Hamill, Jardine, McGee, and Leben Earn The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale Bonuses
Matt Hamill, Keith Jardine, Court McGee, and Chris Leben each earned $25,000 fight night bonuses for their performances at Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale, the UFC announced at the event’s post-fight press conference.
Hamill overcame a visible staph infection, breaking his hand in the opening round, and a second-round eye poke to bloody Jardine over the final two rounds of their light heavyweight co-headliner, earning a majority decision and “Fight of the Night” honors for the pair.
McGee won “Submission of the Night” and The Ultimate Fighter’s middleweight tournament with his second-round rear naked choke of Kris McCray in card’s main event.
Leben handed Aaron Simpson his first career loss and won “Knockout of the Night” for the second-round TKO on the event’s Spike-televised main card.
The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale drew 1,708 fans to The Palms in Las Vegas for a live gate of more than $430,000.
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Pictured: Matt Hamill
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The Hamill, Jardine fight was a great fight.
Hell yeah it was… and every time i see Hamill fight win or lose i like him more and more… real class act…
Good stuff that Hamill won, but how is the NSAC letting guys fight with Staph infections?
because its not contagious unless the infected areas are weeping or open… if they are healed up then its a-ok…
also staph is a bacteria that is on everything, kind of hard to avoid…
i imagine in this case though that they evaluated the lvl of infection to be something not to worry about and as such allow hamil to fight
I guess this is going-away present for Jardine?
I doubt it, but we will find out this week.
I can’t remeber any UFC alumni going 0-4 and keeping his job. Even Chuck himself did no worse than 0-3 and Dana is insisting his run is over.
To me it comes down to quality of losses. T. Silva, Rampage….even Bader, who many think has a belt run coming soon and Hammill….you can’t take those fights and not expect to drop some. Hell, there’s a decent chance that 90% of the fighters at that weight class really could drop them all.
If a guy loses to all top talent – and Bader and Hamill are definitely top wrestling talent – and is handed his walking papers, you’re gonna see good fighters insist on cake fights every now and then to be safe, and that does not breed #1 contenders like everyone demands.
Cutting him has no upside and a whole lot of negative implications for anyone who has lost and is offered a tough fight.
Yup see ya Jardine..
So happy for Hamill! He is getting better and better and if he can continue to improve his footwork, defense, and submissions, he has a good opportunity of giving the top guys a run for their money in a few years. Also, there is no way Jardie should be cut. His resume is incredible, and none of his losses are anything to be embarassed about – pretty much all of them are top tier guys. Not everyone should be cut from the organization just because they aren’t (1) up-and-coming, or (2) in the title hunt. The division needs gatekeepers too, and for someone who just got a fight of the night bonus, and has never been completely dominated, there is no need to consider his release.
The UFC should throw him a bone and give one of these young “high potential” guys a match with him. Until he loses one of those kinds of fights, he should stay put.
I was happy for Mcgee. The dude almost made me tear up!
Jardine’s point deduction was not deserved imo. But i’d be surprised if he stays with the UFC. Not because his performance sucked, but because this is 4 losses in a row.
Glad simpson lost.
Mcsweeney got his ass whooped!
AFRO samurai
I see a lot of potential for him but besides his overall game, the dude needs 2 things badly.
1.) Cardio
2.) bigger set of balls and more heart if he’s going to make it at the highest level.
Good fights all around
I’ve seen a lot of fighters reach in with that poke/jab. About time someone was given a deduction IMO, ’cause as a fighter trained to strike, you know how to keep your hands closed.
Also, Yagger pisses me off. Coming from someone who has studied Japanese history, claiming to be an Afrom Samurai then quitting twice in a row is unacceptable. Being a Samurai is being part of the way of the sword; victory unless death. There is no giving up if you’re the Samurai. I loved Yagger when he claimed to be a Samurai because I love the spirit, but detested him when he failed to answer the bell in TUF. What we saw at the Finale is just proof; he’s all Afro, NO Samurai.
I think we can sum Yager up as all sizzle and no steak.
The guy talks the talk, and even tries to look the part, but as soon as its on, he’s out.
Dana should drop the guy back on the small show circuit and check back with him if and when he matures as both a fighter and a man…
I’ve always been on the fence about Leben, not really knowing whether to like him and his style of fighting or not. I always thought he kept his hands a little open and left his chin exposed, but hitting it doesn’t seem to slow him down. I thought he did a really good job of strategically stopping Aaron Simpsons wrestling. I do like the fact that whatever the opponent, the dude just comes to throw down.
When Florian asked him to comment on the end of the fight, his comment “well, thats just what I do. I hit people in the face, thats my job” I think I became a fan right there. That was great.
I noticed while watching the fights that the crowd seemed kinda thin. Does anyone else think it’s odd that they only drew 1700 people? I realize it’s not a pay-per-view, but still.
The venue they were in, The Pearl at the Palms is a small venue, and depending on layout seats between 1,000 and 2,500 people.
UFC could easily pack a 10K capacity venue with their Finales, but stay faithful to the Palms. Anyone know why they don’t move on up?
Somewhat off topic, but did anyone else notice Lloyd Irvin in McCray’s corner looking at his iPhone? Is there a cornerman app, or was he checking his texts? I am seriously trying to figure out what he was doing.
People on Twitter were asking about that, and one of his guys that I follow said he uses the stopwatch on there to know the time of the round or before the next round starts.
as an added point… there really is an app for that. I have it on my ipod touch for training at home
I didn’t know that, perhaps he was using that app, then.
yeah it has the adjustable clock as well as a timer for time remaining between rounds. quite handy considering it’s like $2 and most fight clocks are more expensive.
He was updating his twitter account. “I just stopped a gross cut above this guys left eye. I don’t think it is going stay closed. This guy has about 20 seconds before blood starts gushing all over the front row.” He also noted that the price of gold had risen sharply and he had become wealthier than he ever imagined and was going to leave the corner/cut man business.
man it was a good fight, but one more loss for jardine and the ufc will release him im sure, i mean he has lost now his last 3 or 4 fights… but they might keep him, hell ufc keeps releasing too many fighters they wont have any lol