TUF 10: Heavyweights Cast Officially Announced
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jul 10, 2009 at 1:18 pm ET28 Comments
Spike TV announced on Friday the complete cast for The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights, which concluded taping this week for a September 16 debut following UFC Fight Night 19.
Light heavyweight contenders Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans will appear as coaches on the show before squaring off at UFC 107 in mid-December in Jackson’s hometown of Memphis, Tennesse.
The complete cast features:
- Zak Jensen – standout wrestler at Augsburg College
- Marcus Jones – former 1st round NFL draft pick who had a six-year career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Scott Junk – Division II All-American football player at Southwest Oklahoma State and fought in UFC 76.
- James McSweeney – former international kickboxing and Muay Thai champion
- John Madsen – defeated Brock Lesnar in a high school wrestling match
- Matt Mitrione – played for New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings
- Roy Nelson – former IFL Heavyweight Champion
- Demico Rogers – high school football and wrestling star
- Brendan Schaub – played for Buffalo Bills and Arena Football’s Utah Blaze
- Darrill Schoonover – decorated Army veteran
- Wes Shivers – former member of the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons
- Wes Sims – fought two heated battles with former UFC champ Frank Mir at UFC 43 and UFC 46
- Kimbo Slice – former EliteXC heavyweight contender and YouTube sensation
- Abe Wagner – played linebacker at Michigan Tech and has a degree in mechanical engineering
- Mike Wessel – UFC veteran and former strength and conditioning coach at University of Arkansas
- Justin Wren – All-American high school wrestler
The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale is scheduled to take place on December 5 in Las Vegas and will air live on Spike TV.
Tags: Abe Wagner, Brendan Schaub, Darrill Schoonover, Demico Rogers, James McSweeney, John Madsen, Justin Wren, kimbo slice, Marcus Jones, Matt Mitrione, Mike Wessel, Roy Nelson, Scott Junk, Wes Shivers, Wes Sims, Zak Jensen
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HAHAHAHAHAHA, the odds are completely against Kimbo. No easy entry into the UFC for this guy. God, that’s funny.
pretty stacked with football players.. was the last heavyweight TUF as full of former pro athletes? would have liked to see Micheal Westbrook..
The last time there was a heavyweight division in TUF, Sugar Rashad won it.
Seems like TUF is drawing from football as much as wrestling, or more traditional Eastern martial arts, which is a mixed blessing.
On one hand, if the HW division is ever going to be as competitive as the other weight classes, the UFC should leave no stone unturned in an attempt to find and recruit the best possible HW candidates into MMA, but conversely the sport leaves itself open to someone Brock Lesnar-ing their way to a championship, which as I’ve said before is detrimental to the sport in the long run.
Dana White, also as I’ve said before, needs to start thinking about the SPORT as much as he does about the business of MMA.
I think moving forward the UFC should REASONABLY nurture talent from other athletic pursuits, slowly let them understand the concepts of MMA, and get in a fair amount of time both in the gym and on the mat before thrusting them into main events because they might jump up ratings and PPV buys.
The truth is a guy like Brock Lesnar could have been seriously injured by Frank Mir because he didn’t know when or how to defend himself from a basic kneebar. Luckily he tapped quickly and spared himself a shredding.
Bobby Lashley is a great example of a guy from another sport making his way respectfully and intelligently in MMA. If he continues to develop and focus, he’ll eventually find himself in the UFC with a fat contract and open opportunities.
Viewing the cast, I’m guessing Roy “Big Eater” Nelson is the favorite?
And yeah, it does seem that the odds are not in Kimbo Slice’s favor for TUF 10, but consider his opposition.
Personally I’m not all that into seeing some youtube bumfight standout in the Octagon, but there are a lot of footballers and those with questionable ground skills, who will most likely choose to “stand and bang” either out of ego or lack of an alternative. Kimbo is definitely capable of giving a good accounting of himself on his feet.
Also, and I posted this previously, there will inevitably be someone looking to KTFO Kimbo either out of resentment or the desire to make a name for himself. The men ref’ing his fight/s need to keep a wary eye out for someone taking things too far, and/or taking advantage of his lack of MMA experience, specifically if he gets caught in a submission.
