The Ultimate Fighter Heavyweights: Week 2

Last Updated (Monday, November 29 1999) Written by Mike Wilkerson   |   Thursday, September 24 2009

Mike Wilkerson reviews and recaps the second epsiode of season 10 of 'The Ultimate Fighter', this time with a whole heapin' helping of heavyweights including Kimbo Slice!

Viewing Date: 9-23-2009
Show Title: Ultimate Fighter: HEAVYWEIGHTS Week 2
Network: SpikeHD
Reviewed By: Mike Wilkerson

Once again the electrified pencil of Mike Wilkerson constructs a one-of-a-kind Mixed Martial Arts review ride for you as week two of SPIKE's The Ultimate Fighter presents itself in glorious crystal clear HD! The two teams are only now feeling each other out. Team Rashad's win last week puts the first "spike" into the jockstrap of the one and only Rampage Jackson. What will happen THIS week? Will there be another spike driven home to secure control of the fight call? Will Rampage's team get on the road to a series of wins? We'll find out as we get into week Two of SPIKE's The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights!

As with many of my online reviews, I'll be reviewing this episode in a "stream of consciousness" format, giving you essentially what I'm thinking as the show airs. I encourage everyone to send feedback in regard to any of the points below and let's use this opportunity sounding-off point to tell us what YOU think about this year's Ultimate Fighter season.

-- Styles Make Fights: While being railed on, Roy Nelson notes that "Styles Make Fights" and I can't agree with him more. I do believe that phrase shouldn't be a stall tactic for doing what he wants however. Thankfully we see Rashad and his fellow coaches take a stand and present some helpful reminders to Roy.

-- Not everyone would take times to show me things: Kimbo here, who by the way we've completely written off after some profoundly ignorant comments about Inside: MMA's Bas Rutten last week, affirms that he's never been shown anything. Kimbo, you sir have a very short, selective memory. There are many people that have not only shown and cradled you as you were put on to a pedestal - you took in those offerings and then threw them to the wind as you failed and fell from that lofty platform. You have an even longer road to hoe for me than ever, Kevin.

-- Mental Training at Part of Rashad's Regimen: This is something that I truly appreciate seeing (no matter how small it is) that I think is completely left out of the overall reality show capture. There is WAY more mental game involved in Mixed Martial Arts than there are gloves, sweat and blood. I suppose that showcasing that on screen is more difficult, but the instant that a network understands and shows that, the faster the success will be. It's a piece of the game completely left out of the realm of MMA.

-- The importance of Captioning: For those that don't know, I am the creator of something called "The Caption Hunt Project" (there's a reciprocal report for this review, actually - link to last week's), that showcases the closed captioned (or lack thereof) via the commercial offerings during this program. Something else to note that's really important: Sound effects represented in caption form are vital to conveying what's going on in commercials for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Thankfully, the entire show, The Ultimate Fighter has always had the environmental captioning included. The "rock music plays", the door slamming off screen, unintelligible speech or screaming off screen. All of those elements add to the overall 'picture' that is conveyed and they ARE truly appreciated, SPIKE. rock plays comparison to commercial above that would give environmental, Understanding what going on in the environment in general is something you NEVER lose out on when the tidbits are captioned. Be sure to check out more about the Caption Hunt Project (link) and please do ask questions! It's a truly righteous project that I've been proud of and love to share with other since day 1.

-- A mindset change when the cage door closes: This is something that many fighters have talked about previously but it's the one thing I really "hear" from Shivers in this pre-fight breakdown. There's something more than just commenting about his pre-fight "I'm better than what's-his-ass" conversation that they usually have and it's another sample of what I wish they'd offer up in shows like The Ultimate Fighter. While the fighting IS what most are here for, understanding the mind and thoughts of a fighter I think is at least as interesting. Don't you?

