Quote :

"The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 8 will debut on Spike TV on September 17 at 10 p.m. ET. Yesterday, SI.com released the full 32-member cast. UFC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira and top UFC heavyweight contender Frank Mir are set to coach this season's lightweight and light heavyweight hopefuls. Similar to last season, the competitors will be expected to fight their way into the house in the first episode of the show. TUF 8 features 2 brothers of current UFC fighters: Lance Evans, Rashad Evans' brother, and Jason Guida, Clay Guida's brother. Guida is the most experienced fighter in the house with almost 40 pro fights under his belt. With only one professional fight apiece, Shane Primm (1-0) and Sean O'Connell (1-0) will try to follow in Amir Sadollah's footsteps and show the world that experience is overrated. Sadollah went into TUF 7 with a 0-0 record and left with a six-figure contract and a promising future in the UFC. Ryan "Darth" Bader is the early favorite for most obnoxious cast member and you can see why here. In July, UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! that he's found "the next Anderson Silva," and that he is a lightweight who is competing in Season 8 of TUF at 155 pounds. But, he declined to release the fighter's name because it might spoil the season. "I was going off when I saw this guy," White said. "He's 24 and he's destroying people. It's sick how bad ass he is. I'm getting goose bumps talking to you about him." Early speculation is pointing towards Joseph Duarte as the fighter White thinks is the next big thing. Duarte is 24-years-old and has a record of 19-1 in Muay Thai, 9-0 in pro boxing, and 3-0 in pro MMA. You can check out a couple of his fights here and see for yourself if Duarte has the potential to be the next Anderson Silva or if he is just another TUF reject waiting to be cut."

The Ultimate Fighter 8 cast

Lightweights

• Jose Aguilar (17-3-0)
• Fernando Bernstein (2-0-0)
• Junie Allen Browning (2-0-0)
• Rolando Delgado (7-3-1)
• Joseph Duarte (3-0-0)
• Charles Diaz (14-4-0)
• Efrain Escudero (10-0-0)
• Brandon Garner (4-1-0)
• David Kaplan (3-1-0)
• Brian McLaughlin (5-0-0)
• Wesley Murch (4-2-0)
• Shane Nelson (11-3-0)
• Phillipe Nover (5-0-1)
• Ido Pariente (13-4-0)
• John Polakowski (3-1-0)
• George Roop (7-3-0)

Light Heavyweights

• Ryan Bader (7-0-0)
• Antwain Britt (4-0-0)
• Jules Bruchez (3-2-0)
• Lance Evans (4-2-0)
• Karen Grigoryan (5-0-0)
• Jason Guida (26-13-0)
• Ryan Jimmo (6-1-0)
• Kyle Kingsbury (7-1-1)
• Tom Lawlor (6-2-0)
• Ryan Lopez (5-3-0)
• Vinicius Magalhaes (2-2-0)
• Eric Magee (3-1-0)
• Eliot Marshall (5-1-0)
• Sean O'Connell (1-0-0)
• Shane Primm (1-0-0)
• Krzysztof Soszynski (16-8-1)

Bader's TUF 8 Audition




Joe Duarte vs. Randy Bowers

8/19/2008 12:10:56 PM

8/19/2008 5:23:05 PM

anyone keeping up with this?

10/3/2008 2:45:48 PM

yeah bader looks hard to stop...and the prank was awesome.

10/3/2008 2:54:13 PM

haven't watched this week's ep yet (have it DVRed for tonight), but I keep up with it every season. so far some good fights.

I keep thinking that at some point the sport will grow enough that newcomers to the professional ranks (guys on TUF) will be somewhat well rounded. It may be because it's a reality show first and an MMA competition second, but there are usually two or three guys that are pretty good and then the rest suck ass.

10/3/2008 3:30:30 PM

Quote :

"(have it DVRed for tonight"

awesome, i too will be setting my DVR for tonights episode. i keep forgetting

10/3/2008 3:39:44 PM

wait, there is an episode tonight too?