Given that, Kimbo is likely to out-strike someone who comes to TUF from say the NFL, if he’s lucky to get matched in that way.
However if he draws someone with any sort of respectable ground game, he’ll be finished quicker than 15 year old getting his first piece…
So…having played football means they have no training for something like this? Really? Have you ever heard of Michael Westbrook? 8-year NFL wide receiver. 2008 IBJJF world champion as a purple belt.
And this crew.
Marcus Jones: 4-1 MMA record. 3 wins by KO/TKO, 1 by submission.
Wes Shivers: 2-0 MMA record, 1 KO, 1 submission due to strikes (according to one source). Muay Thai background.
Brendan Schaub: 4-0 MMA record, trains with Carwin.
Matt Mitrione: Not much out here about him, but when you look at the other guys, it isn’t like they’re there because they were NFL guys they’re there because they can fight.
Based on the other fighters’ stats, I’d give him some benefit of the doubt until I see him fight.
dbiz – I’m trying to understand the point of your post.
Usually your stuff is crystal clear and spot on, but this one’s direction escapes me.
To answer your first question, the answer is most definitely YES, playing football in NO real appreciable way prepares you for any martial or combat art, let alone MMA. It helps somewhat with general fitness and coordination, but not in the mastery of a chosen dicipline. If anything, participating in a team sport might make you less self-reliant, which is a desired trait in wrestling, martial arts, and of course MMA.
The difference in skill sets between football and MMA are monumental. I realize that football lineman sometimes train with the wrestling team to get a better understanding of leverage and balance, but thats quite a stretch to connect that with success in MMA.
Considering as how football is a team sport and MMA, or any martial or combat art is for all intents and purposes an individual sport, I’m not sure how much experience other than maybe mental toughness will translate from the gridiron to the Octagon.
Ater re-reading your post I’m trying to figure out if you are saying that football somehow prepares athletes for a career in MMA, or are you saying that we should have a high regard for some of the TUFfies because 3 of them have managed to put together 10 wins over opponents who’s backgrounds I honestly haven’t looked into yet?
I generally assume someone participating on TUF sucks until he proves me wrong. If they were MMA fighters of quality and proven track records, they would be signed and booked to fight in the Octagon.
After all, the majority of TUFfies don’t make it, and only a select few have gone on to superstardom and/or championship status.
And I’m well aware of Michael Westbrook’s grappling credentials. If this were a MW or even LHW TUF, I would applaud his inclusion and rate him likely to do well depending on the other contestants.
I sort of get why you bring him up, but Westbrook’s BJJ skills have nothing to do with his football skills, unless you mean very generally in terms of dicipline in training, general fitness, and mentally preparing for competition, etc.
Westbrook excels at BJJ in spite of his pro football career, not because of it. Westbrook excels at BJJ because he works at it, is passionate about it, and has a natural talent for it, and a real desire to be a martial artist, not because he’s a major part of the Philadelphia Eagles offense, or a member of the NFLPA.
I honestly don’t see any real connection between football and MMA.
Also, the main reason I pointed out that some of the TUFfies weren’t drawn from the more traditional pre-MMA pursuits like BJJ, kickboxing, Eastern martial arts or wrestling was to illustrate that Kimbo Slice might have a better chance of success in a mixed field of competitors than if he faced a group of ground pounders. Even someone trained in a fundamentally esoteric martial art like Aikido would have a relatively easy time taking Kimbo down, whereas some testosterone-filled footballer will want to foolishly “man up” and exchange with him, probably to make a name for himself. This would play into Kimbo’s strengths, and possibly allow him to move into the second round of fights.
If you’re a Kimbo Slice fan, this is great news. If you’re not, you just hope that Slice is matched with someone with ground skills and enough intelligence to realize that the best way to beat this guy and get him out of the competition is to take him off of his feet and either pound him out or submit him.
dbiz, I’m not trying to pi$$ in your corn flakes here, I’m just trying to understand your whole football-MMA paradigm and make some sense of it all…
I would like to post a correction/retraction to something I said in the above post.
