Ultimate Fighter Finale Recap

It was a night to remember for the betting underdogs at the UFC Ultimate Fighter Season 10 Finale on Saturday night in Las Vegas, with Kimbo Slice and Matt Mitrione among the surprise winners.

After months of taunting by UFC President Dana White, Kimbo stepped up and finally showed real growth as a mixed martial artist, riding  improved ground and clinch games to a unanimous decision victory over UFC vet Houston Alexander.

The main event of the evening was anything but a surprise for both fans and bettors, however, as favorite Roy “ Big Country” Nelson took care of Brendan Schaub in the first round to take home the UFC's six-figure contract in the heavyweight division.

The method by which Nelson secured the victory, a devastating right hand that stopped the supposedly better striker Schaub in the first round, was a bit of a surprise, however, as was Nelson's entrance song.

Nelson came out to the classic Weird Al Yankovic parody song “Fat,” poking fun at his own rotund physique yet again before proving yet again hat looks can be deceiving when it comes to measuring a man's skill and athletic ability.

The second-biggest fight on the card ended in controversy and plenty of angry MMA bettors however, as Jon “Bones” Jones turned in a dominating performance in a light heavyweight bout with Matt Hamill only to see his win taken away because of illegal “12-to-6,” in other words straight-up-and-down, elbows. The underdog Hamill took home the win by disqualification.

Jones had taken Hamill down and unleashed a flurry of punches and elbows as Hamill struggled. Hamill continued to move while still intelligently defending himself to a certain extent, but most observers knew it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to Jones' onslaught in the mount position.

Jones glanced at referee Steve Mazzagatti as if to say “Are you going to stop it soon?” but Jones was forced to continue to pummel Hamill before dropping the illegal elbows.

Hamill laid motionless on the mat following Mazzagatti's stopping of the fight due to the elbows having both likely broken his nose and dislocated his shoulder. An appeal is a possibility forJones, but Jones was classy despite the DQ loss, saying essentially that everything happens for a reason.

Other underdog winners on the night were TUF'er Jon Madsen, who won a split decision over favorite and fellow wrestling specialist Justin Wren, and Rodney Wallace, who took out the favored and more experienced Brian Stann in a light heavyweight bout.

As for Mitrione, he knocked out the bigger Marcus Jones, dispatching of the fan favorite from the TUF house and settling a beef between the two that escalated because of an inadvertent thumb to the eye of Jones' friend Scott Junk that caused an injury to junk's retina and a heated confrontation between the two.

Finally, heavily-favored Frankie Edgar won a lightweight bout against undefeated challenger Matt Veach that was a little closer than the line might have indicated. But Edgar used his superior jiu-jitsu skills to weather a storm by the bigger Veach, eventually defeating him by rear-naked choke in round two.

Dana White also announced that Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz would renew hostilities as Ultimate Fighter Season 11 coaches, a season that will feature middleweight fighters in the infamous TUF house.