Well, he said before the fight he didn't want to make it a ground war because of his injured arm.

But, I do think Matt, at this stage, might lack the grit to be a fighter. He's a world-class wrestler, for sure, but you can be a great wrestler, grappler, submission maestro and be a terrible fighter. It ALL changes if you cannot take getting punched, kicked, smacked, elbowed, kneed, etc. square in the face. On the show, Matt has shown a questionable heart when it comes to getting hurt. His puking his guts out and being hauled to the hospital for an extended period after a sloppy c-level fight does not bode well for his future.

I totally agree. I just like to see great Matt Hughe's style slams..

Good teaser video up on UFC's website for UFC 61 for those who didn't see the previous fights..

http://www.ufc.com/ufc61/

I'm not sounding tough or anything here, but I have cracked a rib and MOTHERFUCKINGHOLYSHIT you cannot breathe. I completely agree with Shamrock and others that there is NO WAY he broke or cracked a rib. When I went down, I was literally gasping for breath and I completely lost vision for a minute or so. It's the closest I've ever felt to dying, when in reality it's not that big a deal, but shit you certainly feel it. If I somehow did manage to stand back up and take a straight kick to my bad ribs like Kaleb did, I probably would have passed out. He's a quitter and I agree with the above post that he was just too freaking gassed to continue.

Getting hit over and over again in a bruised spot is fucking painful. He quited because he know he has no chance of winning from then on and didn't want to risk more injury.

Now, this is just my opinion but why are these fighters and UFC making such a big fucking deal about a 6 figure contract? It's good money but it's not enough to make you super rich + the risk of serious injuries. Collecting $2k, $5k, $10k per fight is not exactly what I'd call a lot of money.

Don't they only fight 3-4 times a year max? That'd be minimally 25K per fight, which ain't bad. Plus they can hope for a Xyence commercial.

Whenever they are vague about the amount you know it's just past the cutoff. So "six figure contract" does not mean $450,000 or $735,000 but is instead probably right at 100,000. You're right it isn't good money for what these guys go through, but I think the point is these guys would be doing this anyway (or a lot of them would) in some form or another. And honestly I don't see them making a big deal about the money so much as the contract. A chance to be champion and all that jazz.

I think if you're an established fighter, you fight less in a year but for a TUF fighter / winner, they will have more than 3-4 fights a year. Just look at Keith from season 2, I think I saw him fight like 4-5 times already in 6 months.

Yup, no way they will get 500k or even near it. They need endorsement if they ever want to make more money, not just relying on fighting alone.

My prediction for the Roy and Ed fight this thursday. Roy is gonna upset Ed by kicking his sorry ass.

Heads up for this Thursday: THE FINAL TWO EPISODES BACK-TO-BACK, starting at the regular time, 10 PM EST.

Live Finale on Sat the 24th at 9 PM.

Thanks for the update. I would have missed the first one otherwise since I hvae my DVR set to only save one episode and the 1st episode would have been erased as soon as the 2nd one started.

While I still enjoy watching the show, is it just me, or does eveyone in this season suck in skills in comparison to the previous seasons?

Shit that sucks...I wanted to watch them as they aired. Oh well, thanks for the heads-up.

True, but this season (2nd as well) there is no Forrest Griffen (Bonner or Sanchez for the matter) who is going to be getting a Xyience contract anytime soon. From my understanding, UFC doesnt pay that great anyways. I hear Pride is more lucrative.

Thanks for headup. Time to setup my DVR since I will not be home on sat.

But $100,000+/year is way better than most of these guys would/do make. I doubt any of these guys have jobs that are even close to 50K/year. On top of that they get to be an athelete for a living and have a little fame. If things go well, they make it huge. Doesn't sound too bad to me. Also, this isn't boxing. They aren't taking hundreds of shots to the head a fight. The long term risk is much lower for MMA than boxing IMHO.

From the pay I have read about on sherdog and the underground forums. The new people in the UFC make about $2000 to fight and another $2000 to win, but remember this is for the new people that just got in the UFC and have a chance to make it big and get broad exposure and more endorsement opportunities. From what I read about Chuck lidell made over a million last year from fighting and endorsements. The pay in pride is alot bigger. Gary goodridge who fought in the early UFCS and fights in Pride when asked about the comparison of pay to the UFC he never gave an exact amount but did say its WAY more than 3x the pay of the UFC.

Jardine?? I only seen him fight Bonnar (and get screwed).. He also fought an unaired fight in UFC 57.. Where else have you seen him fight?

You might be right. Maybe I saw someone else that looked like him or I was watching a rerun and I didn't know.

I think it's also part of not having a breakaway frontrunner at this point. From fight one, Diego looked like a badass and was very well rounded. IMHO, he went from good to great with the (admitted minimal) training there. I think they're going for a Forrest-esque type vibe with the editing for Kendall, but he's just not high in the skill department.

At this point if I had only watched the training and fights, I would say that Bisping is clearly the most talented guy there. But after the last few seasons, you've got to pay attention to the editing, which is giving most of the attention to Ed. Hopefully it's setting up a big fall for him, since he didn't show shit in his last fight. My money's cautiously on Bisping at this point, but there isn't anybody that can go out there and honestly say he is tremendously more skilled at this point. Which sucks, because I think I remember Dana White saying that this year had the most talented guys of any season.

Anybody catch the last 2 episodes last night...

I was glad to see Ed win, although he really didn't seem to have much heart in it, and seemed almost content in losing came time to fight.

I can't believe Jessie lost, with what's his name giving him his back the entire first round. Seems like Jessie would have choked him out, if he had even remotely decent skills. The dude with the blue hair will get destroyed in the finals I predict. That was crazy Jessie losing at the start of the 2nd round.

Pontoon landed a few good shots then got killed by Besping. Besping looks the best as others have said and see him winning easily in the finals.

I think Ed will beat Kendall fairly easy too, but we'll see.

Can't wait for the finals, but more for the Shamrock Vs Tito rematch.

Most of the fights this season seemed to end with one guy giving up mentally or physically. A bit of a letdown.

I think it was so dumb when Rory and Chris got into no pun a pissing match. What are they childern. I was glad Chris won even if he seemed like he didn't want it. Josh got a shocking victor when Jessie couldn't finish him off with the rear naked choke. I loved that jumping knee which Besping said he would use on Pontoon, that was just a stand up brawl. Looks like a good finals.

Josh through sheer will (and muscle) got out of the exact same predictament Rory gave up in. Still, after seeing that flying knee by Besping I expect Josh to get obliterated in the finals. That Brit has some serious skills...

Just some thoughts on the two episodes last night:

1) Rory does seem to have some mental blocks preventing him from reaching his full potential. I think Ed was right in that he just broke his will.
2) Big props to Tito for calling Rory on his BS excuse of conditioning.
3) Wicked flying knee by Bisbing. I'm in agreement with most of the other posters, in that he has to be the odds on favorite to win.
4) Jesse had basically dominated Josh for the entire first round, but couldn't finish it. I'm guessing this was due to lack of experience ??
5) Gotta love how Dana White basically said flat out that Tito did the better job, while Ken was "mailing it in" sort to speak. I don't know the entire back-story between Tito and Ken, but there does look to be some genuine heat between the two. Maybe it was the editing of the show, but they really made Tito to be the more endearing of the two coaches.

Great season overall.