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| THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 5 FINALE Report |
| MMA News Written by Joel Recinos | |
| Sunday, 24 June 2007 | |
 The finale for the Ultimate Fighter 5 (TUF5) television series was set to go off at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the first time, the opposing coaches would be on the finale fight card. The television camera seemed to love Coach Pulver’s quirky personality. His lazy eye, toothy grin and fierce devotion to his fighters quickly made the former UFC lightweight champ a likable fan favorite. On the other hand, BJ Penn was more popular among the fighters. On the first show, Penn called for a show of hands from those who wanted to work out with Team Penn. Much to the chagrin of Pulver, a majority of the hands went up. But Penn, the former UFC welterweight champion, came across on camera as a humorless, bitter man who wanted to get through with the tournament so he could beat up Pulver. JENS PULVER vs. BJ PENN – LIGHTWEIGHTS These two had met before on Jan. 11th, 2002 when Jens Pulver held the 155-lb. UFC belt and BJ Penn was heavily favored to take it away. Despite the odds, Pulver gutted out a 5 round decision to retain his belt. The loss left BJ simmering. Both men have had nothing nice to say about the other the last 5 years. BJ is again favored by many. He is in top physical condition with an arsenal of weapons at his disposal. Pulver is at the tail end of his career, thinking about retirement before the TUF5 show revived his interest in fighting. BJ greeted Pulver with some big shots that wobbled Jens in the opening seconds of the round. Penn then picked Pulver up and slammed him to the ground where manhandled him for most of the round. He had Jens in an armbar and then a triangle choke. Both times Jens barely managed to escape. The last 51 seconds were spent on their feet but no significant damage. Round one goes to Penn. BJ, not taking any chances with a stand-up war with Pulver, takes him to the ground. BJ eventually gets full mount position and hammers on Pulver until he rolls on his stomach. Penn starts dropping left and rights on Pulver’s head. Pulver tries to squirm out but keeps taking more punishment. Then with just over two minutes left in the round, Penn, from behind, sunk in both hooks. Moments later Penn trapped Jens’ left arm under his leg leaving Pulver with one arm to defend himself. Penn then easily secured a rear-naked chokehold and forced Pulver to tap out. For all the animosity, after the fight was stopped, Penn crawled over and hugged a still dazed Pulver, who returned the show of respect. Moments later Pulver raised Penn’s arm in victory. Two warriors settling their grudge mano-y-mano. BJ avenged his most disappointing loss, his record now stands at 12-4-1. Jens Pulver, a great warrior for so long, falls to 21-8-1. Have we seen the last of Pulver? Has BJ made good on his promise to knock Pulver into retirement? If the welts on the side of Pulver’s head are any indication, he won’t be back. At least not at 155 lbs. In his postfight interview with Joe Rogan, Pulver said this is like good-bye, he is going down to 145 lbs. The UFC has no 145-lb division but the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) does. As for BJ Penn, he merely said to go to his website if you want to know how he feels. MANNY GAMBARYAN vs. NATE DIAZ – LIGHTWEIGHTS The finale for the Ultimate Fighter 5 features Nate Diaz, a scrappy fighter whom UFC President Dana White expected to do well. He goes up against the surprise of the series, 5’ 5”, little ball of muscle, Manny Gambaryan. Both Gambaryan and Diaz are related to experienced UFC fighters who will be teaching their relatives everything they know in order to win a six-figure contract with the UFC. Gambaryan is an 8-time national junior judo champion and cousin to the very tough UFC welterweight Karo Parisyan. Karo came to the TUF 5 set to help his cousin train for a fight and almost got into it with Nate Diaz afterwards. Nate Diaz trains with Cesar Gracie and his brother, respected welterweight, Nick Diaz. Nick didn’t show up on the TUF 5 set to help train his brother because of his strained relationship with UFC management Gambaryan started