Fight Talk

Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz advanced to the semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 last night on Spike TV. Let’s look at the fighters who have qualified for the Final Four.

Gamburyan (5-2 entering the competition) defeated Matt Wiman in the quarterfinals. Gamburyan, a Hollywood native, has been a nationally ranked judo competition for eight years. Gamburyan missed 18 months of action before TUF 5 when he dislocated both of his shoulders.

Diaz (5-2) knocked off Corey Hill in the other quarterfinal. The younger brother of Nick Diaz has been concentrating on an MMA career since 2003.

Joe Lauzon (13-3) entered the competition as a favorite, because he holds a victory over one of the coaches, Jens Pulver. Lauzon, a computer network administrator from Massachusetts, has been studying jiu-jitsu for six years.

Gray Maynard (3-0) is from Lakewood, Ohio. He is a three-time college All-American wrestler at Michigan State University, where he was a teammate of TUF 3 winner Rashad Evans. Maynard helped BJ Penn train for a fight before entering the octagon himself. Maynard trains in Las Vegas with Randy Couture.

The TUF 5 finale will take place on June 23 In addition to the final fight, the show will feature a battle between coaches Penn and Pulver.

Learn everything about TUF 5 at www.theultimatefighter.tv.

The Ultimate Fighter, UFC

We’ve talked about UFC, Pride, IFL and WEC – now let’s not forget about Bodog. This promotion tapes many of its first in Costa Rica and held a pay-per-view in Russia in April.

The most recently edition highlighted the welterweight division. Bodog aired a pair of fights that were won by champion Eddie Alvarez and top contender Nick “The Goat” Thompson. Then, Bodog aired the title fight between the two from the April pay-per-view. Thompson won the title in the second round via TKO.

This made for an action packed episode, but I have to question the wisdom of airing a title fight on free TV two months after asking viewers to order it on pay-per-view.

One unique aspect of Bodog is that it sometimes features female competitors. This is refreshing considering that women are often used as eye candy in just about every other promotion.

Bodog airs on the Ion group of local TV stations on Tuesday and Saturday nights at 11 p.m. Get all of the details at www.bodogfight.com.

World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) made a strong debut in its first national TV show on Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network). The formerly independent WEC is now owned by UFC, and it specializes in the lighter weight classes.

The top star in WEC is featherweight champion Urijah Faber. In a battle of 144-pounders, Faber improved his record to 19-1 with a win over Chance Farrar. Faver forced a tap-out with a rear naked choke in 3:19.

Carlos Condit, the welterweight (170) champion, was unable to compete on Versus due to an injury. His would-be opponent, Brock Larson, pounded Kevin Knabjian to improve his record to 21-1.

In other results, Brian Stann beat Craig Zellner by TKO; Alex Karalexis beat Josh Smith by unanimous decision; Rani Yahya beat Mark Hominick with the rear naked choke; and Josh Alessio beat Alex Serduykov with the guillotine choke.

WEC will air again on Versus tonight with a show called WrekCage from 8-10 Eastern. You can learn everything about WEC at www.wec.tv.

MMA, WEC

One of the cool things about ultimate fighting is that all weight classes are treated with importance by the fans and promoters. Let’s take a look at the five title holders in UFC.

Randy Couture (15-8) is the UFC heavyweight champion at the age of 43. He won a unanimous decision over Tim Sylvia at UFC 68: The Uprising on March 3. This represented a big comeback for Couture, who was knocked out by Chuck Liddell in his previous fight 13 month earlier.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (27-6) is the UFC light heavyweight champion. He upset Liddell with a TKO in less than 2 minutes to win the belt on May 26. Jackson, a former PRIDE competitor, is 2-0 since jumping to the UFC promotion.

Anderson Silva (18-4) is on top of the UFC middleweight division, which tops out at 185 pounds. He won the title from Rich Franklin on Oct. 14, 2006 and retained it on Feb. 3 with a win over Travis Lutter.

Matt “The Terror” Serra (15-5) became the new UFC welterweight champion when he scored a TKO over Georges St.-Pierre on April 7.

Sean Sherk is the UFC lightweight champion (155 pounds). He has a sparkling record of 35-2-1. The UFC didn’t have a champ in this division for four years until reinstating the title in October 2006, when Sherk won a decision over Kenny Florian.

UFC, Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson, Chuck Liddell

Brock Lesnar, the former NCAA and WWE wrestling champion, made a solid transition to mixed martial arts with a quick win over Min Soo Kim on June 2. Lesnar took Kim down, pounded him and forced a tap out in 1:09.

The fight headlined the “Dynamite USA” pay-per-view, which was co-promoted by K-1 and Elite XC.

After the fight, Lesnar declared himself ready for big-money fights and heavyweight title shots. It’s hard to tell if Lesnar is ready for this, because Kim didn’t really test him. It will take a couple more fights to determine whether Lesnar will rise to the top of MMA in the same way he did in college and pro wrestling.

Another former pro wrestler, Bill Goldberg, provided color commentary for the event.

The other top fight was a battle of MMA legends, as Royce Gracie battled Kazushi Sakuraba. After the first round, the action really slowed down and the fans booed. Gracie won a unanimous decision.

Former football player Johnny Morton didn’t have as good a debut as Lesnar. Bernard Ackah knocked Morton cold in 38 seconds.

In other results, Mighty Mo beat Ruben “Warpath” Villareal by TKO in 1:33; Dong-Sik Yoon beat Melvin Manhoef with an armbar in Round 2; and Hideo Tokoro beat Brad Pickett with an armbar in 2:41.

Brock Lesar, Royce Gracie, Bill Goldberg

If you missed any part of the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter, it’s time to fire up the TiVo. Spike TV will air all nine episodes of the series on Saturday, June 2, from 2-11 p.m.

Spike TV boasted in a recent press release that the May 24 episode of TUF 5 drew more than double the viewers of the first game of the Stanley Cup hockey finals on May 28.

The Ultimate Fighter has been a huge success for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) promotion. It has been a breeding ground for future stars. The show also gives fans a weekly dose of MMA action without giving away anything that would draw on pay-per-view.

As far as “training to break into a sport” reality shows go, The Ultimate Fighter has been a much bigger hit than The Contender (boxing) or Tough Enough (wrestling).

Last night, Gray Maynard defeated Brandon “The Murderer” Melendez in a quarterfinal bout. One week ago, Joseph Lauzon also earned a spot in the semifinals with a TKO win over Cole Miller.

The other quarterfinal fights will be Nate Diaz vs. “The Real Deal” Corey Hill; and “Handsome” Matt Wiman vs. Manuel “The Pitbull” Gamburyan.

The fighters are divided into two teams, coached by UFC veterans B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver.