TUF 8: The End Is In Sight! (Finally!)

Big Question of the night: Does Dana White play favorites?

Yeah, I know what you are saying!

Answer: "Duh!"

So for whatever reason, the final two episodes of TUF 8 were on tonight. I have felt cheated ever since last Wednesday when I tuned in and a new episode was not shown.

Well, now my appetite for TUF 8 has been sated, and thankfully, without any further food shenanigans. It was getting hard to 'stomach' them, as it were.

Back to the above big question. In the manner of Junie Browning, how many readers feel Dana played favoritism re: said nuisance? (Oh, wait! I can have a survey for this.) Never mind.

Since Dana asks the question himself, we all know what the answer is supposed to be.

Dana uses diplomacy, and after one final dangerous melt-down, lets Junie's housemates answer the rhetorical question, "shall we let Junie wimp out and go home, or 'make' him stay and get an ass kicking?"

Astute fans of the show already have this one figured out.

So Junie faces his primary enemy and potential 'ass kicker' Efrain Escudero in a very 'Junie' match.

Anyone disrespectful enough to enter the octagon and sit on the mat while their opponent enters, then warms up with stretches after told to 'fight' deserves more critical adjectives than I can recall.

Round Two at 1:34 Junie gets turned into a pretzel by Efrain's remarkable jiu-jitsu and taps out. Ass kicking completed.

Watching the fights tonight was interesting because in the first one, at least, the expert Dana picks the wrong guy to win it.

After the fight he puts the winner down by saying the fight was "not up for the fight of the year," since his favorite Eliot Marshall lost by unanimous decision to Ryan Bader. (You guessed it, I had picked Bader to win.)

So Bader will now fight Vinny Margalhaes, who beat my least favorite fighter, Krzysztof Soszynski (because his name is hard to type and he started all the stupid pranks that leeched the joy out of watching the show for me).

Ever since a rumor was started that put Nogueira and Vinny, who are countrymen at odds, I have been concerned that he and Nogwon't ever be reconciled, which to me would be a complete shame! I am keeping my fingers crossed that an apology is yet to come, followed by a sincere warm embrace. (Nog has admitted, he likes hugs.)

Last, but surely not least, Phillipe Nover fought and defeated Roop by a kimura at 3:20 of Round O. I just loved seeing a nurse win a fight!

Ultimately, the bad news is that all of these men are fighters that I really like, but only two will win contracts and I am torn between them just like I was in the St. Pierre v Serra fights.

Curses! What can you do when there are no 'bad guys'?

One final funny moment came as a result of a bet between the coaches which ended in Mir's loss allowing Nogueira to collect and shave off Mir's pride and joy. Although, naturally, Mir ended up with the shears correcting the damage his rival coach had done.

As Dana quipped to Nogueira, "It's a good thing you're a good fighter cause you sure aren't a good barber!"