With the Riddle vs Dante fire extinguished after Riddle's loss last week the new beef in the house is May vs. everyone (but mostly his upcoming opponent Matt "motherf*****" Brown). According to Forrest you don't "mess with a southern boy's tobacco", whatever that means. So apparently because some lime juice got in his chew Matt has it in for May. While I agree that May is the definition of a douschebag Matt Brown has absolutely no personality or sense of humor so this was a train wreck waiting to happen. Unfortunately we won't get to see the collision for another week. The fight this week took place between Brandon Sene and Dante Rivera (yawn...). In between resting my eyes here's what I gleamed from this fight:
Round 1: Dante controlled Brandon fairly handily with a couple of takedowns and using some lay and pray tactics.
Round 2: Brandon again looked weak as Dante got a very impressive slam considering how much bigger Brandon looks than Dante. However, Dante had the round stolen from him when Brandon swept him with about 30 seconds left in the round.
Round 3: Dante again finds the takedown and uses lay and pray to win the round and the fight.
Neither fighter was good. For once I agreed with Dana White on something, that neither of these guys scream UFC fighter to me and neither of them make me go (in Dana's words) "Holy s*** I can't wait to watch these guys!". This fight was merely a formality as neither of these fighters ultimately have a shot at winning the show. Dante's standup and ground and pound was incredibly weak and looks like he should be a welterweight if not smaller. He didn't show any of the jiu jitsu skills he displayed in his first fight. And even though he literally only had two takedowns in his arsenal he managed to out wrestle Brandon. Although Dante had the experience edge in this fight I think it was more a disappointing result for Brandon than a good win for Dante. Brandon, while very raw, showed some serious potential. His standup, although not technically sound, was powerful. And even though he has absolutely no grappling ability either wrestling or on the ground his athleticism allowed him to keep the fight competitive for 3 rounds. All he needs is to work his ass off and really learn how to fight and his athleticism and cool under fire could lead to a productive career. Unfortunately he was just a little out of his league on this show.
After my comments last week I understand now why Rampage was upset by the result of this fight. Brandon was more active than Dante and I suppose caused more damage. However, it's hard to argue with the decision the judges made. Rampage needs to grow up a little and accept that maybe he didn't pick the right guys or train his guys better. In the end it doesn't matter what his record is on this show as Matt Hughes proved last season only putting two guys through the first round and having them meet in the final but with Forrest still picking fights I'm sure it's frustrating for Rampage. But it still doesn't give him an excuse to knock down parking signs like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum.
Next week looks like a barn burner with Brown vs. May kicking off the show with them settling their differences along with another prelim fight. I'll be all over it as usual so be right back here next week for another rousing review of TUF 7.
Soccer kicks and head stomps...
MMAdness
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