Last Quarterfinal Tomorrow On The Ultimate Fighter Live On FX

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER^® LIVE ON FX

WRAPS UP FIRST ROUND WITH “BECOME THAT HERO”

TEAM CRUZ’S MIKE RIO vs. TEAM FABER’S ANDY OGLE

Friday, May 4, LIVE on FX at 10 p.m. ET/PT

The Ultimate Fighter^® Live on FX wraps up the preliminary round of competition Friday, May 4, live on FX at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast) when Team Cruz’s Mike Rio (8-1), of Miami, Fla., takes on Team Faber’s Andy Ogle (8-1), of Tynemouth, England, for the last spot in the quarterfinals.

Team Faber’s Chris Saunders scored an upset victory over Team Cruz’s Sam Sicilia as a massive underdog last week. Now, Faber’s squad holds a 4-3 lead over his bitter rival with just one fight to go until the quarterfinals.

Rio and Ogle are looking to advance and move one step closer to a six-figure UFC contract alongside previous winners James Vick, Justin Lawrence, Al Iaquinta, Michael Chiesa, Joe Proctor, Vinc Pichel and Saunders.

Below is a description of the upcoming “BECOME THAT HERO” episode:

“Both teams head to a desert shooting range for an explosive Coaches Challenge. Andy Ogle takes on Mike Rio in the last preliminary fight, then Dana announces the first two quarterfinal matchups.”

The 13-week season will culminate with a championship fight and three-hour finale on June 1 at the Pearl Palms Concert Theater in Las Vegas. The coaches will then meet on July 7 at UFC 148, when Cruz defends his title against Faber in the rubber match of their epic rivalry.

Below are select quotes from Rio and Ogle.

MIKE RIO:

It's the final preliminary fight this Friday. Team Cruz is down 4-3. Is there any added pressure to even the series? Or is it just another fight?

“There's always pressure in a situation like this but the wonderful thing about our sport is that we don't have to worry about the teams. You just focus on yourself and the better you do, the team just ends up benefitting from it. So as long as I just focus on what I have to do and not worry about the team or what's best for the team, everyone will benefit. That takes a lot of the pressure off when you focus on what you're supposed to focus on and not the outside distractions.”

What is your mood going into the fight and what do you have to do to win?

“I'm always relaxed. I'm one of those guys that never gets over-anxious, nervous or gets butterflies. I've been in competition a long time. I'm very relaxed until the time of the fight and then I get very energetic and very aggressive.

“What I need to do to win the fight? I need to push the pace. Ogle is by no means an easy fight. He's not just going to lay down for me. I just have to make sure I stay focused and take the fight to him and do what I need to do to win. I'm not going to focus on what he's going to do to me, just what I'm going to do to him.”

How difficult is it to sit and watch during the weeks you weren't fighting? Is it a relief to actually be fighting?

“That was a double-edged sword. First off, I'm sitting there watching and waiting, seeing all my teammates fight, watching everybody fight. I came here to fight, and was just sitting on the sidelines every week, waiting, waiting, waiting. On the positive side of this though, I literally just got a month and a half training camp with the champ, Dominick Cruz, and the champ's personal coaching squad. I've gotten in the best shape of my life for my first preliminary fight. “

Is there anything that's happened in the first seven weeks that's surprised you?

“Every fight has been a war. I've been really impressed by the level of talent in our season. We're a great group of 16 guys and we deserve to be here. Everyone is serious as hell and there's really no one who is here just to be a TV star.”

ANDY OGLE:

It's the final preliminary fight this Friday. Team Faber is up 4-3. Is there any added pressure to keep the series lead? Or is it just another fight?

“It's not a fight for the Team, it's a fight for myself. Because at the end of the day, I'm the one who's trying to get that glass plate. I'm the one that is trying to get that W. It's all about me thinking about myself. At the end of the day, two guys are going to go in there and the cage door is going to close and for 10, possibly 15, minutes I've got to kick somebody's ass to secure myself into the next round.”

What is your mood going into the fight and what do you have to do to win?

“I feel confident. I feel strong. I feel as if I've trained a long time for this fight and I've developed as a fighter as well as a person and become a hell of a lot more patient. In this fight, I'm going to have to be very patient and defend his takedowns a lot. I feel as if I can kill his spirit by doing so and lighting him up with my shoots and hitting him a lot in the face. Basically, just not making him want to come in and attempt a takedown.”

How difficult is it to sit and watch during the weeks you weren't fighting? Is it a relief to actually be fighting?

“Since I've been in the house, I've had to think about everything in two ways. It was killing me not fighting for the first seven fights. But at the same time, I'm getting more time to develop as a fighter, which means [Rio]'s going to get the best version of me because I'm last. I've now built up a relationship with the coaching staff and a great relationship with my team and gotten a whole lot stronger.”

Is there anything that's happened in the first eight weeks that's surprised you?

