The Ultimate Fighter: Season 10, Episode 2
Airing September 23rd, 2009
Report by F4Wonline.com, Brent Wilson
Shockingly, the show opens up with everyone talking about Kimbo
Slice. Kimbo notes how big some of the guys in the house are,
particularly Wes Shivers. Justin Wren remarks that he would love to
fight Kimbo and Roy Nelson feels that Kimbo would be a perfect style
matchup for himself, which it would be. Kimbo feels it's an honor to
work with Rampage and Rampage thinks he sees a lot of himself in Kimbo.
We then cut to a montage of Kimbo working on getting up after getting
taken down. He looks decent, but the types of switches he's shown
hitting aren't going to fly against an opponent who's actively pushing
back.
ANGLE ALERT: Roy Nelson is displayed as being hard to coach for Team
Rashad. Rashad notes that Nelson is as old and as experienced and
accomplished as himself and so he understands why Nelson is being so
difficult. Rashad tries to present it to Roy that the other guys look
at Nelson as a leader and he needs to lead by example or else no one is
going to train right. It actually gets pretty heated with Nelsons KO
loss to Andrei Arlovski being brought up, and talk of Nelson having to
move to Team Rampage, but at the end of the day Nelson accedes and will
play the good soldier.
For the second fight selection Rampage picks Rashads top pick and
Team Greg Jackson teammate James McSweeney to face off against his Wes
Shivers. This is a better match up picked by 'Page as opposed to last
week but is still one fraught with danger. Shivers has shown a very
limited gas tank, is still very green and has dropped his hands early
in his fights. This leaves himself open to the big strikes and flying
knees that McSweeney has, however McSweeney is far too aggressive and
Jackson is probably banking on Shivers getting McSweeney down early and
using some of his catch wrestling and hilarious submissions to put
McSweeney away. Rampage claims the pick had nothing to do with strategy
and he only picked McSweeney to take out Rashads boy. Rashad thinks
McSweeneys stand-up is second to none on the show which is true, but he
exposes himself in the other areas of the game greatly.
James McSweeney (3-4) comes from a Muay Thai and Kick Boxing
background and is a veteran of both K-1 and Cage Rage. As a British
Mixed Martial Artist McSweeney is contractually obligated to have no
wrestling skill whatsoever....but seriously, in the fights I've seen
McSweeney literally has a 0% success rate defending takedowns, and his
only takedown attempt was an atrocious double leg that didn't even
budge a completely gassed Neil Grove, Grove then pounded out McSweeney
and collapsed into a pile of tired goo.
McSweeney doesn't help matters by being so aggressive on the feet,
while on the outside McSweeney actually shows the nicest footwork of
anyone on this season, staying on the balls of his feet and throwing
leg kicks. He's coming from mainly a Muay Thai background and as such
McSweeneys' hands aren't the most developed and he wings the wild hooks
typical of Heavyweights. Where the problem is, is that McSweeney is far
too active for his own good, he is constantly leaping in and throwing
superman punches, flying knees, and front kicks. This allows opponents
to get into his body and easily take him down, when opponents push back
on the feet McSweeney moves straight back into the fence and then
doesn't circle off of it effectively, which again allows opponents easy
access to his legs. This strategy can sometimes pay off spectacularly
like in the ten second flying knee knockout of Roman Webber, but for
the most part it just ends up with McSweeney on his back.
Whilst on his back McSweeney actually suffers from the same problem,
he attempts to do far too much, McSweeney is constantly either trying
to get up or throw up his hips for a submission attempt. This creates a
frantic pace but just makes it far too easy for opponents to pass
McSweeney's nonexistent guard, McSweeney also looks to have enough jitz
to create opportunities but not to finish them, failing to finish a
pair of armbars against Polish Sumoka Robert Paczkow, or a
triangle/armbar against Neil Grove that were all ripe for the picking.
In the five fights I've seen that McSweeney has ended up on his back he
has given up at least side control in all of them, and mount in three
of them, the Paczkow fight ended with Paczkow passing to North-South
and then smothering McSweeney's face with his sizable belly for an
embarrassing submission, the others ended with McSweeney giving up
dominant position and either covering up while getting pounded or
giving up a choke.
James McSweeney was brought onto this season to throw some wild
strikes, maybe get a crazy KO but ultimately will end up mounted or
back mounted and that will be that.
McSweeney thinks recently moving to Team Jackson will greatly
improve his game and that that will give him an advantage as opposed to
Wes Shivers who is training with Alan Belchers team in Mississippi.
