TUF 28 Finale Primer: Holy Cow This Card Is Bad

PHOENIX, AZ - DECEMBER 13: Rafael dos Anjos celebrates his victory by unanimous decision over Nate Diaz (not pictured) in their heavyweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at the at U.S. Airways Center on December 13, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

As the Fates would have it, there are two UFC cards this weekend – one in Las Vegas, and one in Australia. Now, you might expect the Vegas card to be the bigger and better of the two… but since we’re talking about the TUF 28 Finale, holy cow are you wrong.

As usual, since it’s a TUF finale, there’s a moderately compelling match-up in the main event, with former champ Rafael dos Anjos taking on TUF 21 winner Kamaru Usman. Dos Anjos can punch, he can grapple – the works. And Usman can, well, wrestle, but he does that really well. It should be fun.

But all the fights leading up to that? Um…

Miesha Tate’s former beau, Bryan Caraway is fighting. So is Valentina Shevchenko’s sis, Antonina. There’s also Joe Benavidez and Tim Means tucked away in there somewhere.

However, the rest of the cast?

This season of TUF had a bunch of heavyweight dudes and featherweight girls squaring off – sadly, not against each other. One of the featherweight finalists went 2-3 in Invicta FC, and I’ll be damned if I recognize any of the heavyweight finalists.

Since we’re about to transition from the FOX era to the ESPN+ era, maybe we won’t get these half-hearted efforts anymore. But who knows. Either way, get your DVR ready for Friday, because that “fast-forward” button will be a lifesaver.

Jim Genia