From April to June, TUF 7 castmember Gerald Harris was brave enough to guest-blog the “Rampage vs. Forrest” season for CagePotato.com, despite being knocked out of contention by Amir Sadollah in the round-of-16. He sent us this quick update today, to share with all the fans of his posts on our site. Give it a read and don’t be a stranger…

***

Well, I figured that it’s better late than never. I have been in the process of moving to Phoenix, Arizona, so I haven’t had the time to write. I was actually making this move in January and had no idea where I was going to work out. Things didn’t go so well in Oregon financially, so I had to pack up and move in with my momma. It was hard, because I was a pro fighter, 28 years old, college graduate, and I was so poor I had to move in with a parent. Now, this isnt about pride, but I just expected more from myself. Oregon was good to me, I trained with Team Quest and built some lifetime friendships, but I had to move.

From the TUF 7 finale preliminary card: “Gumby” eats his third-straight submission loss, while “The Boogeyman” puts himself back in the UFC’s middleweight picture.

Amir Sadollah kicks some ass at Combat Sports Challenge 20 (4/28/07) — rocking his trademark hipster haircut even then. Props to MMATKO.

The most breathtaking video you’ll see all day is after the jump.

(Ah, crap: Spike.com embed is currently down…click the image to see the video.)

For all the debate we’ve had on the Jesse Taylor situation, it might be good to hear Mongo tell his side of the story. In this three-part interview from Spike.com, Jesse doesn’t shed any light on Dana White’s accusation that he terrorized the female guests of Palace Station, but he does admit hitting a slot machine. (Wait a minute, was Mongo so drunk that he mistook a woman for a slot machine? Uh-oh.) Later, he reveals that he’s entered AA, he’s been trying (and failing) to contact Dana White, and he thinks CB is going to take Amir in the finale re-match.

(CBD, reppin’ the MTX Audio Fight Team.)

Pretty much everyone had CB Dollaway as a lock to get into the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale, and the former All-American wrestler from Arizona State seemed to have it clinched on last night’s episode, kicking Amir Sadollah’s ass all over the Octagon. And then it happened — an armbar in the third round put a shocking end to the fight, and seemed to derail Dollaway’s dreams of making it into the UFC. Good thing Jesse Taylor can’t handle his liquor, because now the Team Rampage standout has a chance to battle Amir again, this time for all the marbles. Talk about drama. In this exclusive Q+A, Dollaway chats with CagePotato about his rematch with Sadollah, the drawbacks of having Rampage as a coach, Jesse Taylor, and the bullshit one has to endure when living in the TUF house.

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: What do you think went wrong at the end of your semi-final match with Amir?
CB DOLLAWAY: I think conditioning came into play. We’d been fighting two-round fights previously, and it kind of slipped my mind that it was gonna be a three-round fight. Towards the end of the third round I was just exhausted, and I got sloppy. I wasn’t doing things right, and he was. He kept his composure and caught me in that armbar. I definitely think I was controlling the whole fight, and I believe I was ahead on the scorecards, but you have that mental lapse for a minute and the other guy capitalizes on it.

How confident are you that you’ll have him figured out when you fight him again?
Pretty confident. I believe I took care of the mistakes I made in the first match. I think it should be a similar fight, but with me winning at the end. He’s a hard competitor to finish — I already know that from fighting him once — so I’ve taken measures to make sure I’ll be in great condition.

What did you miss the most while you were trapped in the Ultimate Fighter house?
The freedom, I guess. We were told what to do and when to do it, and we didn’t have access to anything. You can’t call anyone, you can’t get on the Internet and browse around, you can’t go to the mall — you’re just there. In a sense, it’s like being in jail.

We’ve heard a lot about how some of the castmembers were made to look a certain way on the show through editing. Jeremy May says he wasn’t really that much of an asshole. Amir told us the “confessional” scenes involved very leading questions. How accurately do you think you were portrayed on the show?
It seemed like they portrayed me to be a cocky asshole, and I’m not really like that. I just want to be confident and I don’t want to put negative thoughts in my head before I fight. They basically edit out everything you say except for the parts where you’re being confident…

Or when you’re referring to yourself in third-person.

(Amir and his hail-Mary armbar against CB. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s insane ep, which we’ve already summarized here.

***

Damn, what a season! Now, I can’t sit here and say it was the best season ever, because I didn’t watch many of the previous TUF shows, the finale hasn’t happened yet, and who am I to make such a bold statement? All I can say is that we fought our asses off and hopefully built a strong fan base for ourselves while bringing some new faces to the UFC.

I don’t want to overshadow the two fights with Jesse’s incident so I’ll address that now. I feel sorry for him, but every man is responsible for his own mistakes. It’s not like getting caught with a punch or submission — this is a voluntary act that you can control. There are consequences in the real world and unfortunately Jesse picked the wrong time to learn a lesson. I witnessed most of the events that night and even tried to help him get home, but he was out of control. With a son to feed and a future career in the UFC, the decision to go home instead of party would have changed his life.

