The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights — Episode 1 Recap
The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights debuted on Wednesday following UFC Fight Night 19, and the 16 fighter cast that includes street fighter Kimbo Slice, former IFL champ Roy Nelson, and four ex-NFLers was introduced to light heavyweight rivals and opposing coaches Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans.
Before a two-hour training session gets underway to allow the coaches to assess the fighters, “Rampage” makes it clear that he intends to take Slice with his first pick to the delight of Evans, who wins a coin toss and opts to take James McSweeney with the top overall pick, while Slice and the first fight selection go to Jackson.
The coaches continue to alternate picks until all 16 fighters are drafted and their teams are set:
TEAM RASHAD
- James McSweeney
- Brendan Schaub
- Justin Wren
- John Madsen
- Roy Nelson
- Darrill Schoonover
- Matt Matrione
- Mike Wessel
TEAM RAMPAGE
- Kimbo Slice
- Abe Wagner
- Demico Rogers
- Wes Sims
- Scott Junk
- Wes Shivers
- Marcus Jones
- Zak Jensen
After a training session for each team, “Rampage” announces the first matchup as Abe Wagner will take on Team Rashad’s John Madsen.
The fight is quickly underway as Madsen scores an early takedown and sets the pace for the rest of the fight before opening up a deep gash on Wagner’s forehead that pours blood. Madsen maintains the top position for the remainder of the round while offering little offense and cruises into the second round, while Wagner is surprisingly cleared to continue. Madsen again gets a takedown early in round two and, despite several standups due to a lack of action and little offense from Madsen, he’s able to control a tired Wagner on the ground to ride out an easy decision win, with the judges handing down scores of 20-16, 20-17, and 20-17.
The official result of the first opening round bout was:
- John Madsen def. Abe Wagner via unanimous decision (20-16, 20-17, 20-17)
After the decision is announced by UFC President Dana White, who calls the bout the bloodiest in TUF history, Wagner’s gruesome cut is shown being tended to by a doctor as the Team Rampage fighter asks whether he can see his skull.
The episode concludes with Jackson telling his team not to touch gloves followed by a preview of the rest of the season, including more spats between the rival coaches and an outburst by “Rampage” that sees him destroy a gym door.
Here’s how the teams look after Team Rashad took a 1-0 lead on the debut of TUF 10:
TEAM RASHAD
- James McSweeney
- Brendan Schaub
- Justin Wren
- John Madsen (1-0)
- Roy Nelson
- Darrill Schoonover
- Matt Matrione
- Mike Wessel
TEAM RAMPAGE
- Kimbo Slice
- Abe Wagner
Eliminated by John Madsen on Episode 1 - Demico Rogers
- Wes Sims
- Scott Junk
- Wes Shivers
- Marcus Jones
- Zak Jensen
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com each Wednesday for a recap of The Ultimate Fighter 10 leading up to the December 5 TUF 10 Finale.
Tags: Abe Wagner, Brendan Schaub, Darrill Schoonover, Demico Rogers, James McSweeney, John Madsen, Justin Wren, kimbo slice, Marcus Jones, Matt Mitrione, Mike Wessel, Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, Roy Nelson, Scott Junk, Wes Shivers, Wes Sims, Zak Jensen
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Not much of a fight. Horrible match up by Team Rampage. His top 2 picks likely won’t even make it past the first round. Going to be a long road ahead for team Rampage, again. He’s just not the best coach.
I find myself rooting for Simms and Nelson overall. Wouldn’t mind seeing Kimbo win a fight or two either. He seems pretty humble.
Really hope there will be some better fights and less focus on Quinton’s comedic act in future episodes. Jackson is getting old real fast.
Yea, his act is getting annoying. That fight was pretty pathetic to say the least.
I agree about Jackson getting old fast. I don’t like Rashad, but I’m liking Jackson less lately. And since Rashad has Greg Jackson as an “assistant coach” his guys will definitely actually learn some things.
that gash was grusome
The fight was rather “meh”, but what a nasty cut that was that got opened up on Abe. Abe looked clueless and like he didn’t even belong there.
