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April 17, 2014
The Ultimate Fighter Season 19 kicked off their season last night on Fox Sports 1. The coaches for this season are Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn. As usual, they had 32 fighters fight each other and 16 of them made the house. Well actually oddly enough one fighter by the name of Cathal Pendred received a bye due to his opponent withdrew from the fight last minute. This is the first time in TUF history that this has happened and is a huge advantage for Pendred. Among the fighters were the local fighters I have seen before in the cage, Tyler King, Pat Walsh and Roger Zapata so of course I was rooting for them to all make it.
Tyler King fought first against Daniel Spohn. They both come out aggressively and Tyler gets caught with a right and is out cold. This hurt. I am a huge fan of King and talk with him whenever I see him at local shows. King reacted to the airing on his facebook and announced he was stepping away from mma. King says...
"So, lastly I have to say, after my last two fights I've decided to step away from the sport of Mixed Martial Arts indefinitely. I'm not saying that I'm retiring from MMA because I don’t think I've had any sort of big illustrious career that I need to "Announce my Retirement" from. I'm just a guy who gave it everything I had, put his nose to the grindstone and took it as far as I could towards the highest goal. Also I still think about fighting all the time,I truly have a passion for the sport. I can't say for certain that I'm done. With that being said, after 3.5 years of never taking a break and my last two fights, my body and my brain clearly need a break. I may never fight again, and if that’s how it goes I can hold my head high knowing I put it all on the line and gave it a real shot."
I wish you the best Tyler King in your future and I hope that you return back to mma. I think you still got some more fights in the local area to partake in! I would love to see you help coach the young guys as well as you are no stranger the sport and can guide many.
Next up in TUF for the locals is Roger Zapata against Tyler Minton. They did not show this fight but did show us the quick highlights and it looked like Zapata had his way with the bloodied Minton. The ref stopped the fight in the second round due to tko to strikes. For those of you who don't know Roger Zapata is from New York and has fought around here several times during his career. I remember one of his last fights at Reality Fighting at Mohegan where he won the unanimous decision against Chip Moraza-Pollard. He showed some excellent striking and looks to be improving his game every fight. Good luck to you on the show Roger!
Finally, the last local took the stage and it was Pat Walsh against Doug Sparks. Walsh got the slamming takedown right off the bat in the usual Walsh-form. He then fends off a guillotine attempt and ends up finishing Spark with his signature kimura. It reminded me of when he finished Eric Bedard with this same nasty kimura. He makes the house and will be looking for some more wins to make it in the finale. Good luck to you as well Pat, as we will be following you closely this season.
At the end of the show Pat Walsh joins Team Edgar and Zapata joins Team Penn. For those of you that watched, what was your favorite moment?? Who are your picks to make the finale?? Let us know by commenting below.