Ultimate Fighter Predicts the Ultimate UFC Championship

For the first time in UFC history, two winners of The Ultimate Fighter reality series on Spike TV will square off for a UFC championship. Forrest Griffin won the inaugural season of the show and defeated Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to capture the UFC light heavyweight title, while Rashad Evans won season two of the show. Now they will face each other on Dec. 27 at UFC 92 in Las Vegas.

Ryan Bader won the light heavyweight division of the most recent edition of The Ultimate Fighter, the show's eighth season. On a recent episode of MMAWeekly Radio, The Ultimate Fighter gave his thoughts on the UFC 92 title bout, the first ever "All Ultimate Fighter" championship if you will.

"It's hard to say. I think if Rashad uses his wrestling, he could definitely, probably win a decision," said Bader. "If he tries to stand the whole time, I think Forrest is just going to stay on the outside and pick him apart a little bit and also win a decision.

"Rashad is coming off his knockout of Chuck (Liddell) and he's pretty confident in his hands. I think Forrest is going to nitpick at him the whole time, but if Rashad goes back and takes him down at least once a round, I think he can definitely win," Bader continued. "So it's going to be hard, but I'm going to say, I'm actually going to say Rashad is going to take the belt.

"It's a scary thing when a wrestler has boxing."

Now there's an overly committed pick that makes you want to go out and bet the house.

Junie On Efrain's Fight, "I fell asleep half way through..."

Following an impressive victory over Dave Kaplan and a televised apology to Frank Mir -- even though he had been openly critical of Mir all the way up to The Ultimate Fighter Finale on Saturday night -- bad boy Junie Browning is still trying to get under the skin of his Ultimate Fighter 8 cast mates.

One win off the show and Junie believes he should get a rematch with Efrain Escudero, who won the lightweight division's Ultimate Fighter with an impressive performance against Phillipe Nover on Saturday night.

"I definitely would like to get a rematch now (with Efrain), you know what I mean? That was my 20% and I feel like I performed pretty good. If I go train, it wouldn't even be close, for sure," Junie told MMAWeekly.com later that night.

As for Efrain's performance, Junie gave his housemate some credit, but didn't indicate that he was particularly impressed. "I fell asleep half way through, so I didn't get to see it all. It was a smart gameplan, taking Phillipe down; he has strong punches. I give him credit. It's hard to defend his takedowns if he sets 'em up good. If I ever fight him again, that won't be a problem."

But his assessment of Efrain was the least of his critical comments. He had more for the entire cast of The Ultimate Fighter 8, believing he is head and shoulders above them all.

"The way I looked tonight, I'll be twice as good my next fight and then twice as good after that and then twice as good... I'm gonna keep improving. That's the difference between me and the rest of the guys in the house," he assessed. "I have the potential to improve. I don't think the rest of the guys have... open mind sets enough to go different places and improve certain points of their game."

And we all know that was Junie's point of strength on the show, his open mindedness...

Bad Boy Junie Browning Explains His Antics, Apologizes to Frank Mir

Junie Browning was the thorn in everyone's side on season eight of The Ultimate Fighter. He was the instigator, the reactor, the gnat that buzzes in your ear...

After the show was over, many of the other fighters came forward saying that Junie planned to play the bad boy role well before he ever made it to the fighter house.

In a report by Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press, Krzysztof Soszynski said, "To be honest with you, he did everything for show. It was a whole joke to him. Basically he told me the very first day we met - and before our fights to get into the house - he basically said 'If I get into this house, I'm going to be the crazy guy.'"

Efrain Escudero and Ryan Bader echoed Soszynski's statements, but Phillipe Nover only partially agreed. In Davidson's report, Nover said, "He was definitely trying (to be the bad boy) and he was... It's a reality TV show and your true colors will show. Especially after a week or two of being in the house. You can't fake an act for a month straight. He definitely showed his true colors. He was a crazy maniac type of kid."

After he defeated Dave Kaplan by armbar on Saturday night, Junie himself was asked about his "act" on the show by UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan.

"It wasn't all planned. It was just more the fact that I didn't let the cameras dictate the way I was going to act," Browning said about his behavior on the show. "Somebody messed with me, I just snapped. If I'm going to get pissed, I might as well make it entertaining."

Taking the show as a learning lesson, Browning has obviously grown up since the filming finished. He even offered an apology to former coach, Frank Mir, who has been openly critical of his former student on the show in recent weeks.

"I gave (Frank) Mir a hard time on the show. I just want to apologize to everybody, everyone watching and stuff," said Browning. "Mir was actually an awesome coach. It was more my fault. I don't think I would have put up with myself either. I apologize to Mir and the rest of Mir's team, they were awesome coaches."

Ultimate Fighter 8 Preliminary Results and Photos

Krzysztof Soszynski def. Shane Primm by Submission (Kimura) at 3:27, R2

Eliot Marshall def. Jules Bruchez by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:27, R1

Tom Lawlor def. Kyle Kingsbury by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Shane Nelson def. George Roop by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Rolando Delgado def. John Polakowski by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:18, R1

(Photos by Scott Petersen - MMAWeekly.com)

Ultimate Fighter 8 Finalists Set

Zuffa took over anything and everything MMA on television on Wednesday with the WEC on Versus and The Ultimate Fighter and UFC Unleashed on Spike TV.

The final two episodes of The Ultimate Fighter aired back-to-back on Wednesday night to determine the finalists that will clash on Dec. 13 in Las Vegas.

In the light heavyweight division, Ryan Bader scored the win over Elliot Marshal to face Vinicius Magalhaes in the final round at the Palms. Magalhaes defeated Krzysztof Soszynski to make his way to the showdown with Bader.