I DVRed wednesday's episode so I can watch it tonight--first night i have had free since then..

10/3/2008 3:45:40 PM

oh, i thought you meant it was airing again tonight. i forgot to record it on wednesday

10/3/2008 3:54:51 PM

IIRC it re-airs at like 2am on Saturday. It comes on like 3-4 times a week though, so you should be able to find it somewhere.

10/3/2008 3:57:01 PM

**SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS WEEK'S EPISODE**






I cannot believe Junie didn't kicked out on this episode after that nonsense. Then he immediately goes back and starts acting like an idiot. If Dana has a shred of consistency after the whole JT shit last season, the kid will be gone. In fact, it kind of pisses me off after the righteous indignation Dana displayed last season over JT, which while he was also a complete moron, at least he wasn't doing retarded shit out of anger. This Junie kid is unhinged, though. He has some serious anger issues.

10/9/2008 1:18:52 PM

Junie gets ratings............... that's why he doesnt get kicked off

10/9/2008 6:39:12 PM

anyone who enters the cage like he did, he should be gone ratings be damned


thats a fuckin disgrace to the sport and to the competing fighters

i dont care about the scuffles and shit in the house, but under no circumstances do you enter the cage or a ring unless u are cleared to be there

especially hoppin the fence, i really hope hes gone, but he obviously is not since hes the season 8 blogger

10/9/2008 8:35:13 PM

dana white is a hypocrite. I just want to know if Jesse Taylor fucked his girl or something to deserve the completely arbitrary way he was embarrassed and kicked off the show last season.

The fact that Junie's clearly imbalanced ass is still on the show acting like a fool is just more evidence that Dana White isn't trying to build a sport, he is a complete ratings whore.

[Edited on October 17, 2008 at 1:16 PM. Reason : what is up with Krzysztof's obsession with dudes' drawls]

10/17/2008 1:14:06 PM

im so tired of the ultimate fighter series


i love mma but i cant continue to support this crap

10/17/2008 1:22:52 PM

I'm kind of getting there as well. I wish it was less of a reality show and more just a "get to know some upcoming fighters" type show.

[Edited on October 17, 2008 at 1:40 PM. Reason : f]

10/17/2008 1:36:50 PM

jesse was a boring fighter...they're a lot less lenient on these things for the boring ones.

10/17/2008 2:41:14 PM

i didnt think jesse was boring, he did go for GnP

he was just heavily position-first in his approach

but youre right, that is the truth, the unfortunate truth


btw, he knocked Drew Fickett the fuck out in a minute and a half like two weeks ago

[Edited on October 17, 2008 at 3:58 PM. Reason : r]

10/17/2008 3:58:06 PM

yeah he was fun to watch in the first round...after that...ehhh not so much.

i think they should start putting two guys in the cage against silva...that would be fun to watch.

10/17/2008 4:00:02 PM

Wow. Junie Browning vs Roli Delgado has to be one of the sorriest fights I've ever seen on TUF. It looked like a couple of high school kids fighting after school.

Roli doesn't know how to throw a proper punch, combos are out of the question, and the punches/kicks that landed were incredibly weak. His footwork was horrible. His balance was off. He's supposed to be a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, but we didn't get to see it because he hasn't got a clue on how to do a takedown (which brings that black belt into question by itself.)

Junie was not impressive at all either. His defense is horrible and he was throwing haymakers that didn't stand a chance of landing. Most of the fighters in the house would have destroyed either one of those guys in the first round.

While I wanted Junie to go home, Roli didn't deserve to be there either. Junie will be gone soon enough though.

