TUF 9 Finale Preview:
by Carlos Santana

Frank ‘the Tank’ Lester 3-2 vs Nick Osipczak 3-0 – Frankie Four Teeth is a former member of the US Army, following in the footsteps of his Army Ranger and Colonel father, and served the US in Iraq. Following his return from Iraq, he moved to San Diego and worked as a bouncer at a bar. While working, he had to break up a fight in the presence of War Machine and was invited to train MMA with him in San Diego. While on the show, Lester defeated Kiel Reid, lost to Wilks, was invited back in and defeated Dave Faulkner, and went on to lose a rematch with Wilks in the semi-final match.

Nick calls himself a kung-fu style fighter and trains with the Rough House in England, alongside Winner, Daley, and Hardy. While competing on the show, he scored a pair of KO wins over Tommy Maguire and Mark Miller before losing a memorable battle with DaMarques. A tall and lanky fighter, Nick uses his reach well with stiff jabs and kicks. A former professional gambler, Nick is not afraid to take risks in the cage either.

Nick should be able to replicate his fight with Miller against Frank, although Lester seems to be one tough SOB. Nick may be one of the fighter’s that impressed me the most while on the show, as he doesn’t particularly look intimidating, but showed good striking skills and a decent ground game. Mentally, Frankie looks to be able to be broken down and have his will broken during fights, but will fight on with reckless abandon anyway. Unless Frank works out his Rich Franklin-esque problems with clinch defense and throwing wild looping hooks, it looks like Nick will take a decision win over Frankie Four Teeth.

Nate Diaz 10-3 vs Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson 29-10 – Nate Diaz, the winner of TUF5, is the younger brother and a near replica of older brother Nick. While on the show, Nate submitted Rob Emerson, Corey Hill, and Gray Maynard before facing off in the finale with Manvel Gamburyan, who was injured during the fight. Nate went on to compile a 5 fight win streak, including wins over Pellegrino and Neer. In the Pellegrino fight Nate showed a lot of toughness as Batman was beating him heavily on the feet. Nate managed to make it out of the first round and took Batman down in the second before finishing him with a double barreled message to all the haters and a triangle choke. Nate’s 5-fight win streak was snapped in his last fight, a split decision to Clay Guida in which Clay completely controlled Nate with superior wrestling. A Cesar Gracie fighter, Diaz holds a BJJ brown belt and proudly represents the Stockton.

Joe, as a member of TUF 2, defeated Marcus Davis, using superior ground skills and elbows as well as a better ground game against Jason Von Flue, who he defeated with an armbar to move onto the finale. In the finale, he defeated Luke Cummo by decision and has been fighting professionally since 1999. After dropping a decision loss to Neer, he dropped to 155, ran off a 4 fight win streak and challenged BJ Penn for the title. It proved to be too much too soon as BJ outclassed him and in a very bloody fight, choked Joe out. Joe went on to defeat Tibau with his dangerous, signature guillotine choke before dropping his last two fights, to Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez respectively. Stevenson, a BJJ black belt under Robert Drysdale, has been in New Mexico, training with the Jackson camp for this fight.

While Diaz can certainly use his reach to box, and has the better boxing to win the fight on the feet, he lacks the power to finish and the head movement to maneuver. Stevenson, coming off of losing battle with Sanchez that was in large part due to being outclassed on the feet, will certainly be looking to use his wrestling and superior grappling. We have seen Nate struggle against stronger and better grapplers in the past and unless Diaz can execute his gameplan to the‘t’ Stevenson will control the fight and stay busy on the ground. He’ll bully Diaz on the ground while avoiding Diaz’ multiple and creative submission attempts, to pull off the decision win.

DaMarques ‘Darkness’ Johnson 9-6 vs James ‘Lightning’ Wilks 5-2 – Johnson is a former member of the US Army and National Guard, it was during his time stationed in Fort Bragg that he picked up on BJJ. Originally from Salt Lake City, Johnson returned home after his 8 year stint in the military. While back in Utah, he bumped into Jeremy Horn in a bar and was invited to train with him, upon asking for an autograph. While on this season of TUF, Johnson showed to be well-rounded in his victories over Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger, and Nick Osipczak, earning himself a chance to become the next Ultimate Fighter. Johnson was seen amongst the corner men for the Matt Hughes fight, indicating that he is spending some time training for the finale with HIT Team.

Wilks, the California resident, secured his place in the finals after defeating early favorite, Che Mills, and Frank Lester twice. He also came in with a background in BJJ and showed developed striking skills this season, particularly in the clinch while rearranging Lester’s dental structure. Wilks has been training with Erik Paulson at Combat Submission Wrestling as well as the Joker’s Wild Fighting Team and the Santa Ana College wrestling team in his preparation for the biggest fight of his life.

