Ousted “The Ultimate Fighter 7” Finalist Gets Chance at Redemption Against

“The Ultimate Fighter 7” Runner Up LIVE on Spike TV, Saturday, July 19 (9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT) from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas

New York, NY, July 7, 2008 – After one of the most controversial ousters in the history of “The Ultimate Fighter”, Jesse Taylor will make his return to the Octagon™ as he squares off against fellow castmember and “The Ultimate Fighter 7” runner-up C.B. Dollaway in the first televised bout at UFC FIGHT NIGHT 14 in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 19 (9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT).

Training out of Temecula, CA with Team Quest, Taylor was a juggernaut during his time on “The Ultimate Fighter 7”, rolling through Nick Rossborough in his preliminary elimination fight via rearnaked choke, defeating Mike Dolce in the same manner, and utilizing his dominant ground and pound technique in winning both his quarterfinal bout with Dante Rivera and semifinal bout against Tim Credeur via decisions. However, Taylor was kicked out of the show’s finale after violating UFC® conduct policy after the show finished filming. Taylor has since proven that he is mentally ready for the responsibility of representing the UFC® both inside and outside of the Octagon™, and a second chance has been granted with a matchup against C.B. Dollaway.

A 24 year old hailing from Mount Gilhead, OH who went on to a tremendous college wrestling career at Arizona State University, Dollaway is looking to bounce back from his disappointing rematch loss to Amir Sadollah at “The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale” last month. Leading up to that fight, his pedigree, and dominant showing in his elimination match to get into the house, led to his being selected number one overall to Team Rampage. From there, Dollaway defeated Team Forrest’s Nick Klein via guillotine choke in his preliminary bout and handled Cale Yarbrough in his quarterfinal bout to reach the semifinals against the aforementioned Sadollah. Though he dropped that matchup via submission due to armbar, he was given a second chance after Taylor’s dismissal, and defeated Tim Credeur via decision to earn his rematch with Sadollah. Though he came up short in his chance at becoming “The Ultimate Fighter”, Dollaway is a promising talent and will provide an extremely stiff test in welcoming Taylor back to the Octagon™.

UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin is an upcoming mixed martial arts event to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The title bout between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Forrest Griffin, coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest, will be for Jackson’s UFC light heavyweight championship.

There is not a lot of hype coming into this PPV, so lets get right to my predictions.

Main Card Bouts:
-Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin
-Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
-Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
-Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio
-Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida

Middleweights
-Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida
Two UFC veterans step into the octagon to kick the night off, the heavy-handed Patrick Cote and the Renzo Gracie black belt Ricardo Almeida. Both of these guys have fought in the UFC for years, and have had ups and downs in their career. Both fighters were ousted from the organization after a couple of losses early on in their careers, but they have both worked their way back to the UFC and will now meet inside the cage in a match that will bump somebody up one chain link closer to Anderson Silva. Ricardo Almeida has great submissions. In his UFC homecoming last February, he choked out Rob Yundt in just over a minute. The submission fighter is riding a 7-fight win streak and will face a very tough test in a red-hot Patrick Cote. Cote is riding a 4-fight win streak, with 3 of those fights taking place in the UFC. Cote has matured a lot since his stint on the “The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback”. He has a lot of power in his hands, and just don’t see him being taken down in submitted in this fight. Almeida has never knocked anyone out. He goes to decision or submits his opponent. I think that Cote will be throwing bombs left and right and eventually catch Almeida, sending him to the sleep on the octagon canvas.

Prediction: Patrick “The Predator” Cote – TKO/KO Round 2

Lightweights
-Tyson Griffin vs. Marcus Aurelio
This is a bad fight for Marcus Aurelio. This guy is a great fighter. After dropping 3 straight decisions to Mitsuhiro Ishida, Takanori Gomi and Clay Guida, he got himself on the winning path by knocking out Luke Caudillo and submitting Ryan Roberts. Now “Maximus” Aurelio finds himself opposite the strong wrestler, and decision grinder, Tyson Griffin. Here is how I see this match going – Griffin goes for repeated take downs, and eventually puts Aurelio on his back. The submission savvy Aurelio pulls guard and works for submissions while eating hammer fists from Tyson Griffin. A few stand ups, some more take downs, and 15 minutes later Tyson Griffin wins a unanimous decision.