10/23/2008 12:18:43 PM

to be fair ALOT of the elite BJJ black belts in mma have no clue how to takedown opponents

even nogueira himself isnt the greatest takedown artist

10/23/2008 4:01:52 PM

http://mmajunkie.com/news/13393/the-ultimate-fighter-8-finale-card-released-16-cast-members-booked.mma

Finale card released. The Bader fight underscored why most wrestlers in MMA are boring as shit to watch. I cannot believe the shit Dana let's that clown Junie get away with after the way he has crucified other fighters who act like boneheads. Somehow, as sorry as he is, he makes it on the televised card.

Overall a pretty lame season. The early seasons were more about fighting, competitions and training. Now all we get is an episode of the Real World without the chicks and with a lame fight thrown in every now and then.

12/4/2008 12:49:53 PM

lame season kind of, mainly because of junie

the rest of the guys werent too terrible and they showed alot more training and drills thant they have in the past few seasons, not as many one sided fights as the Mac Danzig Show of last season

but the finale has four excellent fighters fighting for the contract i LOVE phillipe nover and i am really excited to see what vinny can do in the 205 division, his style of BJJ is similar to that of demian maia and he is aggressive and willing to strike on the feet, if not specifically talented in that area. PLUS HE IS FUCKIN HUGE


so yea vinny, phillipe, and Bader really stood out to me as the season went on (efrian is meh, but at least he beat the shit out of junie )

im real excited for this finale, personally. Im picking Vinny and Phillipe hands down

[Edited on December 4, 2008 at 2:25 PM. Reason : j]

12/4/2008 2:23:52 PM

Fighting to get on the show weeds out some of the lameasses and helps the coaches know how to pick better matchups, so in that respect the last two seasons have been better. At the same time they are ramping up the childish bullshit factor on the show tenfold.

Nover and Vinny are definitely the real deal though. They could both step into the middle of the pack of their respective weight divisions and be competitive right away. I think if Vinny can develop a standup game over time, he could be a real contender.

Bader may win some fights but only because of his strength and athleticism. I can't stand his style and anytime I see an inexperienced wrestler fight, I either fast forward or turn that shit off because it is boring as hell. Of course, rasheed evans started out as a lay and pray artist too and he developed a pretty vicious boxing game. Maybe Bader will go that route.

Also, Frank Mir comes off as a major douchebag during the show (pretty much how Matt Hughes did as well). Nog is gonna beat his ass.

I don't know that Efrain is that good because I fought two pretty shitty fighters. He did take care of business though, so it will be interesting to see how he handles Nover.

[Edited on December 4, 2008 at 2:41 PM. Reason : d]

12/4/2008 2:35:32 PM

Anyone else watch fight for the troops last night? It was pretty badass, much better than most PPVs.




***WARNING: GRUESOME INJURIES AND SPOILERS BELOW***








































Devastating KO by Koscheck, dude's striking is getting pretty scary a la Rashad. Yoshida was still on the mat after the post fight interview, sucks to be him.


What the hell was this dude thinking? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAP!




Also, TUF veteran Corey Hill broke his leg in the prelims:



Definitely not a photoshop. They had to set the leg in the ring and everything, fucking NASTY


[Edited on December 11, 2008 at 5:59 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2008 5:57:22 PM

yeah, that was nasty as hell. I'm kind of pissed because I tried to buy tickets to it since I live in fayetteville, but they said they were just giving tickets to active military. It ends up that they had enough extras that they were just handing them out for free to anyone out there that night.

12/12/2008 6:55:51 AM

i didnt see that fight. it wasnt on my dvr but that arm bar was sick. i dont know what bothered me worse ... the fact that the guy didnt tap or the fact that the other dude was really trying to break his arm. he said he has been waiting to snap someone's arm.

12/12/2008 8:51:34 AM

the corey hill fight wasn't televised (thankfully, I would have gotten sick seeing that on my big screen), but you can find youtube vids of the broken leg all over the place.