Johnson looks to be the more polished and well rounded fighter, coming in to this with a bit more experience than the transplanted Brit. DaMarques’ striking looked crisper as his footwork, head movement and angles looked well-honed. While Wilks is the more technical BJJ fighter of the two, I think Johnson adapts his into MMA better and will be proficient enough to ward off any of Wilks’ attacks. My prediction for this fight is Johnson winning a boxing match, using sprawl and brawl and better boxing for a decisive decision win.

Ross ‘the Real Deal’ Pearson 8-3 vs Andre Winner 9-2-1 – Pearson, for whom a more suitable name might be the British Bulldog, is a compact and aggressive fighter. He fought his way into the finale with wins over AJ Wenn, Richie Whitson, and Jason Dent. He adapts well to whatever style is brought against him with well rounded striking and wrestling to go with his BJJ training; currently with Gracie-Barra in Florida.

Winner, armed with a name so cool he doesn’t need a nickname, was an early favorite on the show. He initially got into MMA because he wanted to take self defense classes and wound up at the Rough House with Dan Hardy, who convinced him to give MMA a go. Winner’s spot in the finale was secured when he defeated Gary Clark, Santino DeFranco and Cameron Dollar, all in the first round. He has shown good Muay Thai striking and BJJ skills and despite not having to go more than 5 minutes in his fights, the majority of his wins are by decision, proving he has the gas tank to go the distance. He has gone back to Leicester to train alongside Hardy and Paul Daley in preparation for his finale showdown with Pearson.

Winner, who will have a length advantage over Pearson, will use his striking and reach to keep Ross at bay, peppering shots from the outside and clinching if Ross gets in range. His Muay Thai knees in the clinch are well suited for this fight as Ross’ head will be right where Winner’s knees want to be. I think the story of this match will be the toughness displayed by Ross, as he is nearly finished a few times, but fights on and takes advantage of Winner’s hesitance in finishing and holds on for a decision loss, but earns the respect of many more fans and gets invited back to the UFC in the near future.

Clay ‘the Carpenter’ Guida 25-9 vs Diego ‘Nightmare’ Sanchez 20-2 – Guida is an animal; a wild, spinning ball of hair with so much energy it makes the bunny with the drum and sunglasses jealous. There is no off switch for this guy, he wants to finish you and he simply will not stop trying. His strength is his wrestling, but in reality, he overwhelms his opponents with his frenetic pace. The Carpenter is also a former crab fisherman and a proud carpenter. Guida has been involved in some of the most exciting MMA matches, including two FON bonuses against Nate Diaz and Tyson Griffin and very memorable contests against Roger Huerta and Gilbert Melendez.

Diego started his MMA career 11-0, including a win over Jorge Santiago and one of the founders of TapouT, Mike Guymon. Coming off a decorated HS wrestling career and a stint at UPS, Diego trained at Jackson’s Submission Fighting in New Mexico before being invited on to the first season of TUF as a MW. While on the show, Sanchez had exhibition wins over Karelexis, Rafferty and Kos. He went on to win the finale in an impressive performance over Florian. After the finale, he dropped to WW and went on to defeat Gassaway, Nick Diaz, Alessio, and memorably knocked Karo’s smile silly, causing a veneer to go flying off into the air. He also wrecked the Diesel, Joe Riggs to bring his record to 17-0. At this point, Diego was scheduled to fight his rival Kos after serving a suspension for catching the marijuana from Diaz. It was revealed after Diego’s pitiful performance in a loss to Kos that he had a massive staph infection that had many thinking it was Hep C and his fighting days were over, Dana White was even ready to announce Diego’s retirement. Following that loss he left his lifelong camp with Greg Jackson for San Diego and lost a close, split-decision loss to Fitch brought him back-to-back losses for the first time in his career. He bounced back with a win over Bielkheden and a very impressive thrashing of Luigi Fioravanti before deciding to drop weight after injuring himself in a title shot eliminator fight with Alves. Formerly ranked as the #5 WW in the world, Diego dropped down to LW where he defeated Joe Stevenson in his 155 debut.

When a fighter drops a weight class, there is an adjusting period, usually 2-3 fights. Diego looked decent in his win over Stevenson, but he will be more accustomed to the weight and the cut when he steps in to the cage against Guida. Diego may not be as known for his cardio as Clay is, but he certainly doesn’t lack the stamina to go hard for 3 full rounds. Guida will be able to neither control Diego with his wrestling nor overwhelm him with his tempo as he has with his past opponents; Diego is far too well rounded for that. I think we see a fight of the night caliber performance by these guys here, with hair, fist, kicks, and bodies flying all over the place, but in the end, Diego will stand with his arm raised as he finds an opening on an overly aggressive mistake by Guida late in the fight for a submission victory and a boost in his LW campaign. I only wonder how Diego is gonna feel as a born again Christian, beating on a long haired carpenter…

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