Phillipe Nover and Efrain Escudero will clash in the 155-pound division final. Nover took care of George Roop to earn his berth, while Escudero choked out this season's bad boy, Junie Browning.

Ultimate Fighter 8 Light Heavyweight Final:
-Ryan Bader vs. Vinicius Magalhaes

Ultimate Fighter 8 Lightweight Final:
-Phillipe Nover vs. Efrain Escudero

No TUF Turkeys, but Still Four Hours for a Fix

The Ultimate Fighter is taking a Thanksgiving break tonight, so there will be no new episodes of the show. There will however be four hours of back-to-back episodes for those of you that may have missed a recent episode or just need to get your TUF fix in.

Spike TV's got you TUFers covered.

Happy Thanksgiving!

How The Hell Was Junie Allowed to Stay on The Ultimate Fighter?

Junie Browning's drunken exploits and out of control behavior has been the prominent focus of The Ultimate Fighter season eight. After his alcohol induced tirade attacking several housemates, most, including Browning, thought he would be kicked off the popular reality show on Spike TV. The decision to keep Browning in the house was made solely by UFC president Dana White, and according to White, "It had nothing to do with ratings."

White explained he got the call from the producer alerting him there was a problem in the house. White then viewed the tapes of the multitude of incidents that transpired that night. The Spike TV producer was prepared to send Browning packing.

"That day that I got there, she (the producer) said, 'okay, so we've got his plane ticket home. We've got everything set.' And I went in and said, 'I don't if I'm going to kick him off the show,'" explained the outspoken UFC president. "She was like, what? Everybody knew for a fact that I was kicking him off the show. They knew."

"I went to the house that day and said, I don't know if I'm going to kick him off," added White. "She said, 'what do you mean you don't know?' I said, 'I don't know. I don't know what is going on. I just don't know if I'm going to do it.' I wanted to go inside and see how he was going to act. If he was a punk, I was going to kick him off the show. I went inside. He was upset. He looked like he was going to cry. He was apologetic about it, so I didn't do it."

When Browning remained in the house after shattering a glass off of Kyle Kingsbury's forearm, causing a laceration, push kicked Tom Lawlor to the ground, while trying to start fights with Ryan Bader and Krzysztof Soszynski, the only rational explanation was he remained due to ratings. White said, "It had nothing to do with the TV ratings. It had nothing to do with it."

Either way, Browning remains and ratings continue to rise.

Anderson Silva Got TUF on Season 8 Cast

Beyond the opportunity to earn a six figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the fighters who make their way to the show also have the chance to train with world class coaches like B.J. Penn, Matt Serra, Tito Ortiz, Frank Mir, Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira and others.

But as seen on the most recent episode of the popular reality show, the members of Team Nogueira got the opportunity to train with the best fighter on the planet when UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva stopped by to help them train their stand-up games.

Arizona Combat Sports based fighter Ryan Bader was shown sparring with the champion during the episode and he says that Silva really is just that good.

"He's just phenomenal, he's just so fluid and just so loose in there and elusive, it was crazy," said Bader recently on MMAWeekly Radio. "He's amazing and light years above anybody else that I've sparred with."

During the televised portion of the broadcast, Bader and Silva seemed to be having a pretty hardcore sparring session, with both fighters landing some pretty heavy shots.

"We were going pretty good and he was punching back and doing normally what you'd do, and the clip they showed was at the end of our workout when he was getting me a little bit and I was kind of getting frustrated so I started swinging kind of hard at him and then he kind of invited me to come and get him in a friendly manner, so that's what you saw on TV," Bader commented.

"I hit him pretty good a few times, but he's got a pretty good chin, he's hard to hit, I mean you go in there and he's very elusive. It was just awesome getting the experience training with a fighter like that."

TUF 8: Guess Who Bought The Itching Powder

The eighth season of the "Ultimate Fighter" is under full swing now and the members of both teams are starting to pull pranks on each other, seemingly at a moment's notice.

But have you ever wondered who brought Krzysztof Soszynski the itching powder that literally got under everyone's skin on Team Nogueira?

Well funny enough it's the producers of the show who are more than happy to fill the grocery list of the fighters in the house with not only food, but any other material that the housemates request while spending their 6 weeks together.

"You have a little list for our food and what not and he asked for itching powder and they brought it to him," TUF 8 fighter Ryan Bader told MMAWeekly Radio recently. "Obviously, you know Spike wants to see some drama and they figure there might be some drama after that so they gave it to him."

There are a few restrictions however, but not many for what will surely turn into good television.

"Anything that's not too expensive and that's maybe going to start some drama and be good for TV, they'll definitely have that in there," Bader commented.

The same can be said for alcohol and other things the fighters request so long as it doesn't endanger anyone, but as Bader explained there was a reason why his teammates were so annoyed by the itching powder used in last week's episode.

"That itching powder's actually like little cactus and it's also fiberglass mixed in with it, like little tiny strips of fiberglass," Bader disclosed. "So you think itching powder, it can't be that bad, but it's not really powder, it's like little shards of fiberglass."

Ouch!

Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale Tickets on Sale

Tickets for the Ultimate Fighter Season 8 Live Finale go on sale to the general public beginning Saturday, Oct. 18 at Noon PT. There are presale options, however, to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public.

Starting tomorrow - Thursday, Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. PT - tickets for The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale go on sale to UFC Fight Club members. And on Friday, Oct. 17 at 10 a.m. PT, tickets go on sale to newsletter subscribers.

The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Palms in Las Vegas. It will feature the final bouts from this season's show and several other bouts, including a rumored rematch between Kevin Burns and Anthony Johnson.