Prediction: Tyson Griffin – Unanimous Decision Round 3

Lightweights
-Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau
Both of these guys are coming off of losses, although Stevenson’s loss was pretty significant. Stevenson worked his way up the lightweight ladder. He defeated 4 really tough opponents to get a shot at the vacant UFC lightweight title, and was utterly manhandled by BJ Penn. It is going to be interesting to see if Joe Stevenson has mentally rebounded from that loss, and if he is ready to work his way back to a UFC lightweight title shot. Gleison Tibau is no slouch. He is a pretty good submission fighter and has enough gas to go the distance with Stevenson. If Stevenson comes in strong and focused, he will win this match. The big question is, where will his head be?

Prediction: Joe Stevenson – Unanimous Decision Round 3

Welterweights
-Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle
One of my least favorite fighters is taking on one of my favorites. Koscheck gets on my nerves. I couldn’t of been happier when GSP beat him at his own game and out wrestled him for three straight rounds. Koscheck looks to rebound from that loss when he takes on “Chris “Lights Out” Lytle. Chris Lytle is a guy with great stand up and great submissions. His take down defense isn’t so hot, though, and we saw that with his fight with Matt Hughes. If Koscheck wants to win this match, all he has to do is watch the Hughes/Lytle fight and utilize a similar game plan. Koscheck’s striking isn’t any good. His stance is wide and his punches are looping so he won’t want to stand with Lytle. Lytle has great kickboxing and won’t tolerate Koscheck’s unorthodox style. Lytle’s never been submitted and I don’t see Koscheck knocking him out, being as Lytle has only lost by TKO two times in 45 pro fights. You are probably sensing a pattern by now, but I think Josh Koscheck is going to grind out a decision by repeatedly taking Lytle down.

Prediction: Josh Koscheck – Unanimous Decision Round 3

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
-Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin

Forrest is a tough guy, and he is good at a lot of things, but he isn’t great at any one thing. Forrest is a lot bigger then Rampage, so I don’t see Page going for repeated takedowns. Rampages’ boxing is a lot better then Griffin’s so I see Rampage approaching this fight much like the Dan Henderson bout.

After watching the punishment that Forrest Griffin is able to endure in some of his past fights, I used to think that it was impossible to knock Griffin out. That is , until , Keith Jardine stepped into the octagon and knocked Forrest silly. I am pretty sure Rampage and Juanito Ibarra have watched that fight a few times in training camp.

While Griffin looked pretty good against Shogun Rua, he had a hell of a time with Rampage’s training partner, Hector Ramirez (who?). Juanito Ibarra has already trained one of his fighters for Forrest Griffin, and has learned from his mistakes, which were few and far between. Now Ibarra puts his best fighter, Rampage Jackson, in the cage with Griffin and the result should be a lot different this time.

I think this is going to be a boxing match, for the most part, with Jackson eventually catching Forrest on the chin and sending him to the canvas.

Prediction: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson – KO/TKO Round 3

This week’s "Hits from the MMA blogosphere":

To check out "Pals to tussle over Strikeforce lightweight belt" from Sergio Non’s Submissions and Strikes blog for USA Today, click here.





To check out "Melendez ready for war against Thomson" from Carlos Arias’ Keep Punching blog for the O.C. Register, click here.




To check out "Thomson ready to take on his friend" from Arias’ Keep
Punching blog, click here.





To check out "Strikeforce champion Cung Le goes Hollywood" from Jared Barnes’  Brawl Sports blog for the Houston Chronicle, click here.





To check out "Gary Shaw’s days at ProElite may be numbered" from Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog, click here.





To check out "FightTicker.com Exclusive: One-on-one with Houston ‘The
Assassin’ Alexander" from FightTicker.com’s Bryan Levick, click here.





To check out "Professors give MMA scholarly examination" from NBCSports.com’s David Avila, click here.

CBS and EliteXC announced that the next CBS Saturday Night Fights would be broadcast live from the Stockton Arena in Stockton, Calif. on Saturday, July 26 on the CBS Television Network.

