppy with it for me to enjoy though. She needs to be heavily polished IMO
I mean she closes her damn eyes and swings for fuck sakes. Thats like day one shit there.
But I will admit that she has raw potential... but potential can only bring you so far. Time will tell.

Well, that's a vastly different assessment than your previous one of "she doesn't have what it takes to be in the UFC........ she could be cut real fast........ she's out of her league, etc." That's some for real hating right there! LOL! It's alright, though. I'm sure your Ronda/Racozcy love just took over a little bit there for a minute. It happens to the best of us.

Triggerman99 wrote:

I'm sure your Ronda/Racozcy love just took over a little bit there for a minute. It happens to the best of us.

Thanks for the allowance of leeway  

I would certainly be ok if Ronda/Racozcy would let me watch them scissor themselves in half.

LOL!
I would rather watch a scissor-fest between Ronda and Miesha or Ronda and Jessamyn, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?

actually, i rather have ronda's mouth be absolutely busy at all times. so i dont have to hear her speak. 69 ftw

LOL! Yeah, that's probably the optimal arrangement here. But you know she'd still be doing that stupid uber-mean face the entire time she was chowing down.

haha, picturing that made me actually lol, several times