TUF 14 Finale: Bisping vs. Miller and 10 Things to Expect in Vegas on Saturday

Jason Miller and Michael Bisping have been roughhousing each other verbally for the past few weeks in the buildup to their December 3rd bout at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas, and while they used up most of their shots to the other's jugular when they coached on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, they've saved the ones that will really hurt for their own one-on-one bout.

As if that was not enough, however, Dennis Bermudez and Team Alpha Male's TJ "The Viper" Dillashaw have already advanced to the finals of the first-ever Featherweight and Bantamweight finals of this season. Dillashaw already knows who he'll be facing, as does Bermudez, but we don't know who advanced from their semifinal bouts to the finals on Saturday.

Did John Dodson, the sole flyweight at bantamweight on the show, defeat the experienced veteran Johnny Bedford, or did Bedford get his payback against Dodson?

Did Bryan Caraway withstand any punishment in order to mount a comeback against Diego Brandao, or did Brandao prove to be too much for Caraway to handle?

Caraway, a B/R Guest Columnist, will answer that last two-part question later this week, but before he does, let us see what December 3rd shall bring for the MMA world from The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale.

A Preliminary Card (No, Seriously, We Don't Know Who's on It)

The Ultimate Fighter finale always provides us with some sort of undercard, and while it's never really loaded with top names, they do deliver some exciting fights, including some with the TUF alumni from the current season.

Who will fight on the preliminaries of this card on Saturday?

Hopefully, we'll find out no later than the moment the last episode of TUF ends this Wednesday.

(Seriously, we're already at fight week, and we still only have two actual fights on the card.)

A Very Intriguing Clash of Two Members on the Current Cast

It could be Josh Ferguson or his brother BJ, or it could be someone against the loser of Dodson-Bedford.

It could be Stephen Siler vs. Marcus Brimage or Lou Gaudinot vs. a current UFC bantamweight due to an injury.

Hell, it could even be Dustin Neace vs. Akira Corassani, Part II, for all anyone knows.

EIther way, someone from the TUF cast is filling out the main card...any objections?

Dennis Bermudez's Warrior Spirit

Dennis Bermudez is 7-2 as a professional fighter, and he made a name for himself as being one of the ballsiest fighters on the show.

He withstood a first-round rocking from current KOTC Featherweight Champion Jimmie Rivera to finish him in the second round and then dominated Stephen Bass in Round 1 of their quarterfinal bout before TKOing Bass in Round 2.

Bermudez got rocked by shots that probably were responsible for Akira Corassani's only pro win by TKO, but he came back and forced a real tap from Akira by way of a guillotine choke.

Simply put, Bermudez is a beast on the ground, and he will take a beating to deliver a beating, regardless of what either Diego Brandao or Bryan Caraway decides to throw his way. That's something for both guys to think about heading into Saturday.

Diego Brandao's KO Power or Bryan Caraway's Wicked Ground Game

Dennis Bermudez does have a nasty ground game of his own, but if Wednesday's episode of TUF shows that Caraway did beat Brandao, Bermudez might not want to get too comfy with the notion of going to the ground with "Kid Lightning."

Remember, it was some good ground control and a rear-naked choke that ended Marcus Brimage in the first fight of the season, so Bermudez might prefer to stand and trade.

However, against the Team Alpha Male fighter, that could be easier said than done as well.

Bermudez could have a better time trying to take down Brandao, but the Greg Jackson fighter Brandao is a striking phenom who makes it difficult to do anything on the ground because he makes it difficult to get him on the ground.

In either case, Bermudez is in for a tough fight, but fireworks are to be expected here, regardless of who gets Bermudez.

TJ Dillashaw's Wrestling Game

When the quarterfinals came around, the perception among those in Team Bisping was that TJ Dillashaw came off as about the closest thing to a dude who was the whiny SOB of TUF 14 as anyone could get.