Rampage is a terrible coach, team selecter, and match maker.
I can’t believe how late Roy Nelson went before getting chosen.
I’m surprised at how little cardio Jones has.
Wes Sims is a nutcase.
I agree with all of your points
i was gonna eat something last night til i saw that cut. now idk if i can eat anything again. nasty!
im a big rampage fan but when rampage was yellin “do it now! go for it now!” i wouldve looked over and said “do wat?”
i can believe roy went late and as it appeared in the preview hes not getting along wit his coaches. so its probably more of his feelings of over entitlement cuz he was an ifl champ.
marcus jones is i believe 36 and a big boy so i kinda figured his cardio might not b all there
as for wes sims i think nutcase is a lil off. to describe wes simms i would use the words “bat **** cuckoo for coco puffs”
thus far i am unimpressed wit “the craziest season of tuf yet”
the “do it now” was part of the in between round coaching where rampage was telling him to sweep because of how off balance madsen was…
i think the blow that opened up abe knocked him senseless and then the sight of ‘that’ much blood also prolly affect his mental game…
Pretty tame opening fight for TUF 10.
Personally I’ve seen that very same fight played out by different fighters maybe 5 or 6 times previously.
An accomplished wrestler can just kill someone, and a crowd as well, when he’s in the cage with some well-meaning but poorly-prepared hopeful.
The next fight will be better.
After all, how can it not be?
Also, I’m sure I’ll get some static for this, but IMO it needs to be posted.
Abe Wagner deserved that notch he caught on his dome for stepping into the cage without the slightest clue about how to avoid a takedown, let alone the same elementary double leg shot 6 times in 10 minutes.
Lets be real, we’re talking Jon Madsen, not Daniel fu<king Cormier here.
Inexcusable.
As for the non-fight parts of the show, all I can say is Rampage is Rampage.
He's like asparagus, in that the small number of people who like him REALLY like him, and the rest avoid him like the plague.
As for his "coaching", it seemed to be limited to, "get up, Abe!" repeated about 44 times in a 10 minute fight.
And you saw how well his fighter listened.
Finally, I'm convinced that regardless of how Kimbo Slice does on the show, he's got a future in both MMA and the entertainment biz.
He's humble, seems to genuinely want to be a part of our sport, and has a sort of "its all good" personality thats hard to dislike…
I was a bit surprised with how well Kimbo took it all. He knows what his strengths are, what his weaknesses are, and that everyone else will be gunning for him. His humility and his “c’est la vie” (that’s life) attitude about the bull’s eye the size of Dana’s ego on his forehead were quite refreshing. I think he’s realizing that he has to kind of put some dues in (TUF ain’t easy by any stretch of the imagination) before the big pay off, and that’s refreshing.
Abe talked about how his jiu jitsu was going to help him, and the only thing remotely like that I saw was at the very end of the first round. Other than that, I saw a vag!na opened up and a miscarriage spewed out onto the mat. I also think we’ll see significantly less shenanigans this season than some, but hopefully it’s slightly more interesting in the house than it was last season. That was really really really boring.
I think Rampage is funny
I can’t stand Rashad, can’t wait for Rampage to knock him out. Rampage was right on..he hasn’t fought anyone..except Forest. Losses against Machida and Ortiz(not really a draw, he couldn’t finish him like he should have), and a win against a washed up Liddell pretty much put him at a 1-1 record. Ugh i hate watching him fight.
I think Wes Sims is in love with Kimbo
Roy Nelson is nowhere near as good as he thinks, it was the IFL
I hope the rest of the fights aren’t as boring, without the cut that fight is unbearable to watch
Who would think such a bloody fight would be so boring? If someone showed me a shot of all the blood on the mat before the fight, I would think “man, that must have been a war!” But yeah, they never should have let him fight the second round. I thought he was gonna pass out when he stood up off the stool.