(Amir gets all “Rocky” on us.)

I’m assuming that most of you watched last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter — which, hype aside, was easily one of the greatest episodes in the show’s history — so I won’t bore you with extraneous details. But here’s a quick recap:

— CB Dollaway and Amir Sadollah square off in the last semi-final fight. Aside from a couple of hard body kicks and a close armbar attempt from Amir, the first two rounds are all CB, who controls the action from the top, and delivers a Rampage-style body slam as well as some brutal elbows that open up a large gash under Amir’s right eye. CB nearly locks in a rear-naked choke in the third round, but Amir spins out, momentarily tries to figure out a toe-hold, then catches CB in another armbar that immediately causes him to tap. With his professional MMA record still 0-0, Amir Sadollah has battled his way to the TUF 7 finale.

(Afterwards, getting sewn up.)

Clad in a gay-friendly rainbow t-shirt, Dana White pumps up the 90-minute final episode of The Ultimate Fighter: “In seven seasons of doing this show, there has never been a bigger twist.” Bold words considering that the TUF series has had a history of monumental twists, like when Anthony Torres turned out to be a woman who was only posing as a man to compete on the show, and the crazy TUF 5 finale, where it was revealed that the entire season was just a dream Jens Pulver had while he was in a coma.

Personally, I hope the twist is that Jesse Taylor gets kicked off the show for breaking a limo window and killing Jeremy May, and the semi-final match between Amir and CB is so exciting and close that Dana White decides to have them fight again on the finale for the contract. That’s kind of an “everybody wins” type of scenario. Between the pissing, the puking, and the laying-and-praying, I think I’ve had my fill of Mongo…

(Props: Fightlinker)

(Tim Credeur in happier times.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which Forrest Griffin proved that white men can jump, and Mongo Taylor smothered his way into the finals.

***

This episode was pretty good, but I can’t wait until next week. It feels like yesterday, I was sending in an application and audition tape. Now, I’m sitting at home watching all the action unfold like I wasnt a part of it.

As you know by now, Team Rampage has been losing a lot in everything except Go Karts and shit-talking, so when the basketball challenge was announced I “assumed” we finally had a chance to win. My college coach told me that when you assume you make an ass out of yourself and I felt like a big hairy ass when Forrest started kicking Rampage’s. Before the game started I did every dance move known to man as I held 10 grand in cash, but they were slowly shut down by Forrest’s accurate shooing and Rampage’s attempt to build a house with all them damn bricks. He admitted that he sucked at basketball, but it hurt to lose again — not only did we lose, but Forrest put some stank on it and dunked at the end. Damn!

Well, once again America gets to see the many sides of Jesse. Me and Jesse were cool because of Team Quest and I mentioned before that we were both fathers, so we talked about missing our families. I was obviously rooting for him, but I doubted him because of his actions in the house. You didn’t see me in many scenes of his outburts, but I thought he was throwing his opportunity away; I felt like he was taking his position for granted. Little did I know that he’s an animal — not CoCo the monkey, but like King Kong in that damn cage. He’s not that exciting, but very solid. Sure, the dude pisses his shorts, but he kicks ass, so what can you say?

(Tim Credeur puts away the pretty-boy.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which Jeremy May tried to stir up some more shit, and Tim Credeur and CB Dollaway battled their way into the semis.

***

Well, I have to say that this was my favorite episode. There was a lot of *bleeping* going on tonight so let me translate for you. Our evening started off with the usual Jeremy May bashing, especially when we weren’t at the house. I was a little shocked at how much people talked behind each other’s backs; it sounded like Americas Next Top Model at times. (I don’t watch that show, but I saw an episode or two…) Anyway, when Jeremy walked in and heard JT he told me his bright idea to get JT kicked out of the house. I had no idea he was going to call him a “Jewish bitch”! Now, that’s not a smooth move — imagine if someone called me the “N-word” or a “Black bitch.” JT was offended and flipped out, but I quickly sat him down and told him to think about his son. You’re in the semi’s man, don’t let anyone stop you from achieving your goal. Things cooled down, but I did laugh when he called Jeremy a broke-nosed bitch!

Now to the semi match ups — Creduer vs. Cramer and CB vs. Yarbrough. I was a little thrown off at Tim’s constant compliments about Cramer. Every time he speaks of him he says that “Cramer is hot,” “Cramer is a heart throb,” or something in that manner. I know that we were locked up for a minute, but I wasn’t thinking about Cramer, I was trying to get a peek at the ring girls or any woman driving on the highway as we went to practice. I don’t want to seem like I’m hating on Tim, but I did want to fight him extremely bad. The first time we spoke I told him that I was going to miss my kids and he says “yeah, I know how you feel — I got two dogs at home.” Then after his victory he randomly walked up to me and a couple other guys that lost. He calmly explained to us how he has $20,000 and how he has the ability to be losing a fight but win, and how we were winning our fights and lost.

