(Nothing that a little super-glue and duct tape won’t fix… / Photo via @MartinKampmann)

By Elias Cepeda

At this point, fight fans are wondering how Martin Kampmann can keep pulling dramatic victories out from the jaws of defeat. In March, the UFC welterweight contender was being soundly beaten for fourteen minutes by Thiago Alves on the feet before forcing him to tap out to a guillotine choke with seconds left in the fight.

Less than two weeks ago, Kampmann did it again, this time against Jake Ellenberger. Ellenberger connected with a monster left hook to the dome of Kampmann at the start of their TUF 15 Finale main event bout. Kampmann went down hard and looked to be moments away from losing and letting the division’s number one contender spot to the interim title — or whatever these poor guys are competing for at this point, in Georges St. Pierre’s absence — go to his opponent.

Instead, Kampmann somehow survived the round. Less than two minutes into the second, he landed his own punches and one huge knee to the head, putting Ellenberger down and out, and scoring his second come-from-behind stoppage win of 2012.

But good luck trying to figure out what, exactly, was going on in Kampmann’s mind at those moments of in-cage crisis before he turned the tide. “I kind of go on autopilot when I’m in there and try not to think too much,” Kampmann tells CagePotato.com.

Thinking is for training, for strategy, for figuring out how to prepare for the fight. In the heat of battle itself, a fighter needs his training to pay off with dividends of pure reaction. Punches, kicks, feints, and even submission holds need to be instinctual at that point.

“The more I think, the worse I do,” Kampmann explains.

(Brookins and Chiesa will be fighting hard for the UFC’s new “Filthiest Hair” bonus. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this gallery, click here.)

The UFC’s first experiment in “jive live” comes to an end tonight, as Team Faber lightweights Michael Chiesa and Al Iaquinta do battle for the TUF 15 trophy on FX. But wait, it gets better: Jake Ellenberger will be putting his six-fight win streak on the line against perennial welterweight contender Martin Kampmann in the main event, while TUF 12 winner Jonathan Brookins meets up with submission whiz Charles Oliveira in a featherweight feature.

Since he’s been recapping the season for us anyway, Elias Cepeda is back to handle liveblog duties for this evening. Round-by-round results from the Ultimate Fighter Live Finale main card broadcast will be collecting after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and please, no comment-section lurking; if you’ve got something to say, share it with the class.

All fighters made weight at last night’s weigh-ins for The Ultimate Fighter 15 Finale, which goes down live on FX tonight at the Palms Casino Resort in Paradise, Nevada. The evening was surprisingly absent of anything even resembling intensity, as many of the fighters (especially those on the undercard) seemed more like they were trying to one-up each other in terms of how goofy a stance they could strike for the cameras. As Yves Edwards would surely tell them, the key to a great weigh in photo is simplicity. And a bag of KC Masterpiece potato chips.

Will Martin Kampmann finally score a victory over a top contender that has eluded him ever since his win over Carlos Condit? And will the winner of Kampmann/Ellenberger receive a title shot in the clusterfucked welterweight division? Who will be crowned “king shit” of what may have been the least memorable season of The Ultimate Fighter in the show’s history?

For the answers to all these questions and more, make sure to swing by CP tonight, where our very own writer/ass-kicker Elias Cepeda will be liveblogging all the action starting at 9 p.m.

Join us after the jump for the video and full weigh-in results. 

(“Look Nik, if your eyeball keeps popping out, we’ll have to dock you a point for stalling.”)

Thanks to Submission of the Night awards in all three of his UFC victories — on top of the 50 G’s he earned in his Fight of the Night/no-contest against Nik Lentz last June — Charles Oliveira has pocketed $195,000 in total bonus money during his two-year stint in the UFC, allowing him to buy his girlfriend cheeseburgers and salad pretty much whenever she asks for it. Not a bad life for a prospect who’s still just 22 years old.

Now coming off his victorious featherweight debut against Eric Wisely, which resulted in another SOTN bonus via calf-slicer, Oliveira has been booked to return against TUF 12 winner Jonathan Brookins at the TUF 15 Finale (June 1st, Las Vegas). Brookins has gone 1-1 in the UFC as a 145′er since winning his TUF trophy, and most recently scored a quick and brutal first-round knockout of Vagner Rocha at UFC on FUEL 1. Brookins has never been submitted in his career, but there’s a first time for everything, especially when you’re facing a ground-maniac like Oliveira.

(Immediately after the fight, an Amber Alert was issued for two frightened little boys last spotted with a large bald Caucasian man who clearly wasn’t their father.)

Due to the inadequacies of the Australian education system, Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall are slated to meet again in a re-do of their flyweight tournament semifinal fight from UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann earlier this month. According to new reports, Mouse vs. Creepy 2 will go down June 1st at the Ultimate Fighter 15 Finale, which will take place June 1st at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. No other matches have been scheduled for the card yet.

With the rematch scheduled three months after the original fight, the UFC’s hope of producing a new flyweight champion in short order has hit a speed bump. Most likely, the tourney’s other flyweight semifinal winner — Joseph Benavidez, who knocked out newcomer Yasuhiro Urushitani at the Alves vs. Kampmann show — will have to be on ice until early fall, or even later if the Johnson/McCall winner suffers an injury during their June scrap.

See, guys? It’s easy to make fun of chaotic tournament brackets until you try to host one yourself…