If I was a wrestler on this season’s show though, I think it would be easy to cruise through over half the guys. Since no ref is gonna stand you up, you can just win on points for the takedowns and octagon control. Unless you had to break lots of sub attempts (unlikely this season) or took some elbows from your opponent on the bottom, it wouldn’t be too hard to cruise at least through a win or 2. Boring, but it gets you the W and one step closer to that contract. Madsen’s plan was boring but he played a smart game, as Abe did nothing for 10 minutes (except bleed).
That dude was oozing blood. It was sick.
Besides that, Rampage is a terrible coach. This must all be some joke to him. Yeah, I like Kimbo too (not because he’s a good mixed martial artist, but because he’s a slugger and an all around nice guy, at least from the time I met him), but you can’t pick him first overall. I don’t get it. Big Country goes like 10th overall. “I thought I was the big surprise” lol. SURPRISE!!! None of the coaches know who you are.
That dude was oozing blood. It was sick.
Besides that, Rampage is a terrible coach. This must all be some joke to him. Yeah, I like Kimbo too (not because he’s a good mixed martial artist, but because he’s a slugger and an all around nice guy, at least from the time I met him), but you can’t pick him first overall. I don’t get it. Big Country goes like 10th overall. “I thought I was the big surprise” lol. SURPRISE!!! None of the coaches know who you are.
After a great night of fights the debut of TUF was definitely anticlimactic to say the least.Definitely didn’t live up to the hype.Hopefully future episodes have more to offer,which shouldn’t be too hard after that first episode.Also have to agree with Justin,Rampage is a horrible coach and will no doubt lose this season.
I can’t help but smile. Ever since they announced Jackson and Evans would be coaches I started yawning. Jackson has all the physical skills for a world class fighter, no doubt. But he just doesn’t have the evaluation and ability to help them improve their fighting. I don’t know that Evans is much better, but can’t be any worse.
I have to say I was shocked the ring side doc let the fight continue after the first round. That cut was nasty, and all the second round did was take him out of a possibility of returning as an alternate if someone else gets injured. After the first round there was a slight possibility of him being able to fight again, but after the second round there is no way.
Rampage is such a bad coach but he is funny as HELL!!!
That wasn’t even a fight it was was like 2 of the bullies from Bully Beatdown were fighting, they kinda just layed there and did nothing. Both those guys suck, Abe needs to stay with his high paying job. And how did the other guy not finish, Abe layed there the whole time. I thought Rampage and Rashad were hilarious. I hope those 2 are like this all season. We finally have 2 entertaining coaches.
Just as an FYI, Wagner layed there because he isn’t really motivated to be a pro MMA fighter, and basically said something to that effect in taped bits.
Also, he was bleeding out like a cast extra from Saw 6, so, yeah.
Madsen didn’t finish because he couldn’t. His GnP is embryonic in terms of development, and from what I saw he doesn’t possess anywhere near the UFC-level of cardio required to make it in the big show these days.
Finally, even a white belt level of BJJ would have been enough to submit the Wagner we saw come out for round 2 last night, so I’m guessing that Madsen’s submission game is non-existent.
No bashing here, just throwing out an objective assessment of the first 2 men we’ve seen in the cage…
It will be interesting to see what Madsen can learn in the time leading up to the last fight.
i agree,i could see it in his eyes even from the glove touch thing.
Yeah, good thing Abe has a “real job” like he put it.
i’ve noticed watching smaller org fights, and debuts and such,
that guys who have good conditioning and pretty good basic skills (like this tuf 10 batch) can totally benifit from a really good corner guy basically screaming what to do. i find it interesting to watch these fights with the audio way up. rampage didn’t help at all. he would have gotten out himself but is useless as a corner guy
Ha Ha Ha,I’m watching Sportsnet and they just said that the UFC has resigned Seth Petruzelli.He says he wants a rematch with Kimbo,so maybe Kimbo is coming to the UFC regardless of TUF.
TUF 2 alum vs TUF 10 alum? I could see that.