Wes Shivers is a big, big dude. Standing 6'7" and having to cut to
265 lbs, Shivers towers over the competition in the TUF house. Shivers
is one of the four NFL veterans on the show having spent some brief
time with Atlanta and Tennessee after a successful career with
Mississippi State (he was famously involved in an on-field brawl in
Starkville during a recruiting trip where he was clocked and busted up
by current NFLer Deuce McAllister). Shivers has since transitioned to
MMA starting out with catch wrestling, then moving on to work with
Belcher.
Shivers is very clearly a work in progress in MMA, on the feet he
shows an alright jab but everything else is very sloppy. His footwork
is awkward, he's off balance, he just alternatingly wings both hands as
hard as he can. The biggest problem is that he constantly drops his
hands, when he flurries with punches, when he kicks, when his opponents
kick, when he gets tired (which happens very quickly), this resulted in
his only loss as Brad Tidwell knocked him out cold with a counter while
Shivers was flinging wild shots.
Shivers uses his size to his advantage well though, he's so big it
can be tough for opponents to get to his legs on takedown attempts.
He's also very good in the clinch at leaning on his opponents with his
huge upperbody, this not only wears on his foes and keeps them away
from his legs, but also creates space for his hips for him to throw
knees. When he's on top Shivers clearly knows how to pass and is
effective with short forearms and elbows, throwing short shots as it's
tough to get good leverage on punches with such long arms on the
ground. From his back Shivers constantly looks to control his opponents
head and posture with his left arm, while overhooking his opponents
left with his right and trying to set up an arm-triangle from his own
guard, Mike Thomas Brown-style. This actually worked against Jerry
Carrol, but honestly that's not going to work against good fighters and
leaves him open for elbows between his arms.
Shivers is too wide open for shots from other brawlers, his
grappling is sloppy and has only excelled against jobbers, and he needs
to finish things very quickly due to his limited gas tank, to be honest
I just can't see him sticking around the UFC for too long after the
show. If McSweeney comes flying out at Shivers I could easily see
Shivers ending up on top. From there Shivers has enough passing skills
to easily flow through McSweeney, end up in dominant position and
submit or pound him out. McSweeney doesn't have textbook hands or huge
power to take full advantage of Shivers low hands, but if it stays at a
distance he dominates Shivers, but he's probably going to give in to
his urges to hand Shivers a takedown.
Shivers plans on countering McSweeney leg kicks with straight
rights, Rampage mentions that McSweeney comes from a pure Muay Thai
background and wants Shivers to take the fight down right away and
check his ego behind to get the win. Demico Rogers thinks that Shivers
length and power will even give him the advantage standing and thinks a
hard straight right from Shivers will drop McSweeney....I have yet to
see Shivers throw anything resembling a straight right, and for his
size hasn't shown that much power, but we shall see.
Ultimate Fighter Opening Round Fight #2
Team Rampage vs. Team Rashad
Wes Shivers vs. James McSweeney
Round One
McSweeney takes the center of the cage and looks real light on his
feet, landing a leg kick which buckles Shivers and stepping away
immediately from his awkward counter. McSweeney with another leg kick,
but as Shivers presses forward McSweeney again moves straight back
allowing Shivers to get to his body and grab the clinch. Shivers bulls
McSweeney to the fence using his good lean before easily tripping
McSweeney down which leaves his takedown defence percentage at 0%.
Shivers is on top in half-guard, Shivers is so long that despite being
in half-guard effectively has the leverage of being in side control
while having one of McSweeneys legs locked down. Shivers is grabbing
wrist control on McSweeneys left arm possibly to set up a straight
armlock but he should really be looking at passing McSweeneys really
loose guard. Shivers frames up a kimura but from half-guard McSweeney
is able to turn with it and roll over, and up to his feet. Shivers is
breathing hard already. A head kick slaps with the foot across Shivers
face as he's dropping his hands yet again. A leg kick from McSweeney,
Shivers catches McSweeney low. This break benefits the tired Shivers.
McSweeneys lack of hands show through when he steps in too close to
Shivers, Shivers starts winging both hands wildly and since McSweeney
backs straight up some are actually finding a sloppy home. McSweeney
tries a push kick and a leaping Brazilian kick to keep Shivers off but
it just allows Shivers to grab McSweeneys back standing.
McSweeney grabs Shivers left arm and does a really nice job turning
into him to extricate himself. McSweeney is looking a little tired as
well, the action slows, McSweeney with a leg kick and a jab. Another
leg kick from McSweeney, but another one that slaps with the foot.
Straight right from McSweeney, Shivers too tired to respond. McSweeney
is doing a good job staying out of range of Shivers hands and Shivers
is too tired to press the action, McSweeney with his second real hard
leg kick. Shivers looks hurt by that one. And another. And a third and
then out of range of Shivers wild shots. Leg kick. Leg kick. Round ends.
