Although the fight was pretty sloppy, I think it was one of the better fights this season, just because we got some action. I think Mike could have done a lot more damage had he listened more to his corner, but it really made me aware of how alone Matt is inside that ring. Every other fighter has their corner shouting encouragement and instructions. Who knows, Rory might not have won his face if he didn't have Tito shouting for the high kick. But Matt has to pretty much win or lose on his own.

Anyway, hard to say whether or not Matt really lived up to his hype considering he never really used any of his wrestling skills. He did what he had to do to win, but not much else. I think he was too frightened of Mike's ground skills. But I'm not sure what was up with after the much. What would have happened if it had gone three rounds? Mike got the crap beaten out of him, but it looked like he was ready for another round if forced to fight more. Should be interesting to see how Matt is able to recover.

It might be having the ability to take a punch. Even when he got kicked in Training with Kendall with full gear on he was wobbled by that for hours after. Some people just dont have it in them to take shots over and over some people do.

I was wondering the same thing. I read the He Said/He Said over at Spike and apparently Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar don't have any idea what DSL means either.

It probably just stood for his two kids and wife to try to get him more motivated. I know two fights ago they were shouting to the dude with the blue hair his kids name who almost died.

Mike shouldn't make fun of someone who can and did beat his ass.

Wow. Matt has a long way to go to become an MMA fighter. If he faced another striker he would have been in serious trouble. Leaving this hands down the entire time and walking into punches...

Man, it is so terrible that he can't hear.. I mean, that is a HUGE disadvantage to not hear his corner!!

Matt also doesnt seem to be able to take a punch, so that will be interesting as well.

Yea and being you really can't teach / coach a tough chin I don't think Matt is going to be the next world champion like Tito thinks.. I wonder if after that fight Tito realized it..

Man, I can't wait for Tito vs Ken 2!! Only a little over a month to wait!! (July 8th)

I thought it was an entertaining fight, but I mean honesly, that was some of the most unskilled "professional" fighting I've ever seen. I think Bisping's conditioning will get him past Matt if it comes to that. I also couldn't believe Mike kept walking into those slow ass jabs, it's not like Matt has any real stand up skills, but DAMN he was literally walking into those jabs.

Ok, I finally got a chance to watch the Matt / Mike fight. WTF? Mike is running away like a little girl. When they're at the ground, Mike just give his back and cover his head and you call yourself a JJ submission expert? WTF. And Matt has no idea what to do at the ground but punches. What happen to learning any submission move from Lester? As everyone said, what a sloppy fight.

I dont think you can learn any effective submissions with just a few weeks training, plus it doesnt look like his ground and pound was very good either. It will be interesting to see how he handles someone with some better skills. He may leave in a body bag if he doesnt start learning something.

Without a doubt he needs to add something else other then wrestling to his game.. Like you said.. He didn't show any ground and pound skills either.. His boxing was pathetic (a striker would kill him), he has no submissions, and he showed no GNP.. So basically he can body slam people and get them to the ground but then what??

I thought the reason he did nothing on the ground was because of his arm. Even though they really didn't say how bad it was, I assumed it was injured with little strength and he didn't want to make it worse, which is why he just stuck to punches.

Does anybody know who's fighting tonight?

Awesome link:

http://forum.nokaut.com/viewtopic.php?t=9717

So, Matt was too hurt to go on.
Too bad they couldn't even give his spot away. For supposedly badass ultimate fighters, these guys are total pussies. Finally took the British psycho to grab that spot.

I guess all the Matt questions were ansered fairly quickly last night. They didn't really offer any medical explanation. I'm wondering if Matt's dropping out were by "doctor's orders", or by Matt's own accord.

I agree with Charlie....what's up with those two dudes rejected an opportunity to go straight to the semi's ?!? I think Dana was absolutely dumb-founded. Christain didn't seem like he had the heart after Bisping gave him an ass-wupin, and Tait was going off on some BS mental game thing.

Aside from the theatrics of last night's episdoe, I thought the actual fight was pretty good. I had it 2 rounds to 0 for Kalib, but it was close the entire time.