the fight with a tight guillotine choke on Diaz but Diaz slipped away. Gambaryan continued to control the fight. His judo and superior strength were able to keep Diaz on his back. Though Gambaryan was able to dish out some ground-and-pound punishment from the top, Diaz kept trying for submissions. Chalk up round one to Manny Gambaryan. Nate started out round two determined to stay on his feet where he could use his reach advantage. Diaz landed a couple shots and Manny countered. Nine seconds into the round, Manny shot-in for the takedown but Diaz sprawled to defend it. With Manny on all fours and Diaz in front and on top, Gambaryan inexplicably taps out. Nate Diaz is the winner of the Ultimate Fighter 5! Gambaryan didn’t hit his shoulder on the takedown. He apparently dislocated it reaching for Diaz’s left leg. It just popped out in a freak occurrence and is certainly an unfortunate way to win or lose a fight of this magnitude. During his postfight interview with Joe Rogan, Diaz revealed, “the ultimate fighter house sucked, man.” Nate paid respect to Manny for fighting an awesome fight. Not one to pull any punches, Nate said he wished his brother, welterweight Nick Diaz, could be here but they wouldn’t even let him in the room. He said the UFC should show his brother s little more respect. Dana White appeared poker faced as he chatted with Nate immediately afterwards during Gambaryan’s interview. A disappointed Gambaryan offered no excuses except to say the pain was really bad and he couldn’t continue. He said his shoulder pops out sometimes like during his fight with Lauzon. With the victory, Diaz improves his record to 6-3. Gambaryan’s record drops to 5-3 but he will be back. He didn’t lose this fight because he was beaten. In fact, he was winning on the scorecards at the time he tapped. Something tells me this one will be ammunition for a rematch in the future. JOE LAUZON vs. BRANDON MELENDEZ – LIGHTWEIGHTS This fight featured TUF 5 semi-finalist Joe Lauzon versus TUF 5 contestant Brandon Melendez. Melendez won an easy fight over Andy Wang, who completely ignored his corner’s instructions. Melendez then lost to Gray Maynard in the quarterfinals. Joe Lauzon’s claim to fame was knocking out Jens Pulver in his first UFC fight. Lauzon was expected to do well the in the TUF 5 tournament and made it to the semi-finals where he lost to Manny Gambaryan. Melendez didn’t make weight for this fight and was fined by the commission but Lauzon agreed to take the fight anyway. Round one saw Lauzon controlling the fight from the ground, several times catching Melendez in one submission hold or another. Each time, Melendez was able to escape but was unable to mount any significant attack of his own. Round two saw more of the same grappling with Lauzon controlling the action. Lauzon needed a little over two minutes before he secured Melendez in a triangle choke and forced him to tap out. As expected, Lauzon improves his MMA record to 14-2 while Melendez drops to 11-6. GRAY MAYNARD vs. ROB EMERSON – LIGHTWEIGHTS This fight featured the other TUF 5 semi-finalist Gray Maynard going against TUF 5 contestant Rob Emerson. Though Emerson was thought to go deep into the tournament, he lost his first fight to Nate Diaz. Given a second chance after Ruediger failed to make weight, Emerson lost a second fight to inexperienced rookie Corey Hill. Wrestler Gray Maynard, also expected to do well, won two easy fights in the tournament before losing the semis to Nate Diaz. For this fight, Maynard came out like a Mack truck running and throwing some big bombs that stunned Emerson, who was forced to shoot-in to stop the damage. This turned out to be the lesser of two evils as Maynard dominated on the ground and pounded out some punishment. Round one was all Maynard as Emerson staggered back to his corner. Thirty seconds into round two, Maynard fooled Emerson and landed a damaging right uppercut that wobbled Emerson to the fence. Maynard ran over to pick him up and slammed him to the canvas with a force so powerful that a painful grimace came to Emerson’s face. Clearly in pain, Emerson quickly tapped out to avoid further damage. Little did Emerson know, Maynard landed on his head and knocked himself out cold. Emerson tapped with an unconscious man