(Jesse Taylor pisses his shorts on national television.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which retard-strong (and retard-smart) Jesse Taylor pounded his way to victory, and Amir Sadollah and Matt Brown put on the best fight of the season.

***

By now everyone should know that Jesse Taylor is for real. He’s not the most exciting fighter in the world, but he’s solid and gets the job done. I can’t hate, because I respect winners and he’s also a Team Quest fighter so I was rooting for him. Dante just laid there and took a beating. He’s a veteran in the game and also a brown belt under Ricardo Almeida, so I assumed that he would catch Jesse, but Jesse just punched the [blank] out of him for two full rounds.

Now, let me get to the action! Matt Brown vs. Amir Sadollah was crazy. That’s a fight that people would pay money to watch. I think the first round could be given to Brown for the aggression and last second takedown. Amir seemed to pick up steam in the second round, took Matt down, punished him from the top, and eventually sunk in a triangle choke. I liked the fight because it wasn’t a sloppy slugfest. Brown has a great boxing background and Amir showed his Muay Thai and ground game with the strikes and sub finish. It’s crazy that the more you pressure him, he gets stronger and doesn’t fold — that’s the quality of a good fighter. I can say the same about Brown plus he was very humble in his loss and showed respect for his opponent.

(“The foulest stench is in the air / the funk of 40,000 years / And grisly ghouls from every tomb / are closing in to seal your doom.”)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which CB Dollaway got his first inevitable win and the quarterfinal matchups were announced.

***

Let me start by apologizing for not speaking on the Yarbrough-Schultz fight in last week’s blog. I was really going through some things — it’s hard to walk around knowing the outcome of the show and holding it from your friends and family. You’re drowned with questions and angry people wanting to know what happened, and also claiming to know the outcome. Last week was a shock to a lot of people close to me but not to many outside of that circle. I learned a lot from the experience and took the loss as motivation. I was also mistaken on my words threatening to hurt Amir after the bout. I was being very sarcastic and I’m very humble about the incident.

Now, it was no surprise that CB was fighting Nick Klein this week. The only surprise was “who the hell is Nick Klein?” Well, let me fill you in. Klein is a tough dude — we were actually respecting him a lot, because he was very quiet in the house. Quiet people are unpredictable and are usually hiding something…like talent. Klein had a lot of it and even earned the name “Killa Klein” for his random funny outbursts. I hate to use the word “underdog” on this show because we’re all at the bottom of the mountain trying to become UFC fighters. In this case even Klein felt like an underdog because of CB’s high profile and #1 pick status from Rampage.

Most of you already know about CB. I didn’t know much about him other than his great wrestling before the show, but I would soon find out about his grappling and Muay Thai skills. I thought that he was just another wrestler, but after training with him I noticed that he was well rounded. He hits hard as hell, has great subs, and he’s meaner than a muthaf*$#a when it’s time to fight. He has this alter ego called the “DOBERMAN” and I saw that as he entered the cage.

I wish I could embed this — but you’ll have to click the picture above to see a “leaked” clip from this Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, in which C.B. Dollaway playfully kicks Rampage during a training session, which spurs Rampage to take his pants off and challenge Dollaway to a submission grappling match. We’ll just say that he should have kept his pants on, and that Nick Klein is a dead man.

Speaking of The Ultimate Fighter 7, the undercard for the season finale (June 21st, live at 9 p.m. ET on SpikeTV) has been officially announced. Right now, the lineup looks like this:

Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove
Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti
[match between the show's two middleweight finalists]
Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens
Josh Burkman vs. Dustin Hazelett
Marvin Eastman vs. Drew McFedries
Jeremy Horn vs. Dean Lister
Matt Arroyo vs. TBA?
Rob Yundt vs. TBA?

Other bouts featuring the show’s castmembers are also expected to be included in the three-hour telecast. I’ll sell my third testicle if Dollaway isn’t involved.

Another must-see: Remember that thing about Kimbo Slice presenting at the CMAs on Sunday? Well, it was even more awkward and uncomfortable than we thought it would be. Vid is after the jump…click if you dare.

From last night’s episode of TUF; props to MMATKO.

(Sadollah about to get Harrisplexed.)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris blogs his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter. And this was the one we’ve been waiting for — the night Gerald actually gets to fight. But despite his early domination against Amir Sadollah, things didn’t turn out the way he’d hoped. Read below for Gerald’s rundown of the fight and how he felt about it, and give him a shout at his MySpace page.

