MMAConvert.com

Fans and pundits alike have been divided over season eight of The Ultimate Fighter. Some found Junie Browning’s antics and the infamous bodily fluid infused pranks to be quite entertaining. Others, not so much. Still, ratings held somewhat steady, and despite all the calls around the fight community for the UFC to clean up the show, Dana White proclaimed no changes would be made.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 Finale took place earlier tonight at the The Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Phillipe Nover and Efrain Escudero battled it out to determine season eight’s lightweight winner.

In the light heavyweight finals, Vinny Magalhaes fought Ryan Bader for the six-figure contract.

Anthony Johnson faced Kevin Burns in a rematch.

Jason MacDonald looked for a win against Wilson Gouveia.

TUF 8 troublemaker Junie Browning tried to redeem himself with a win against David Kaplan.

Results after the jump.

The TUF 8 Finale weigh-ins took place earlier today at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

All of the TUF 8 cast members made weight, however, Wilson Gouveia did not. He weighed in three pounds over the 186lbs weight limit at 189lbs. The NSAC did not allow him to cut the additional weight, and Gouveia will be forced to forfeit 20% of his purse to his opponent, Jason MacDonald.

The weigh-in results via UFC.com:

• Efrain Escudero (156) VS Phillipe Nover (155)
• Vinicius Magalhaes (205) VS Ryan Bader (205)
• Wilson Gouveia (189)* VS Jason MacDonald (184)
• Anthony Johnson (171) VS Kevin Burns (171)
• David Kaplan (156) VS Junie Browning (156)
• Shane Primm (202) VS Krzysztof Soszynski (205)
• Jules Bruchez (205) VS Eliot Marshall (203)
• George Roop (153) VS Shane Nelson (156)
• Tom Lawlor (204) VS Kyle Kingsbury (205)
• John Polakowski (152) VS Rolando Delgado (155)

Fighters in non-title fights are allowed to weigh in one pound over the weight class limit.

The TUF 8 Finale will take place tomorrow, Dec. 13, at The Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will air live at 9PM ET on Spike TV.

CR: Steve Cofield via Bloody Elbow

The final UFC TUF 8 Finale fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

Cofield interviews Ryan Bader and David Kaplan after the jump.

CR: RawVegas.tv

Frank Mir challenges Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 92 on Dec. 27 in Las Vegas.

Here’s the full video for Rashad Evan’s Microsoft commercial. The fact that a company like MS is willing to acknowledge and use mixed martial arts in their marketing strategy really is a testament to how far the sport has come since the “human cockfighting” days.

Seeing the rapid progression stemming from the new image of the sport the UFC has done so well in projecting begs the question though, why are they continuously willing to put that image in jeopardy for the sake of ratings for TUF? I’ll be honest, I barely watch the show anymore. I literally just can’t stand the hypocrisy of it. And that was no more evident than what took place on last night’s episode. It may not be as damaging as StandGate to the sport, but it certainly doesn’t do it any favors either. Dana can condemn EliteXC for using Kimbo as a freak show all he wants, but the garbage he allows to air on television on a weekly basis isn’t any better.

Props to MMA Fanhouse for the video find

Imagine you’re an aspiring fighter, get casted for the UFC’s reality show, and before you know it, one of the most feared strikers on the planet is teaching you Muay Thai. That’s exactly what happened to half of this season’s cast of The Ultimate Fighter when Anderson Silva paid a visit to the TUF set to help coach alongside Minotauro Noguiera. As cool as it is, it sure would suck to be on the other team knowing what you’re missing out on. I’m taking a wild guess that Frank Mir didn’t bring in Fedor to make it up to them.

The press release:

In case you missed it during tonight’s broadcast of UFC Fight Night 15 and the TUF 9 premiere, a couple of announcements were made.