Reagrdless of my personal opinions, MMA fighters participating on TUF, or anywhere else for that matter, shouldn’t be referred to as “sucking” or “sucks”.
A statement like that is just rude, probably flat out wrong, and tells more about the person who wrote it that the subject of said statement.
If I could I would replace the offending and unintelligent comment with something more appropriate and accurate, along the lines of, “I assume that the TUF participants are in the developmental stage of their MMA careers, not the more polished stage that signed UFC talent usually possesses”, or something of that nature.
I apologize for my earlier post, and ask that if anyone reads it please disregard it and not get the impression that I’m “that sort” of MMA fan.
Thank you.
re: the developmental stage… That’s exactly what TUF is for.
The point of my initial comment was tht playing football doesn’t PRECLUDE one from pursuing MMA. Sure, many lineman train wrestling, but more and more, you’re getting skill position players who train MMA/grappling also (see Matt Leinart as one example).
Remember: Roy Nelson is the exception for TUF, not the norm. TUF is to find skilled unknowns and give them a crack at the UFC. If it ever reaches the point where you need double digit wins on other orgs, I will stop watching it because that goes well beyond the premise.
These FORMER NFL athletes, most of whom have been out of the NFL for ~5 years and presumably have been training in MMA/grappling/muay thai or similar, are early in their careers, just as they should be.
My point, more simply, was that you call this cast bad for MMA. You can’t know this since (as you yourself said) you haven’t even bothered to look into their backgrounds. You’re making assumptions and they very well may be wrong.
Damn all those heavyweights in that picture make rampage and rashad look tiny
I was waiting to see in the fighter’s bios: “former POP Warner runner up for punter of the year”!!!!!LOL
Good stuff, bottomzup.
Wes Simms, really? Why not Gan Mcgee, too?
he was on tuf 3 and did really bad
Is Kimbo bending his knees in that pic or is he just a lot smaller than the rest ? I agree that he has an advantage in striking against most of these guys and some experience now on the mat with the limited training he got .I would seem to think he would focus on that during his time off this last year . Should have anyways …….
His chances of finishing as the top guy are still slim . Still , he gets to try so thats cool beans … cooool beeeeaans ……. coo …. cool …coool ….. coooool BEANS !!
I think they are going with a bunch of ex-athletes cause they know how to stay in shape and guys like that keep with UFC’s body image. Plus with these guys they are used to intense training and won’t come in flabby is probably some of their hopes.
I hate to promote another site, but mmajunkie.com has a little bio on each of the cast members and it states their height, weight, and their background in MMA and/or other sports. Good read.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/15470/meet-the-cast-the-ultimate-fighter-10-fighters-officially-unveiled-at-ufc-fan-expo.mma
Yeah, there is no way Kimbo is going to win this competition. Wes Sims is very skilled, Big Country is no joke, and the rest of these guys have amazing credentials as well. Id bet my life he wont win, If he does I smell foul play. The UFC will still give him a chance though as they usually take a few from the show. They should, Kimbo is a recognized MMA superstar. If one knows Kimbo and doesnt know Fedor, then you need to branch outside of UFC. Theres some other good stuff out there as well.
ram4750 – just to make a point in the interests of accuracy, but Kimbo Slice is most certainly NOT a “recognized MMA superstar” by ANY stretch of the iMMAgination.
I’m not trying to call you out, but I do try to keep things here pretty grounded in reality, especially when sideshow attractions like Kimbo Slice are in the picture.
The guy currently is an Internet bum fight sensation, who managed to translate that 15 minutes of fame into a foothold in a legitimate sport like MMA. But its JUST a foothold. He then proceeded to embarrass himself on national television, which helped cause the promotion who hired him to fold.
I haven’t seen ANYTHING in Kimbo’s skill-set that would define him as an MMA fighter, let alone a superstar. He has a stand-up game that’s never been really tested by any sort of MMA-quality striker, and by all accounts his wrestling and submissions are non-existant?
