K*Lovely's TUF 12 Recap episode 1

Finally the time has come and a brand new season of The Ultimate Fighter is upon us. I couldn’t be happier that we get a full season of GSP as a coach; unfortunately that means a full season of watching Koscheck as well. Like they say, you have to take the good with the bad. As usual the hopefuls enter the gym and meet Dana as well as their new coaches. Dana gives his “give it everything you got” speech and also announces that the wild card is back in motion. Last season McCray made it to the finals with his wild card spot so this news should be encouraging.


You can’t help but to love the fact the show kicks off with the boys having to fight their way into the house. It gets straight down to business and the shenanigans come later. The first fight is Marc Stevens vs T.J. O’Brien. In his pre interview Stevens says that he has worked with Koscheck before, but when Dana asks Koscheck, he says he’s never seen him fight. Stevens ends up taking the quickest knock out award with this fight. He lands a right hand that drops O’Brien and Stevens just continues the punishment until the ref jumps in. Stevens jumps on the cage and yells to Koscheck “Remember me now?” On to the next fight which is Spencer Paige vs. Steve Magdaleno. Now I think Paige deserves an award as well. He is the first fighter I’ve seen walkout to the cage in jeans. Yes, I notice everything. This fight goes the distance but Paige wins by decision due to his good ground and pound game.

Third fight is Nam Phan vs. Mike Budnik. Budnik comes out and delivers a few leg kicks, gets Phan against the cage and then takes him down. They scramble a bit on the ground and Phan goes for some submissions as well as delivering some punches, but Budnik lets him back up. Phan puts the pressure on a little bit and starts throwing some punches and Budnik goes for the takedowns. They go back and forth for a bit, then Phan lands a liver shot and that drops Budnik. Phan starts to unload on Budnik as he’s down and Budnik can’t recover. Phan makes his way into the house with a TKO victory.

After that fight they move on and just show the highlights of some of the remaining fights. Next up were Andy Main and Jason Brenton. From the highlights these two had their fair share of punches, kicks and submission attempts. In the end Main gets into the house with a triangle choke victory over Brenton.

Next fight was Ron Weathers and Jonathan Brookins. Brookins goes into this fight looking to punish and finish his opponent. This fight goes to decision and Brookins takes the win. In his interview Brookins felt he should have done more in the fight but is anxious for his next fight.

Up next we had Toby Grear and Sako Chivitchian. Now the Ultimate Fighter just wouldn’t be the same if there wasn’t any puking. Thanks to Sako we get plenty of it. Sako gets the decision and is the house. Jeff Lentz and Daniel Head were up next and GSP crossed Lentz off his list right away. Maybe it was the hair, but he told Dana he didn’t think Lentz would make it. As perfect as I find GSP, in this case he was wrong. Lentz delivered a good ole fashioned ass whooping on Head then sunk in a rear nake choke for the victory. After the victory Koscheck lets Lentz know that GSP had crossed him out before the fight started and Lentz said “never count me out.” For the record GSP did man up and admit that he was wrong about Lentz and made the mistake of crossing him out early.

Now ever since I saw the previews for this season I have been excited to see "Bruce Leroy" Alex Caceras. When Alex came out he was sporting the yellow Bruce Lee suit and Koscheck said he came out looking like a banana. Excuse me Koscheck, what the hell do you think you look like sitting there with your horrid blonde hair and your yellow jersey? That’s the pot calling the kettle black right there. During the entire fight "Bruce Leroy" had a smile on his face and made his way into the house with rear naked choke. He is so excited he runs out of the cage, but Dana reminds him to step back in and get his hand raised for the victory.

Next we have Pablo Garza and Michael Johnson. This fight goes to decision and Johnson takes the victory. Aaron Wilkinson is the next to make it into the house with his decision victory over Mike Richman. Wilkinson is from the UK and Koscheck seemed to be impressed by his ground work.

After showing a UK fighter, naturally it’s time to see an Irishman. Joseph Duffy however is not as lucky and losses to Kyle Watson by rear naked choke. Watson is the first to state he can’t wait to start some shenanigans. At least he’s honest, right? Next fighter to make it in is Sevak Magakian with a decision victory over J.J Ambrose.

The last 2 fights left are shown in their entirety. First up are Cody McKenzie and Amir Khillah. Mckenzie is an Alaskan fisherman with a trick up his sleeve. Before the fight begins GSP tell Dana that he predicts McKenzie will win by guillotine. GSP has heard his name before and knows that this is what he’s known for. Well, McKenzie delivered. Khillah was able to avoid the first attempt but couldn’t escape the second. McKenzie told the ref that he was asleep and McKenzie advances.

Last fight of the night is between Dane Sayers and Ariel Sexton. Sayers makes it a point to let his opponent know that he does not want to touch gloves at the beginning of the round. He comes out darting from his corner with a jumping knee but misses. Sayers then goes for a guillotine but can’t sink it in tight enough. Sexton gets some punches in but Sayers is able to get him down briefly and even get Sexton’s back, but just isn’t able to lock anything in. Sayers slams Sexton to the ground but he is able to get back up quickly and starts landing some good punches and even gets in a good knee. Toward the end of the round Sayers starts to look gassed and the accidental low blow by Sexton didn’t help. Dana predicts that Sayers will lose in the second round. Second round starts and Sexton is a little more aggressive. He comes out and lands punch after punch that pushes Sayers up against the cage. They exchange some knees and Sayers attempts a guillotine that looked good but Sexton was able to escape. They get back to their feet but Sexton gives up his back and this time Sayers is able to sink in a standing guillotine and he is the last fighter to make it in the house.

I am looking forward to what I hope is an exciting season of TUF. Of course you won’t hear me complain knowing that I have a date with GSP every Wednesday night. I’ll be back next week with another recap and don’t forget to check out my Weekly Rampage thought on Monday. Peace out!!!

K*Lovely