The Ultimate Fighter 10: Episode 3 Recap
Report by F4Wonline.com, Brent Wilson
Shockingly the show opens up with Kimbo. Kimbo is talking with Abe
Wagner about the house making him a lot more spiritual, the solitude
giving him time to pray and connect with God. He talks about one day
shaving the beard off and putting Kimbo Slice to rest and how his
"inner me" was his "enemy" rather than the outside world.
Brendan Schaub and Darrill Schoonover discuss how the Roy
Nelson/Kimbo Slice fight could have been a PPV headliner and how both
are sacrificing six figures to do the fight on the show instead. Which
is true, but both are getting ten times the eyeballs and exposure
through this venue, no one cared about Nelson vs. Jeff Monson, which
was the headliner of the MMA portion on the terrible Roy Jones Jr.
March Badness PPV, everyone cares about Kimbo on TUF. Rashad talks
about how talented Nelson is and how independent he is, largely acting
as his own manager, and taking a lot of training on his own back.
Keith Jardine comes to the show to help Team Rashad train, which
turns into an excuse for Rashad and Rampage to talk trash on each
other. It's still awesome with both guys accusing the other of ducking
the other, Rampage also calls James McSweeney a Rashad nuthugger, and
thinks that Rashad could use some gum for his halitosis.
More Kimbo! Rampage praises Kimbo for being humble, having a strong
work ethic, and being willing to learn. Rampage stresses that they've
been working with Kimbo on getting up and with takedown defense.
Rampage understands that doing drills won't be as easy as working it
against Nelson which is very true. Nelson has very good control on the
ground, only Jeff Monson has had any success getting up unless Nelson
was scrambling for a submission, although both Andrei Arlovski and Ben
Rothwell were both able to explode up once. Even in scrambles Nelson
has shown very good control, turning an underhook into a Whizzer to
take back control when Michael Buchkovich tried to stand up in their
fight.
Brendan Schaub and Team Rashad talk about how although Kimbo sways
from side to side with his hips he really doesn't use a lot of movement
with either his feet or head and how that could make him an easy mark
to keep on the end of Nelsons stiff jab. Kimbos trouble with the
crucifix position in the James Thompson fight is also brought up,
Nelson has a really solid base in side control, making him the complete
opposite of James Thompson, obviously getting the fight there would pay
rich dividends for Nelson.
ANGLE ALERT: Marcus Jones is portrayed as Mr. Sensitive. He talks
about his love of comics, flowers, and Dungeons and Dragons, and is
shown having his confidence and feelings shaken by Scott Junk
petitioning Coach Rampage for the next fight rather than himself. Some
people could construe that being so sensitive could hurt his ability to
have a killer instinct as a fighter. Jones reacts very poorly to
getting hit, and will turn away and run from a flurrying opponent, I
took that as Jones still being super green to combat sports after his
NFL career, but it could also be that he just isn't a natural born
fighter. There's no shame in that, I quit kickboxing after I found out
my face was allergic to getting punched, and it's clear in guys like
Bob Sapp that getting beat up isn't for everyone. OR like most people
who write about sports I'm probably guilty of psychoanalyzing for no
reason and after more ring time Jones could be a killer.
Kimbo weighs in at 230 with shirt, shoes, and skull cap, Roy Nelson at 264. Nelson didn't cut to get below 265.
Do you want to hear in detail about Roy Nelsons game? Too bad, here's a bunch of paragraphs anyway.
Roy Nelson is the most accomplished fighter this season and thus is
deservedly the favorite. Nelson donned the snakeskin belt as a former
IFL Heavyweight Champion and has by far the most top names on his
resume.
Nelson is most acclaimed for his grappling but has some chops
standing as well. Nelson keeps his right hand high and pumps an
accurate, solid, straight jab often. Nelson has the best jab on the
show, other guys throw a decent jab but Nelson is the only one who
works it. Nelson throws it to establish distance, to set up his right,
as he steps in to clinch, and also to try and keep guys off of him if
they step in. The only other punch Nelson really throws is a lead
straight right, either on its own or following the jab, both punches
are hard, and most importantly straight. Nelson has shown power in that
right as well, dropping Mario Rinaldi, Antoine Jaoude, and Brad Imes
with it. Nelson has added a right uppercut in his past few fights but
it hasn't really connected as of yet, he's also added a lot more
feints, especially when facing opposition with limited stand up. Nelson
has gotten more comfortable on the feet over time, but still knows his
bread and butter is his grappling, he usually uses his hands to close
the distance and grab the clinch against opponents, although shows good
gameplanning in being willing to stand longer against grappling
oriented opponents.