Tricky round to score. Shivers landed absolutely nothing in the last
half of the round but McSweeney hasn't taken huge advantage, rather
peppering Shivers with leg kicks.
I'm actually going to go 10-10. Team Rampage wants Shivers to press forward, Team Rashad wants more McSweeney jabs.
Round Two
McSweeney jab lands early. McSweeney is really digging the leg kicks
with his shin now, his footwork is giving Shivers different angles and
not letting him fire back. Let's see if McSweeney can keep it up for
the whole round. Nice footwork and head movement from McSweeney,
Shivers telegraphed shots sail over his head. It disappears when
Shivers fires a leg kick, McSweeney moves straight back into it.
McSweeney leg kick. Leg kick. After a head kick Shivers rushes
McSweeney, McSweeney sprawls and avoids! He's up from 0%! He still
moved straight back, he's lucky Shivers was too tired to really do
anything but run at him. Leg kick. Jab. Left hook, leg kick. Shivers
catches a body kick and for some reason wrenches up on the leg, it
doesn't matter as McSweeney loses his balance on his own. Shivers is on
top in side control, McSweeney regains half and Shivers tries to set up
his arm-triangle. Shivers lands an elbow, McSweeney again tries to just
stand back up allowing Shivers to grab mount as McSweeney literally
just tried to get up...once again. Shivers takes a deep breath and
lands a right, he's now flinging both hands. McSweeney rolls over and
hands Shivers an arm, Shivers ignores it and keeps pumping, Shivers
locks a rear naked choke but its on McSweeneys chin. McSweeney rolls
out of it and tries to stand up, this time Shivers maintains no control
but goes for the choke again, this easily lets McSweeney turn into him
and end up on top.
McSweeney stands up and Shivers now has his hands on his hips.
McSweeney looks real tired as well, sloppy punches from both with
nothing landing. Leg kick. The two stand half a cage apart and both try
to catch their breath. Leg kick. Rest break. McSweeney flings an
overhand right, turns and runs away, Shivers lands a leg kick then
bends over and puts his hands on his knees. This is bordering on
embarassing now. Inside leg kick. Rest break. Leg kick. Rest break.
LKRB. Hard overhand right staggers Shivers, Shivers ducks into a head
kick now as he tries to hang onto McSweeney. Shivers grabs a leg,
McSweeney does a good job of dead legging him for a second before
falling over. McSweeney grabs a guillotine on the way down, it looks
tight and he locks his left leg up high on Shivers back. Shivers can't
free his head but does loosen McSweeneys guard which should enable him
to ride out the round. Shivers frees himself with ten seconds left and
does nothing until the round ends. Wes Shivers dies.
Another relatively tricky round to score, this one was brutally
sloppy but each guy had their moments. McSweeney added a guillotine
attempt, a heavy right, and a head kick to his leg kicks from round one
that's worth more than the few shots from mount and the choke attempt.
McSweeney 10-9. I've got it 20-19 for James McSweeney.
The judges score it 19-19, 20-18, and 20-18 giving the majority decision to James McSweeney which sounds about right.
Winner: James McSweeney by majority decision.
Both guys were exactly what they were in their pre-show fights. When
facing someone who could fight back Shivers was unable to finish the
fight on the ground with his catch or with his wild shots before his
gas tank ran out and that was that. McSweeney showed that he has nice
Muay Thai and nice footwork early however he continued to show that his
footwork disappears when pressed, has sloppy hands, no takedown D, a
brutal guard, a shaky gas tank and only won because Shivers turned into
an invalid as the fight progressed. Rashad's potential for an
undefeated season still lives though, his best fighters have yet to
fight and his team is still a bajillion times better than Rampages'.
Next week is being hyped as the biggest fight in TUF history as
Rashad picks Roy Nelson to fight Kimbo Slice. Just a brutal matchup for
Kimbo. His only hope is that Roy does stop moving when his opponents
flurry, gets hit in everyone of his fights and is vulnerable to
uppercuts. But Roy has shown a big chin, only Arlovski has hurt him and
Kimbo stops sitting down on his shots when he flurries negating that
strength. Roy has got great clinch takedowns, brutal ground and pound
and quick passing when his opponents can't control him. Roy also pumps
out a great jab and a solid 1-2, showing a straight right that has
consistently hurt people. Nelson could more than hold his own even if
he chose to stand the whole time, although he has no reason to.
Terrible, terrible stuff for Kimbo and he could look awful in this
bout, considering the way the two fighters appearances this could
finish Kimbos cred if he gets pummeled for a second time by a pudgy
white guy. At least this time it's not in a basement.