on top of him. Both men remained wreathing on the canvas after the fight was stopped. There aren’t very many controversial decisions in the UFC but this was one of them. The fight was declared a No Contest since neither fighter could continue even though Emerson immediately tapped upon hitting the ground. In his postfight interview with Joe Rogan, a clearly pissed off Maynard vehemently denied several times that he was unconscious, which is common with a knockout. Joe could not convince him otherwise. The replay clearly showed Emerson’s right hand tapped Maynard’s shoulder twice, then Maynard rolled off before a third tap at the same time the ref jumped in. All are clear indications that the ref saw the tap and was reacting to it. Emerson was then interviewed who apologized to the fans and was met with a lot of boos when he revealed he was seriously injured coming into the fight and his rib was busted again in the first round. Watching the replay with Rogan, Emerson said he knew Maynard was unconscious and certainly would not chalk this up as a win (for himself) and was fine with a No Contest or a Draw. He reiterated that he’s not going to say he beat (Maynard) and made no mention of his tapping out. Maynard’s MMA record remains at 3-0 while Emerson retains his unremarkable 8-6 record. FLOYD SWORD vs. THALES LEITES – MIDDLEWEIGHTS Brazilian Thales Leites lost his UFC debut but won his next fight by dominating the TUF 4 veteran Pete Sell in UFC 69. He looks to make it two in a row against UFC newcomer, jiu-jitsu fighter Floyd Sword. Sword, a former Light-Heavy, is on a winning streak on the junior circuit. He is looking to add to his credibility by taking down the up-and-coming Leites. As you’d expect with two jiu-jitsu practitioners, round one featured a lot of clinching, grappling and takedowns. Clearly Leites was in control and dictating the fight. With just over a minute left in the round, Leites sunk a tight arm triangle from the side and Sword tapped out. With a submission win, Leites ups his MMA record to 15-2 while Sword loses his UFC debut and drops to 10-2. DOUG EVANS vs. ROGER HUERTA – LIGHTWEIGHTS Roger Huerta has impressed many by winning all three of his UFC fights. One of those impressed was Sports Illustrated who made him the first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter to be put on the cover. He welcomes undefeated 6-0 fighter Doug Evans, a seven-time Alaska state-wrestling champion with a fierce ground-and-pound game. Doug believes the time has come for him to make a name for himself on the UFC stage. Round one was spent in the clinch with each fighter jockeying for a takedown. Evans scored points as he landed the only blows coming off the clinch. Huerta spent a lot of energy escaping Doug’s submission attempts. Huerta turned it on for the second, coming out and landing heavy shots and bruising leg kicks. Evans returned the fight to his advantage, slowing the pace by clinching and taking Huerta down. After much grappling, Huerta managed to squirm on top into the full guard position, straddling Evans and firing off combos. Evans rolled onto his stomach allowing Huerta free access to land lefts and rights until the referee stopped the fight. Huerta scores a TKO and his fourth straight UFC win. He improves his MMA record to 20-1-1 and is demanding more attention than ever. Evans took his first loss in MMA, drops to 6-1, with an imperfect 0-1 UFC record. COLE MILLER vs. ANDY WANG – LIGHTWEIGHTS Cole Miller lost to Joe Lauzon in the TUF 5 quarterfinals. Andy Wang didn’t even make it to the quarterfinals. Wang is best known for getting kicked off BJ Penn’s team and then being undecided about accepting Pulver’s invitation to join his team. Wang also has a habit of ignoring his corner’s instructions and abandoning the fight plan once the bell rings. After losing his fight, Wang cried so uncontrollably that even Ghandi would’ve bitch-slapped him A minute into the fight, Miller kicks Wang in the face and flattens him. Cole jumps on Wang and pounds out a first round TKO to improve his record to 12-2. Wang drops to an unflattering 8-7 and might want to consider an alternate career. Full Results Bj Penn over Jens Pulver 3:01 Rd 2 RNC |
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