“I did not expect to get ill! I very rarely get ill. I'm the 'one more round' guy. I'm always happy to keep pushing. If I'm done training but someone wants to go another round, I'll jump up, I'll do that round. When my lungs were closing up and I felt as if I couldn't breathe, I didn't feel like the 'one more round' guy. But when I went to the doctor and they did an X-ray, the doctor said, ‘Wow, you've got a large heart’ and I said tell me something I don't know. That's something that Rio, or any opponent, won't ever have larger than me. It's impossible, I want it too much.”

♔EL Boxing Empress & MMA Princess♔, See you at the Fights and Thank You for your time.EL Boxing Empress Online @ Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Keishamorrisey ©®™ 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 All photos other than specified by "EL Boxing Empress & MMA Princess" Keisha Morrisey, for ♔Empire Morrisey Photo-Studios♔, KCKMT for Bloodline Boxing Communications Entertainment and ★Starlite★ Boxing's Sweetscience Magnews-Online Publication all rights reserved.

FX’s Premiere of The Ultimate Fighter® Live Gets Off to a Strong Start

This Week the Series Moves to its Regularly Scheduled Time Period

Fridays Live at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT (Tape Delay at 10 p.m. PT/11 p.m. MT)

Coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber Pick Their Teams Friday

With the First Live Fight Between Team Cruz and Team Faber

The series debut of The Ultimate Fighter^® Live on FX got off to a strong start Friday night (3/9/12, 9:00-11:38 PM) delivering 1.28 Million Total Viewers, 953,000 Adults 18-49 and 538,000 Adults 18-34, and ranking among the top five cable programs on Friday in Men 18-34 (#2), Adults 18-34 (#3), Men 18-49 (#4), and Adults 18-49 (#5).

The combination of The Ultimate Fighter^® Live and its lead-in movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, propelled FX to cable’s #1 rank in primetime Friday (8-11PM) in delivery of Adults 18-49 (933,000), Adults 18-34 (532,000), and Men 18-34 (352,000). In addition, The Ultimate Fighter^® Live (9-11:38 PM ET) was up +58% in Adults 18-49, +96% in Men 18-49 and +124% in Men 18-34 vs. year ago time period.

“We’ve been anticipating this day since FOX acquired the rights to UFC last summer and we knew it would be a special night for our network,” said Chuck Saftler, Executive Vice President of FX Networks. “The Ultimate Fighter^® Live makes Friday nights on FX the ultimate destination for MMA fans. We’re thrilled with the performance of the premiere telecast and we look forward to an exciting season ahead.”

Compared to other MMA telecasts on Friday evening, The Ultimate Fighter^® Live Season 1 debut significantly outperformed Spike’s repeat counter-programming of The Ultimate Fighter^® Season 10 by +189% in delivery of Adults 18-34, +162% among Adults 18-49, +208% with Men 18-34, and +167% in Men 18-49, and it also battered live MMA bouts on MTV2 by +703% in delivery of Adults 18-34, +947% among Adults 18-49, +568% with Men 18-34, and +842% in Men 18-49.

In the premiere telecast, which was televised live, 16 of the best unsigned fighters in the world took their first step towards glory as they won their first round tournament fights. The result was some of the most intense, emotional and action-packed bouts in TUF history, including a startling eight-second KO. In addition, fighters were offered a bonus of $5,000 if they succeeded in scoring a submission or knockout in their fight. A total of $40,000 was handed out. With the win, the victors now move into The Ultimate Fighter^® Live House for the next 12 weeks as they continue to compete for a lucrative six-figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship^® (UFC^®).

The UFC has transformed The Ultimate Fighter^® Live and it no longer is just a competition reality series; it is a LIVE sporting event.

The first season of The Ultimate Fighter^® Live on FX features fighters from the lightweight division (155 pounds). The fighters will train together under the supervision of their team’s respective coach. One fighter from each team will be selected by their coach to fight at the end of each episode and the right to advance in the competition. At the end of the season, one man will be crowned The Ultimate Fighter^® LiveChampion.

The coaches selected for the two teams this season are current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and former champion and current top contender Urijah Faber. In addition to their coaching duties, Cruz and Faber will be training for their rubber match this summer. The first time they met, Faber successfully defended his title against the rising contender, but Cruz was able to unseat Faber in their second match to capture the title.

FX’s coverage of the UFC this year includes two seasons (26 weeks) of The Ultimate Fighter^® Live, six major two-hour fight cards televised live nationally, and 14 live telecasts of preliminary fights preceding UFC pay-per-view telecasts

Ratings Source: The Nielsen Company (Live+Same Day)

FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable network from Fox. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 98 million homes. The diverse schedule includes a growing roster of critically acclaimed and award-winning hit dramas series including Sons of Anarchy,Justified and American Horror Story, and acclaimed hit comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League, Louie, Archer andWilfred. Its library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network. The network's other offerings include the acquired hit series Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother, and live sports with college football and the UFC. For more information about FX, visit our web site at www.FXnetworks.com.

