Friday Mar. 9th

"Teams compete for coveted UFC contracts"  Air Date 3-9-12

This is the first time the show has ever aired live.  It will be interesting to see how it works and what they have had to change to get it to work.  Going from months of time to edit the show to less than a week is going to have to have some effect on how things are.

The entry fights are only one round.  They should all be explosive because the fighters have so little time to show what they are made of, but I worry about the fighters mindset.  No one ever trains for a one round fight and it looks like they only found out it was one round a day or so before the fight.

It's interestingly odd that there are no announcers.  I know that they have never had announcers calling the fight even when it was taped, but somehow it seems out of place when the fights are live.

Because the fights are only one round it's hard to judge some of the guys actual talent.  They seem to all be getting a quick finish, which could be skill or could be luck/mismatch or they are going the distance in which case the coaches don't get to see how they adjust in the next round.

As someone who falls into the 31-34 year old range I don't think there is any way I could live in a house with a bunch of 21-24 year-olds.

A few of these fights may have been stopped a little early, but I find that to always be the case in MMA.

Does the winners getting to watch all the rest of the fights give them an edge going into the house.

In almost every fight you can hear Faber talking about where each guy is from.  He is either really well traveled to know so many fighters or he really did his homework on all the guys.

Do these fights count as pro fights or are they amateur?  I know that on the original show they were all considered exhibition fights that way they were able to get around athletic commission rules that say results have to be posted online within 30 days of the fight, which would have spoiled the whole show.  But with the fights airing live each week that is no longer necessary.

You would think Harley would think twice about using the tag line "No Cages" while sponsoring an event where all the action takes place inside a cage.

That broken toe was one of the most cringe inducing things I have ever seen in a fight.  It might even be worse than when a guy gets his arm broken in an arm bar, because when that happens at least the ref stops the fight.  The toe broke and the fight went on for three more minutes.  And what heart and determination he must have to not only continue with a broken toe, but to continue to kick with that foot.  That was one of only a few fights that might have ended differently.

Half the fights ended in K.O. or Submission. So, 8 fights X $5,000 stoppage bonus, there goes the budget for this season.

There's no real way of knowing how things are going to actually work on the show until next week when the coaches pick their teams and the guys move into the house.



I also watched both Battle of the Exes and Jersey Shore, but MTV felt the need to air both show a little off schedule so the ending was cut off of both of the shows, so I have all ready scheduled them to record again and I will talk about them after I have gotten to see the whole episode.