Another Fight, Another Shocking Dissapointment for TUF 10: Heavyweights

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It certainly has been a surprising season of The Ultimate Fighter. It's just not delivering the type of surprises UFC President Dana White was dreaming up when he decided to fill the new season's roster with a mix of veteran and rising heavyweights.

The season hasn't simply been hurt by the lack of clear favorites, entertaining fights, or inspired coaching. It has been brutalized every week by a combination of the three.

Let's start with the least surprising of the group.

Rampage Jackson is not a great UFC coach. He makes no qualms about his desire to be recognized as a fighter and not as a coach. It then begs the question: Why bother signing up for the show?

We know Jackson loves the camera, but his lack of attention to his fighters is just hurting their—albeit slim—chances of making any impact in the UFC.

Jackson even threw his own fighters under the bus, telling them it wasn't he who was giving up, it was his fighters. Not exactly the best way to form a working relationship and hone the talents of a younger fighter.

Now, only something truly terrible could be worse than Jackson's coaching. Unfortunately, the quality of fights has been even worse.

Week after week, the cast members on TUF10 help give weight to the critics that said the season was nothing more than a promotional ploy to introduce Internet sensation Kimbo Slice to the UFC.

In the season's first fight, Abe Wagner merely laid on his back while his head was beaten open. Last week, a shockingly out-of-shape Darrill Schoonover was able to submit Zak Jensen with the slowest triangle choke I have ever seen develop.

Then there was Roy Nelson sitting his fat belly on top of Slice and practically slapping him in the top of the head until referee Herb Dean had to step in and stop the fight.

But the most disappointing of all the surprises has been the terrible conditioning of the fighters. It almost feels like watching characters that Mickey Rourke battled in The Wrestler—guys that are just way past their prime, trying to hold on to a final dream.

Rashad Evans' first round pick, James McSweeney, looked awful, bending over, gasping for air, and running away from an equally exhausted Wes Shivers.

Then, in this most recent fight, Matt Mitrione and Scott Junk could barely stand up, let alone throw punches at the end of the first round.

How do these guys make it through a training session if they can barely make it through one round of a UFC fight? They both looked like they had just finished the fifth round of a championship fight.

The decision in that fight might have been even worse. How could anybody not give Scott Junk that last round? Mitrione didn't land one punch and spent a third of the round on his back. But that's a story for another time.

With only one more fight remaining until the quarterfinals, I really hope to see some fireworks. As it stands now, only three fighters can feel moderately good about their early performances, but none of them are inspiring much confidence either.

Brendan Shaub executed a nice submission win over Demico Rogers, but was probably losing the fight until Rogers' misstep.

Both Jon Madsen and Justin Wren dominated their fights against Abe Wagner and Wes Sims respectively, but were not exactly given much of a challenge.

I can't see any one of these guys standing a chance against fighters like Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, and Cheick Kongo. Heck, I couldn't even see half of them hanging in there with Antoni Hardonk.

If Dana White has any hope of justifying his decision, the quality of fights needs to improve.

And fast.

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