Ultimate Fighter II

Kenny Florian dominated Kit Cope and submitted the muay thai kickboxing champion with a an arm-bar after a flurry of punches from the mount -- but Cope's tapout came just fractions of a second after the horn signaled the end of the first round. Cope was game and came out for the second round, but his right arm was clearly hurt. Florian easily took him down at the start of the second round and then submitted Cope a second time with a rear naked choke.

Looking at the two combatants you would think that Cope would dominate just on the strength of his tattoos and chiseled frame. Florian looks like your basic everyman. Bottom line is that on the ground, BJJ will kick your ass if you are not versed in at least defending yourself in the ground game. I'm not sure of Cope's background, but the show touted him as a muay thai champion and I have no doubt that if take downs did not come into play he'd beat Florian around the ring. He could not stop Florian on the ground and got beat.

In the second fight, Stevenson and Cummo had a slug-fest on the ground. Stevenson dominated most of the fight and was able to take Cummo down in each round. The underdog from New Hyde Park, Luke Cummo had his moments though, especially when he managed to hurt Stevenson a few times when Stevenson shot in for a single leg and was game on the ground but could never really gain an upper hand and lost a three round decision.

As I write the third fight of Ultimate Fight Night II is still being pimped. It's Brad Imes vs Rashad Evans. To me, Imes (6'7" and 250+) is a lesser version of Bob Sapp with a bit of knowledge about ground fighting. I really want to see that guy get his ass kicked. I think he really benefited from a trend earlier in the season where the best guy from one team called out the best guy from the other team. The result was a loss of talent. Imes has been boring to watch and Evans favors a greco roman clinch style so I'm not really sure what type of fight to expect. We'll see. Evans has the skill and experience and Imes is a big ass wall o' country beef. If I had to guess, Imes is going to try and wear Evans down. Likewise, Evans just needs to be patient and work over Imes and coax him into a mistake.

The fight introductions are on now and you can just see how freaking BIG Imes is. What a retarded ring name though -- The Hillbilly Heart Throb? Come on!!

Lets go for a play by play.

Ok - Brad seems to have a good jab working, but holy shit he looks stupid throwing any sort of kick.

Rashad is kicking Ime's ass now with 1:10 left in the first but Imes is back up on his feet around 30 seconds. Evan's could not keep the big man down but he clearly demonstrated his ability to tag Imes with a big ass left hand and a right. Imes, to his credit went to a butterfly guard and managed to stop Rashad's momentum.

The second round has just started. A few jabs by both combatants and a half ass kick or two by Imes. But here come Big Country with a flurry of punches but Evans manages to weather it. With two minutes Imes comes at Evans again but Evans counters. He looks tired as hell though.

With 25 seconds left in round two just sent Imes mouthpiece flying but could not finish him before the horn sounded.

Correction, it was not a mouthpiece, but a big slob of snot and blood that went flying. Argh.

Oh shit - Evans just knocked Imes right on his ass and now finds himself mounted but he gets out of it and to his feet. What a big strong son of bitch Imes is. Evans looks really tired now with 2:25 left in the third and is under the slab of Iowa beef.

The fight is over. I'm not sure who won but man it was a much better fight than I thought it would be. Both guys gave it their all and I was impressed by Imes. He's clumsy and not polished but is certainly a good athlete and knows how to use the tools he does have. So I guess that's a partial retraction?

29-28 scores from all three judges, 2-1 and Evans wins it. Boos from the crowd. That's pretty cheezy. How can you boo after a fight like that? It was close -- not a Roy Jones Olympic style rip-off and Evans' won it from what I saw. Jerks.

Next up is Diego Sanchez vs Nick Diaz but I'll have to catch it later. The missus is calling and George Carlin has a new special on right now.