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Welcome back to the Fun House Mirror, the column that looks at an MMA show that has the feel of an old school territory professional wrestling show and a United States company that wants to put out a Lucha Libre influenced product.
Last week we had the final two quarterfinals matches plus the announcements of the semi-final match ups. In those bouts we had grizzled veteran Kyle Watson taking out Aaron Wilkenson with his jujitsu, and "Bruce LeRoy" Caceres going two rounds with Michael Johnson, losing the fight but not losing his smile.
The semi-finals are this week in a big two hour finale with Michael Johnson to take on Nam Phan and Kyle Watson to take on Johnathon Brookins.
This could be Team Koscheck's last stand as their hopes are down to the very un-Koscheck like Phan.
Two fights, two hours, plus all the unused season backstage drama: VTR, come on!
Once again we see that GSP will not choose sides when teammates fight, so Kyle and Johnathon will have to find their own corner men and train away from each other in practice.
Assistant Coach John Danaher expresses his displeasure that Kyle and Johnathon are meeting in the semifinals and feels that they should have been in the finals.
We get to know some more fun facts about Kyle Watson such as he gave up a good career in Chicago to take a chance at being a professional fighter. He also feels that he will have a hard time against Brookins since they know each other's game so well by now.
Team Koscheck's training sessions have slowed down and many on the team express disappointment that they didn't get more out of the training. This is conveniently forgetting that many of the Team Koscheck members spent every night getting drunk and acting stupid.
Back at the house, Mini-Josh does a satire on Josh's lack of effort in coaching in the last couple of weeks, including Josh's two handed texting/twittering technique. While he is doing this Josh decides to pay a surprise visit to the house.
Uncomfortable!
We then get some more character development for Brookins as we find out that he needs time to himself a lot. Unlike Josh, Johnathon doesn't even carry a cell phone (outside of the show, no participant on the show is allowed to have a cell phone).
We then have some of the yellow team members bitching that Nam Phan has been "two-faced" recently, trying to make nice with red team members and trying to weasel information about Michael Johnson. Of course, this is ... wait for it ... conveniently forgetting both that Nam has a lot more in common with the red team than the yellow team and that Nam should be trying to weasel information about a guy who Nam is going to be in a fight with.
Time for the weigh in and Kyle rocks the loudest pair of flowered boxers known to man.
And, it's time to get it on. Kyle comes down to the octagon with Michael Johnson and Marc Stevens as seconds. Johnathon comes down with Nam Pahn, Sevak Magakian, and Alex Caceres as seconds. So, Johnathon apparently disagrees with DW's assessment of Nam's seconding abilities.
The tale of the tape shows that Kyle is six years older and the same height as Johnathon, but Johnathon has a two inch reach advantage.
The first round is pretty much all Johnathon Brookins. He is able to land some strikes to Kyle's head standing up and takes Kyle down twice for some ground and pound. Even more ominous is the fact that Kyle looks winded at the end of the round.
The second round is a repeat of the first. Johnathon's wrestling completely frustrates Kyle's Jujitsu. While Johnathon is not able to finish Kyle off, Kyle pretty much controls the entire round.
Since this is the semi-finals, the fight goes to a third round without consulting the judges. Kyle knows now that he must knock out Johnathon this round as he will not be able to win on points.
In the third round, Kyle, to his credit, has a slightly stronger showing, but Johnathon is again able to take him down and control the fight. By the end of the fight Kyle, although not broken, is bleeding from a cut by his eye, a testament to Johnathon's striking dominance.
Brookins wins the judges decision in straight 30-27's.
Fortunately, Kyle comes through the ordeal with no injuries.
We then get some training in with Michael Johnson who thinks that Nam hasn't gotten better since he's come into the house and that he can defeat Nam with his take downs and wrestling.
Nam on the other hand believes that Johnson has the most holes in his game and that he only throws fists to set up the take down. Nam also thinks his endurance is better than Johnson's.
Time for the weigh in, this time brought to us by the Pep Boys. Will Johnson and Phan have the endurance to be called the Pep Boys when the fight is over?
Ominously for Phan, DW likes Nam in this fight saying that he is more well rounded.
And, it's fight time! The tale of the tape shows that Michael Johnson is three years younger, and has a five inch height and a two in reach advantage over Nam. However, significantly, Nam has 23 professional fights versus 12.
The first round is a war of attrition and Johnson definitely looked better. Johnson takes Nam down about ten times but lets him up each time to avoid Nam's Jujitsu. Johnson lands tons of strikes out of the clench as well and by the end of the round Nam is bleeding from a cut under his eye.
The second round is a completely different story as Nam hits a game changer about one minute into the round, scoring with a vicious body blow. After this, Johnson gets zero take downs. However, Michael doesn't fold his tent and continues to hang in there with his stand up game.
The third round is a lot closer to the first round than the second. Johnson gets three or four take downs but does no damage and Nam pops out each time.
I would have to give the fight to Johnson.
And, we get a split decision: 29-28, 28-29, and 29-28 for Michael Johnson. So the live special will feature Brookins versus Johnson.
So Saturday we have the live finale. Who else from the show will be on the under card?
If I was booking, I would have:
Alex Caceres versus Aaron Wilkenson (Kung Fu versus Boxing)
Nam Phan versus Jeffery Lentz (stand up brawl)
Kyle Watson versus Cody McKinie (Jujitsu versus the Cody-tine)
On the Podcast A-Go-Go we start coverage of the summer Chikara events. From Philadelphia's Chikarasaurus Rex: King Of Show we have the tag match featuring Amazing Kong and Raesha Saeed taking on the BDK's Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze. Longtime Fun House Mirror readers might remember that Amazing Kong also competed on Luncha Libre USA taking on the exoticos Chi Chi and Tigressa.
This match is as stiff as one might expect from these four athletes. But, what is not expected is the unbelievable athletic move by the one hundred and ten pound Daizee Haze as she is able to bridge German Suplex the considerably heavier Awesome Kong for the pin fall.
From Philadelphia we then go to Reading Pennsylvania for action from the Young Lions Cup, a 24 person tournament for wrestlers under the age of 25. We go with first round action as Green Ant takes on Akira Tozawa. This is wrestler on wrestler action as Akira is a master of the German Suplex and Green Ant is a specialist in the "Good Luck Cloverleaf" submission hold. However, Akira is able to overcome the resiliency of the rookie ant hitting an unique finisher, a springboard diving head butt starting by running across the apron.
This Saturday is the TUF final. I would have to go with Brookins, but Johnson has surprised people before.