***

It’s 8:58 p.m. and I’m staring at the clock hoping that it doesn’t click to 9:00. I’m sitting on the couch with my friends because every Wednesday we get together to watch the show. It was cool for the first couple weeks, but this one was different — I wasn’t smiling as much and I wasn’t excited. No one noticed and things went on as they did in the past. I’m flooded with text messages, phone calls, and high fives from my friends when the fight picks are announced. The fight starts and people are sending texts, calls, and jumping up and down as I slam and strike Amir the entire first round. Then it happens — “Bam,” in a quick flash — the fight’s over. You talk about silence? No one said a word for about 15 minutes, my phone stopped ringing, and nobody even looked at me. I broke the silence by saying “I’m sorry that I let y’all down, but it’s not over.” They’ve all seen the show and the success of fighters who got a second chance or at least earned a career in the UFC.

Now, let me take you back a couple months before I got there. I trained my ass off, running miles in the morning, and never missed Team Quest practice unless it was an emergency. I dreamed about holding The Ultimate Fighter trophy as Dana handed it to me and joining the ranks of Stevenson, Griffin, Evans, and many others. I was also doing bad financially and could barely afford to support my family, so winning those fights would help me provide for them. I’m the father of two and that’s how I feed them; this is my life, and the only thing that I do to earn money. When I lost that fight I felt like I let everyone down, I didn’t earn money to feed my kids, and lost the chance to become the next Ultimate Fighter. Once I took a deep breath and talked to Rampage I realized that it was ok. I still have a future in the UFC and a possible second chance to get into the tournament. During the fight I injured my ankle and scratched my eye, but that healed in a few days — the doc cleared me as good to go.

Forrest Griffin really wants that animal, damn it. Props to Bloody Elbow. The full episode is after the jump, courtesy of MMAScraps.

(“Sic semper tyrannis, bitch!”)

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which Jeremy May got his comeuppance and Team Rampage finally pulled out a win.

***

I don’t think too many people were surprised by the punishment dished out by Matt Brown. People ask me about him all the time — they think he’s a serial killer and mean as hell. To tell you the truth, I thought the same thing, but he’s actually one of the coolest dudes in the house. He opened up a lot about how fighting kept him alive and changed him in a positive way. He earned a lot of respect by doing that and whoopin’ ass in practice.

May definitely asked for it, but I gotta give it too him for coming out strong. The only thing that pissed me off is that the admitted to faking the knee injury. Now, if you don’t already know, I’m probably Jeremy’s only friend and I didn’t even know that. A lot of people were cautious of overtraining, but to sandbag is another story. The fight went well — it was all emotion, so they got tired pretty quick. But Brown had the better cardio and weathered the storm, then finished May with a kick to the nose. As bad as some people wanted to see Jeremy lose, I hated to see Team Forrest in control again.

(The “douche bag” in question.)

This morning, Team Rampage’s Gerald Harris said that Jeremy May “seems to get on everyone’s nerves except mine.” Get on everyone’s nerves? That might be the understatement of the week. Nearly the entire TUF 7 cast hate-hate-hates Jeremy, and said as much in interviews and blog posts that were published today. Here are some highlights; major props to MMAJunkie.

Brandon Sene: “Jeremy is one of those guys [who] just got under everyone’s skin. He’s so abrasive and cocky that in the situation we’re living in, with 16 fighters in a house and them all having strong personalities, it’s not easy to be the one guy everyone thinks is the egomaniac and a jerk. That’s really saying something… He was just saying unnecessary stuff. He was a pain in the ass the whole time we were there.”

C.B. Dollaway: “What can be said about Jeremy May that won’t offend my family and sponsors? This guy would spend countless hours talking about how he would demolish everyone in the house. I honestly think Jeremy is surprised that Anderson Silva is not calling him out. Team Rampage knows they need Jeremy as a training partner and for the sole purpose of gaining control. We want him to win his fights for this reason only. It would be fine if he got stomped for two rounds and pulled out a come-from-behind victory. Maybe a good whooping would humble him.

During the point of the show you saw in Wednesday’s episode, I was really learning to hate this guy, and I am usually a low-key, easy-to-get-along with person. I would be lying if I told you I did not feel like smashing him myself at times. After Matthew Riddle’s fight, I think our whole team was learning how big of an ass Jeremy really was. His comments to Matthew in the van ride back to the house about getting submitted by armbar were out of line. That was a great fight, and both fighters had nothing to be ashamed of…

Every Thursday morning, Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter 7 on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s ep, in which tensions rose between Jeremy May and Mike Brown, and Brandon Sene and Dante Rivera went head-to-head in a three-round war.

