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Cage fighter Alex Reid with wife Jordan

- Keep enjoying Alex’s Bravo reality TV show every Monday, but it appears we’ll be waiting a while longer until we witness the BAMMA showdown, with the Reidernater’s nemesis Tom ‘Kong’ Watson.

UFC & MMA blog by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com

And why not? The guy deserves a break. In the media the Ultimate Challenge UK1 kickboxing middleweight champion has been made to look a villain, as a member of Team Pricey. Granted he wasn’t known as a fan favourite before hooking up with glamour girl Katie Price but we all know that is all part of the show when it comes to getting heat and selling a fight. Look at the examples of UFC fighters Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir and Tito Ortiz.  A fighter who receives boos is great for the box office.

I have decided to back Aldershot lad Alex Reid, as a fan of MMA but fear the majority of the voting public will vote him out early, due to the nation’s backlash against Katie Price. On the other hand there is the possibility of the cage fighter receiving some level of sympathy following Jordan dumping him live on air, when she left ITV’s reality TV show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Who knows, we shall have to wait and see.

According to many sources it appears Alex and Jordan are back on good terms, in fact Jordan has given her seal of approval to mixed martial artist Alex appearing the show. The press are saying she held a party before the contestants entered the CBB7 house, attended by both Alex Reid and her old flame Dane Bowers, formerly of pop R&B sensation. Oh and don’t believe the hype, that these 2 Big Bro contestants had a punch-up. From my understanding they are mutual friends of Katie Price, not 2 blokes fighting over the former page 3 model.

It’s early days, so far Alex has made  a good impression, interacting well with the rest of the Celebrity Big Brother 7 house mates. He doesn’t come across a villain he is often portrayed to be.

I feel Alex Reid despite his cross-dressing antics the tabloids have all leapt on, he is doing Brit MMA a lot of good, helping it go mainstream. Let’s face it any fighter be it in a mixed martial arts bout or stand-up K1 rules contest facing Alex Reid will be making a name for themselves off his name. It all equals more tickets sold which cannot be a bad thing for all involved in the British MMA business.

Coaches clash: Rashad and Rampage

FIVE USA are showing episodes 11 + 12 back to back in the usual Saturday night time slot, giving us a double of whammy of The Ultimate Fighter. The finale show is being aired the following Thursday or ESPN subscribers can see the finale live at 2am in the early hours of Sunday morning. Before then let’s take a look back at episode 10 recapping on what took place.

Is Mitrione in or not? Matt Mitrione informs his coach Rashad Evans that he has swelling of the brain but should be OK to fight. Mean while Brit James McSweeney does not trust Matt’s motives.  Street brawler turned mixed martial arts competitor Kimbo Slice prepares for kick boxer McSweeney eager to replace Mitrione.

The confirmed match-up for this episode was Brendan Schaub battling it out with John Madsen. McSweeney does a fantastic job preparing Schaub, while Rashad leaves them to it, remaining impartial.

This episode was the week of the coaches challenge, the challenge was 2 on 2 volley ball – Rashad and Mike vs Rampage and Tiki. Amazingly these sets of tough dudes did well. The win went to Rashad, gaining $10,000 for Team Rashad. As you can imagine Evans was quick to rub it in Quinton’s face.

To the amusement of the rest of the house Kimbo endures an ice bath, to help work through knee pain. There is no doubt Slice is serious about being an Ultimate Fighter.

John Madsen is fortunate to train with fellow wrestler and former UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad. So he changed his mind about being impartial after all.

Coaches Rashad and Mike have it out with Mitrione about whether he will continue to compete or not. Following this chat Dana White addresses the remaining TUF 10 entrants about the Mitrione situation, explaining how huge an opportunity the ultimate fighter is.

Comparing Madsen and Schaub it’s NFL veteran Schaub going into the fight having more experience but Madsen comes from Matt Hughes’ camp and is a serious threat in the octagon with pure wrestling strength.

Fight time. McSweeney hypes up Brendan by slapping his face.

Round 1)

Madsen utilises his strength advantage slamming down Schaub to the deck. Madsen however doesn’t do enough on top, the referee calls for a restart back upright. Madsen wastes no time once again slamming NFL veteran Brendan but again he lays and prays, simply not doing enough despite his dominant position.

Round 2)

Corner-man McSweeney encourages Schaub at the end of round interval. Brendan defends much better come round 2. The pace of action slows down due to the energy exerted in the previous round. Out of nowhere Brendan knocks out Madsen smashing the wrestler with 2 punches. Schaub is one to look out for, he has heavy hands.

Winner Brendan Schaub advances to the semi finals. McSweeney’s seconding was of a great help in keeping the ex American football player focussed.

That leaves us with Marcus Jones vs. Darrill Schoonover and Matt Mitrione vs. James McSweeney followed by the semi finals.

The Finale show will feature Matt Hamill vs Jon Jones and 2 heavy hitters - Kimbo Slice vs Houston Alexander. Plus of course TUF 10 winner will be crowned.

Don’t forget you can watch all the Aftemath videos at UFC.com

Watch The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Saturdays 11pm on FIVE USA,

in the UK on Freeview 31, Sky 174, Virgin Media 150 and Tiscali 30. Also shown on subscription channel ESPN and ESPN HD.

Wednesdays on Spike TV in the US.

UFC & MMA blog by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com

UFC 98 Evans vs Machida

The Christmas shopping season is upon us, no doubt you will be looking for recommendations to add to your own Christmas present list. To get you started here is the first of many UFC DVD releases from fightdvd.co.uk to be reviewed here at BluRayMMA.com. If you are an MMA enthusiast I’m sure you will want to get your mitts on these DVD delights.

First off is UFC 98 – Evans vs Machida.

