TUF 10: So What About It?

Will Big Country (aka Roy Nelson), the guy with the big belly, get the last laugh on Dana White and the fans of The Ultimate Fighter 10? The finale is coming up on Saturday, and I could use a few laughs after suffering through this season's dismal offering from the first Heavyweight TUF house gang.

Maybe the last laugh is on all the Kimbo fanatics who watched hopefully for a second Kimbo fight after the disappointment of seeing their former Elite XC hero pinned under said finalist Roy Nelson's massive gut early on in this series of disappointing fights.

As for me, I am still trying to figure out what Dana White thought made this "the best TUF of them all." If he was scamming the fans to increase the ratings, well "ha, f'n ha." Except for the chicken chasing and cotton candy pink warm up room, there weren't that many laughs to be had when all was said and done last night.

As for the finale, I will feel cheated if Roy Nelson of "the bubble gut" comes off the winner. I do not want to see any more of him. With Roy, less would definitely suit me better.

My hopes, and money, if I had any to bet, would be on Brendan Schaub. At least I could still lecture my grandson Kodi about the benefits of conditioning without appearing a dimwitted fool. Apparently, Roy Nelson doesn't run stairs as all the guys in my family who have wrestled had to do to stay in shape. Roy may run to the dinner table, but it hasn't benefited him any if he has.

Incidentally, I did love that beautiful pink room and would love to hire Rampage's team to help me paint and decorate a room for my granddaughters for when they visit grandma. Since we all love bears and horses, they could reuse some of those props, unless Rashad took them home.

A few years ago, a study was done which suggested that prisons and jails consider painting their walls a shade of pink, which was proved by their study to be less agitating than the institutional shades of green which were commonly used.

For fighters attempting to emulate the "cool" of the Iceman, Chuck Liddell, pink would be a serenely restful shade to prepare for their fight. Maybe that is why Rich "Ace" Franklin favors pink. (Didn't the guy who ended Kimbo's career with EXC paint his nails pink or have a stripe of pink in his hair?)

The chicken chasing episode came close to ripping off Sylvester Stallone's famous scene where Mickey has Rocky practice by chasing a chicken. It was funny this second time around too, when a similar thing happened after Rashad loosed the imprisoned cluck-clucks from his rented car.

One of the kind readers who commented on my previous TUF article alluded to Roy possibly saving a chicken to barbeque for a midnight snack. It seems doubtful that Roy could catch the fowl himself, but who knows what lengths he would go to for a nice fresh chicken meal. He is a country boy and would surely know how to dispatch a chicken, or he could just sit on it.

Dana amazed me by hinting constantly that Kimbo would figure prominently in the fighting on the show, then criticizing him in last nights two hour installment for not having the gumption to accept a second fight. He was also critical of Matt Mitrione for vacillating about wanting to fight after a "brain swelling injury" he incurred during a previous fight.

Of all things, Kimbo is now slated to fight in the finale, despite his arthritic knees which kept him out of taking a second TUF fight, with none other than Houston Alexander.

Now stop me if you have already heard someone say this, but isn't it exceedingly ironic that the man who became famous as a backyard brawler (made famous on YouTube) and Houston Alexander who was a disc jockey having up to 40 underground fights before being signed by the UFC? Well, it strikes me as an odd coincidence.

My hopes are on Houston. I was initially interested in Dana resurrecting Kimbo on the UFC after dissing him so much when he belonged to Elite XC. "Even BJ Penn could beat Kimbo Slice," Dana bragged. Well, is he is or is he ain't a good MMA fighter Dana? Please make up your mind!

Switching horses midstream seems to be a favorite ritual in which Dana frequently engages. First, Jon Fitch was a stand up good guy for fighting GSP, then he was persona non grata for not signing away his name and image to the for a video game.

Next, Dana publicly maligned the UFC's best pound for pound Middleweight, Anderson Silva, for "not having an exciting fight" with Thales Leites. Being a proud champion, this chastising did not go over well with Ed Soares or Anderson, (or me either).

I know that Houston is a hero for donating a kidney to his daughter, one of his six children, and that he rescued a small girl who was left alone in a vehicle by her mother and older sibling. Houston is a hero no matter how you look at it. He has fought and beaten some of the best fighters in the UFC as well. No, he has not fought Seth Petruzelli, but Kimbo really didn't last long enough to say he fought Seth either.

When Saturday night finally rolls around, I have no doubts who I will be cheering for at all. So I'll ask the rest of you: "Which fighters have got your bets?"