MMA Cult (Fighter Apparel)

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change—Ray Longo on trying to get Joe Scarola to stay in the house on TUF 6

Photo: Matt-Hughes.com

Matt Hughes gives his thoughts on the UFC card this past weekend on his website:

The War Machine/J-Rock fight was excellent, and I believe the Huerta fight was the fight of the night. Very happy for Mac, you can tell that he really prepared for this fight and he did well. Disappointed for Tommy as he didn’t get to show what he’s made of, but nothing to hang your head over. He got second in the tournament and he’s sure to have a future in the UFC.

The BetUS.com lines have Clay Guida as the favorite at the moment over Roger Huerta for their battle Saturday night live on Spike TV. The line is currently:

Roger Huerta     125

Clay Guida        -155

Photo: dragonslist.com

Coach on season 6 of The Ultimate Fighter, Matt Hughes, gives his thoughts on Wednesday’s episode of TUF 6:
One of the big concerns on last night’s show was Tommy’s cut, but to me it wasn’t a big deal. Tommy’s cut was definitely bad, but they gave him the most amount of time between fights as they could and I knew that the Athletic Commissions’ number one concern is safety. So I knew that if they let him fight it would be okay, because they would never have cleared him if the cut was that bad.

About Team Serra’s pranks in the house, I did know about it, just from the guys coming back and telling me. I thought some of it had to do with Serra just not being a good coach. He should have been telling his guys that they needed to relax.

I didn’t know anything about Ben Saunders being sick until this week’s show. So I don’t know how much they played up on that or what. It could have had nothing to do with the outcome of the fight or maybe it had everything to do with it.

But still, Tommy’s just so tough. Who would have thought that guy would have gotten out of all those submissions and done so well? It just shows how tough he is and his ‘never quit’ attitude. Tommy’s training with us right now because he fights at the finale, like every other fighter from the show (except for two as I mentioned last week).

For the semifinal picks, I knew what I wanted and I knew that I could get the match ups I wanted. Everybody had been talking about how good George was and how good Mac was and that the UFC was wanting both of those guys in the finals, so I knew I didn’t have to say much to get that. -Matt

Photo: PrideFC.com

In his blog on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, Mac Danzig gives his impressions of episode 11 of the reality series:

To all my wonderful readers: Sorry if this one is short, but I’m concentrating on full time training and honestly, there’s not really much to say about it. Oh yeah, if I seem like a smart-ass jerk at times, maybe I am, but keep in mind, I’m trying to make this blog entertaining, so here goes …

Well, this episode (entitled “Upper Decker”) revolves almost entirely around the Saunders vs Speer fight, and the toilet incident. Great, episode, eh?

Somehow, in the fight recaps, Richie is again praised for not getting destroyed as bad as everyone expected, disregarding the fact that George had a virtually no-win situation on his hands fighting someone four to five levels below him. It’s like a professional chess player playing against a toddler with an extra chromosome, and when the toddler takes a pawn before losing, everyone praises him for it. In that case: Great job, Richie! You are an inspiration to us all.

Richie would make one hell of a great T-Ball player.

The toilet incident: Up until this point, none of these guys (War, Richie, Troy) really had shown that much blatant disrespect to anybody. We were about one week away from going home when this happened and I was not in the mood for that kind of nonsense.

There really isn’t much to say about it. Richie wasn’t going to get up when I walked towards him. He was hammered and decided to play a fake role of “I’m gonna sit here and laugh, it’s no big deal.” He knew people would hold me back and he wanted no part of it. This guy is hilarious. He says that “my bark is louder than my bite.” I have to laugh at that. This is coming from a guy who submitted by whining like a little girl into George’s anal cavity while kicking his feet like Fay Wray in “King Kong.”

When Billy told me about their little prank, I just told myself; “Don’t do anything that will get you kicked off the show.” And I didn’t. I can understand a lot of pranks out there, but that was pretty nasty. On top of that, a prank should be played on someone who you’re friends with, not your enemies. Otherwise, it’s the difference between something that is silly and laughable, and something that causes huge problems.

I was in my closet thinking about how I should handle the situation when I heard J-Roc kick the door down. I then heard some yelling and I ran out there because I assumed that we were fighting. Once I got to the room, it was just a bunch of guys yelling and holding each other back and basically trampling Bowman who had fallen to the floor in a valiant one-legged attempt at breaking the squabble up.

