We’ve all been harsh on The Ultimate Fighter of late. It’s not that it’s worse this season than last (it’s better), it’s just that the show has been very stale. Tonight the show broke out of its funk, and delivered something awesome. Here’s a list of the things they did right:
1. Building a star: The whole goal of this show was to establish CB Dollaway as the guy to beat. They are hedging their bets on him, and from what I’ve seen so far this season, it is a good bet. By showing him own Rampage and having everyone talk him up the whole episode, he instantly got put on a pedestal above everyone else.
2. Humor: This show was hilarious the whole way through. Forrest and Rampage both had good lines, and then Amir and Tim came through with awesome one-liners too. I’m starting to think we will get one of those two against Dollaway in the finals.
3. The fight was awesome: UFC can’t control whether fights are good, but they can choose which fighters are on the show. This fight was excellent, both guys showed a lot of skill, and the finish was really cool. Dollaway has a lot of power in his strikes on the ground, and despite numerous submission attempts, he was never really close to being submitted. On a side note, it was ironic seeing Mazzagatti choose not to take a point away for shots to the back of the head when he took a point away from Lesnar for much less.
4. Future Feuds: The build-up for Dollaway-Cale made me really want to see them fight, and I’m stoked for Amir and Matt Brown. I think the season is going to finish strong.