The TUF 9 Finale didn't produce anything ground breaking, although there were some really good scraps on the card. Both Diego Sanchez/Clay Guida and Chris Lytle/Kevin Burns were pretty exciting fights. However, here's what I learned(or got further confirmation on) from the TUF 9 Finale:
-Diego Sanchez needs to fight Gray Maynard for the #1 contender to the winner of Florian/Penn
-Nate Diaz needs a whole new overhaul to his fighting strategy. He has all kinds of reach advantages and will not let his hands go...and has no take down defense. This is the second fight in a row where he's been beaten with the same game plan by his opponents. Hopefully he'll learn from this and come back stronger, or make the drop to the 145 pound division.
-Clay Guida and a lot of other people put too much stock in his 'energy' during/after his fights. If you look past the wild hair and the occasional take down, he never really does anything to try and finish his opponents. Also, he's no where near ready for a title shot(but we already knew that).
-Chris Lytle is a guy the UFC can call and say, "Hey, we need an exciting fight on the televised portion of this card" and it's a wrap.
-Joe Stevenson will live to fight another day in the UFC.
-Some MMA judges just need to give up, or educate themselves on the sport
-The TUF Finale and/or Ultimate Fight Nights could help the UFC promote future match ups if they used the shows for that advantage(i.e. Sanchez fighting the winner of Florian/Penn) as they mentioned it a couple of times on the show.
What else could we take away from the TUF 9 Finale?
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