***

In case you didn’t notice, Matt Brown isn’t the happiest person in the house. If I had to pull a prank on someone, he would be the last one on the list. Matt seems like the type of person where you wake up in the middle of the night and he’s standing over you, in his underwear, sharpening a butcher knife. So, instead of possibly getting killed in my sleep I chose not to participate in the “lime juice” prank. That’s a national rule: You don’t put lime juice in a Southern man’s dip! Like midgets to amusement parks, gas prices to SUVs, or diarrhea to a track star in the 100-yard hurdles, those two things don’t go together. I actually like the fact that somebody caused some trouble, because we were pretty damn bored. You’ve probably heard that we don’t have any TVs, radio, magazines, books, internet access, phones, and worst of all, no women! Except for the ring girls — and we enjoyed every step they took around the ring. Every step.

The Brown-May incident kind of overshadowed the actual fight pick between Brandon Sene and Dante Rivera. There was no drama between those two, so we just wanted to win and get control. From an mma view, that was a pretty good fight. From a fan’s view, it could have been seen as boring because people like action — especially stand-up action. Sene was busy and could have won the fight if he had escaped more, but Dante maintained control and pulled off the victory. What people fail to realize is that when someone loses on the show, reality kicks in. Brandon had sold his car and had just moved into a house so he planned on making some money to support himself. His only hope now is that someone gets injured and he gets a second chance.

Reminder: A new episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest airs tonight at 10 p.m. on SpikeTV, and Team Rampage member Gerald Harris will be blogging his reactions to it right here tomorrow morning. To commemorate this occasion, here’s an outtake clip from episode three of Rampage laying down the law on his team’s jokesters following Mike Dolce’s loss to Jesse Taylor. Yes, that’s Gerald receiving the totally accidental bitchslap at the end.

(Harris [right] rocks Fabio Leopoldo during their IFL match last April.)

Gerald “Hurricane” Harris, who fought in the IFL (as a member of the Portland Wolfpack) and the Freestyle Cage Fighting organization before being chosen for The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest, has agreed to be a super-special CagePotato guest blogger for the rest of this season of TUF. Tune in every Thursday morning as the Team Quest fighter and Tulsa, Oklahoma native gives his reactions to each new episode (Wednesdays, 10 p.m., SpikeTV). If you haven’t been keeping up, Gerald recaps the first four episodes below. Enjoy…

***

Surprise (Episode #1)

I‘ll start by saying that I was one of the “smart” ones who thought I was flying to Vegas to move into the house. In the past, people have had this privilege and thrown it away for a girlfriend, small injury, or because they couldn’t make weight. This year Dana White had a solution for that. He described those past cast members as “pussies and poseurs” — and I don’t fit either one of those names.

In the first episode, 16 fighters entered the UFC building with high-fives and hugs, only to be met by another 16 competitors in the gym. It was so quiet you could hear a flea fart. At first I told myself, “look at those 16 alternates,” until Dana announced that the 32 men standing in the gym would fight each other to get into the house. It didn’t really affect most fighters until he said we had to make weight in 24 hours and fight in 48. Some of the fighters had gained a lot of weight since we arrived the day before. I was lucky enough to only be six pounds over, along with many others. Also, I wrestled all my life — so cutting weight has never been a problem. Losing would have been devastating, because I came to the show with $67 in the bank and I planned on being the next Ultimate Fighter!

The day of elimination fights started off with a bang. Mike Dolce hit Prince McClean so hard he dropped as if he was hit with a taser. I felt bad for McClean, but Dolce is a fellow Team Quest member so I was rooting for him. In other action, Cale Yarbrough battled with Clark in a scramble-filled bout that was going well until Clark proved that his weight cutting had an effect on him. Yarbrough punished the extremely fatigued Clark with haymakers and wild kicks until the stoppage. With one UFC fight already under his belt, Steve Byrnes was seen as a guaranteed cast member. But in a back and forth match, he was eventually stopped with an armbar by Amir Sadollah, who had never had a pro fight.

(“Chipper” and his infectious war-grin.)

In the latest installment of MMAJunkie’s “Ten TUF Questions” feature, freshly eliminated Ultimate Fighter castmember Matthew Riddle confirms our suspicions that the booking of so many contract fighters on the TUF 7 finale card means that most of this season’s castmembers weren’t worthy of another televised scrap:

Yes, I’m on the card. But I can’t tell you who (I’m fighting). [laughs] You’re going to like it, though. We’re not allowed to say, but I think it’s a fight everyone wants to see. I’m not saying s***, though. The people who didn’t fight up to par got the boot and got cut. I think the UFC’s just getting so big that they’re only going to take the best. A lot of the guys from the cast weren’t invited to fight at the finale.

Unless Riddle starts some drama with another one of his housemates, we’d have to assume that he’ll be taking on Dante “I’ll Retire If You Beat Me” Rivera. And yes, we do want to see that. Elsewhere in the interview, Riddle responds to criticism of his celebratory behavior after nearly killing Dan Simmler in episode two:

The first thing — and they don’t show it — but he was out for about 15 or 20 minutes after I knocked him out. I was stoked at first and putting my thumbs up and smiling. Then, he didn’t get up, and I kind of slowed down. When he woke up and started moaning, I felt bad. [The show's editors] don’t show that. They just show me with my thumbs up, but I don’t enjoy hurting people. I just like to compete. It’s part of the sport, and it happens.

