Mitrione gets his shot at the UFC

Season 10 of the UFC reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" was billed as the coming of Kimbo Slice. But the Kimbo sizzle fizzled early in the season, and MMA fans had a new love-or-hate character to tune in for each week.

Enter Matt Mitrione.

Mitrione, one of four former NFL players out of 16 heavyweights on this season's reality competition on Spike TV, at various points in the season made an enemy of nearly every other fighter in the house. And he had run-ins with several of them.

On Wednesday night's season finale, Mitrione lost his quarterfinal fight against James McSweeney. But he apparently impressed the UFC brass enough in his two fights on the show to garner a crack in the Octagon on Saturday's live finale show on Spike from The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas.

His opponent? Marcus Jones, a fellow former NFL player, whom he had a big outside-the-cage near-clash with on Wednesday's final episode. Season 10 of "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights" was taped over the summer in Las Vegas.

Wednesday night, while finishing preparation for his fight in Las Vegas, Mitrione told The Times of his plan of attack against Jones.

"It'll be an emotion-filled fight," Mitrione said, alluding to the near tussle with Jones on the show. "He's going to close the distance on me and I'm going to punch him really hard in the face when he tries."

Jones, 35, stands 6-6 and has an impressive 80-inch reach. But though Mitrione is three inches shorter than Jones at 6-3, he has a one-inch reach advantage. At 81 inches, Mitrione's reach will be one of the longest in the UFC.

Jones was a first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996 and played seven seasons at defensive end for them, notching 24 career sacks -- including an impressive 13 in the 2000, with four in one game against Detroit. Mitrione was all-Big Ten at Purdue for three seasons and had stints in the NFL with the New York Giants and Minnesota.

Mitrione said shortcomings in his quarterfinal loss on the show, in which he was submitted by McSweeney in the first round, have been improved upon in the time since that fight. He trains at Integrated Fighting Academy in Indianapolis with the likes of UFC fighters Chris Lytle and Jake O'Brien.

"My focus has been on submission and takedown defense, not lunging into my straight left and keeping the tempo of the fight in mind," said Mitrione, who in his first fight on the show, a win over Scott Junk, appeared to tire quickly into the second round. "Knowing the tempo makes me very dangerous. I train to be (a) champion. I made plenty of mistakes and have made strides from my last fight. I'm looking forward to making things happen on Saturday."

Mitrione said he accepted the fight weeks ago. Because the show was still airing and because of non-disclosure agreements signed by all the fighters on the show, he wasn't able to talk about it. But he said he had been preparing before that, regardless.

"I found out about a month ago, but I had a good feeling that I'd be fighting in the finale -- so I had been preparing for quite a while," Mitrione said.

The finalists this season are former IFL star Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub, another former NFL player.

As for the season's other polarizing fighter, Kimbo Slice lost in his first fight on the show in Week 3 and turned down a possible shot at getting back in on the last episode. But he'll fight on Saturday's card, as well. Slice, whose real name is Kevin Ferguson, will face Houston Alexander at a catch weight of 215 pounds in a fight that was first reported by The Times in October.

Also on the main televised card, Matt Hamill, a contestant on Season 3 of the show, takes on fast-rising light heavyweight contender Jon Jones. And Frankie Edgar tries to build off his UFC 98 upset of Sean Sherk when he takes on unbeaten Matt Veach. A win for Edgar would be his third straight and would get him into the mix to challenge for the lightweight title, which BJ Penn will defend at UFC 107 against Diego Sanchez on Dec. 12.

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The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Pearl at The Palms, Las Vegas

TV: Spike (cable)

Main Card

• Hwt: Roy Nelson vs. Brendan Schaub (Season 10 tournament championship)

• 205: Matt Hamill vs. Jon Jones

• 215: Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson vs. Houston Alexander

• 155: Frank Edgar vs. Matt Veach

• Hwt: Marcus Jones vs. Matt Mitrione

Preliminary Card

• Hwt: Darrill Schoonover vs. James McSweeney

• Hwt: Jon Madsen vs. Justin Wren

• 205: Brian Stann vs. Rodney Wallace

• 170: John Howard vs. Dennis Hallman

• 155: Mark Bocek vs. Joe Brammer

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Exclusive live chat during TUF Finale!

Join Times MMA Insider Matt Erickson at 7:45 p.m. as he hosts a live chat during the live broadcast of Saturday's TUF Finale. MattE will break down the fights and talk about all things MMA with fans on Saturday at caged-in.com