The first installment of Saturday Night Fights left MMA purists yearning for more. We got the point. They wanted to lure the casual fan in, and they left the hard cores out to dry while they garnered a whole new audience. Were we happy about it? No, but Elite promised that the next fight card would be geared toward exposing the newly acquired fans to a pure version of the sport.

The first edition of Saturday Night Fights saw MMA fighters whose forte is to stand up and slug. Aside from Joey Villasenor, who has submissions to his credit but isn’t really known for submission prowess, there were no tapout specialists on the main card. The matchmakers wanted knockouts, and they put together a card chock full of fighters who win the majority of their fights by landing fists square on the jaw of their rivals.

Brett Rogers –87.5 percent of his fights won by knockout
Scott Smith – 84.62 percent of his fights won by knockout
Robbie Lawler – 80 percent of his fights won by knockout
Jon Murphy – 75 percent of his fights won by knockout
Phil Baroni – 70 percent of his fights won by knockout
Kimbo Slice – 66.67 percent of his fights won by knockout
James Thompson 64.29 percent of his fights won by knockout
Gina Carano – 50 percent of his fights won by knockout
Kaitlin Young – 50 percent of his fights won by knockout
Joey Villasenor – 47 percent of his fights won by knockout

The next card features an assortment of well-rounded fighters. Hopefully this is an effort to show new fans that MMA fights don’t have to end in brutal knockouts to be entertaining.

The fight card is:
-Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith – Rematch for the EliteXC Middleweight Championship
-Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson
-Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny
-Antonio Silva vs. Sergei Kharitonov (rumored opponent) – EliteXC Heavyweight Championship bout

With any luck, I won’t have to read any articles by some over the hill dummy who will brand MMA as “Human Cockfighting” or “a glorified street fight” after this card takes place.

This is the type of card that a hardcore MMA fan expects to see, a blend of fighters with legitimate stand up, grappling, and wrestling skills.

Is it pure coincidence that the card is held in Stockton, California, the hometown of Nick Diaz? Probably not – EliteXC knew they hit gold when the brothers Diaz confronted the Noons family after KJ Noons stunning knockout over Yves Edwards. I am sure EliteXC is going to replay the post fight incident between Nick Diaz and KJ Noons the entire night in an effort to set up the hype for title fight rematch between the two rivals. This fight would hopefully take place in the third installment of CBS Saturday Night Fights.

Did Dana White keep good on his promise to Jesse Taylor?

When Dana gave Taylor the boot from “The Ultimate Fighter 7” finale, he told Taylor, in so many words, to grow up and get his head straight. Then maybe he would get a chance to fight in the UFC down the road

Well it appears that opportunity may come sooner rather then later.

According to a post made by Jesse Taylor on his Myspace account:

Okay yall, I first want to say Thank you for your support, kind words, and just everything. Im so busy these days with training and everything else it is very hard for me to get back to all you but again I do read all your comments and messages. Your peoples support helps me. and dont worry as well for I am JTMONEY and I am money, I will prevail, comeback and be better than ever.

Your guys favorite JTMONEY shirts went fast but Im gonna get them on my website www. yojtmoney. com by next week sometime and you can order one or five, there hot, sexy and you can train in them or hang them up or whatever. Ill also have special autographed JTMONEY shirts as well for a lil more money but well worth it. And yes this is me for I started this myspace years ago and I will be damned to have a manager or someone else run even though I am FLOODED but keep it comin yall.

ALSO THIS IS NOT THE END, JUST THE VERY BEGENNING, VERY GOOD NEWS AHEAD PLEASE SUPPORT THE MONEY MAN I WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN STAY POSTED AND FOR MORE UPDATED INFO FREQUENTLY CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR I KEEP PEOPLE UPDATED THERE MORE.

GOOD NEWS AHEAD AND A GREAT FIGHT ACOMIN! LOVE YALLLLLLLLLL

JT MONEY go to www. yojtmoney. com.

PEACE OUT!!!

Gotta love the money man.