So has the Ultimate Fighter experience convinced Riddle to ditch his two-bit fight camp and join up with a big-name team?

I’ve been [at Rat Pack Fighting Systems] like four months, and all the sudden I’m like their poster boy, but it’s about to end. I’m having a meeting tonight, and I don’t care if you put this in there, but I’m telling him off. It’s like they’re trying to use me. Yeah, it’s probably smart on their part because it puts them on the map, but they could have gone about it differently. I feel like I’m being taking advantage of, and I don’t like that. I’m probably going to train with (fellow castmate Mike) Dolce and all those guys at Team Quest North and then with Rampage at Big Bear (Calif.) with the high altitude and stuff to get ready for my fight… Rampage and I got along very well. I got along with Juanito, too, and all the coaches. They still call me to see what I’m doing.

Check out the rest of the interview here. And take this lesson to heart, aspiring fighters: They’ll forget your ground game and they’ll forget your heavy hands, but a great smile will always make an impression.

(“Hey, my name’s Josh and I’m a sex addict.”)

— A heavyweight superfight between Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson has been announced as the main event of Sengoku II (May 18th, Tokyo); the card will also feature fights between Kevin Randleman and Ryo Kawamura, and Roger Gracie taking on an opponent to be named later. In recent weeks, Monson has also been reportedly booked to face Mike Russow at Adrenaline MMA’s debut event (June 14th, Chicago), as well as Kevin Randleman at a Global Fighting event on June 21st in Charlotte, N.C. With those three fights so close together, expect at least one to fall apart. Monson most recently defeated Hakim Gouram at a Ring of Fire event last December.

— Speaking of Adrenaline MMA, Monte Cox has been scurrying around trying to fill its first card. Besides Monson/Russow, the June 14th show is expected to feature IFL vet Bart Palaszewski taking on King of the Cage/UFC vet Jeff Cox, and ex-UFC fighter/boxer Terry Martin taking on Daiju Takase.

— The UFC officially added three fights to UFC 86 (July 5th, Las Vegas): Josh Koscheck vs. Chris “Lights Out” Lytle, Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida, and Cole Miller vs. Jorge Gurgel. Lytle and Almeida are coming off of impressive stoppage wins at UFC 81 in February, where Lytle picked up the “Knockout of the Night” bonus. UFC 86 will be headlined by the light-heavyweight title scrap between Quinton Jackson and Forrest Griffin, and is also expected to feature bouts between Joe Stevenson and Gleison Tibau, Frank Mir and Justin McCully, and Ben Saunders vs. Jared Rollins.

— As for the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on June 21st, the UFC has confirmed that Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove will be the show’s main event — not Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti, which will get secondary status. Also officially booked are Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens, Josh Burkman vs. Dustin Hazelett, Marvin Eastman vs. Drew McFedries, and Jeremy Horn vs. Dean Lister. And of course Tim Credeur vs. CB Dollaway (one would assume).

(Tim Credeur takes a brain-scrambling illegal upkick.)

One of TUF 7‘s brightest prospects had to work his ass off to keep his place in the house on last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, as Tim Credeur battled his way through a very game (but ultimately too inexperienced) Matthew Riddle. The fight was one of the best in recent TUF history, but before it went down, the following happened:

— Jesse Taylor, who we’ll henceforth refer to as “Mongo,” followed up his brilliant can’t-figure-out-the-dishwasher performance from last episode with a sequence of him not being able to figure out how to open a bottle of beer, then accidentally breaking some wooden window blinds. He also has “questionable spots on his body,” and with Paul Bradley’s herpes scare still fresh in their minds, Mongo’s housemates spray him down with Tinactin. Mongo is unfortunately poised to be the Private Pyle of the house.

— Matt “Chipper” Riddle is chomping at the bit to fight. His goofy enthusiasm rubs Dante Rivera the wrong way, and some trash talking ensues. Rivera claims he’ll retire from fighting if Riddle ever beats him, and after it’s announced that Riddle has been picked to face Tim Credeur, Rivera tries to bet Riddle $500 that he’ll lose the fight. Riddle refuses, and accuses Rivera of trying to get inside his head. “I live inside your head,” Rivera says. “You’re my son right now.”

— Tim Credeur knows that the Ultimate Fighter experience is a do-or-die moment in his career; if it doesn’t work out, he may need to find a different line of work. And the fact that he could be derailed by some punk-ass mama’s boy visibly upsets him. “For [Riddle], it’s a cool time, it’s neato mosquito,” Credeur says. “But for me, this is not neato.” He then says “let the good times roll” in French.

