TUF: "The Smashes" Discussion Thread

[skeletonrock]

Boring episode, and a very slow paced fight.

Agreed. Whoever edited that episode should be fired. What a stinker. Nothing AT ALL happened. Fight pretty much stunk too. Not sure what the deal with that was. Both guys seemed gassed going into the fight. Not sure if there was a real reluctance to actually punch each other or what, but there was a whole lot of doing nothing in that fight.

[jmose86]

Episode 11 available now: http://aus.tuf.tv/media/tuf-smashes-episode-11

Spoilers likely and welcome below this post.

[tantryl]

Another boring, trudging along episode. I suppose it'd have been a little interesting if you followed Rugby.

Rob's looking solid. Hard to see Brad beating him, although Brad is pretty versatile so you never know. Plus we often see a much improved fighter after the 3 month break from the house.

[Ash]

Yeah, very uneventful episode. I think they made a mistake in having the least predictable / most interesting semi-final fight occur before the 3 fights with considerably more likely outcomes. Did anyone think Brendan or X would win? Does anyone think Freakshow won't tear through Richie? This season as a whole was quite good, but they're definitely going out with a whimper instead of a (let me) bang (bro).

Also, the ending to the Robert/X fight was bizarre. I watched it a few times and I'm still not quite sure what put X down initially. At first I thought he slipped or maybe even his knee buckled.

The WW final is an interesting fight. Robert should be the better fighter standing, but Brad is a massive dude for WW. If he can wrestle Robert to the mat he'll probably be able to put a beating on him there.

[jmose86]

I only watched it once through with the replays, but it looked like X was the first person I've seen suffer a knockdown from a wrist to the top of the head.

[skeletonrock]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the deal with X is. I think maybe his heart is not in it? He talks like he wants it so bad, but he seems to fold rather quickly.

[greatjake]

I thought it was a headbutt at first but after the replay it was a right hand (or wrist) to the back of the head. Im not completely sold on Robert yet. We know Brad is big, has good cardio, and is very active everywhere ( the WW version of Forrest Griffin). Robert has show good power but everything else is unknown. It's hard to knock a guy that has 2 1st round KOs but you've gotta wonder.

[skeletonrock]

I think Brad and Robert should be a good fight at least. As it is, I think Colin's got this all wrapped up. I like Richie, but I don't see him beating Colin. He's in the wrong weight class. And I think Freakshow will probably maul Norman.

[Ash]

All of the Aussie LW's were way undersized. It seems like that aspect of the show was rigged in favour of the UK guys as I find it implausible that when they were doing auditions they couldn't find a single legit Australian LW. 3 of the 4 UK WW's were big dudes too. Brad looked like a LHW!

[Best80smovieRAD]

I think Brad has the better chin and will just grind out Rob. I do think Rob has a future though in the UFC, he'll be one of those guys who keeps bouncing between wins and losses. Not sure about how Brad will do, he could be decent