The Sunday Sprawl 06.22.08: TUF Finale, Diaz-Noons II, July 19
Posted by Alex Mattis on 06.23.2008
A look at TUF 7 finale, the upcoming EliteXC on CBS event, and the huge day for MMA that is July 19th!!!
Hello everyone and welcome back. The Ultimate Fighter finale wrapped up... well... kind of as I hoped, but all in all it was a good night of fights. EliteXC made some waves in the MMA community this week when the rumored main event for their next CBS event got out. And the UFC made it official that they want no one else to succeed in MMA when they announced that Anderson Silva will be fighting on the same night as the Fedor-Sylvia Affliction PPV. I've got some thoughts on all these things... so let's get down to it.
The TUF alumni shine, and a new Ultimate Fighter is crowned:
Well this finale turned out to be a case of same shit, different day when Amir Sadollah submitted CB Dollaway (again) with an armbar. It was very glad to see Amir win the whole thing because right from the beginning he was the only guy on this season that I cared about and wanted to win. He's got a great personality and has heart like Nog that makes him so likeable. Just like their fight during the season, Amir was out wrestled by CB but showed his skills off his back when he locked on a picture perfect armbar. Who knows where this guy can go from here. Also on the event we saw Matt Riddle pretty much school Dante Rivera for three rounds, Spencer Fisher defeat Jeremy Stephens in a very entertaining fight, and Diego Sanchez TKO Luigi Fioravanti in what was a war. Then in the main event we saw two men leave everything they had on the line in order to stick around in the UFC, one man was just better. Kendall Grove looked as good as he ever has, and Evan Tanner looked good a points but really showed his age. In my opinion this will most likely be the last fight for Evan Tanner. He has had a great career but his last two losses have sent a message, and that message is that his time has past. While the live event didn't feature any highlight reel KO's and such, it was still a solid night of fights. I saw two of the prelim fights and both were great. Drew McFedries absolutely destroyed Marvin Eastman and Dustin Hazelett submitted Josh Burkman with a slick armbar. Both were big victories for both men. As seems to be the trend with the Ultimate Fighter finales, this was a night of great fights that will ultimately help to further many fighters' careers.
Diaz-Noons II to headline EliteXC's next CBS event?
In what could turn out to be a very volatile situation, it has been rumored the EliteXC's next CBS event could emanate from Stockton, CA and could feature the lightweight title rematch between KJ Noons and Nick Diaz. Last year Noons defeated Diaz by a TKO doctor stoppage due to cuts. Prior to that, however, Noons was winning and clearly out boxing Diaz. Since then there has been a TON of shit talked by both sides, and there was event an altercation between the two at Noons latest title defense. This has all the makings of a great grudge match, but given the fact that Nick Diaz involved and the fact that it could be in Diaz's home time, this has dangerous written all over. I mean on PPV it would be no big deal, but shit could go awry on CBS. Diaz always loves to stir the pot, and in his home town things could get wild. I hope to see the fight and I hope to see Diaz redeem himself and beat Noons down. Also rumored for the card is the Scott Smith-Robbie Lawler rematch. Their first fight was awesome but ended on a bullshit call. Both of these rematches could mix together to make an even better event than EliteXC's debut on CBS.
Ultimate Fight Night 14: Silva-Irvin:
Well at the TUF finale the UFC made it official, they will be running an UFN to compete with the July 19 Affliction PPV featuring Tim Sylvia Vs. Fedor. This event will be history in the making as the UFC's current middleweight champion will make the move up to the light heavyweight division as he is set to do battle with "The Sandman" James Irvin. This should be quite the slugfest that I can't wait to see. Irvin has heavy hands and this is the biggest opportunity of his career. It should make for a very interesting scrap. Fedor and Anderson are both in the top three best fighters in the world so the UFC has made the marketing for this event revolve around that. The tag line of the UFN is something along the lines of "On July 19th you won't need PPV to watch the best fighter in the world." Interesting. The event is also rumored to feature a light heavyweight appearance from Brando Vera as he looks to get back to his winning ways. I think he may bode much better at 205. Also I read that the Hermes Franca-Frankie Edgar bout that I talked about last week, has been moved from UFC 87 to UFN 14. I can't wait to see this fight and am happy that it'll happen sooner than later. While this card intrigues me greatly, this event is likely to get the DVR treatment. I can't wait to see Silva-Irvin, but I'm such a huge Fedor fan that I see myself ordering the Affliction PPV and watching UFN right after. But no matter what way you cut it, July 19th is going to be one of the biggest days in MMA for quite some time.
Well that's it for me this week.
See you next Sunday when I'll have my thoughts on the happening of the MMA world.
