The Ultimate Fighter - Heavyweights - Semifinals

**Zimmer** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 4:54pm

I'm calling it now. Nelson wins, whoops Cain and Carwin then whoops Brock to become the fattest HW champion ever. Fat people everywhere(me) rejoice.

EDIT: And yo, I guess it doesn't take any skill to get a BJJ BB.

**Brian R. VanCise** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 5:09pm

Well Nelson has one exceptional game plan that is: stay upright and strike and when it goes to the ground lay on the other guy and punch them in the head. Works like a charm for him! Actually after the British guy was being a jerk earlier in the show it was nice to see Nelson put him in his place!

Marcus on the other hand could be great he just needs more skill. Brandon just caught him and that can happen to anyone.

It will be interesting to see Brandon and Nelson in the final and see what transpires!

**laevus** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 7:34pm

Originally Posted by Valiss

Do you consider Mir a good litmus test for BJJ?

Is this a trick question?
Mir is highly skilled on the ground. I'm not calling him the greatest in the world, but IMO anyone who dismisses a win over Mir in grappling (At a score of 15-2, by the way) is badly hating on Frank.

**Don Gwinn** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 8:00pm

I wasn't surprised to see Jones brought low after he lost, he's an emotional guy. I discount most of what fighters say before and after fights. They stick a microphone in front of these guys while they're emotionally spinning in circles and expect them to say something interesting.

**A.D.D** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 8:27pm

I really liked the part where Rampage was saying how he got carried away thinking about himself during the show and should focus more on his team and NOW Marcus. Then the next thing he says is "If Marcus wins I win.".

**Rivington** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 10:06pm

Originally Posted by tao.jonez

I was glad that Nelson blubber-bloodied his face.

Oh, that wasn't blood. It was ketchup. Nelson's coach squeezed a few of those White Castle sliders through the fencing of the cage while he was on top of McSweeney to keep Nelson's energy levels up.

**wakarukaya** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 10:46pm

Did anyone think Jones took a few too many punches? Kind of a late stoppage in my opinion. Those last few shots looked brutal.

It was interesting seeing Rashad talk about the fight, when he lost in a very similar fashion. He seemed adverse to using the word cocky.

**alex** · Posted On: 12/03/2009 11:34pm

**** the mitrione haters, i like the guy. i like his attitude. hes a nutcase and thats great, and he fucks with people who are too stupid to get it and thats great too.

Marcus needs a good boxing coach. he has AWFUL stand up. like, truly amazingly bad.

**Robstafarian** · Posted On: 12/04/2009 12:10am

Originally Posted by tao.jonez

On a different note I'm surprised that McSweeney wasn't stabbed in his sleep after locking the kooky guy in the bathroom, kicking him in the balls, choking him, then sitting on the bed beside him saying "I'll knock you the **** out, mate."

I wasn't going to introduce that point to the discussion, but since you already did...

Two things surprised me about that dramatic explosion:

McSweeney wasn't thrown off the show.
Zac didn't knife him.

The first point is simple enough: fighters have been kicked off the show for behaving this way. Regardless of what strikes connected, McSweeney put Zac in a guillotine choke.

Fair warning, those of you who don't care to discuss the man drama won't want to read this:

Spoiler:

That second point may seem completely off base, but I had a visceral sort of empathy for Zac when he was sitting against the wall and McSweeney was sitting on the bed taunting him...

I am a younger brother and a cripple, and as such have been victimized much the same way Zac was. A few times when I was dominated to such a ridiculous degree, I did indeed snap. No one could've known that Zac was claustrophobic, but it wouldn't have been an issue if nobody fucked with him in the first place. So Zac snaps, and his tormentor continues to dominate him physically. After losing the fight, Zac then has to deal with his tormentor dominating him psychologically. Only once in my life was I put in such an outrageous position (when I was still a child), and I still think about how lucky I am that I didn't commit murder that day.

This is not to say that I'm a violent maniac, or that I ever was in the past, but a scenario such as that presents a very serious problem: the person being tormented has been pushed to his/her breaking point, and then must decide how to resolve the situation. The tormented person can't possibly be of sound mind when making that decision, thus murder might seem to be a valid option.

Consider the progression thusly:

Zac was bullied for an extended period of time (even though the show is only six weeks, he had a great deal of contact with his bullies).
Zac was pushed to his breaking point (to be fair, this was accelerated by his claustrophobia).
Finally driven to retaliate physically, he is soundly defeated.
Now that it is proven that Zac is helpless when physically attacked by McSweeney, McSweeney starts to attack Zac psychologically (e.g. not leaving Zac's room when told to, followed by reminding Zac that he's physically helpless by replying "Whatcha gonna do?").
Zac now knows that he won't get any peace as long as the situation with McSweeney continues. Either Zac has to physically leave the situation (which he can't do), or McSweeney has to be removed from the situation.
This is where things can get crazy, since Zac has been pushed to his breaking point and is not of sound mind. Zac knows that he can't beat McSweeney in a fight, so the only way to remove him from the situation is a surprise attack—debilitating enough to negate the possibility of a counterattack.

Even I think that this is a lot to write about a possible action which we already know wasn't taken, but I do think it's worth discussing how close Spike and the UFC came to having to deal with horrendous violence during the production of their reality show.*

*I don't know Zac and am not claiming that he had any such thought process.

**eyebeams** · Posted On: 12/04/2009 4:39am

I want Roy Nelson to do the crucifix/arm punch combo. I want boos to echo through the arena as Big Country flops, walrus-like, into side control and only does the minimum amount of work required to win the finale. I will relish the weeping and gnashing of teeth from Zuffa's marketing department as Nelson belly-flops his way up a HW division that is now deprived of Lesnar's mix of freakish physical attributes, explosive wrestling and crossover star power in favour of some dude with an patchy beard and asymmetric haircut who, in a paradox worthy of contemplation, trains hard to effectively use sloth in the ring. Before Nelson, watching a gut-heavy man languidly, skillfully pin a fit younger man was a fetish. Now it will be a t-shirt design.

Striking with the agility of a cooked ham on a pogo stick, felling his enemies like so many double Whoppers, and using their superior physiques as mere beer-belly pillows, Big Country will become the pear shaped SCOURGE of the UFC. Ratings will fall. Dana will come to Fedor on bended knee asking him to crush the man whose jiggling torso slithers sweatily over MMA, covering everything in a salty slick of embarrassment. Dare the Russian risk suffocation in the pasty, hairy navel of a stomach that has enveloped other warriors? DARE HE?