Audibly Offensive

If you’re a fan of MMA then I am sure you have been following along with the eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”. It sure has been a crazy season and it’s now time for the last fights on the show- the semi finals. Next week will be the first Light Heavyweight semi final between Ryan Bader and Eliot Marshall, who will make it to the finals? Let’s find out on the BreakdowN!

Striking: Both have underappreciated stand up skills. They might not be amazing technical strikers but they do possess good stand up skills. I’d give the striking edge to Bader though, I feel like Bader has a lot more power in his punches and he’s a lot quicker.

Bader has the edge in striking: 10-9

Jiu-Jitsu: Eliot definitely has the edge here, he’s a legit BJJ black belt and he showed it in his second fight on the show making quick work of Shane Primm. Though Bader has some good Jiu-Jitsu as well, he’s no slouch plus he has good sub defense too. While I think Eliot obviously has better Jiu-Jitsu, it’s going to be tough to submit a guy like Bader.

Eliot has the edge in Jiu-Jitsu: 10-8

Wrestling: Bader is the best wrestler on the show in my opinion. He’s a bad matchup for Eliot because I think his wrestling will be enough to cancel out Eliot’s Jiu-Jitsu. Anytime you put a good Jiu-Jitsu guy against a good wrestler, I think most of the time the wrestler will win. Bader isn’t just a wrestler either, the guy does have some good BJJ as well and I think he will show it in this fight.

Bader has the edge in wrestling: 10-8

Cardio: Honestly, I have never seen either of them gas out on the show yet so I don’t know who to give the advantage in the cardio department to. They both seem to be well conditioned and from the looks of it they seem to be hard workers in the gym so I’d say its equal as far as cardio goes.

Equal cardio

Final prediction: This is going to be a fun fight. I really like both guys, from what I have seen from the show they are both talented fighters and they have great personalities as well. I can almost guarantee you that both of them will fight in the UFC after this and go on to become very successful someday. As far as my prediction for the fight, I’m going with Bader by second round TKO. I expect to see them stand for awhile, Bader will eventually set Eliot up for a takedown, Eliot will defend well at first but eventually Bader will get him to the ground. From there Bader will look to control the fight with his wrestling and ground and pound, Eliot will use his Jiu-Jitsu and go for some slick subs but Bader will defend them well. Eventually Bader will just use his ground and pound to get the TKO in the second round and move on to the finals, that’s how I see this fight going down.

Bader by second round TKO

This is definitely a fight worth watching, I’d suggest you to check it out next Wednesday night on Spike!

-Mitch