Also....anyone else think the "playing pool for 10 Grand" challenge was kind of pointless ??

Fight was good, but Kaleb pussed out at the end...I think he thought he would go in there and have no problem with Kendall, and when the fight got close, he couldnt handle it. He sure had enough excuses though. With the others not wanting to come back, whatever, they obviously dont want to be in the UFC. Im glad Ross is back. He doesnt have much skill, but he's got more personality than anyone else on the show, and at least he looks like he wants to fight. I dont think he stands a chance, but anyone can get beat on any day so we'll see. Yeah that pool contest seemed really out of place. I wish Tito would have taken the stick after losing and just went ape shit on Shamrock.

I think the pool thing was Dana's way of getting Ken a win. Man, Ken hustled Tito, I didn't see that coming.

Last night's fight was good. I wouldn't blame Kalib too much for quiting. He was just stupid to point out the injury to Kendall and Kendall took adavantages of it.

I agree with thoughts above. I think Kaleb would have won, if it kept the same tone round 3 but think Kaleb was hurting a bit, and realized if he couldn't win that fight he prob wouldn't win the finals on a much bigger stage. I think the rib thing was an excuse and dont' think he really broke his ribs either. He was just gassed. I can see him complaining about cardo, and think Shamrock is a bad coach, but what keeps these guys from running etc. on their own to work on their cardo. Cardo seems like a personal thing you should worry about for the most part, not Shamrock's fault.

I too couldn't believe those two guys didn't take the shot. My only thought, they knew they had no chance to win, so why get killed again on national tv. I'm not sure Ross has a chance at all but he's a funny guy, and does seem to enjoy fighting. I'm pulling for him, on pure personality and stepping up.

Next week looks promising, I can see the red hair guy being upset, but I hope not. I don't like the guy he's fighting much.

The pool game was totally dumb. I thought they were at least playing for the money to go to the guys on their team. Then I see Shamrock walk out with the money!? Seems like they could at least give the money to their team making it somewhat worth watching. The way it now though, it beats me.

I think Kalib's reaction came from being a calm-based fighter. You can tell he tries to be relaxed instead of amped-up and unfortunately that probalby kept him from having the adrenaline to ignore the pain. It was especially weird that he pointed out the injury right away (to Kendell), again, I think, a sign that he was being too relaxed and easygoing, like it was a training session instead of a fight.

I actually dont blame Tait and Kristian for turning down the second chance. Yeah, it shows they arent too game, bbbuuuuuttttttt... when 90% of the TUF fighters always get asked back and get a chance to fight in a prelim, prove their skills again, why not? The producers talk like winning the show is a chance at the "shot of a lifetime" to get in the UFC, when actually just getting cast on the show gets you a shot. So, they both probably figured they'd get another opportunity, so why risk fighting again when they felt hurt?

I did find it hilarious that they matched Pointon with Bisping for the semi's. The two fought each other before, recently in fact, and Bisping armbarred Pointon in about 2 minutes. Its obvious they really wanted Bisping in the finals and, through a twist of fate, got to match him with someone he's easily beaten before.

After all these people are leaving because of injuries, the show for some reason isn't as interesting. I can't believe the explanation or lack thereof for Matt leaving. They have as many scrubs as they do winners it seems like. It doesn't seem like much of a contest anymore.

Yeah, I really hate this aspect of the show, but really what can they do? I think it would be neat if they brought back people from past shows who won their bouts but had to leave because of injury. At least then they sort of have a right to be there. At the very least though the losers should have to fight to get a second chance.

Yea, it totally sucks all the guys leaving, coming back, etc.. But like the previous poster said.. What can you do? This is MMA and people get hurt almost every single fight.. Look what happened to Rich Franklin when he fought David Rousseiu (sp).. Granted that was a 5 round fight but he got seriously messed up.. He won't be fighting for like 6+ months!

It sucks that we didn't get to see Matt actually "wrestle" because I was really looking forward to him slamming some dudes...

Matt suck. So what if he's a great wrestler. After the slam / takedown, he has no idea what to do next.