♔EL Boxing Empress & MMA Princess♔, See you at the Fights and Thank You for your time.EL Boxing Empress Online @ Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Keishamorrisey ©®™ 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 All photos other than specified by "EL Boxing Empress & MMA Princess" Keisha Morrisey, for ♔Empire Morrisey Photo-Studios♔, KCKMT for Bloodline Boxing Communications Entertainment and ★Starlite★ Boxing's Sweetscience Magnews-Online Publication all rights reserved.

Lauzon positioning himself for UFC title run in 2009 Bradley fight Sept. 17 in Omaha on UFC Fight Night 15

E. BRIDGEWATER, Mass– In a relatively short period, 24-year-old Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon has gone from computer geek to starring on The Ultimate Fighter 5 television reality show, upsetting a former world mixed-martial-arts champ, and then headlining UFC Fight Night 13.

Not too shabby for the nerd-looking but fearless fighting lightweight contender who has a Bachelor’s degree in computer networking from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Two years ago, he was fighting part-time and working full-time at Charles River Analytics in Cambridge (MA), where he was responsible for maintaining a 130-computer network.

Now, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist Lauzon (16-4, 3 KOs, 13 submissions) is currently preparing for his next fight, September 17 against Kyle Bradley (13-5) in UFC Fight Night 15, on Spike television live from Omaha, Nebraska.

“Every fighter will tell you that their next fight is the most important and that won’t change here,” Lauzon said. “Fighters can make or break their careers with a few good or bad fights, so I’m not going to let any fight slip by.”

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, known as the “City of Champions” because Hall of Fame boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler fought out of there, Lauzon fought on the relatively small New England circuit during the early part of his still young MMA career, earning 2004 Massachusetts Fighter of the Year honors.

In 2006, “J-Lau” won an 8-man tournament by defeating three fighters on one night in the World Fighting League, and he was crowned WFL Grand Prix champion. His impressive showing led to a UFC contract, although he believed that he’d lose his love of fighting if he became a fulltime fighter and it became a job.

His UFC debut was against former world light weight champion Jens “Little Evil” Pulver (21-7-1), who was a solid 7-1 favorite, in UFC 63 (September 23, 2006). Lauzon immediately took Pulver to the mat, but they got up and Joe rocked Pulver with a right knee, leading to a devastating left hook that dropped Pulver. A barrage followed and the referee halted the fight at 43 seconds of the opening round, marking Pulver’s first UFC loss in eight fights.

“Going into the fight with Jens,” Lauzon reflected, “I had all the upper tier fighters on his plateau and I thought that I was far off. Getting a big win like that let me know that I could compete at that level.”

Lauzon’s impressive performance led to him being cast on The Ultimate Fighter 5, where Joe met his new mentor and training partner, UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn, who was his coach on the television series. Joe won his first two fights in the series against a team coached, ironically, by Pulver, but Joe lost a decision to Manvel Gamburyan in the semifinals. In the finale, however, “J-Lau” beat Brandon Melendez by submission (triangle choke) at 2:09 of the second round.

“The Ultimate Fighter was great for me because it put me on television in front of everyone,” Joe noted. “On the local level, MMA shows are filled by fighters selling tickets to their friends. The UFC has expanded that model by letting the world get to know fighters. You could fight a dozen times and still not have the same connection with people as you do when they see how you live for a month and a half.

After The Ultimate Fighter 5, Lauzon finally left his job at Charles River Analytics to become a fulltime MMA fighter, and took Penn up on his offer to train him, moving to Hawaii where one of his training partners was WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber.

“Training with BJ was the best,” Lauzon remarked. “You always try to have a worst case scenario opponent in mind while training and BJ is just that” world-class Jiu-Jitsu, great striking with heavy ands and a solid chin, as well as crazy flexibility and takedown defense. All of that is hard to come by in one person, but BJ brings it all, the complete package. I am fortunate enough to have worked with BJ and I realize how much further I can improve. I am back training in Bridgewater at my school for this fight, but I’m sure I will be training with BJ again in the future.”

Last November, Joe defeated Jason Reinhardt by submission (rear naked choke) in the first round at UFC 78: Validation, setting up an All-Massachusetts showdown against Kenny Florian in the main event on UFC Fight Night 13 in Denver on April 2. The older, more experienced Florian registered a win by second-round TKO. “I learned from that fight that I need to pace myself better and not think that I have to go all out from bell to bell,” Joe commented. “It was real tough in Colorado with the elevation. I tried to prepare for it but I didn’t do enough. It was a costly lesson but one that I will never make again.”

Lauzon, representing Lauzon MMA, has moved back to Massachusetts and he’s living again in the town he grew-up in, East Bridgewater. Given his youth and talent, along with Penn possibly moving up to the welterweight division, “J-Lau” hopes to parlay an impressive win next month against Bradley into a top 10 ranking and eventually a UFC lightweight title shot in 2009.

For more information about Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon, go online to www.joelauzon.com or myspace.com/lauzonrsd.

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©®™ 2007, 2008 All photos by "EL Boxing Empress" Keisha Morrisey- Empire Morrisey Studios, for Bloodline Boxing Communications Entertainment and Starlite Boxing's Sweetscience Magnews-Online Publication all rights reserved