TUF 6 Finale Breakdown

Dave Franklin
December 7, 2007December 10, 2007

The TUF 6 Finale was an awesome showcase of the fresh crop at welterweight, plus we got to see an exciting main event with a couple of top lightweights. The best part of all of it was that it was FREE!

The undercard

The night got started off with Jonathan Goulet scoring a first round victory over Paul Georgieff by RNC. Goulet just had too much experience over the TUF cast member. I am sure Paul will get another chance on a Fight Night undercard, hopefully this time it will be against a more appropriate opponent.

I am glad that Roman Mitichyan got his shot in the UFC. After being finished in just 23 seconds, I am sure that Dorian Price was not though. The only surprise here was that the fight was over so quickly. Dorian may be a great kickboxer, but he needs to develop a ground game if he wants to have any success in this sport. I hope that Roman will soon get a chance to be on a televised card so that we can see his talent.

Matt Arroyo vs. Jon Kolosci fortunately made it to television. I enjoyed this fight. Arroyo continued looking for a submission, but was not over-eager when he wasn't sure he had one. More than once Arroyo had Kolosci in a guillotine, but gave it up when he knew it was not deep enough. He even came close to finishing with an armbar at one point. In the end, Arroyo finally sunk in a quick armbar and forced Kolosci to tap. I would like to see Matt Arroyo fight George. Both are talented BJJ practitioners. As for Jon Kolosci, he needs to work on his submission defense, but is a talented fighter.

We also got to see the promised stand-up war between Troy Mandaloniz and Richie Hightower. Both fighters threw down for the entire round until Troy landed a clean left to Richie's chin and finished the fight with a couple of hammer fists. Both fighters will be on undercard matchups for Fight Nights for a while. They both have a lot of room to grow.

Main Card

I will admit I was completely wrong about Dan Barrera, I mistook his intensity for talent. His intensity probably is just a case of ADD. Barrera needs to develop an use a plan B. He shot in for a takedown near the beginning of the fight and spent what seemed like a three minutes trying to get the takedown. Tenacity can sometimes be a bad thing. On the show, when Barrera knocked Ben down, Dan would not stop pressing forward even when his coaches and team were yelling at him to back up and let Ben up. Another thing that Barrera was tenacious about was grabbing Ben's shorts. I think a point should have been taken. Ben Saunders did well and deserved this win.

George Sotiropoulous was back on point in this fight. Had George fought this way in the semi-finals, he may have been fighting for the "six figure contract." Billy came at George immediately when the fight started. Billy took George down, right where the Long Island Aussie wanted it. He quickly finished the fight with an RNC. I think with his current skill set, George made an intelligent decision to train with Serra-Longo.

War Machine was impressive. There I said it. I didn't really like the guy on the show and thought there was no way he could beat J-Roc. This was a great fight. The first round had Jared on his back throwing strong elbows and cutting John's head open. In the second round, it looked like the fight could have been stopped when J-Roc was delivering some ground-n-pound and War Machine didn't seem to be defending well, but the fight continued. The third round started with both fighters exhausted. War Machine fell to a squatting position after being hit by J-Roc and I really thought it was over there. War Machine fell to his back, J-Roc mounted and started with the GNP, but was soon swept to his back with War Machine delivering elbows that knocked Jared out. Great fight from both guys.

Our TUF final was quite a mismatch. Mac Danzig was an obvious favorite to win the show from the very beginning and in the finals he made it clear why. Danzig scored a takedown, mounted Tommy, threw some punches, then Tommy rolled over and gave up his back. Danzig sunk in an RNC to become the winner of TUF 6. As announced before the show, he confirmed that he will be moving down to lightweight.

What a main event! Clay Guida's takedowns proved to be too much for the first two rounds. Although Guida had Huerta down, he could not finish the fight as Huerta scrambled effectively. Roger Huerta knew that he was losing the fight and knew what he needed do as the third round started. I wish more fighters had the attitude that if they lose two rounds, they must finish the fight in the third to walk away with a win. Huerta came out strong connecting with punches and forcing Guida to shoot once again. On the shot, Huerta caught Guida with a knee that rocked Guida. Clay kept trying to hang on for a takedown, but was just too out-of-it. Huerta took Guida's back and won with an RNC.

Guida needs to improve at finishing fights. He had so many opportunities in the first two rounds to do so, but just couldn't. A main point for him to focus on is his RNC. When Clay tries to secure an RNC, he doesn't sink his hooks deep enough, and more importantly, he rides too high on his opponent's back (He did this against Tyson Griffin too.) A quality fighter will easily shake or roll him off. He needs to consider a body triangle instead of hooks and needs to stay lower on his opponents back.

Huerta deserves props for his heart and the big win, although he still needs to work on his wrestling. Guida was just taking Huerta down over and over. Fortunately for him, he can scramble. A wrestler the caliber of now former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk will take Huerta down and lay and pray a victory.

The question now is, who does Huerta fight next? I think a fight against Frankie Edgar would be great.

Don't forget, WEC 31 is on Versus on Wednesday night December 12. Also, we are now just under three weeks away from UFC 79!

Check out the current odds at the MMA Betting SuperPage.