Mr. Beelzebub
03-24-2005, 10:23 AM
from www.mmaweekly.com :
In another MMAWeekly exclusive, UFC President Dana White has confirmed three of the six fights that will be taking place before the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter goes on the air on Saturday, April 9th. Those fights are Nate Quarry vs. Lodune Sincaid, Josh Rafferty vs. Alex Karalexis and Chris Leben vs. Jason Thacker.
As detailed yesterday on MMAWeekly, there will only be enough TV time to air three fights on the live broadcast of The Ultimate Fighter's season finale, and those three fights will be the light-heavyweight finals, the middleweight finals, and Ken Shamrock vs. Rich Franklin. The other six fights, using previously eliminated fighters from the series, will take place before the season finale goes on the air and will not be included on the season finale broadcast.
Nate Quarry vs. Lodune Sincaid will be a middleweight fight, as Sincaid moves down from light-heavyweight after his loss to Bobby Southworth during the TV series. Quarry was not able to fight during the series and had to leave the show due to an ankle injury suffered in training.
Chris Leben vs. Jason Thacker will also take place at middleweight. Thacker left the show in an "elimination ceremony" at the beginning of the series without ever having a chance to fight, but he was believed to be one of the lesser fighters on the show. Leben was actually eliminated twice. After first losing to Josh Koscheck via decision, Leben was brought back to the show when Nate Quarry had to leave the show due to injury. In his second fight, Leben dominated Kenny Florian but ultimately lost the fight via doctor's stoppage due to a nasty cut above his eye.
Josh Rafferty vs. Alex Karalexis is a battle of middleweights who were eliminated from the TV show by losing to the dominant-looking Diego Sanchez. Karalexis was dominated on the ground by Sanchez before ultimately losing via a rear naked choke submission. Rafferty showed a large amount of heart in his fight with Sanchez by taking as much ground-and-pound punishment as he did, but the fact remains that it was an extremely one-sided fight that Sanchez won by submission.
Three other fights between eliminated contestants from the reality show have not yet been announced, and will bring the total number of dark matches up to six. As previously reported on MMAWeekly, though Dana White did not mention any of the possibilities for how those six fights could be used at a later date, logic would dictate several legitimate possibilities. The fights could be aired on ****e TV at a later date, perhaps as a series of two or three one-hour specials depending on the average length of the fights. The fights could be made into one of the UFC's off-month pay-per-view shows, such as this month's "Ultimate Randy Couture" special, and could cost $10 or $20 to buy on PPV instead of full price. The fights could be released on DVD, and certainly if ****e TV was already planning on putting TUF out on DVD, it would be a great bonus feature to be able to say in the marketing on top of everything else, "Plus, see the contestants in six never-before-seen fights!" These are all legitimate possibilities, but they are also sheer speculation on my part and have not been decided on within Zuffa
In another MMAWeekly exclusive, UFC President Dana White has confirmed three of the six fights that will be taking place before the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter goes on the air on Saturday, April 9th. Those fights are Nate Quarry vs. Lodune Sincaid, Josh Rafferty vs. Alex Karalexis and Chris Leben vs. Jason Thacker.
As detailed yesterday on MMAWeekly, there will only be enough TV time to air three fights on the live broadcast of The Ultimate Fighter's season finale, and those three fights will be the light-heavyweight finals, the middleweight finals, and Ken Shamrock vs. Rich Franklin. The other six fights, using previously eliminated fighters from the series, will take place before the season finale goes on the air and will not be included on the season finale broadcast.
Nate Quarry vs. Lodune Sincaid will be a middleweight fight, as Sincaid moves down from light-heavyweight after his loss to Bobby Southworth during the TV series. Quarry was not able to fight during the series and had to leave the show due to an ankle injury suffered in training.
Chris Leben vs. Jason Thacker will also take place at middleweight. Thacker left the show in an "elimination ceremony" at the beginning of the series without ever having a chance to fight, but he was believed to be one of the lesser fighters on the show. Leben was actually eliminated twice. After first losing to Josh Koscheck via decision, Leben was brought back to the show when Nate Quarry had to leave the show due to injury. In his second fight, Leben dominated Kenny Florian but ultimately lost the fight via doctor's stoppage due to a nasty cut above his eye.
Josh Rafferty vs. Alex Karalexis is a battle of middleweights who were eliminated from the TV show by losing to the dominant-looking Diego Sanchez. Karalexis was dominated on the ground by Sanchez before ultimately losing via a rear naked choke submission. Rafferty showed a large amount of heart in his fight with Sanchez by taking as much ground-and-pound punishment as he did, but the fact remains that it was an extremely one-sided fight that Sanchez won by submission.
Three other fights between eliminated contestants from the reality show have not yet been announced, and will bring the total number of dark matches up to six. As previously reported on MMAWeekly, though Dana White did not mention any of the possibilities for how those six fights could be used at a later date, logic would dictate several legitimate possibilities. The fights could be aired on ****e TV at a later date, perhaps as a series of two or three one-hour specials depending on the average length of the fights. The fights could be made into one of the UFC's off-month pay-per-view shows, such as this month's "Ultimate Randy Couture" special, and could cost $10 or $20 to buy on PPV instead of full price. The fights could be released on DVD, and certainly if ****e TV was already planning on putting TUF out on DVD, it would be a great bonus feature to be able to say in the marketing on top of everything else, "Plus, see the contestants in six never-before-seen fights!" These are all legitimate possibilities, but they are also sheer speculation on my part and have not been decided on within Zuffa