Nelson can still be hurt on the feet, he doesn't have the longest
reach and both Andrei Arlovski and Ben Rothwell had success in
peppering him with kicks, the inside leg kick especially. Guys who
throw straight punches back can have success landing as Nelson steps in
to look to clinch, Nelson looks awkward when flurried upon doing a lot
of standing still while bending at the waist and ducking. This ducking
causes wide hooks to sail over his head, but straight shots land, and
this ducking leaves Nelson wide open for uppercuts. Nelson's first
defeat to Josh Curran came mainly because Nelson gassed hard, but also
because Curran landed a number of hard uppercuts in close, so did
Rothwell, an Arlovski uppercut precipitated the straight right that
finished Nelson. Dirty boxing as Nelson looks to clinch and knees to
the body have also worked against him. Despite being relatively
hittable Nelson has shown a very good chin, eating shots in many of his
fights with only Arlovski really hurting him.
Nelson has very good wrestling, and it is all set up from the
clinch, Nelson clinches often in his fights and is very active
pummeling for underhooks. He has a variety of takedown attempts from
this position with by far the most effective being trips, he also looks
to change levels for single or double legs after clinching, using basic
body lock throws or even some lateral drops which can end up with
himself on bottom. These takedowns have a pretty high success rate and
Nelson is very slick at landing in side control off of them. Nelson is
incredibly adept at grabbing dominant positioning after dropping
opponents with his right, Nelson then looks to hop into dominant
position to ensure he gets a finish, hopping to mount on Rinaldi, and
knee on belly to Jaoude to land their death knells. Not a lot of
opponents have tried to take Nelson down, for good reason as his
takedown D has looked very solid. He's shown this recently, hitting a
switch on Arlovski, reversing his trip attempt to end up on top, as
well as pancaking Jeff Monson several times, showing a great sprawl.
Once on the ground Nelson's most effective tool are his guard
passing and control. Nelson has passed the guard on everyone he's
gotten down, including getting to mount on Monson. He also uses his
size very effectively to hold his opponents down, only Monson has been
able to get up consistently on Nelson. When opponents attempt to stand
or roll over Nelson controls them with underhooks and uses their
movement to pass. Nelson isn't the most dangerous submission guy,
sometimes looking for kimuras from side, but has great positioning and
posture skills. If Nelson can't get to side or mount quickly he is more
than comfortable standing over his opponent in guard and landing hard,
hurtful ground and pound with both hands putting both Fabiano Scherner
and Bryan Vetell to sleep in this fashion. He's fought very seldomly
from his back, but when he has has looked more to create space and get
his hips in to kick away rather than work from his guard.
I've basically just written an essay about how great Roy Nelson
is.....but you're still just going to look at him and call him fatty.
That's fair, Nelson's cardio is generally lauded as "not that bad for
how fat you are", which is pretty accurate, Nelson certainly gets more
tired as the fight progresses with his hands dropping and his footwork
tapering off, but he's only actually gassed in one fight, the Josh
Curran one from Bodog. The only real concern I have with Nelson is how
hittable he can be, but I really wouldn't favor anyone one this show
(or a number of top guys in the UFC) from stopping Nelson from
implementing his game. He matches up amazingly well against generic
brawlers who have never fought off their back.
Phew, here's far less about Kimbo.
Kimbo's streetfighter cred took a big hit after having trouble
putting away the glass-chinned James Thompson, and then getting dropped
by a fallaway one-legged jab by Seth Petruzelli, obviously much of the
KIMBO hype was indeed mythos. Kimbos' hands are actually pretty good
with all things considered, he mixes both hands nicely both upstairs
and down, throws uppercuts successfully, has nice inline elbows and
knees to the body in close, he does a good job using his hands to
control opponents heads with one hand to frame them up with shots for
the other. When Kimbo sits down on his shots, sets them up and throws
straight he does have power, his 1-2 that put away Tank was beautiful
and he wobbled Thompson multiple times with a stiff jab.
Where Kimbo gets into trouble is when he starts brawling and
standing still right in front of his opponents. When this happens his
shots start to loop and he starts to push his punches, throwing lots of
arm punches which sacrifices lots of power for flinging volume. Just
look at the Sean Gannon street fight where Kimbo was able to bust up
Gannons face badly by landing volume with bare fists but still clearly
lost and was unable to stop Gannon from coming forward. This also hurts
his defense as he doesn't move his feet to avoid shots while brawling,
instead just bending at the waist backwards or side to side making him
an easier target. Being so planted makes Kimbo much easier to knock off
balance with leg kicks, an inside leg kick from Thompson sent Kimbo
careening across the cage. One KO can't convict a chin, but the
Petruzelli defeat certainly leaves Kimbo with questions about his
figurative beard, and Gannon buckled Kimbos knees with a short shot
early too. His literal beard is still awesome.
Kimbo is clearly a strong dude, when opponents bullrush him he's
able to use his hips to just power his way out of body lock attempts,
however that's the extent of his takedown defense. As soon as James
Thompson got hold of a leg Kimbo just toppled over like an oak, time
after time. Once on his back Kimbo's guard is nonexistent, James
Thompson had abysmal control as he was on his knees perched up high in
side control and Kimbo was still only able to get up once. He also
clearly showed he had no real idea of how to get Thompson off of him as
he tried to just straight up bench-press Thompson up, the fact that it
almost worked says far more about Thompson than Kimbo. This made for a
very sloppy fight with lots of reversals, Kimbo showed no real idea of
how to control Thompson the few times he ended up on top either.
