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UFC ON VERSUS

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of UFC on VERSUS on March 21 live from the FirstBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific!

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DREAM 13

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of DREAM 13 coming to you from the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan on March 22. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 3 AM Eastern/12 AM Pacific!

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STRIKEFORCE: CHALLENGERS

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of STRIKEFORCE: CHALLENGERS on March 26 live from the SavMart Center in Fresno, CA. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacific!

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UFC 111: GSP VS. HARDY

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy live from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on March 27. The event will be headlined by a welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy and feature a heavyweight showdown between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin! Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacific!

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UFC FIGHT NIGHT: FLORIAN VS. GOMI

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Gomi live from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, NC on March 31. The event will be headlined by a lightweight battle between Kenny Florian and Takanori Gomi. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 8:00 PM Eastern/5:00 PM Pacific!

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BELLATOR XIII

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of Bellator Fighting XIII live from the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida on April 8. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 7:30 PM Eastern/4:30 PM Pacific!

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BELLATOR XIV

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of Bellator Fighting XIV live from the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on April 15. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 7:30 PM Eastern/4:30 PM Pacific!

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STRIKEFORCE: NASHVILLE

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of Strikeforce: Nashville live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN on April 17. The event will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between Jake Shields and Dan Henderson and feature the US debut of Japanese submission god Shinya Aoki! Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacific!

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MFC 25: VINDICATION

--THE SAVAGE SCIENCE will present live play by play coverage of MFC 25: Vindication live from the Edmonton Expo Center in Edmonton, Alberta on April 17. Join us for the BEST live fight narrative in the world–the action begins 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacific!

the savage science quote

“If you go by the rules, you end up being an accountant.”

Robert Evans

NELSON KO’S SHAUB AT TUF FINALE

Written by Jim Murphy   |   Sunday, December 06 2009

bigcountryRoy 'Big Country' Nelson celebrates after his knockout victory over Brendan Schaub at 'The Ultimate Fighter Finale' (Photo: UFC)
Just hours after the K-1 World Max GP Final, it was inevitable that the UFC’s ‘Ultimate Fighter Finale’ would pale in comparison to what may have been the best fightsport event of the year.  Still, few expected that the Spike TV broadcast would be such a profound disappointment. 

In the main event, Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson knocked out Brendan Schaub to win ‘The Ultimate Fighter Heavyweights’ competition.  Schaub’s impressive athleticism couldn’t overcome the crafty veteran, and Nelson set up a picture perfect right hook to the temple off the jab.  Nelson now wins a ‘six figure UFC contract’ and is an intriguing addition to the depleted UFC heavyweight ranks.  Nelson entered the ring to Weird Al Yankovik’s ‘I’m Fat’ (a parody of Michael Jackson’s ‘I’m Bad’) which on another night may have been amusing but on this came off as silly.

The other big fight on the card was the UFC debut of Kimbo Slice.  To his credit, Kimbo won a unanimous decision over Houston Alexander.  Unfortunately, that’s really the best thing that could be said about this matchup.  Alexander spent most of the time circling around on the outside of the cage throwing an occasional leg kick.  Kimbo demonstrated some nice takedowns, but had no clue what to do with his opponent once he got him on the ground.   The fight was entertaining for brief moments when the two men actually exchanged, but most of the bout consisted of Alexander’s stalling/avoiding tactics and downright incompetent ground action.  Kimbo has improved as a fighter, but it’s still questionable if he belongs in anything approximating high level MMA promotion.

Dana White now finds himself in the same bind with Kimbo that EliteXC did.  The more he fights high level competition, the more his veneer of ‘badness’ is exposed.   There’s a no-win choice with Kimbo—either you feed him an endless succession of ‘tomato cans’ and hope for the best (which was EliteXC’s strategy) or you put him in the mix against top competition in which case he’ll quickly become this generation’s Tank Abbott.   On balance, there’s nothing wrong with milking Kimbo’s popularity by booking him in fights against ‘beatable’ opponents but it’s difficult to do this for any length of time.   In the UFC’s case, it looks even worse since Dana White went out of his way to criticize EliteXC for even having Kimbo in their promotion. 

The co-main event of the evening resulted in a strange ending with a bit of history made in the process.  Jon Jones dominated Matt Hamill, finishing his opponent with a brutal ground and pound punctuated by a barrage of elbow strikes.  Referee Steve Mazzagatti called him for using an illegal elbow strike (a straight down strike, known as a ’12 to 6’ strike).  Hamill couldn’t continue and after some initial confusion Jones was disqualified.  Later it was revealed that Mazzagatti made his ruling with the help of instant replay—making it the first time in the history of Nevada fight sports that it had been used.    Jones showed impressive class and sportsmanship in defeat, and is clearly a fighter to be reckoned with in the future.

The rest of the show bordered on bizarre, including an awkward Joe Rogan interview with pro wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan.  While it’s easy to understand Spike TV’s desire for cross promotion of the TNA wrestling product, it isn’t quite so easy to understand the UFC’s acquiescence in allowing them to do so.  A fill in fight between Mark Bocek and Joe Brammer—won easily by Bocek—was also fraught with controversy due to Brammer’s sponsorship by a t-shirt company that has at least tangential ties with neo-Nazi and white power elements. This was almost certainly sheer oversight on the part of Zuffa in vetting sponsors but it’s still a dangerous one.  The UFC is well documented for their micromanagement of fighter sponsors—recently ‘blacklisting’ RVCA for sponsoring Fedor Emelianenko.  Even the suggestion of a possible link to hate groups by a sponsor should be enough for Zuffa to enact a ban, and to not do so gives the usual mainstream media enemies of the sport a very easy target.

Perhaps the most alarming outcome of the evening from Zuffa’s perspective could be the live attendance for the event.  UFC officials gave a preliminary attendance figure of 1,400 in the 2,200 venue (The Pearl at The Palms Hotel at Casino).  With decent ratings for this season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and a ton of media hype for Kimbo that’s a very disappointing turnout.  By way of contrast, last season’s finale (US vs. UK) drew 2,217 to the same venue.  It could very well be the case that Kimbo Slice is a fighter that casual fans will tune in to watch on free TV, but that more serious fans won’t buy tickets or PPVs to watch fight.
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