Joe Ferraro

Roy 'Big Country' Nelson is Showdown Joe's meal ticket.

Slice didn't cut the mustard and Big Country paid the bills in The Ultimate Fighter Ten finale.

The Ultimate Fighter Ten finale was an event to remember, one that will have MMA lifers referring back to the variety of storylines that have been written in the UFC's history book.

"Big Country" awards me many free meals in the future

I for one held my breath throughout the main event between Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub, as my July 2009 prediction that "Big Country" would win the six-figure contract was consistently met with reservation. Once "Big Country" finished "The Hybrid", I exhaled a sigh of relief, while fielding a plethora of phone calls, texts and emails pertaining to the prediction... many of which will cost a fair amount of folks a night on the town for yours truly.

That being said, Nelson is still not getting the respect he deserves, namely because he will likely be thrust right into the mix of the UFC's heavyweight divison. With the weight class being so thin on talent (no pun intended), Nelson will be matched up with quality opponents right away.

Jones was the victim, is the victim and will always be the victim

The co-main event stoppage is raising quite the controversy, but for all the grief referee Steve Mazzagatti gets, I agree with the decision he made. For the first time, instant replay was used to determine the final result of the bout, (a disqualification to Jon Jones giving the victory to Matt Hammil), and based on his stoppage, Mazzagatti was correct.

While the throwing of elbows in a 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock fashion is deemed illegal according to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, this scenario has raised a variety of concerns in my eyes. The rule is simply outdated and should be erased from the rule book.

In the case of Jon Jones, two things come to mind - if that rule wasn't there, he would have won the fight, but the fact the youngster did throw them was disturbing. Did he not know that they were illegal? If so, we have an issue. Secondly, if he is using them in training, then a tiny portion of the blame has to fall onto the lap of Greg Jackson and crew.

This is something that should have been corrected with "Bones" a long time ago. The worst thing about the disqualification is, if Jones' incredible potential becomes a reality, many will look back at the "loss" in a similar manner to that of Fedor Emelianenko's loss to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in 2000. It may be a loss on paper, but we all know what the true result is, and now, he will never be able to say he has a perfect record.

Kimbo Slice not only lost, he wasn't event impressive

Kimbo Slice's "official" UFC debut will go down as a victory, but I can't say I agree with the judges' decision.

Yes, Houston Alexander circled for the vast majority of the first round, but he did land more strikes than Kimbo - he won the round. If it's okay for Machida to play that game, then it's okay for Alexander.

Round two - no question that Kimbo won that round, but in round three, Alexander landed 27 strikes to Kimbo's 13 ( http://fightmetric.com/fights/Slice-Alexander.html ). He kicked Kimbo's legs out from underneath him. Kimbo did execute a takedown but did nothing with it. Houston ended the round with a left elbow and right hand that sent Slice wobbling backwards. He wins Round 3 on my scorecard, and the bout, two rounds to one.

Instead, one judge scored it 30-27 for Kimbo, while the other two judges scored it 29-28 for Slice as well. Mind-boggling in my opinion, but welcome to a period of MMA where far too many judges simply do not even understand the very scoring criteria they are employed to administer and calculate.

Slice's performance was also sub-par. Cardio issues aside (I still can't figure out how in this day and age, guys fatigue so easily), one would figure that after training and fighting in MMA for over two years, you would figure Kimbo would know how to secure the back position and know how to lock in a rear-naked choke. He obviously does not know how, or completely forgot how to do so in the second round of his fight with Alexander.

This is the same guy who spent months training with a team (which included submission-fighter Marcus Jones ) on The Ultimate Fighter, is a part of the American Top Team, one of the best teams on the planet, and spent a fair amount of time with the legendary Bas Rutten.

I'll be the first to admit that Kimbo is one of the nicest guys that I have ever met, but I cannot for the life of me understand why he cannot execute whatever ground game he has learned over the past 24 months. I know men and women that have trained for less than three months that have the positioning and submission locked into their muscle memory and can likely do it at will. It's inexcusable to see a UFC fighter not be able to pull it off in a fight.

Random TUF 10 thoughts