Kimbo does have some attributes on the feet that aren't myth, but
he's far too one-dimensional, and the fact remains that anytime he's
fought anyone who can fight he's lost or looked brutal.
Again, Nelson is hittable and looks awkward putting his hands
straight out when opponents start to flurry, as he steps in and
clinches he's open for uppercuts which Kimbo does have. But really,
that's Kimbos only chance, it will be very difficult to keep Nelson off
of him and getting tripped down and completely controlled. If Nelson
comes out pumping that jab he could also keep Kimbo off balance and win
on the feet.
Opening Round Heavyweight Fight #3
Roy Nelson (13-4) vs. Kimbo Slice (3-1)
Round One
Roy comes out pumping his jab, he's hanging further back than he does
against most opponents, showing respect for Kimbo. Kimbo is showing a
tiny amount of footwork, but is really just shuffling in place. Hard
jab from Nelson, he steps in but quickly disengages. Kimbo lands a hard
leg kick on his first real strike, good strategy. Nelson is stepping
away from Kimbo but is doing so straight back, and his hands get in
awkward positions as he moves. Both guys are real passive mostly
feinting and feeling each other out. Nelson starts pumping straight
lefts and jabs, but Kimbo is just off the ends of them due to Nelson
starting farther out. Kimbo presses Nelson to the fence a right hook
clips Nelson, Nelson gets in another awkward position, reaching
straight out for Kimbo while too far away to clinch and eats an
uppercut. Kimbo is flurrying but Nelson ducks everything but those two
shots and pushes Slice to the fence. Nelson has an underhook, Kimbo
again doesn't show great technique but is using his strong hips to bow
out keeping Nelson away from his legs and using wrist control to
prevent a knee pick. Reaching with that wrist control prevents Kimbo
from really stopping Nelson from pummeling his arm inside and grabbing
double underhooks.
Unlike his prior fights Nelson is just trying to wrench Kimbo to the
ground. Pushing away from the fence Nelson is able to break the
surprising stalemate and hook a trip takedown, and sliding on the way
down to land in side and right to mount, Nelson shows again that he is
very quick at taking dominant positions in scrambles which is the
easiest time to grab them. Nelson grabs wrist control of his own to set
up a pass to the crucifix position. Kimbo tries to leg press off the
cage but Nelson moves with him and retains position. Roy starts landing
light left hands and is pumping them over and over and over. They're
really light shots but Kimbo is showing no defense but waving his legs,
Herb Dean threatens to stop the fight. Luckily for Kimbo there's only
ten seconds left and the round ends.
Nelsons' round 10-9. Kimbo actually looked alright, keeping on his
feet in the clinch a lot longer than I thought he would and had a
smidge of success flurrying. But Nelson flexed his strengths here,
strong jab, really good trip takedowns and excellent passing and
control. He also showed his big weakness, awkward defense that makes
him hittable. It's clear Nelson planned on going to the crucifix
because he knew Kimbo couldn't escape, but I'd like to see him pound
from mount or even standing over full guard where he's shown really
hurtful ground and pound.
Round Two
Both guys are flatfooted to start the round. Instead of pumping the jab
Nelson is now pawing with it, that's dangerous it's no longer a
deterrent and opens you up to overhand rights. Hey! There's a straight
right from Kimbo. It was actually set up by Kimbo throwing a jab which
made Nelson drop straight back and move his hands outward. Kimbo
follows with two lefts, Nelson presses forward and Kimbo frames him for
a right hand that lands. Kimbo throws a knee while getting pushed back
and tumbles down. Nelson again is angle himself to side control as they
go down. Nelson again fights the crucifix while pressing his belly into
Kimbos face. This is effective control but not a lot of striking which
saw Nelson stood up from side against Arlovski. Nelson secures the
crucifix again and starts pumping those soft lefts. Kimbo has no idea
of how to escape and would've stayed there essentially forever so Herb
Dean stops the fight at 2:00 of Round Two.
Winner: Roy Nelson by TKO (strikes)
Honestly, probably about the best result Kimbo could have hoped for.
He landed hard strikes while the fight was standing and then lost to
much softer, one inch punches on the ground, with the fight arguably
being stopped before Kimbo was even hurt. Nelson obviously had this
gameplan in mind from watching the James Thompson fight, again I think
he would've done more damage using his regular gameplan but the man
knew Kimbo had no way out and that he would win easily in that
position, so more power to him.
Dana White takes the prototypical casual fan response. Why is Roy
Nelson so happy? He did just enough to win and not get hit!!!! Kimbo is
going to really improve still!!! Dana also teases the fact that Kimbo
could come back into the tourney, so please keep watching, please.
The teaser for next weeks show continues this Kimbo push to try and
keep people interested. The tease is that Marcus Jones shows big power
in practice, but then collapses and could potentially open the door for
Kimbo to come back. Please, please, please keep watching says Zuffa.