Sunday, December 01, 2013

Julianna Pena wins The Ultimate Fighter 18

I have three match videos from last night's The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale in Las Vegas. The one thing that these fights confirmed is there should not have been any fighters over 30 on TUF. They aren't prospects anymore. They are suspects. All three fighters who lost were over 30. Julianna Pena faced Jessica Rakoczy in the TUF final. Julianna Pena is bigger and stronger. I thought that unless Julianna beat herself, she would overpower Jessica. And that's what she did. Halfway through round one, Julianna took Jessica down and beat on her until ref Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight at 4:59 of round one. I suppose he could have let it go and give Jessica another chance in round two. I doubt it would have made any difference. And Yamasaki did warn Jessica for the last minute of the round. It's very subjective. Some refs would not have stopped the fight. So congratulations to Julianna Pena. But remember it doesn't get any easier and she's got a target on her back. Jessamyn Duke won by unanimous decision over Peggy Morgan. Jessamyn has moved out to Los Angeles. She is living with Ronda Rousey and is training with Edmond Tarverdyan. He was in her corner. She has improved already. She dominated Peggy for the first two rounds. Then she made a mistake in round three and Peggy took her back for a possible rear naked choke. But it looked worse than it was and when Peggy lost that position, she did nothing with top position and ref Kim Winslow stood them up. Again I don't think that mattered as Peggy needed a finish and she wasn't going to get it. And Raquel Pennington beat Roxanne Modafferi by unanimous decision. Raquel is more powerful than Roxy. But she has this bad habit of not starting fights aggressively. I've seen this in several of her fights. And though Roxy has no punching power, she was busier in round one and I scored round one 10-9 for Roxy. Between rounds, Raquel's corner told her to be more aggressive. She actually did what she was told and won the last two rounds easily. But she needs to break the habit of starting slowly as it will cost her fights. Hell, it cost her a chance in the TUF final. So, check out the videos. BTW, the girl in the yellow t-shirt sitting next to Miesha Tate is European fighter Cindy Dandois who has been training with Miesha. Don't be surprised if we see her in Invicta or the UFC.

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