The Ultimate Fighter 7 champion Amir Sadollah issued a sincere note to his fans today via his myspace account:

I just want to say I am blown away by the amount of support and love I’ve gotten from all you guys. I appreciate every bit of it, and Ive gotten so much of it in fact, its hard to respond to everyone. Just know Ill try my best to respond to everyone I can, but trust at very least Ive read it all and been touched by all the kind messages and well wishes. I’ll try to respond if at all possible, but if not just know I saw what you sent me, and i am grateful for you taking the time of your day to write me.

Thanks guys,

Amir

I am really glad Amir took the TUF title home. Amir is one of the more well rounded fighters to come out of “The Ultimate Fighter” series, and he is a very likable guy as well. He is the type of fighter that you want to see win, unlike some others who have won the show cough Michael Bisping cough. Amir has legitimate talent, and I think he will be a shining star in the years to come.

To check out “Amir Sadollah’s Ultimate Fighter Blog (Episode 12)” for the OC Register, click here.

To check out “Pre-fight analysis for ‘The Ultimate Fighter 7’ finale” from Larry Vollmer Jr.’s Inside the Octagon blog for The Journal News, click here.

To check out “The Diaz Bros. Bring the Ruckus” from Jared Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog for the Houston Chronicle, click here.

To check out “Exclusive: Nick Diaz sounds off about everything” from Carlos Arias’ Keep Punching blog for the O.C. Register, click here.

To check out “Exclusive Urijah Faber interview (w/video)” from Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog, click here.

To check out “Sanchez looks to streak back to the top” from NBCSports.com’s David Avila, click here.

To check out “Analysis: Whether to bet on favorites in non-UFC fights is an easy decision” from FightTicker.com’s Pramit Mohapatra, click here.

To check out “July 19 shows have UFC competing against its own history” from Sergio Non’s Strikes and Submissions blog for USA Today, click here.

To check out “Ultimate Hodge Podge?” from Tom Kim’s Ultimate Fan blog for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, click here.

To check out “Big John McCarthy on UFC vs. Affliction and MMA rules” from Arias’ Keep Punching blog, click here.

SPIKE TV’S “GAMETRAILERS TV WITH GEOFF KEIGHLEY” TO UNVEIL WORLD PREMIERE OF THQ’S UFC 2009 TRAILER
 
Tune-In to Spike TV On Friday Night, June 20th, at 1:00am ET/PT As Geoff Keighley and UFC President Dana White Debut Adrenaline-Filled Gameplay Footage
 

Spike TV’s “GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley” (GTTV) today announced they will world premiere the first gameplay footage trailer from THQ’s UFC 2009, on Friday night, June 20th, at 1:00amET/PT in HD.  Taking place in an authentic Ultimate Fighting Championship® setting, the game details the action, intensity and attitude of a UFC live event. Join Geoff Keighley and UFC President Dana White as they deliver the highly-anticipated trailer and reveal two key fighters in the game.  
 
“It’s always an honor when GTTV has the opportunity to debut the first look at a brand new game, and unveiling THQ’s UFC 2009 trailer is no exception,” said Geoff Keighley, host of GTTV.  “This game trailer takes fans into the Octagon™ with some of the best UFC fighters in the world and will leave their ears ringing with excitement.”  
 
UFC 2009 is the first videogame to be released as a part of THQ’s agreement with the world’s leading mixed martial arts organization, which continues to experience sold-out crowds at live events, grow its worldwide pay-per-view audience and reach its key demographic through the Spike TV reality television series “The Ultimate Fighter®,” now in its seventh season.  The videogame is expected to feature a number of UFC fighters and champions, as well as all other UFC event content, including the famed Octagon.  UFC 2009 is tentatively scheduled for release in spring 2009.  
 

After the most controversial finale in “The Ultimate Fighter” history, we get to see a rematch between Amir Sadollah and CB Dolloaway to determine “The Ultimate Fighter 7”, live from the Palms Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Televised Bouts:

-Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove
-Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti
-Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens
-Amir Sadollah vs CB Dolloway

Here are my predictions for the fight card.