— Rampage tries to instill hatred of Team Forrest in his guys by suggesting that “Team Brown Nose” gets better treatment. “I bet their gloves fit them,” he says. In one scene, he goes to CB Dollaway for his take on what the next matchup might be; Dollaway may be emerging as Rampage’s consigliere.

So, Tim Credeur (Team Forrest, 10-2) and Matthew Riddle (Team Rampage, 1-0) finally go toe-to-toe, and it’s a wild one.

(Yep, this again.)

A few weeks ago, FiveOuncesofPain reported that a former All-American wrestler named Paul Bradley — who was rumored to be a castmember for The Ultimate Fighter 7 — had just been signed to a fight contract by EliteXC. It didn’t mean all that much to us until this morning, when we realized, OMG, Paul Bradley is the dude who was just kicked out of the TUF house because of his cootie-neck! In a new interview on 5oz., Bradley gives his take on his TUF eviction, and his transition to the UFC’s biggest competitor. Some highlights:

Sam Caplan: Just to clarify, your condition is called Herpes Gladiatorum?
Paul Bradley: Yes, that’s right. There’s type I and type II. Type I is sexually transmitted and type II, which is what I had, is transferred from the skin. It’s basically a cold sore but I get it on my neck…

Like my college trainers say, in college wrestling you deal with this a ton because of the skin-to-skin contact. If you wrestle five years and don’t get it, you’re pretty lucky…

I went and saw a doctor that morning and he’s like, “Two days on these meds (the Valtrex) and you’ll be fine.” And I’m like, “Alright, great.” So I went back and then Dana brought in his close, personal friend and the guy is saying this and that about that I can still give it to someone, but that’s not how it works. It’s got to be broken out, which it was but two or three days on the medicine and it was going to be gone…it wasn’t going to happen again throughout the whole show — I can guarantee you that. Especially when I was taking that medicine every day.

Sam Caplan: So it was a pre-existing condition. Had you disclosed that when you submitted your medicals?
Paul Bradley: Well, I had submitted all of my medicals from college so I’m sure it was in there. But like I said, I can name a ton of fighters in that organization that have it right now. Of course I won’t (name them), but half of the guys are wrestlers and I can name a couple off the top of my head right now. A couple of them I keep in touch with and they couldn’t believe it. They couldn’t believe it because it is so common in amateur wrestling and in wrestling in general you hear about it all the time. It was no big deal in my wrestling room at Iowa. “I got the herps” today is what you would say and you’d have to sit out a few days and get your medicine and you’re good to go within two or three days.

I was just shocked when Dana said he had never seen anything like this because with jiu-jitsu, wrestling, or any sport with skin-to-skin contact, you can acquire it.

Bradley went on to say that he’s in talks to get on the undercard of EliteXC’s June 14 event in Hawaii, in the first of a potential three-fight deal. Hopefully, the bit of infamy he got from his appearance on TUF doesn’t hound him from the rest of his career. It’s not fun to be known as “the herpes guy”; we know, we went to high school. But hey, if you’re going to have an incurable disease, you’re going to want one that sounds as badass as Herpes Gladiatorum. Fun fact: “Herpes Gladiatorum” is the official name for the piece of music that plays in the UFC pay-per-view intros…

(Dan with mentor Matt Serra and some randoms. Photo courtesy of SimmlerBJJ.com.)

Apparently, Ultimate Fighter 7 knockout victim Dan Simmler regularly posts under the name “Macaco_Louco” on NHBGear.com‘s MMA forum. Simmler typed up his reaction to last night’s TUF episode directly after it aired, and posted it on this thread:

Hey,

So that wasnt as bad as I thought, I honestly didnt remember much. I found it kind of funny actually that I had no idea where I was.

I dont remember the flying whatever that was, I think triangle, and I dont remember anything else pretty much either.

The fiirst thing I remember was at the hostpital. So, I have a deviated septum in my nose, cant breath good at all with out a breath right strip, I had one on and right before my fight, I was told I couldnt wear it. I wasnt given a good reason, just that I couldnt, so as a result, I was breathing through my mouth the whole time, that just made things worse when I got hit. My mouth was wide open and I broke my jaw in three places. two on the left, one on the right. It was very painful to say the least.

One week after I got home to the day I decided I was going to train “Light” with a student, and I took his back and he pushed off and his head smashed me under the jaw with the back of his head, rebreaking the jaw. The hostpital is literally across the street from the school and I was kept over night and had surgery the next day. They put two small plates, 4 screws and wires back to keep it shut. For a little over 7 weeks I had nothing but shakes and tomato soup. It was horrible. I lost about 20 lbs and now I am waiting to get the ok to spar and get back to the grind. Ill be back and do better.