There are 2 main reasons to add this DVD to your collection, the first is to see how the Machida era began, when Lyoto challenged Rashad Evans for the light-heavyweight championship, secondly the grudge match between Matt Serra and Matt Hughes.

Entering this title fight challenge Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida was undefeated, as was champion and current Ultimate Fighter coach ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evans. Having 2 undefeated octagon combatants battle it out for the belt was a first at UFC 98. Clearly the defending title holder – Evans was not viewed as the crowd favourite since defeating fan favourite and original Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin. Machida on the other hand was seen as the cool Karate fighter that most fanatics wanted to see kick some butt and grab the gold.

As Joe Rogan states this is the first time a traditional martial artist has reached the pinnacle of MMA. Machida is true martial artist in the Bruce Lee sense, trained in the ways of the warrior under the guidance of his Japanese father growing up in Brazil. Machida being at the top of the MMA world with that exposure is a huge moment, he can potentially influence a whole generation of young males what being a martial artist is about, discipline, honour, respect, ideals to live your life by, not just beating someone up.

Machida’s post fight speech is something to behold, proclaiming Karate is back and announcing proudly if you have a dream you can do it, truly inspiring stuff. It’s fair to say this a direct contrast to Rashad Evans, a showman who has been know to display some level of arrogance.

The co main event of UFC 98 features the grudge fight of Matt ‘The Terror’ Serra and Matt Hughes. Both fighters have held the welter-weight title in the past but there is no belt on the line here, this is a clear grudge match, these guys do not like each other, no matter how much they respect each others MMA abilities.

Their history dates back to 2005, Serra saw Hughes on the Ultimate Fighter and didn’t like him then as the opposite coach to top UFC ace-face Rich Franklin. A year later Serra took part as a contestant on the cage fighting reality TV show, with Hughes guesting to coach. Serra’s disgust of the farmer’s boy grew from there on. UFC management paired the 2 Matts as the coaches for TUF 6, using weekly TV episodes to build up to their big showdown planned to follow at UFC 79, December 2007. The fight wasn’t to be due to Serra’s injury received during training. Lots of bad mouthing followed in the mean time, both fighters still wanted to beat each other up.

The battle of the Matts is interesting stylistically, Serra is a Jiu Jitsu expert with great boxing, with Hughes’ main strengths rooted in his wrestling ability. On top of that they are contrasting characters, Serra the Italian-American street-wise New Yorker, where as  Hughes is the mid-western farmers’ boy.

UFC 98 2 disc DVD release boasts superb presentation complete with all the preliminary bouts, many not aired on the live broadcast along with the weigh-ins, behind the scenes and what I feel really adds enjoyment to the main event fight the countdown show. Watch the countdown to see Lyoto preparing for the title fight in his native Brazil, training and meditating to clear his mind in preparation. You’ll also see what led to his arrival in the UFC fighting on cards in Japan for pro wrestling icon Antonio Inoki and being on the receiving end Inoki’s initiation wallop to the face.

UFC 98 is out now on DVD, available direct from www.fightdvd.co.uk and all good retailers.

UFC DVD review by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com

The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights

Following the live action of UFC 105, it is time to catchup on episode 9 of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.

This week Roy ‘Kimbo Slayer’ Nelson squares off against Justin Wren. Aside of from the experience factor these guys appear pretty evenly matched when it comes to style and physicality, although Roy seems to carrying some extra timber.

Following the hard hits Matt Mitrione  received from Scott Junk, Matt seems to be still reeling from the effects. Suffering with a bad headache and dizziness, followed by throwing up, seems the Team Rashad member has concussion. Could this be another opportunity for a Kimbo Slice comeback? Whether Slice will be given another opportunity is unclear but the producers love to tease us don’t they?

In another entertaining moment from the show Rampage and Tiki prank Rashad, planting some chickens in his car. A chance for Rampage to get his own back since all the ribbing at his poor coaching ability and only one win for Team Rampage. Mike and Rashad saw the funny side though, the joke backfires and they are treated to  spanking new rental cars.

Mitrione returns from hospital, he wants to fight but is yet to receive medical clearance.

Pre-fight it is clear Nelson and Wren are well matched in grappling, the difference is the experience factor versus youth.

Round 1)

The first round is a tough fought brawl. Nelson defends well against Wren the aggressor, negating his attack. Neither combatant utilise their ground grapple skills. Throughout Brit and fellow member of Team Rashad – James McSweeney does a first rate job cornering Wren.

Round 2)

Come round round 2 Wren appears tired after the exertion in the first. The action continues upright through the majority of the bout. Overall it appeared even, giving good reason for a third round to decide the winner but it wasn’t to be. IFL veteran was announced the winner via a majority decision on the score cards.

Young hopeful Justin Wren was disappointed as you could imagine  but he gave it his all, Nelson had the better defence being the more experienced MMA fighter.

Dana White once again wasn’t impressed Roy Nelson’s performance despite the win, he does not seem to like the guy. Perhaps the fact Nelson is the ‘Kimbo Slayer’ plays a part in his low affinity for the heavyweight contestant? It’s clear Dana sees Kimbo as a good investment and displays respect for the street-fighter earning his dues joining the cast of TUF 10.

Episode 10 will feature Brendan battling it out with John for a place in the next round of the competition, plus it will be the week of the coaches challenge.

Don’t forget you can watch all the Aftemath videos at UFC.com

Watch The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Saturdays 11pm on FIVE USA, in the UK on Freeview 31, Sky 174, Virgin Media 150 and Tiscali 30. Also shown on subscription channel ESPN and ESPN HD. Wednesdays on Spike TV in the US.

UFC & MMA blog by Duane Farr

duane@bluraymma.com