I don’t know … the whole situation sucked because I don’t associate myself with people who do stuff like this and here I was, forced to be around them. But that’s the formula for the show and that’s what I signed up for, right?

I told them to clean it up, they did, and I wasn’t trying to have anything to do with them anymore.

The fight between Tommy and Ben was pretty boring with the exception of Tommy’s no-quit attitude during the arm bar. I have to admit, that was in really deep. Tommy won’t tap. That’s all there is to it. He’s tough as hell and it’s from his upbringing. If someone is going to beat the guy, it’s gonna have to be with technique and precision. You can’t let the guy hold you down and grind you out. Easier said than done, as we saw here.

Stay tuned for next episode, people. This whole experience is almost finally over and I couldn’t be happier.

Photo: UFC.com

John Kolosci gives his views on last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter last night in his blog:

We are now into Week 11 and the season is coming to an end. We get to see the final quarterfinal match-up between Ben Saunders and Tommy Speer. We started off with a nice recap of last weeks fights, which put Matt Arroyo and George Sotiropoulos into the semi-finals. Both guys showed their submission skills and used them to move on in the competition.

Troy, Richie and War all decided to stay home from practice and drink a little bit. Again, we were not chided for messing up the house, but the “Upper Decker” was taking it a bit too far. It was quite inconsiderate and if someone on Team Hughes did that in my bathroom, I would have reacted the same way as JRoc. I was quite open about my opinion and definitely let them know it was wrong. Danzig was mad for quite a while about this one, whereas JRoc was over it about an hour later and was actually laughing about the whole thing. War and JRoc are actually good friends now and do keep in touch. Sick stuff, but it was very late in the season and everyone was losing it on some level. FYI: In case anyone was wondering, Danzig did not think very highly of Hightower. I just thought I’d clear that up…

Ben Saunders was an impressive fighter and definitely a handful for anyone in the house. He had some really good high kicks, quick hands and he was slick on the ground. His diet was impeccable. Tommy Speer is a good wrestler and tough as nails. His diet was less than perfect. We actually caught Tommy eating raw Turkey Bacon. He would pull strips right out of the package and put it on bread with mayonnaise! We seen this and were like “dude, you have to cook that stuff!” He looks at it and states that he’s been eating it like that for a few days and never got sick, so he thinks its fine, and continues to eat it. His other favorite meal was just plain mayonnaise sandwiches and he never eats vegetables. It really makes you wonder if diet is truly all that important? An interesting match-up to say the least.

This should have been a special rules handicap match! Both guys were in bad shape. Tommy had all the damage from the last fight and was worried about being cleared by the commission. He was laying in the living room everyday with ice packs on his face. He just kept saying: “I’ll be fine”. That’s the spirit Tommy Boy! Ben, on the other hand, had a broken nose and couldn’t breathe through it at all. His SNORING was an absolute testament to that statement. If you didn’t fall asleep first, you were up forever! I’ve never heard such snoring in my life. I would love to take him camping with me, as no bear would dare come around a campsite with that commotion going on! Then, Ben wakes up the morning on the fight feeling horrible. He was sick as a dog and was begging the staff to take him to the hospital for an IV. He had cramps, a headache and flu-like symptoms. He had no luck getting approved for an IV, but there was no way anyone was keeping him out of that cage. The kid is a fighter and loves to compete.

Tommy wins another hard fought decision. No one could believe he did not tap from the arm bar. I guess it looked much worse than it really was. It looked like it was going to snap, but not according to Tommy because he didn’t feel anything pop. Tommy survived a couple submissions and ground-n-pounded his way to a decision victory. Ben was absolutely gassed much earlier than he normally would have been, due to being sick and not being able to breathe through his nose. He hung in there like a trooper and did what he could to fend off the attack, but Tommy was just too much. So, Tommy is the final guy to make it to the Semi-Finals.

The coaches sat with Dana to pick the match-ups and they chose Danzig to fight Arroyo and Sotiropoulos to fight Speer. Danzig and Sotiropoulos were considered the two top dogs in the house, so I believe they were meant to be separated, to be allowed the chance to fight each other in the finals. Now, they all get one week to heal up and train before the fights, which occurred on our last day there. BUT, next weeks preview reveals that someone cannot continue? Who could it be? Who will be the replacement? Very interesting turn of events!

