Heavy Handed 11.09.07: Is Season 6 TUF Enough?
Posted by Joe Newman on 11.09.2007
After six seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, not one 'can't miss' superstar has broken out of the pack. Season six might be the weakest, yet.
This season's preliminary fights on The Ultimate Fighter mercifully came to an end Wednesday night with Tommy Speer's pounding of Jon Koppenhaver.
The funny thing is, the last prelim fight actually might have been the best, so far.
But was it good enough to save what adds up to one of the weakest, least competitive set of first-round fights we've seen in six seasons of The Ultimate Fighter?
Not really.
However, whether this is the weakest cast yet assembled is another matter.
It would be easy to dismiss these guys. Taking a look up and down the roster, there are only two fighters who look like they might have any sort of future in the UFC – Mac Danzig and George Sotiropoulos.
The rest of the crew are a raw bunch. While it might be too early to close the book on some of them, as group, they've done very little to impress through the first 8 episodes.
Some of them showed remarkably little fight – from Joe Scarola tapping out with only a few seconds left in the first round to Blake Bowman looking every bit as good as his 0-0 professional record.
The stress of living in the house and the nerves of basically auditioning for a career in the UFC was too much for several of the fighters. Billy Miles and Jared Rollins both looked like they succumbed to a bad case of stage fright.
It's hard to even give some of the winners the credit they deserve because of how bad some of the losers looked.
To be fair, we should give them a couple years to see how they develop.
Dorian Price, who got choked out in episode 2, could turn into a decent fighter if his ground game comes along. Troy Mandaloniz, who knocked out Paul Georgieff in episode 5, looks like he might be a bad ass, though we need to see him against tougher competition.
Even whiny Scarola, who walked off the show in episode 3, has the potential to become a good fighter if he can get his head on straight (though he's unlikely to get another chance in the UFC for awhile).
Still, at this point, it's hard to rank Season 6 any higher than last in the TUF pecking order.
There's little doubt that Season 1 has produced the best slate of fighters. Forrest Griffin, Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez and Josh Koschek are all future title contenders. Some of the other fighters from Season 1 – Stephan Bonnar, Mike Swick and Chris Leben – are all solid competitors who can hold their own with the most of the fighters in their divisions.
Then take a look at Season 6. There's no one from this season that I can envision being a future UFC champion.
My favorite of the bunch is George Sotiropoulos, a tough all-around fighter who looks like he's on the show with only one thing on his mind – winning. I'm willing to bet the house that he and Danzig square off in the finale.
But a future champ? I can't it see it at this point.
Which begs the question of which season will produce the first champ?
Of course, I'm not counting Season 4's Matt Serra, the reigning UFC welterweight champ. Season 4 doesn't really count since it was made up of fighers who had already established themselves in the UFC.
Right now, the spotlight is on the upcoming UFC 78 matchup of Season 2 champ Rashad Evans vs. Season 3 champ Michael Bisping.
The winner will vault into contention for the light heavyweight title. Yet, it's hard to imagine either Bipsing or Evans taking the belt from Quinton Jackson.
If Bipsing loses to Evans, he'll probably drop down to middleweight where he would earn a quick title shot. Unfortunately, for him, a fella by the name of Anderson Silva has that weight class locked up for the foreseeable future.
I think Bipsing's title hopes at middleweight are just as dim as they are at light heavy.
Joe Stevenson from Season 2 will get his shot at an "interim" lightweight title when he takes on B.J. Penn at UFC 80 in January. Barring a major meltdown, I can't see Penn losing that fight.
Kenny Florian from Season 1 has already had his title shot. He'll get another one, too. But he still has to deal with Penn and the eventual return of Sean Sherk.
Forest Griffin and Keith Jardine? Griffin looked impressive in his win against Mauricio Rua, as did Jardine in his win over Chuck Liddell. If Griffin continues to train and improve under Randy Couture's tutelage, he may eventually get his title shot. Jardine is also working is way into the picture.
However, there's such a logjam of talent in the light heavyweight division, that there's probably only 50-50 odds that either fighter will make it through the gauntlet of studs in the 205 pound weight class.
Chances are that there are one or two future champs among the six seasons of TUF contestants but it's likely going to be someone who is not even in the picture at this point.
Nate Diaz, Cole Miller, Joe Lauzon and Kendall Grove are all excellent, young fighters who aren't close to reaching their potential.
They could all rise to the top of the field. Or none of them could. There are still too many fights in front of them to know how good they're going to be when all is said and done. That same description could fit Stevenson, Koscheck and Sanchez, as well.
Another fighter to keep your eye on is Marcus Davis, a Season 2 competitor who continues to impress with his 4-0 record in the UFC.
After six seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, we still haven't seen a fighter emerge from the show who is a can't miss superstar.
Still, say what you will about The Ultimate Fighter, it has earned some credibility over its six seasons.
While there are plenty of busts and names we'll never hear of again, there's also several fighters who have already proven they're the real deal.
Unfortunately, this season, we've had to muddle through eight episodes of lame preliminary fights to get to the meat of the show.