Middleweights – Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove

After almost a two-year layoff, the former UFC middleweight champion had a tough task ahead of him, and was sent to the canvas in round 2 for his efforts when he battled Yushin Okami in his return to the UFC. When Evan Tanner made hiscomeback, I was pretty surprised to see that he would be facing Yushin Okami. If I were making matches, I would have had Tanner fight Grove first, and then square off against Okami, provided he was successful against Grove. But I don’t make the matches, I just write about them. Kendall Grove is on a 2 fight-losing streak. He needs to win this fight, but I don’t see him winning it. I think Tanner has seen the best of his career, but I also think he has too much experience and gas in the tank to be defeated by Grove. Grove has no punching power. He has pretty slick submissions, but Tanner has won 63 percent of his fights by submission, so I don’t see Grove putting Tanner to sleep or knocking him out. I think Grove has been over rated since winning TUF 3. This is a must win fight for both fighters, and I look for Tanner to be victorious.

Prediction: Evan Tanner – TKO Round 2

Welterweights – Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Fioravanti

Once upon a time, Diego Sanchez was running through the competition, and was working his way up the ladder for a title shot.

After losing back-to-back matches to Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, Sanchez rebounded successfully with a knockout victory of UFC newcomer David Bielkheden. This is a really good fight for Diego. He needs to rack up a few more wins to get back in the good graces of his fans and to work his way back up to title shot contention. Luigi Fioravanti hits pretty hard. He has 7 KO victories. Sanchez has never been knocked out or submitted, so I don’t see Fioravanti dropping Sanchez. Fioravanti has also had trouble with the bigger names in the UFC, guys like Jon Fitch and Chris Leben. I think Sanchez will find a way to get this fight to the ground and use his superior grappling ability to choke Fioravanti out.

Prediction: Diego Sanchez – Submission – Round 1

Lightweights – Spencer Fisher vs. Jeremy Stephens

This is going to be a slug fest. Both of these guys are known to stand up and bang it out, and I expect nothing less from this bout. Spencer has some submission skills, but I never see him pursuing the take down and trying to pull off a submission. There isn’t much else to say about this fight. Someone is going down, or it’s going to be a slug fest to decision. I’m going TKO/KO Fisher.

Prediction – Spencer Fisher TKO/KO Round 2

Amir Sadollah vs. CB Dolloway – Winner is declared “The Ultimate Fighter 7”
The first bout between CB and Amir was pretty exciting, but it showed huge gaps in both of their arsenals. CB Dolloway’s stand up needs some serious work. He throws his punches hard , but he also lets his hands flail and never brings his fists back to his face/ leaving his chin wide open for counter strikes. Tim Credeur was able to capitalize on this a few times in his fight with Dolloway, landing crisp jabs and crosses square on the chin of CB.

Of the two fighters, Amir obviously has the better stand up . He is more fluid on his feet and his combinations are crisp. Amir likes to throw flying knees and superman punches, and was taken down numerous times for his efforts in his first fight with Dolloway. He has to watch out for that this time around. Luckily for Amir, Dolloway sat in Amir’s guard and never did a lot of damage, aside from the one elbow that split Amir open. Amir was constantly looking for submissions and eventually pulled a very slick arm bar off.

I think that Amir is the all around better fighter of the two. Dolloway has more power and better wrestling, but his stand up leaves much to be desired and his ground and pound was not vicious enough to neutralize the very active guard of Amir. I think we are going to see a more patient Amir Sadollah in the finale. I think he will work punch/kick combinations without attempting the superman punches and flying knees in the clinch. I have to believe that he is drilling his sprawls and take down defense hardcore. If he can neutralize CB’s take downs, this fight is his for the taking. Both of these guys are good, but Amir just impresses me all around.

Prediction: Amir Sadollah – Unanimous Decision

Jesse “JT Money” Taylor has issued an apology, of sorts, via his myspace blog.

If you watched TUF7 last night, you saw Dana White give Taylor , originally a finalist, the boot after Taylor kicked the window out of a limosine and caused a ruckus inside a Las Vegas casino.

The apology reads:

I want to apologize peoples. [expletive] happens. My head is up, Ill prevail, thank you for the support. Keep the faith. and once in awhile check out www.Yojtmoney.com, stay tuned this is not the end, and drunkness is for fooools.

Stay up

JTMONEY, www.yojtmoney.com