How the heck does that make Kimbo a “recognized MMA superstar”?
There is a huge difference between being recorded hammering some vagrant in a parking lot for a brown bagged 40 and pocket money and signing a contract to participate in a televised and organized combat sport.
Background aside, on the mat the guy will be helpless, and on his feet against a trained HW striker, even one past his prime and having trouble adjusting to MMA in a cage like fellow MMA “superstar” Mirko CroCop, Kimbo would get murdered. End of story.
Howzabout we let TUF do its job in weeding out the posers from the professionals, as I was recently asked to do, and see if Kimbo can actually make it into the sport. IF he does, and thats a big if, THEN and only then can we begin to evaluate him against other MMA fighters as he makes his way in the sport.
I do agree with those that have said that Kimbo will be asked to fight in the UFC even if he doesn’t win TUF 10. Given his fringe celebrity and Dana White’s love of money, it’s almost assured that we’ll see Kimbo in the Octagon if he doesn’t embarrass himself too badly on the show.
If not, he can head over to Japan and ply his trade in their MMA-themed sideshow promotions fighting guys like Bob Sapp, Zuluhino, and the dreaded 7 foot S Korean.
Not to burst the bubble of Kimbo’s supporters, and again not to sound like I’m hammering ram4750, but the Kimbo Slice is a long way from being “recognized” as a legitimate MMA fighter, and light years away from being a “superstar”.
Lets not lose sight of that in all the UFC/TUF 10 hype on SpikeTV and the Internet…
Jchol so is the ufc the only place where you can become a recognised mma star??
Or is it your not considered a true mma star unless being in the ufc or tuff??
IMO it doesn’t matter he fought guys on Youtube, and got famous and it paid off,{ i dont condon it but hey it worked for him} it not where your from but where your going. Dude was moving along with his mma standing and trying to do it right with training with Bas Rutten and competeing in a legal organized arena.
My point is this Kimbo guy did train correctly and fight in a legal and organized mma organization. And millions tunned in.. So what if he got beat in one of his mma fights in 12 -14 seconds so did Timmmmehhhh.. It is not his fault that mma organization made him the main attraction.
No he doesn’t have bjj or good wrestleing skills but that are other guys in the ufc or who have fought in the ufc that where comparable to Kimbo imo. Do you remember TANK ABBOTT or more recently Sokoudjou these guys had no submission skills nor decent wrestleing but they are considered legit mma fighters JUST NOT ALL THAT SKILLED in bjj but they are still mma fighters..
Example football players some are awesome some are sub par at best but they are still football players whether they play in the nfl or ifl… Or come from playing streetball or straight outta highschool.
Not to rain on the brilliant post you wrote up but just a Different oppinon is all.
Peace!!!
OnlyTrue1, Let me start by saying thanks for referring to my post as “brilliant”. I try to be as factual as I can, without being to partisan in support of any one particular fighter. If anything, I try to be an avid advocate for the sport as a whole, which is why at times I hammer the UFC as often as I praise them, Dana White in particular.
Also, I don’t consider it “raining on my post” if you take issue with something I’ve written. IMO all points of view, regardless of how on-or off-point they are in comparison to my own, are equally valid, especially within the MMA fan community.
As to your specific question/s:
First off, yes, with the absorbtion of PRIDE into the UFC it currently seems the only organization with the resources and market penetration to produce a true widely recognized MMA superstar is the UFC. While I do think that the IFL did a good job, as does Strikeforce, neither organization came close to having the ability to create a “recognized superstar”, by which I mean someone who stands out in the ranks, and can be identified by a large number of people, both hardcore and casual MMA fans.
Also, superstar as currently defined in 21st century MMA is a fighter that appears on the main card, in a contenders match, or in the main event, possibly a championship fight. To date Kimbo SLice hasn’t shown the skills to be a prelim fighter, and has been manipulated by a greedy promoter, and in the process placed in a lot of danger.