^I couldn't believe he wouldn't tap on that armbar. I was screaming at the tV "tap you fucking moron there is no way you are getting out"

[Edited on December 12, 2008 at 8:57 AM. Reason : d]

12/12/2008 8:56:24 AM

that arm bar IMO was worse than the one Mir put on big Tim

12/12/2008 9:18:56 AM

Brutal high kick knockout on Burns.

So far, alot of great fights on the finale. Junie looked alot better than when he was on the show. His cardio was 100% better.

12/13/2008 10:33:00 PM

RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEeee

WILSON GOUVEIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


good night for me so far

i wanted junie to lose bad, but hell u cant argue with that level of improvement damn his combos were crisp and effective and he actually looked...dare i say...slick on the ground

i didnt expect kaplan to get completely tooled like that, that had to be a nightmare for him you can tell he was NOT expectin that level of competence from junie

12/13/2008 10:35:08 PM

ITS VINNY TIME

muh fuckin VINICIUS

12/13/2008 10:40:27 PM

^^ no doubt.

I think Vinny is gonna make Bader look bad here.

12/13/2008 10:45:29 PM

holy shit

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 10:51 PM. Reason : holy shit....]

12/13/2008 10:51:39 PM

well, there goes that prediction. I think I jinxed him.

You play that tentative strike game that Vinny does and you might get caught. Damn.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 10:53 PM. Reason : fuck, I don't like bader]

12/13/2008 10:51:58 PM

bader went to the brock lesnar school of brain stem striking

i was tellin myself vinnny needs to get the hell off that cage, he kept himself against the cage the whole damn fight

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 10:53 PM. Reason : sd]

12/13/2008 10:52:31 PM

after seeing the replays... how the fuck did that shit knock him out?

12/13/2008 10:57:11 PM

he got hit in the back of the head behind the ear like randy did

apparently that give you the wobblies

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 10:58 PM. Reason : we]

12/13/2008 10:58:13 PM

I thought you had to hit further back to do that kind of damage. Well, I think Vinny will bounce back and be a much bigger force than bader going forward.


V I saw how hard it was, but it glanced off his shoulder. I mean, if he had connected flush that was for sure a knockout blow.


[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:03 PM. Reason : d]

12/13/2008 10:59:50 PM

did you see how hard darth Bader thrw that punch?


VINNY CAN BE A FORCE IF HE CAN LEARN TO CIRCLE AWAY FROM THE CAGE

12/13/2008 11:00:37 PM

the black guy in krysztoff corner ws lew polley i wrestled with him in high school and hes a pro fighter now who trains at ATT

12/13/2008 11:08:55 PM

that's cool. You ever tried to get your name in the hat for TUF?

I don't know if efrain will beat him, but I think he will keep this one closer than what most people are saying. If he can survive the initial push, I think he will be ok.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:19 PM. Reason : knock on wood]

12/13/2008 11:16:12 PM

i have one amateur fight



No.

12/13/2008 11:18:56 PM

oh cmon, you couldnt be worse that Jules. I mean, you could at least take an ass beating as well as he did.

12/13/2008 11:20:12 PM

ahah god that was pathetic wasnt it


poor guy


i mean at least HE wasnt as worthless as tommy speer

12/13/2008 11:21:32 PM

i see Kaplan has kept up his gameplan of get punched in the face from the Nover fight

12/13/2008 11:24:05 PM

lmao


btw efrain is a demon Possessed right now

he is fighting outside himself

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:31 PM. Reason : dafoe]

12/13/2008 11:31:19 PM

holy shittttt

nover is caught in rough waters right now boy


we need MORE mexicans in the UFC

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:33 PM. Reason : d]

12/13/2008 11:33:28 PM

efrain was my favorite

12/13/2008 11:38:50 PM

ha he wasnt mine thats for sure

12/13/2008 11:39:33 PM

nover better finish this shit round 3 or he is gonna lose.


efrain is a good example of a wrestler that does more than just lay and pray when he takes it down

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:42 PM. Reason : d]

12/13/2008 11:40:45 PM