Tonight’s Fight:
== James McSweeney Vs. Wes Shivers

== General Fight Prediction Vibe:
- I love the game that McSweeney talks. Were I ever to start and participate in a camp, McSweeney is someone I would love to have as a teammate. He has a great mind game and confidence that makes it easy to want to jump in. He also benefits from running with Rashad's team non-stop recently.
- Shivers, is a mountain man - literally. The man towers over McSweeney, and he has arms that I think are as long as I am tall. Stopping him is going to be a battle for sure.

This fight will follow the same format as previous seasons, with 2 5-minute rounds, and should it be tied at the end of those 2 rounds, there's a "sudden victory" round that will decide the match.

FIGHT 1 BEGINS

An extended handshake by McSweeney goes unceremoniously ignored by Shivers as the second week's bout begins on The Ultimate fighter: Heavyweights!

They circle quickly and McSweeney get in the first low leg kick and - Shivers reaches for his face in retaliation and nothing doing! They circle some more  and McSweeney gets a good left chop and another great leg kick into Shivers left front leg. Shivers wants to clinch and McSweeney obliges him! Will that be the death blow for the smaller man in the octagon? They go to the fence and though clearly Shivers is the taller man, McSweeney is also a very chick man with quick hips. The cage walls barely hold the gigantic load as the wriggle back and forth. Shivers executes a quick trip maneuver and THUDS on top of McSweeney.

McSweeney is quick-hipped and is trying to escape when Shivers isolates his left arm - it’s clear that he's going to try for some kind of arm lock and McSweeney's arm is NEARLY turned into a literal pretzel - but somehow escapes!  They go back to the feet and speaking of feet - McSweeney obliges the recent pretzel session with a left high kick that quickly parts Shivers hair to one side! As they come to the center of the ring, they both execute a mid leg kick and - because of Shivers longer legs the hip kick, turns into a ball bludgeon! A hot fleshy dagger to the Funions that just isn't all that funny! The referee steps in and McSweeney is cradling the circles of life in an effort to revive them. 30 seconds go by and they once again re-engage.

Shivers turns down yet another handshake - this one post ball busting Zowie, and they square off in the center of the cage. a flurry of punches from both sides ensues, but Shivers with the longer arms makes the most of the throws. McSweeney tries a few hail-mary kicks and lands one but Shivers clinches and eventually takes back of McSweeney. McSweeney escapes and delivers a couple of very solid punches. Shivers looks winded as we arrive at 2 minutes left in the round, and McSweeney is fresh, tossing glancing blows from afar. a CRUSHING left jab from McSweeney who understands that quick hands would possibly win this fight. Another left hand touches Shivers right jaw that moves a giant man backwards. McSweeney feigns a giant right and instead cracks a GIANT thigh kick across Shivers swelling left front leg. Another front kick to Shivers left leg from the other side now. Shivers has done nothing for more than a minute and is clearly winded. Shivers is completely flat footed at this point and McSweeneys corner is emphasizing it. Jabs are encouraged as Shivers lumbers forward and another crushing front kick two - then three! And Shivers is clearly in pain as McSweeney executes a combo superman punch-kick! What the hell was that?! McSweeney is taking punches and kicks at will and the horn sounds to end the first round!