Photo Credit: UFC.com

TUF 6 competitor John Kolosci gives his thoughts on this past week’s episode of the reality series on Spike TV on his blog:

We’ve now made it to Week 10 and get to see two quarterfinal match-ups where Team Serra members all face each other. We got to see a recap of last week’s debacle, in which I didn’t perform too well, but it was a fine recap of me taking some punches and elbows! I was so excited with that wonderful reminder!

Well, the first part of the episode definitely wasn’t one of my shining moments. They caught me in the room, all sad, with George comforting me and once that was over, I was determined to get “fat and drunk.’’ This is definitely not an episode I want my daughter to see, although it should teach her a lesson about the negative aspects of drinking. You booze, you lose! The editors did a good job making it look like I did ALL of the destruction, but the truth is, I only did about 95% of it. They skipped me head-butting the wall inside the house, where I hit a stud and it dropped me (I got a call from the producers on that one: “no bodily harm John”). But, they got my losing battle against the palm tree. I do have a bad habit with head butting things when I’m drunk, and sometimes it’s other people. My own house has had its share of holes in the wall too. This is a prime example as to why I do not consume alcohol. I literally only drink about 2-3 times a year and it’s usually when I’m on vacation. I needed to release some energy and that pretty much did it. I think my good standing in the house precluded me from any backlash and most found it amusing. It was kind of like school, where getting straight A’s kept me from getting the harshest penalties for my misbehavior. Barrera may have taken exception because he couldn’t swim the next morning, but he never said anything to me directly. Although, it could have been considered a cool obstacle course to swim around? Before talking about the match-ups, I’d like to speak to the little piece of drama they were able to throw in there. It was Serra’s choice not to corner anyone against his own guys and I respected his decision. I would probably make the same choice had I been in that position. It just goes to show the camaraderie that we all built as a team and the friendship we built with Serra. He didn’t hide it and let the fighters know up front. As for training George and Matt, that was because George and Matt picked Serra’s brain constantly, as did I. If Rude Boy and Richie wanted help from Serra, it would have been as easy as asking. George and Matt asked, Rude Boy and Richie did not. They both seemed to train with Longo a lot more, as they were stand up fighters, but in my opinion, they should have utilized Serra much more than they did. Personally, I picked all the coaches brains as much as possible. I have a notebook full of techniques that proves it! I do not believe Serra was playing favorites; he just spent more time with the guys that wanted to spend time with him. All they had to do was ask… Now, onto the quarter final match-ups. The two matches were all Team Serra guys and the first fight pitted Troy “Rude Boy” Mandaloniz against Matt Arroyo. This was a clash of styles and both fighters wanted it in their world. Troy wanted to keep it standing so he could knock Matt out and Matt wanted it on the ground, so he could submit Troy. The fight started off with both fighters feeling each other out. Matt actually threw a nice high kick and Troy blocked it well. Matt then faked a punch and went for a single leg and got the takedown pretty easily. From there, he worked his Jiu Jitsu magic and tapped Rude Boy out with an arm bar. Not a very good showing for Rude Boy, but he now knows what he has to work on and I’m sure he’ll be hitting his Jiu Jitsu hard. Matt looked very impressive for the second time this season and is now in the semifinals… The second match-up was George Sotiropoulos against Richie Hightower. I believe everyone thought this fight would last about 1 minute. Richie had some good stand-up, but George was a pro-level boxer, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt and a very good wrestler. Richie surprised a lot of people by bringing it to George. He has a great counter left, which I think George was used to from practice, as George blocked them all. George finally took the fight to the ground, where he had a definitive advantage and finally set up the kimura and tapped Richie out. George was quite methodical on the ground and didn’t throw any punches or land any elbows. We were yelling for him to do so, but he was setting up the submission and ended up pulling it off. I think both fighters did well, as Richie did better than expected and George progressed to the semifinals unscathed. So, now we have Danzig, Arroyo and Sotiropoulos in the semis. Next week we get to see Saunders –vs- Speer, which is sure to entertain. Plus, everyone finally gets to see what all the drama was about with JRoc and War Machine! Stay tuned for week 11….