When it came time to fight, however, Roland DeLorme and Dustin Pague found out that Dillashaw, a Team Alpha Male product much like Bryan Caraway, is a man who could fight anywhere and make it a fight, regardless of whomever TJ really wanted.

It doesn't matter whether "The Magician" beats the superior-sized Bedford or Bedford uses his size to control Dodson the way Bedford controlled Josh Ferguson, because Dillashaw is facing two things:

1. He's facing a Team Mayhem fighter.

2. He's facing a fighter with the ability to finish any man at any moment by either submitting him or dropping him silly, and between them are nine wins by form of KO with 10 wins by submission and nine decision wins.

Dillashaw talked earlier this season about being thrown to the wolves, but this time it might be safe to say that he really is being thrown to the wolves.

A Flyweight vs. Bantamweight Finale, or a Bantamweight vs. Bantamweight Finale?

John Dodson, Louis Gaudinot and Josh Ferguson, collectively known as Team Death Leprechauns, followed in the tradition of Team Dagger and The Minority Report as a team of men that fought for different teams on the show while maintaining tight friendships along the way.

Also, it did help Team Death Leprechauns that all three were guys that fought like natural flyweights, which is brilliant, considering Dodson is for darn sure a 9-5 flyweight whose pro debut came in a disputed loss to No. 1 flyweight Yasuhiro Urushitani.

What the size of Dodson means on paper is that he's pretty undersized compared to Johnny Bedford, and therefore it seems natural that Bedford might control Dodson if the fight goes to the ground.

As we like to say, however, fights aren't fought on paper, and what Dodson might lack in experience or size, he makes up for in speed and possibly creativity.

Did it pay off for him against Bedford, or did Bedford exploit the size disadvantage in the semifinal?

UFC 140 Pre-Fight Talk from Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida?

Definitely.

UFC 140 is next Saturday, and as is something of a tradition, the champion and challenger usually do sort of a Q&A segment with Joe Rogan to hype up the main event whenever a UFC pay-per-view is coming up.

I wouldn't expect anyone to bank on trash talk, but if I had to make a prediction for the talk with Rogan if he talks to Jones or Machida about the fight, I'd only expect a good majority of the MMA world to want to find some lame justification for punching Jones in the mouth.

Seriously, do you find him THAT cocky?

A Basic Mention That There Will Be "The Ultimate Fighter 15"

Maybe.

For the first time since the "Team USA vs. Team UK" season, the Lightweights and Welterweights will be featured on TUF, and while we don't know who's coaching, we do know that there will be a TUF 15.

Of course, TUF 15 will be live, so there won't be anything more than a blurb during the live broadcast of Saturday's finale that mentions the fact of there being a TUF 15, but as the months progress, we all will find out more of what we need to know before the next season airs.

Tony Ferguson vs. Yves Edwards

Talk about a chance to make something happen.

Tony Ferguson recently beat one Aaron Riley on the Spike TV portion of UFC 135, but now he gets Yves Edwards.

Yes, Yves Edwards and his 41-17-1 record are facing Tony Ferguson on Saturday...digest that one.

Ferguson has so far been no easy fight for anyone in the UFC, and as the Riley fight proved, Ferguson has power in his hands that can battle with some of the toughest of the tough while breaking a few jaws in the process.

Who has the advantage?

Well...who'd you pick: the experienced veteran Edwards or the man they call "El Cucuy"?

The Count vs. Mayhem

All the trash talk, all the confrontations, all the competitiveness...and Mayhem's blonde hair.

Put it all together, and believe it or not, we are left with only the second occasion in which the two coaches fight on the actual TUF finale.

On the surface, we're dealing with two stand-up artists in Michael Bisping and Jason Miller. With Mayhem, Bisping has to deal with a BJJ mastermind, while Mayhem is dealing with a good counter-puncher (and a brash son-of-a-"gun" in Bisping).

Mayhem's talked about how much he wants to "whip Bisping ass" for months, and before the season even aired, Bisping thought of Miller as a "class clown."

Who will put up and who will shut up?

We'll find out this Saturday!