Round 2

As the second round starts, Shivers is still totally flat-footed and McSweeney is landing jabs at will. Before Shivers knows it, three kicks have hit his front leg again and it's wearing the man down quickly. Shivers scores a strange very low kick that causes McSweeney to lose his balance. Another solid kick and jab and KICK from McSweeney. McSweeney launches a high kick and Shivers tries to move in quick to take him down but nothing there. Another short combination of right hook and right kick from McSweeney lands and as another is thrown, Shivers grabs the leg and falls on top of McSweeney! It looks like Shivers is simply using McSweeney as a mattress as opposed to anything else and still can’t pass the guard. Shivers finally gains full mount and starts to rain down blows. McSweeney avoids several rear naked choke attempts and is able to finally reverse his situation but doesn't capitalize! He allows Shivers to stand. They simply watch each other from across the cage and McSweeney moves in with a nice right cross. Shivers simply puts his hands on his knees and rests and McSweeney's corner is exploding, "DON'T WAIT!" they scream! McSweeney cracks another kick but starts to look winded as well. Shivers is now wide-mouthed now, sucking in air as fast as humanly possible, looking more like a bass with 4oz gloves than a man. A giant right-handed haymaker scores for McSweeney. The last minute and a half of this round look incredibly amateur as one man stands exhausted, the other not sure whether to rest or attack. McSweeney lands two more crushing kicks and Shivers is completely spent and covering up. He takes a huge, swooping mailbomb of a right hand to the chin that ROCKS his world. He leans in to clinch but McSweeney offers up a huge KNEE for his chin to have some special time with. Shivers falls directly into a guillotine choke and McSweeney engages the noose, cranking as hard as possible. With 10 seconds left, Shivers pops his head out of the noose, but alas - the final horn sounds and the second bout of season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter comes to a close!

But does it? They're contemplating another round? Shivers can barely stand up and walk and McSweeney, while not terribly hungry, easily had more valuable blows that round.

Decision

Winner: James McSweeney wins by majority decision.

-- Rashad thinks its close?: I have to say I am amazed that they think THAT second round was at all "close." It wasn't.

-- Nowhere Near Satisfied: I have to totally take my hat off to both of the fighters, for telling the truth about them simply not being physically up to the task this evening. That takes a LOT of guts to admit that and not take the easy "excuse-ridden" way out and it's totally appreciated.

-- I got Tired and I Lost the Fight: Thankfully, Shivers here admits that there was something incredibly amiss and it's called CONDITIONING. Shivers is another football throw-through where you're going 120% -- for 30-35 seconds. Putting someone like that (as we'll see with many of the football folk in general - Marcus specifically) is a whole new kinda' hurt that I don't know they're ready for and we're already seeing it.

-- Rampage Taking Responsibility: Amazing especially after last week: After Rampage's child-like "rampage" out of the gym to whine, this week it's great to see him take the mantle and admit that he's not really giving the leadership that he should be providing. We'll see what that actually means, but - that's for another time.

-- Next Pick - Power goes to Team Rashad: Roy Nelson Vs Kimbo Slice - The True Test is about to begin.

-- The Savage Science Review Moral: We're incredibly satisfied on the second week's edition that offers up a ton of value for both new and old MMA fans alike. They've got their game in the groove that we like to see and we can only want and expect MORE next week with such a great card planned. What also comes out of this episode is realistic consequences and owning up to not being nearly good enough. What a great sample to show those who might want to come up out of the fire of potential MMA zeal. Keep that up, Ultimate Fighter! What do YOU think?

Quote of the Episode: ""Ah'm not a MMA fighter - Ah'm gon' win 'dis. Ah'ma' fighter" - Kimbo Slice. You sir, are a hypocritical idiot. Not only in one episode can you lie and tell people never 'really teach you things" but that you are willing to throw away everything that has been offered you (that you've said has never been offered) in the brief time at The Ultimate Fighter to 'revert' to something that's netting you more heartache than anything else is just DUMB. You are clearly ignorant and incredibly short-sighted. While your hands may have kept you "alive on 'da schtreets" there's way more to the MMA game than throwing gloves at someone's head. If anything else, your last, incredibly-short fight is a perfect showcase of how much your fists will mean in this next bout.

Overall Show Rating: We LOVED what we saw here. The dedicated, the overall training game, the showcase of just how exhausting the MMA game truly is - it's all here and we want MORE of it. We're absolutely sure that there is more greatness to come and hence we give this solid episode an 8 of 10 Savage Skullies.

I'm still wondering what YOU thought of this episode and hope that you'll take just a moment to fill out the comment section below to tell us what YOU think, or send me your details This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Look for more here as THE SAVAGE SCIENCE continues to review this season of The Ultimate Fighter: HEAVYWEIGHTS!

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