TUF 24 Recap and Review

[The Fight Geek]

I find it odd to say this, but dammit, the season opener of The Ultimate Fighter 24 was surprisingly good.

It isn't going to win any Emmy's unless it's for the category of "show they should have cancelled ten years ago" but I've got to say, I'm digging it so far. The new format, the lack of BS, the prospect of real talent -- I like it.

Of course, by far the biggest influencing factor was my obsessive compulsive behavior not allowing me to entertain the idea of not being as familiar as possible with Mighty Mouse's next opponent. That was 99% of it realistically. But if last nights' episode is any tease of what is going to come in the future, I'm happy I bought into it. I guarantee this excitement won't last past this season. But for TUF 24, I'm on board. For now.

If you want to be kept in the loop with what's going on this season but don't feel like watching, I'm going to be doing recaps & reviews every week.





This was a 2 hour episode with a lot of information, so thankfully next week's recap shouldn't be such a FWAT and will hopefully be quite a bit shorter in length. If not, feel free to yell at me. Actually, you can go ahead and yell at me now, really -- I'm sure I deserve it for one reason or another.

 

[ECC170]

this was one of the best episodes ever...Pantoja was somebody I've been saying is a KILLER..but my god he was in a war and showed he's a great fighter all around..Kai Kara France might have the fastest hands I'm mma..yes faster than MM...That fight will be unreal,next round..imho fights make the show..I don't let the other shit pursuade me cuz I'm not a diva lol...This season will be awesome, I just know it...The division needs this exposure cuz it gets slept on cuz of MM dominance..

 

[Jesus X]

Everyone except terrence looked good.

 

[Gibberish]

Terrence Mitchell

 

[LegendaryLiwIII]

Brandon Moreno looked really well in a fight a lot of people consider the best 125er outside the UFC. A lot of people on the show have legit talent and some others are just belt holders who crush cans.

Either way exciting episode heard only pulled 300K viewers which is the lowest TUF debut. Last season was 500K.

 

[The Fight Geek]

this was one of the best episodes ever...Pantoja was somebody I've been saying is a KILLER..but my god he was in a war and showed he's a great fighter all around..Kai Kara France might have the fastest hands I'm mma..yes faster than MM...That fight will be unreal,next round..imho fights make the show..I don't let the other shit pursuade me cuz I'm not a diva lol...This season will be awesome, I just know it...The division needs this exposure cuz it gets slept on cuz of MM dominance..

Agreed, man! Totally agree. Pantoja is a killer for sure, but god damn I didn't know about Moreno heading into the show and he really surprised me. That was one of those fights that was amazing to watch, but made me wish we would see Pantoja look to bring fights to the ground quicker -- his grappling is insane. That being said, in a lot of ways that was a very typical Pantoja fight: bloody it up on the feet and take it to the ground and finish him. Only thing is he encountered a lot more resistance than normal with a very game Moreno.

Don't even get me started on Kara-France. I really, really hope he has shored up his weaknesses on the ground, because on the feet he is an absolute monster. Just perfect technique. Pantoja might want to look to bring that one to the ground quick, because he should have a monstrous advantage there.

My dream fight for the show at this point might honestly be Kai Kara-France vs Zulu. I am really looking forward to him and Hiro this week, too.

 

[The Fight Geek]

Everyone except terrence looked good.

To be fair, I think it was mostly a stylistic thing. Mitchell does a lot of very unorthodox things on the feet where he is taking advantage of his tall, lanky frame. He can get away with it against most guys, and it works. He is a good fighter. But he was going up against arguably the best striker in the competition, and almost definitely the guy with the most one punch knockout power, so his weaknesses were exploited quickly and he got slept.

I felt a bit bad for him because he seems like such a nice guy.

 

[The Fight Geek]

Brandon Moreno looked really well in a fight a lot of people consider the best 125er outside the UFC. A lot of people on the show have legit talent and some others are just belt holders who crush cans.

Either way exciting episode heard only pulled 300K viewers which is the lowest TUF debut. Last season was 500K.

Yeah, he was one of the guys on the show I wasn't terribly familiar with, so he really surprised me. For sure, not all champions outside the UFC are created equal, and we are going to see that on display throughout this show. Some of them are going to prove to be super legit, though.

That was the unfortunate take-away from that first episode. The best episode in years, but got one of, if not the worst debut numbers in TUF history. It isn't unexpected, but it is a shame that those numbers are coinciding with what promises to be one of the best years ever.

I've been so over TUF for some time now, but damn it, sign me up this season!

 

[nuraknu]

Not sure this deserves its own thread, so I'm sticking it here, but I like it:
TUF 24’s Kai Kara France to compete at Rizin

 

[LegendaryLiwIII]

Any other news on the rest of the cast, based off the finale only have 3 fighters from this season I doubt many will get offers for fights in the UFC