Las Vegas Weekly

December 12, 2008 · 1:35 PM

Ultimate Fighter stages finale fight at the Pearl

By Allison Duck

The cast of The Ultimate Fighter season eight.

This season of The Ultimate Fighter proved to be one of the most entertaining, thanks in large part to the antics outside of the octagon and a few liberal applications of bodily fluids.

Viewers of the intense fighting show are used to seeing blood and sweat fly in every direction, but this year the fighters threw urine and other male excretions into the mix when they used them in disgusting pranks in The Ultimate Fighter house.

Season eight had 32 fighters vying for 16 spots in the house where they trained under Coaches Frank Mir and Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira.

The conclusion of the 12-episode season comes this Saturday when four fighters from two different weight classes will clash live at The Pearl at the Palms to earn the title of The Ultimate Fighter. It’s reality TV meets Vegas in real time, and UFC fans are looking forward to exciting fights.

In the light heavyweight division Ryan Bader will take on Vinny Magalhaes, and in the lightweight division Phillipe Nover will challenge Efrain Escudero.

One surprise this season was the performance, or lack there of, of Junie Browning. While Coach Frank Mir, “saw him as an extremely talented guy” at the beginning of the season, Mir lost respect for him after Browning repeatedly gave up, demonstrated problems with alcohol and anger management and threatened to leave. After Browning threw a glass at a housemate, Dana White, UFC president, was forced to step in. Unlike last season, when White immediately ousted Jesse Taylor for inappropriate behavior at a local casino, he put it to a vote of Browning’s housemate’s, and he was allowed to stay.

Mir disagreed with the decision, “Junie’s behavior would never be allowed in anyone’s gym. If you were a pro football player and you shoved someone in practice, you don’t get to play on Sunday.”

Mir feared the decision to keep Browning on the show set a bad example and he was vindicated when Browning lost to Efrain Escudero in the semifinals.

“Spike has to sell TV time, but as far as me as a martial artist, I feel it is an insult” for White to have kept Browning on the show. “This is more than just about the fights, it’s also about television ratings.” Browning will fight in an undercard match this Saturday.

Lightweight fighter Nover has been called, “possibly the next Anderson Silva” by Dana White. But the comparison to the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC doesn’t intimidate Nover.

“It’s a little bit more pressure, but I work well under pressure,” he said.

Dana White put it best: “This ain’t [expletive] Survivor. The Ultimate Fighter doesn’t, “vote ‘em off,” they, “beat ‘em off.” He paused to reconsider. “That didn’t sound good, did it?”

No, Dana. It didn’t. But a stacked fight card at TUF finale does.

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