Best and Worst from UFC: Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale

#2 Worst: The Heavyweight TUF bouts were pretty bad

Juan Espino dominated Justin Frazier in the Heavyweight final match

Prior to Season 28, TUF had featured Heavyweight fighters on two occasions – Season 2 and Season 10. While those seasons were full of relatively sloppy action, we did at least get some serious talent from them – Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine from Season 2, and Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub from Season 10. On the flip side though, last night’s Heavyweight bouts didn’t give me a lot of hope.

Firstly, in the battle of losing semi-finalists, kickboxer Maurice Greene submitted former Olympic wrestler Michel Batista with a triangle choke in the first round, but it was hardly the world’s quickest triangle and it looked more like Batista simply didn’t realise it was happening before it was too late. It was a good finish for Greene but didn’t offer much hope for him against the UFC’s top big men, if I’m honest. For Batista, it probably marks the end of a brief UFC career.

The final of the tournament saw Juan Espino completely outgrapple Justin Frazier, finishing him with a straight armlock in the first. Espino admittedly looked good here, but at 38 years old and with a seemingly low athletic ceiling, can he really expect to compete with the likes of Alexander Volkov or Francis Ngannou? Frazier meanwhile simply didn’t look to be in good shape and didn’t really get a chance to come out of the blocks. It’s honestly hard to see him having any success going forward.

Nothing against any of these 4 men, who are clearly decent fighters and earned their opportunities, but it’s perhaps worth looking more at Dana White’s Contender Series – which has unearthed a couple of solid, athletic prospects (Greg Hardy, Augusto Sakai) and can be more selective – rather than another season of TUF dedicated to the big men.