MMANUTS Guide to Your Week In MMA – 2/11/13
In 2013 there is more MMA than ever on our airwaves, so how do we separate the grain from the chaff? Well, for one, by reading this. You can’t bebothered with watching a boring event, you have a life, you need to get out there and explore the world. You may be addicted too MMA, but even the most hardcore addict can overdose. Let us break down the week in MMA for you, and guide you in the direction the MMA Gods would want. This is the MMANuts Guide to Your Week in MMA:Alright, first up on the order of business for our now busy week in MMA: Tuesday night. AKA TUF night.
The Ultimate Fighter: Jones vs. Sonnen Episode 4 on FX
Since The Ultimate Fighter hopped from Spike over to FX, the show has seen a revamp in production values as well as a breath of fresh air into the sometimes tired formula of watching men live in a house then fight each other. Now, we get really cool close-ups of the fighters, slow motion training sessions and inspiring talks from Chael Sonnen. Hmph, we’ll take it. Last week we saw the devastating knockout Urijah Hall delivered to the face of Adam Cella. It’s OK though, even though he was knocked out for four minutes, dude’s gonna be alright, and the show goes on next week with Chael Sonnen’s team firmly in control.It seems like The Ultimate Fighter is finally fresh again after about 7 seasons of boredom.
WATCH or SKIP? – The last few seasons were skippable, very skippable. Not this one. It’s in your best interests as an MMA fan to WATCH.
Bellator now invades our homes via Spike, the channel that delivered us years of MMA content from the UFC. After the Octagon packed up and moved to the FOX office, Spike scooped up Bellator, dusted her off, shined her up, and then presented the tournament-based show to millions with some sexy new production values and matchmaking. Bellator shows have been worth your time for years, now we get to experience the action that is almost always jaw-dropping in splendid HD. This Thursday, the next middleweight tournament kicks off and the bantamweight belt is on the line.Do I even need to write the ‘skip’ part here?
WATCH or SKIP? – Holy shit watch! We promise it will be awesome.
-Eduardo Dantas vs. Marcos Galvao – for bantamweight titleYes, God, yes this will be great.
-Dan Cramer vs. Brian Rogers – Brian Rogers is a highlight reel that could knock you out.
-Brett Cooper vs. Norman Paraisy – Extremely worth watching.
-Doug Marshall vs. Andreas Spang – Should be good.
Friday February 15th, 10pm CST
AXS TV Fights: Maximum Fighting Championship 36 – Reality Check
MFC has been around what seems like forever, and although we appreciate them being one of the top feeder leagues for Canada, their shows have been lackluster of late. Sure, you can’t blame the promotion for some boring fights here or there, but MFC is pretty ‘meh’ right now when TUF and Bellator just rocked your socks over the preivious few days. We usually love AXS TV Fights, but with so much MMA to watch, is this really worth your Friday when you have a stacked UFC card on deck? Nah.
WATCH or SKIP? If you have nothing better to do, support some canadian MMA and watch. If not? SKIP. You have UFC coming at you from England roughly 718 hours after this airs anyways.
-Mukai Maromo defends the lightweight title against Graham Spencer.
-Elvis Mutapcic defends his middleweight title against Ultimate Fighter veteran Sam Alvey.
Saturday, February 16th
UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs, McDonald.
Stacked, stacked, stacked. Stacked like pancakes. Stacked like the envelops containing my bills that I refuse to acknowledge or even hold eye contact with on my desk. This is an unbelievable card and it’s all FREE. Yes, free. As if I have to mention the interim title fight between two of the best bantamweights in the world right now, or the fact that the English crowds are always friggin’ awesome and completely wild. This is going to be a lot of fun.
MAIN (FUEL TV, 3 p.m. ET)
-Renan Barao vs. Michael McDonald – for interim bantamweight title – Should be sick if McDonald doesn’t get finished early.
-Dustin Poirier vs. Cub Swanson – Oh sweet Jesus, yes. This is a barn-burner.
-Cyrille Diabate vs. Jimi Manuwa – You like striking? Here’s a clinic.
-Gunnar Nelson vs. Jorge Santiago – Heavy hitting plus slick grappling skills equals a dark horse fight of the night here.
-Ryan Jimmo vs. James Te Huna
-Che Mills vs. Matthew Riddle – Love him or hate him, Matt Riddle always fights like a wild man.
Yeah, there’s a real nice undercard, too.
PRELIMINARY (Facebook, 12:15 p.m. ET)
-Terry Etim vs. Renee Forte
-Danny Castillo vs. Paul Sass
-Josh Grispi vs. Andy Ogle
-Stanislav Nedkov vs. Tom Watson
-Vaughan Lee vs. Motonobu Tezuka
-Ulysses Gomez vs. Phil Harris
WATCH or SKIP? Duh. Watch. Everyone loves a little afternoon delight.
So it looks like we have a solid six hours of MMA to watch this week, minimum. This is going to be good.