Thursday, November 20, 2008

TUF 8 Review

This week was pretty status quo. The final lightweight quarterfinal fight between Roop and Polakowski took place. There was the standard training montage (which included Roop injuring his dominant hand) and weigh in. There was also a focus on Polakowski's propensity to hug everyone all the time. All in all nothing important happened until the fight so let's get into it:

Round 1: Roop came out and dominated Polakowski on the feet which was pretty strange considering Roop's injury and that Polakowski's only strength is his stand up. Eventually Polakowski got too aggressive and Roop got an easy takedown and was able to control Polakowski on the ground. He kept him in constant danger of a rear naked choke until Polakowski was able to turn into Roop's guard but was unable to land any damage.

Round 2: Both guys came out guns blazing and this time Polakowski got the better of it landing some really hard shots on Roop but Roop toughed it out and eventually got another takedown and was able to control Polakowski the rest of the round though once again he was unable to finish the rear naked choke.

Roop won the decision which everyone seemed unsure/upset about but I don't know what fight they were watching because Roop won that fight easily. Honestly neither guy was a threat moving forward and Roop is in even bigger trouble now with his injury.

The rest of the episode previewed the semi finals which break out like this:
205:
KS v. Vinny - Great match up of striker v. grappler and both guys are super tough, super strong, and cocky as hell so it should be a great shoot out and no matter where the fight ends up it should end in fireworks.

Bader v. Marshall - Bader is a great grappler and strong striker while Marshall is strong on the ground. This should be an interesting match up but Bader has to be the favorite. I hope he pulls through as the red team's last hope at 205.

I'm predicting a KS v. Bader final.

155:
Nover v. Roop: This is a fight between two well rounded fighters but Nover is just too good for Roop even with Roop's size. Roop's injury won't help him either. Obviously Nover is my guy not only for being on the red team but also because he's representing Brooklyn!

Browning v. Escudero: This is a striker v. grappler match and even though I thought Junie was the favorite in the beginning I'm changing my mind. I think Junie's conditioning sucks and he's too one dimensional. I think Escudero will wear Junie down and get him to the ground where he should win the fight.

The last fight is in question based on the previews for next week. Apparently Junie's drinking problem gets the best of him again and puts his fight status in question. If it goes on as planned I think we're looking at an all red team final of Nover v. Escudero which would be fantastic.

Next week looks awesome! It's like a Thanksgiving treat the night before! There will be two episodes and both episodes will include two fights (if Junie's goes on). Finally we get to the meat of the show. It's just too bad they waited until the week before the finale to do it. In any case I'm psyched and I hope all of you are as well. Stay tuned for my review next week as well as my WEC 37 preview. Until then,

Soccer kicks and head stomps...

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