Ultimate Fighter Competitors

[Guest Big_Jay101]

What are the promotions these guys usually fight for? Do you think any of them could actually end up making it in the UFC.

[Lei Tong 0]

Diego Sanchez

Team: Jackson's Submission Fighting

Event Most Frequented: King of the Cage

Chances in the UFC: More of a WW, he would have trouble in the UFC's stacked 169lbs division.

 

Forest Griffin

Team: Straight Blast Gym

Event Most Frequented: various

Chances in the UFC: A solid, well-rounded fighter with big fight experience/wins, he could probably do well outside of the UFC's "Big Three" at LHW.

 

Kenny Florian

Team: Gracie Barra Combat Team

Event Most Frequented: N/A

Chances in the UFC: Another smallish MW, his BJJ needs to be truly tested before I could say how he'd do at WW.

 

Sam Hoger

Team: Miletich Martial Arts

Event Most Frequented: N/A

Chances in the UFC: A former HW, he's got the size. He's also highly touted by the Miletich Team as a well rounded guy, but still too unproven.

 

Josh Koscheck

Team: American Kickboxing Academy

Event Most Frequented: N/A

Chances in the UFC: A natural athlete and awesome wrestler, he's got a great team behind him & already shows some rare things from a pure wrestler (ie- kicking ability & submission awareness). Lacks killer instinct & experience to be competitive just yet.

 

Stephan Bonnar

Team: Carlson Gracie Team

Event Most Frequented: Ironheart Crown

Chances in the UFC: Has run through some decent also-rans, but his recklessness and willingness to trade have worked against him before.

 

Chris Leben

Team: Team Quest

Event Most Frequented: Various

Chances in the UFC: Semi-"exposed" in his last few fights, he's still a dangerous fight for anyone, yet not a contender just yet.

 

Bobby Southworth

Team: American Kickboxing Academy

Event Most Frequented: International Fighting Championship

Chances in the UFC: Big and semi-well rounded, but viewed as a bit mentally weak in & out of the cage.

 

Will do the rest tomorrow.

[Lei Tong 0]

Nathan Quarry

Team: Team Quest

Event Most Frequented: Various

Chances in the UFC: An adaptable & tough fighter, he's fought some decent competition. However, he's still relatively inexperienced and inactive.

 

Mike Swick

Team: American Kickboxing Academy

Event Most Frequented: World Extreme Cagefighting

Chances in the UFC: Another guy out of his weight class. Was highly touted as a great striker with a good ground game to boot, he lost a little luster when Leben chin checked him. Assuming the fight was an abberation, he could probably do pretty well in the UFC MW division.

 

Chris Sanford

Team: Cesar Gracie Jiu jitsu

Event Most Frequented: N/A

Chances in the UFC: Doughy even at 185lbs., he's inexperienced even at his age. Though he has some well rounded skills and is from a decent team, he still has too many negatives agaisnt him to make it in the UFC.

 

Alex Schoenaur

Team: N/A

Event Most Frequented: N/A

Chances in the UFC: Another inexperienced and/or inactive guy, I don't really know much about Schoenauer. You wouldn't think his ground game is as weak as it was vs. Forest judging by his record, but as always, the numbers can be decieving. Though his aggresion served him well in that fight, Forest was still able to eventually control the flow of the fight. If he could get himself on a decent team, he could eventually be UFC material.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Do you know if these guys will get the chance to go at a weight other than what they're at? I mean Mike Swick would be much better off MW, but if he did win, which I doubt, do you think they'll give him 185 or ask him to stay at 205 since that is what he was at on the show?

[Lei Tong 0]

I think the UFC realizes many of these guys are out of their weightclass, and may even encourage some to move down in weight (as they have in the past). Besides, wouldn't the UFC want the shows winners to look as good as possible after awarding them huge contracts?

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I now demand a write-up on Thacker. I haven't been able to find out ANYTHING about the guy from anywhere.

[Lei Tong 0]

The thing is, I have yet to hear of anyone who knows a damn thing about Thacker MMA-wise. Roughly the only thing I've heard is that he prefers to trade more than grapple, and I don't even know how accurate that is. Sorry.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Yeah I really didn't think you knew anything about him either, because no one does, I am still trying to find out what he did to get put on the show.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Apparently he trains over at this team; http://www.gibsonpankration.com/

 

He's not part of the official fight team or anything though.

 

Are all the undercard matches gonna count for their record officially?

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

MMAWeekly's Ken Pishna reports LIVE from Las Vegas that he just spoke with Jason Thacker. Pishna says Thacker is in INCREDIBLE shape and that not only does he have the six pack, but he has been working with boxing trainer Tony Pepp (sp) who fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. Thacker says "I'm in a great position to pull off the upset because no one has seen me fight and he (leben) has no clue what I can do." His training for this fight went extremely well and he's very confident in this fight. More on Thacker later in this thread...

 

That's from this thread: http://forums.mmaweekly.com/Toast.asp?sub=...fid=2&tid=69895

[Styles 0]

I remember reading in the Observer that Thacker was totally out of his class, and that UFC wanted to pick one total beginning amateur to show that "not anyone" can be an ultimate fighter. All the rest had at least some professional fight experience. Thacker apparently didn't know that everyone else would have so much experience and assumed everyone else chosen were beginners too.