I am sorry that I couldnt have done better, I was happy to get it over with and see what I did and what mistakes I made and where I can improve. Thanks for the support…

The UFC did pick up the tab for the injuries, they didnt have too but they did and I was greatful for that.

As for the punch, the original broke the left side of my jaw , the next to broke in two spots on the other side. The jaw broke on both sides at the wisdom teeth and on hte right side by the hinge. Sucked but it happens. Thanks for the good words.

The saddest part? Before the knockout, Dan could spell perfectly.

Anyway, to prove that Simmler isn’t just some pussy-ass poser, here’s a video of him actually pulling off the flying-triangle that he tried to finish Matthew Riddle with last night:

The process of weeding out the pussies and posers from the real fucking fighters was completed last night on The Ultimate Fighter, as eight more guys earned beds in the TUF house and eight more were sent back from where they came. The episode started out gruesomely, with Matthew Riddle’s jaw-breaking knockout of Matt Serra student Dan Simmler (the moaning aftermath of which is shown above). Even as Simmler was being loaded into the ambulance, he still wasn’t sure whether the knockout came during practice or during an actual fight. We hope the spiderwebs have cleared by now.

As for the rest of the fights…

Luke Zachrich def. Patrick Schultz via rear-naked choke
Tim Credeur def. Erik Charles via armbar
Brandon Sene def. Aaron Meisner via rear-naked choke
Gerald Harris def. Mike Marello via decision
Daniel Cramer def. Jeremiah Riggs via decision
Jesse Taylor def. Nick Rossborough via rear-naked choke
Matt Brown def. Josh Hall via TKO

If I were one of the coaches, my first pick would be Credeur, a 10-2 BJJ black-belt who finished his opponent in under a minute. He could be the Mac Danzig of the show — far too experienced for these other jokers to deal with.

The end of the episode brought a glimpse at what was to come during the rest of the season, and man was it ugly. The property destruction and general mayhem inside the house reaches Lord of the Flies levels; apparently, winning one fight on 48 hours notice doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not a douchebag poser. If this is what we have to look forward to, then the season’s promise of “big changes” was a joke. And to be honest, the first two episodes weren’t all that groundbreaking to begin with. In my opinion, the fighters’ personal stories and interpersonal conflicts are what make The Ultimate Fighter so entertaining; watching wall-to-wall, heavily-edited fights between relatively untalented guys I don’t care about doesn’t really do it for me.

Am I wrong?

UPDATE: A much-higher quality version of the Riddle/Simmler knockout is here.

(Roger Huerta could be ending his fight-hiatus in August.)

Brief (but important) developments in the world of organized violence…

— MMAMadness has learned from a “very reliable source” that UFC lightweight Roger Huerta will return to the Octagon at UFC 87 (August 9th, Minneapolis), against a yet-unnamed opponent. Could this be related to Kenny Florian’s recent call-out of “El Matador”? If it’s not, Joe Silva can basically go eff himself.

— In his first TUF7 column for Fox Sports, Forrest Griffin reveals that all the fighters were instructed to show up at no heavier than 190 pounds; so that one dude who had to drop 17 in one day only has himself to blame. Also: “I noticed that for the first couple of days ‘Rampage’ was much more funny than me and I was upset by that.”

— Perhaps due to the controversy spurring from last week’s news coverage of kiddie MMA, legislators are seeking to ban children’s MMA competitions in Missouri, the only state where youth matches are allowed. The MO-based youth-MMA organization Freestyle Combat League already requires its fighters to wear head gear and shin guards, and prohibits strikes to the head of a grounded opponent. The head of the FCL, Nathan Orand, says he’ll also be adding chest and stomach protectors for fighters younger than 14, allowing referees to stop a match if they see the danger of a joint injury, and switching from a cage to a ring. Sounds safe enough for our daughter!

— This Portfolio article on Chuck Liddell-as-accountant is notable for the following metaphor: “When I’m watching pre-fight tapes, I’m collecting all my receipts on my opponents, accumulating data,” [Liddell] says. “Once I step into the cage, it’s April 15. Everything is due.”

— MMAJunkie just put up an article evaluating the UFC performance of the 100 fighters featured on the first six seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. Junkie’s rather downbeat assessment: “[O]nly about 20 percent could be generously credited as UFC stars, or even serious contenders in their weight classes…more than half of the “TUF” contestants were unequivocal flops in that they failed to last more than two or three fights with the organization, if even that long.”

— Our buddy Ariel at JarryPark was recently named Editor-in-Chief of MMARated.com (mazel tov, brotha), and just put up a great audio interview with Cung Le, in which the new Strikeforce middleweight champ discusses Frank Shamrock’s trash-talk and his current contract situation with Strikeforce.

— Have a friend you don’t mind getting uncomfortably close with? Then these 10 “Ultimate Fighting” Exercises might be for you…