Photo: bjj.com.au

UFC veteran Elvis Sinosic has some shared lineage with “The Ultimate Fighter 6″ contestant George Sotiropoulos. Both receiving their Machado Black Belts in BJJ from John Will, the two competitors have trained with one another on numerous occasions. “George is a very motivated and driven competitor”, comments Sinosic. “He is the sort of person who always gives his all, whether it be on the mat while training or in the Cage while competing. George is a good guy and very dedicated Martial Artist.”

Sotiropoulos advanced to the semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter 6 this week on Spike TV.

Photo: MacDanzig.blogspot.com

In his blog, Mac Danzig gives his thoughts on last nights episode of TUF 6:

John Kolosci said it right: “When you win, it’s the highest high, and when you lose, it’s the lowest low.”

I’ll tell you what, this is a crazy game we play. Fighting isn’t for everyone, and in my opinion, there isn’t a more emotionally draining sport. Everything you do leads up to that one moment. Fighting isn’t like baseball. You can’t make up for it two days later at a home game.

John decided to get wasted and trash the place after his loss. Some people change drastically when alcohol enters their bloodstream and Mr. Kolosci was no exception. He went from being one of the most reserved and mature members of the house, to howling at the moon and obnoxiously trashing everything in sight.

At least he had a smile on his face while he was doing it. I had mixed feelings about the destruction of personal property (on one hand, it’s kind of entertaining in a “Jackass” sort of way, but otherwise, it’s pointless and stupid) but boys will be boys, and after all, production sort of condoned that kind of activity. Many times, we were told by production: “trash the place, we don’t care.”

I honestly felt like they went a little bit overboard. There’s some kid out there watching the show that would’ve loved to have that particle board foosball table that got thrown into the pool, subsequently deteriorating and clogging all the pool’s filters and making the water unsafe to swim in. Oh well.

During the destruction montage, we get to see a tiny glimpse of two things that were fairly hilarious to me. One was Tommy’s sleeveless “summer lumberjack” flannel, while the other was Blake’s “skullet” haircut. I wish they would have touched on these things in greater detail. Blake had Billy cut his hair into a Nascar style pre-mullet equipped with lightning bolts shaved into the sides. He then proceeded to to grow a beautiful handle-bar mustache to complete the ensemble.

The funny thing about it, was Blake was of course joking around, where as Tommy actually brought an assortment of flannel shirts with the sleeves torn off as a normal part of his wardrobe. What a wonderful melting pot of American culture!

I guess Troy was a little hurt that Serra wasn’t going to corner him. I remember before reality set in and they all realized that they were going to have to fight each other, some of those guys (especially Troy) were writing stuff on their water bottles every day like “Serra 4 Life.” They then got all offended when things went down the way they did.

That’s all good, I guess, but it kinda reminded me of when girls in school would write “I love Johnny” on their notebooks, and then get all upset and cry when they found out that little Johnny kissed a lot of girls in school, and they didn’t feel so special anymore.

All joking aside, it’s definitely an awkward situation when you have to fight your training partner/ roommate. That was a hard situation for them, but that’s the formula for the show and you must always remember, this is an individual sport.

The fight with Troy and Matt went pretty much the way everyone thought it was going to go. No surprises there.

People thought the fight with Richie and George was going to be a massacre, but that‘s not the way it happened. People don’t understand how hard it is to fight a guy with much less skill and nothing to lose. You can even see Richie’s attitude in the pre-fight interviews. He knows he’s not supposed to win and he’s just planning on going in there and doing his best. For someone with no real aspirations of winning the show, that’s a fairly low-pressure situation, and the way he fought reflected that.

All of the footage of Richie thus far would lead the casual viewer to believe that my judgment of him was unfounded. He speaks respectfully of his opponent and acts as a sportsman. Unfortunately, all the actions of Richie that caused me and the others to be so judgmental of him can’t be shown much because they were vile, profanity-laced tyraids about specific people (mostly strippers and prostitutes) he supposedly knew. I’m sure Spike TV has no interest in publishing these moments.

The George vs Richie fight ended after George secured a kimura from the north-south position. Pretty much a sparring match. Sotiropilous showed patience and poise and completed his job like a pro.