T.U.F

My thoughts on The Ultimate Fighter series on Spike TV( my currentobsession). I watched the first season religiously even though I knewnothing about it and found out about it late. The show and the fights wereso much better last year but still it's the only show on TV that I lookforward to. Last year's finale was the most amazing fight I have ever seen. Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar went at it like champions and both proved they could take shots, give shots and were well rounded. Forrest was much more fluid than Stephan, who looked stiff but still was impressive overall. I'm not sure if either have heavy hands since they each took many, many shots to the chin but we'll see in the future I imagine.

Even the other fighters from the first season are seeing action. Josh Koscheck has looked good except in his last fight. He reminds me of Kevin Randleman when he was in the UFC. Strong, quick, overwhelming on the groundand able to get a takedown anytime he wants. He did learn the hardway that the chief rival to the sprawl for defending takedowns is a good knee though. Leben is looking good. Strong ground and pound, good sprawl, iron chin and good striking. Nate Quarry looked amazing in his last fight though as I recall it was against Lodune Sincaid who didn't impress anyone. Quarry said that he has heavy hands but I haven't seen them yet. He's also supposed to be a good submissions guy but so far all I have seen is striking. His punching was tight and accurate and I can't wait to see him against "Ace"Franklin.

The new crop of TUF's don't seem nearly as potent though. Cummo was impressive and we didn't even get to see him standup for very long. His groundwork was mostly defensive but he did stay out of trouble against a grappler with more experience and more strength. Joe was brutal but he was going against a one dimensional striker. I think Mike Whitehead will be a monster when he gets to fight. If his takedowns are good he'll have an upperhand on Seth and or Keith who are strikers.