The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale Parting Shots

Yet another season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is in the books, and Court McGee joins an ever-expanding group of MMA fighters who have had plenty of success in their UFC careers after their wins on the show. Meanwhile, Keith Jardine dropped his fourth in a row in a tough bout with Matt Hamill. As usual, there’s plenty to talk about regarding the show, so here are my parting shots.

What’s Next for Hamill?

When you look at the paths of other former TUF cast members in their UFC careers, you can see that Matt Hamill has been “groomed” rather than “thrown to the wolves”. Hell, compare his UFC career to that of Keith Jardine’s! Hamill has fought Jesse Forbes, Seth Petruzelli, Rex Holman, Michael Bisping, Tim Boetsch, Rich Franklin, Reese Andy, Mark Munoz, Jon Jones and Jardine. Jardine has fought Kerry Schall, Mike Whitehead, Stephan Bonnar, Wilson Gouveia, Forrest Griffin, Houston Alexander, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Brandon Vera, Rampage Jackson, Thiago Silva, Ryan Bader, and Hamill.

There’s really no comparison there. Perhaps it had to do with Hamill only having one pro fight before the show versus Jardine’s eleven. No matter what, it’s clear that they have tried to bring Hamill along slowly, which is a luxury that is rarely given to even great prospects in the UFC these days. Even when Hamill had trouble with a step up in competition, losing to Bisping and Franklin in a three-fight period, the UFC helped him out by giving him two single-minded wrestlers with limited standup skills to get him back on track. That’s why I don’t see Hamill taking a big jump up in competition yet.

I’ll tell you what does make sense though…at least to me. Ryan Bader. These two have both knocked on the door of the light heavyweight top ten (I believe Bader’s already in it), and both look like they could be title contenders in 2011, if things go well. Why not put them against one another and see what happens? They have similar backgrounds, but both love to strike, and either way, the UFC will get a win out of one of their marketable young wrestlers. The UFC loves this kind of “win-win” matchmaking these days, and this fight would definitely fit the bill. I think Bader has more potential than Hamill and would win that fight, but I’d still love to see it.

Chris Leben Does it Again

Why does anyone not named Anderson Silva still strike with this guy? Chris Leben has this strange quality where his punches don’t look especially powerful…they’re not lightning-fast, and they generally don’t snap guys’ heads around violently like that of other big punchers, but obviously, the guy’s got heavy hands. If you’re Aaron Simpson, why in the world would you just stand with him? Take him down! One funny thing that is unique to a sport like MMA is that a fighter can introduce a blueprint to beating a guy, and yet years later, people are still ignoring the fact that you’ve already seen how to beat him and fighting with a totally opposite strategy, instead.

Did Simpson watch Leben’s past fights? If Josh Koscheck (version 1.0, at that) was able to take Leben down and hold him there for a decision years ago, why have talented wrestlers like Simpson not even given that strategy a try, even when it would still be likely to work? At least, it’s a lot more likely to work than standing in front of him for the entire fight and daring him to knock your head off.

Siver and Fisher Bang it Out

I was disappointed to see Fisher drop a decision to Dennis Siver, but the fight itself was very entertaining. In fact, I can’t believe that it wasn’t deemed as the fight of the night (more on that later). I’m not sure what Siver’s ceiling is in the division, though he will have to bring more than just a relatively diverse striking approach and a good spinning back kick if he wants to get past the logjam of talented wrestlers that clutter the top of the division. Otherwise, he will face the same troubles that Fisher has encountered when going against some of the better fighters in the weight class.

Fisher will certainly be back. I do agree a bit with the analysis that it made little sense for an already-strong striker to go to Mark DellaGrotte in order to learn some new techniques. I think Fisher’s standup was already excellent, and while it’s always important to continue improving, his wrestling and jiu-jitsu off of his back should be bigger priorities when it comes to doing that. I was also surprised that he trained elsewhere when he just established his own school away from longtime trainer Pat Miletich not too long ago, also. With several gyms in a relatively small area on the eastern Iowa/western Illinois border, I wonder if the quality of training partners and up-and-coming fighters has been stretched a bit thin.

Quick Shots

–So, Hamill-Jardine was “Fight of the Night”…how, exactly? The fight itself was not particularly exciting, and any bout in which Matt Hamill, who is a nice guy and a hard working fighter but owner of some of the fugliest standup technique this side of Matt Lindland, is “working the jab” to control the pace is probably not a Fight of the Night candidate. How the UFC awards these bonuses is beyond me, especially these days. After all, we just saw Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic get Submission of the Night for a rear naked choke with no hooks in on a beaten and bloodied opponent who had basically given up already, all while Mike Pyle knocked Jesse Lennox unconscious with a beautiful triangle choke in the first fight of the evening.

–I gave my thoughts on Court McGee earlier in the week, and I don’t have much to say about the other cast members from TUF 11. It’s hard to tell what kind of potential they have from just the show alone, and some one-off fights with others from the show on the TUF finale don’t help much. To borrow from Dennis Green, they pretty much looked like “who we thought they were”. Jamie Yager showed some flashy offense, but came unglued when pressured. Kris McCray brought a fairly well-rounded game, but doesn’t have much in the way of finishing fights or skills that he can rely on when the going gets tough. At this point, with so many fighters getting on the show with only a few fights or a bit of experience against regional-level opponents, I don’t expect to have the kind of TUF classes like we got in the first several seasons of the show.

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Tags: Aaron Simpson, Chris Leben, Dennis Siver, Jamie Yager, Keith Jardine, Kris McCray, Mark DellaGrotte, Matt Hamill, Spencer Fisher, The Ultimate Fighter, The Ultimate Fighter 11, The Ultimate Fighter Liddell vs Ortiz, UFC