A legitimate well-rounded MMA fighter would take Slice down, hook him and submit him in less time than it takes to write and read about it. If the ref isn’t quick or attentive, Slice could be seriously harmed, and even though I don’t want to see him in the sport I DEFINITELY don’t want to see him hurt by someone looking to make a name for themselves at some youtube sensation’s expense.
Secondarily, I would have to somewhat reluctantly respond again that yes, with the downfall of PRIDE and the IFL, the limited reach of Strikeforce, Affliction, Bodog, King of the Cage, etc. basically prevents a MMA fighter, regardless of his in-cage success, from becoming a “superstar”.
Remember, we’re talking about superstardom here, and not just particiation in the sport. I believe the term ram4750 originally used was “recognized MMA superstar”. Think for a second what that means. Chuck Liddell is a recognized MMA superstar, as is Rampage Jackson, Randy Couture, GSP, and on and on. Can you or anyone, regardless of how much they like and support Kimbo Slice, claim that the man is on or anywhere near there level either in terms of recognition factor or MMA achievement?
What we should be doing is recognizing Kimbo Slice for what he is, and thats a man trying to become an MMA fighter. In order to be an MMA fighter you need to have a certain cross-skill set, otherwise you’re just some local toughguy masquerading as a mixed martial artist, and exchanging beatings in a boxing ring out on some Indian reservation.
Personally I think Kimbo made a good first step by training with Bas Rutten. A good second step was signing to fight in EliteXC. A good third step is appearing on TUF as a contestant. He’s making his way, and trying his best with the small skill-set he currently possesses.
But lets not blow things out of proportion because a million people have clicked onto youtube to see him bum fight, or tuned in to CBS to see him get KTFO’ed in 15 seconds by a LHW named Seth Petruzelli.
Yes, he did beat aging alcoholic Tank Abbott, yes, he beat a former steriod-abusing bodybuilder and debt collector named James Thompson, and yes he did “defeat” a biker brawler named Bo Cantrell who if memory serves didn’t bother to actually fight during his scheduled bout with Kimbo. Cantrell took his paycheck and about a dozen shots from Kimbo and called it a day. That’s not what I call an MMA fight, thats what they used to call a dive back in the heyday of boxing, and what we should all call a travesty and crime against the sport.
And while it’s nice and optomistic in that 21st century feel-good blameless sort of way to say, “its not where you’re from it’s where you’re going”, which is a cool sentiment, in MMA it’s contrary to the requirements of the sport, wherein you need to be more than some NHB toughman or bum fight champion.
Kimbo Slice has been PAID as an MMA fighter, but has yet to perform as one. TUF is going to give him that chance, and I’ll reserve final judgement on Slice after seeing how he handles himself in the Ocatgon, and with an opponent with a well-rounded skill-set, something I’m skeptical most of them men in this field of reality show contestants possesses, but we’ll see.
As previously stated, I suggest everyone let TUF do what it was designed to do before posting either against or in favor of Kimbo Slice.
OnlyTrue1, I hope that answers your question/s…
damn i didnt think kimbo was in the picture…wtf…blew it up and still have a hard time seeing him
Lets get it on!!!!!!
I dont see Kimbo going far at all but all the best.
well, i think kimbo can win at least one fight… but i say that is all
I’m excited to see the UFC finding quality athletes for the HW division. Wrestlers and football players both come from athletic backgrounds with a lot of fast and explosive training behind them. Striking/grappling can be learned to a degree of mastery along the way, but when you look at what the HW division has had to offer in practically every organization you see a couple stand out guys, and then a list of people for them to beat cause they can’t win by forfeit.
roy nelson looks like he’s had his dinner
Hopefully this year will focus on the training aspect of the time in the house. This season seems to be more grown men, instead of talented young punks. Because of that, maybe there won’t be the teenager temper tantrems that have plagued the past few seasons. I would love to see a season where they focus a little time on each of the week’s fighters and who they are/where they come from/etc., but then the rest of the show, 58 minutes of it revolves around the fight and training for it.
These guys are not “MMA newbs” everyone on the cast this year has at least one if not more MMA fights.. many have more MMA fights to their credit (yes even some of the footballers) then Brock had when he fought for the championship.
Thank you.