Escudero Knocks Off Nover - New Ultimate Fighter

Phillipe Nover may have been christened the 155-pound Anderson Silva by UFC president Dana White, but it was Efrain Escudero that earned the designation of The Ultimate Fighter in the 155-pound class at Saturday night's Ultimate Fighter Finale.

Escudero used his All-American collegiate wrestling skills to great effect throughout the fight, continually ducking Nover's striking attempts and taking the newly promoted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt down to the mat. Although Nover was aggressive from his back in searching for submissions, Escudero would control the majority of the positioning and score with his repeated ground and pound attacks.

"I knew Phillipe was a very good striker, so I knew he was going to come out with that strong right," recounted Escudero after the fight. "So as soon as he threw it man, I shot right under it."







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Efrain really surprised me. He looked great and Nover couldn't do anything to him on the ground. Props to Efrain but i hope to see Nover again in the octagon.

Completely agree with bls 1919, Efrian really surprised me too and props to him for utilizing his great wrestling skills to expose one of Nover's weaknesses. But honestly even though Efrian won and it seems like he will do fairly well fighting in the UFC, I believe Nover will have a better career. All Nover really has to do is get over the fact that he won't be betraying his long time trainer by going to train at another camp for awhile and go get some better training, mainly wrestling and take down defense and look out that dude is gonna be bad ass. I would like to see him go to maybe AKA (even though Dana would hate that) or Team Quest.
WAR NOVER, HE'LL BE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must say I was real happy with the way Efrain came out.
I ended up picking him, and some people doubted me, which is cool. But damn, did he make the Nurse look like a real Nurse!!!


Efrain is the real deal, and I think Dana meant Efrain looks like GSP, cause Nover sure didn't,

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Posted by RampageOwnedYou
Efrain is the real deal, and I think Dana meant Efrain looks like GSP, cause Nover sure didn't,

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Its Anderson Silva, but yeah, Escudero was pretty impressive. I think that both him and Nover has bright futures.

It seems like Efrain ups his game everytime he faces a more difficult opponent. He exposed Nover's weakness, and it kind of made me realize that we never really got to see Nover's entire game. As the fighters were introduced by Buffer and I saw Efrain's 11-0 record I began to sweat bullets.

Even with improved takedown defense I think Nover has a few things to work on. The biggest mistake he seemed to commit with frequency was over-committing with his punches. He was far too aggressive, practically running at Efrain as he threw punches.

Either way, both fighters look like they have a future in the UFC, but the LW division is stacked with wrestlers and unless Nover's wrestling improves he's going to struggle unless he's given carefully selected matchups.

Efrain wants Huerta

I'm sorry but Huerta would definitely beat Efrian at this point. Huerta's take down defense is just too good for Efrian to continually take it to the ground. Efrian needs more time training before he wants any part of Huerta, trust me.