Three Loses, Three Impressive Performance

I was going to post this yesterday, but with all the Henderson information coming out I thought I would wait a day.

Jon Jones, Brendan Schaub, and Matt Veach all walked away with Ls on their records after Saturday, but I found myself very impressed with the three and they are all legitimate prospects for the future.  Jones's ability is obvious and anyone who has seen him fight can clearly see the upside.  I included him in the headline primarily because it would be inaccurate to claim I was impressed by only two of the losing fighting fighters on the Finale.  I really do not need to go into why Jones impressed me because the dude is a straight freak.  Even though some of you will doubt I believe this because of an upcoming post, I am a huge Jones supporter.  Breakdown of Veach and Schaub after the jump.

SBN coverage of The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale

Matt Veach: Veach took this fight on short notice, he has fought one time previously in the UFC, he almost lost that fight, and he was fighting the number five ranked lightweight in the world.  Whether you agree with the ranking or not, Edgar is a top lightweight and probably next in line for the title after Maynard.  Nobody gave Veach a chance and Edgar was a -650 favorite going into the fight.  For some perspective that line is larger than the Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites moneyline.  Despite all this Veach came ready to fight.  Edgar, a four time national qualifying wrestler at Clarion University struggled with Veach's wrestling and strength throughout the first round.  Edgar was able to defend the first takedown attempt, but eventually got slammed by the stronger Veach.  Matt was able to control the heavy favorite and he forced Edgar to fight his game.  Veach's ability to impose himself on a more experienced fighter was very impressive.  Someone who comes into a fight with so much stacked against him and produces like he did says a lot about his future success.  However, Veach can be clipped as he was hurt against Grice and with Edgar's boxing reaching new heights it was eventually Veach's undoing.  Yes, Edgar submitted Veach, but the boxing was the difference in the second round.  If he can shore up his striking defense Matt Veach should be fine.  Having a strong wrestling base and solid strength is a good pedigree to train at the H.I.T. Squad.  Under the tutelage of Matt Hughes my assumption is that Matt Veach refines his skills and has a long successful Mixed Martial Arts career.

Brendan Schaub:  He got screwed.  He had to be on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter.  He had to fight on the same show as Roy Nelson.  Imagine prior to the show a fight was announced between Roy Nelson and a fighter with four professional fights who had been fighting for only a year and a half.  Everyone would have expected a blowout.  The Ultimate Fighter in the recent past has been a competition for raw and young fighters looking to break out.  No TUF winner in the past except maybe Matt Serra (Season 4 was a comeback season) had more experience or big name fights than Roy Nelson.  If Roy Nelson was not on the show then Schaub probably would have won and we would be talking about a serious prospect for the future and one of the best TUF winners of recent years, minus maybe Ryan Bader.

I am always less impressed with a one punch KO than almost any other way to win a fight.  Yes, it shows you got power and if a fighter does it with consistency then it is a true skill set, but anyone can catch anyone.  This is MMA.  Roy is better than a punch fighter and it is not a huge downer on Schaub.  He has not shown a history of getting his bell rung.  I was impressed with everything else that happened.  We heard throughout the season that Brendan is a solid boxer and packs a big punch.  We saw he had the big punch, but I was not very impressed with the striking skill he displayed.  The biggest difference I saw Saturday that was missing from the show was his jab.  During the show he was always tentative to throw it and appeared to be reaching.  On Saturday he threw it with consistency and it looked very crisp.  His main weakness appears to be his takedown defense and using that long jab will help disguise this problem.  It showed as Schaub won the majority of the exchanges (except the one that knocked him out cold). 

The one skill that continues to impress me is his scramble and defense on the mat.  Nelson was able to eventually take Schaub down, but Brendan (as he did on the show) escaped and got back to his feet.  You would be hard pressed to find a larger and more talented grappler than Roy Nelson.  If Schaub can escape from Roy he can probably escape almost any heavyweight fighter.  His jab and scramble will both help counteract his weak takedown defense. 

In addition the loss will slow Brendan's pace in the promotion and give him more time to develop his already solid skill set.  His boxing, defensive grappling, size, and athleticism will take him a long way in the sport.  I expect both Veach and Schaub to have solid careers in the sport and of course Jones as well.