Ultimate Fighter 8 finalists advance to Las Vegas finale on Dec. 13

The mix of the 32 lightweights and light heavyweights who began season eight of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) about 12 weeks ago has finally been whittled down to four finalists.

Ryan Bader and Vinicius Magalhães will battle for the 205-pound season crown, while Phillipe Nover and Efrain Escudero will collide to determine the top 155-pound fighter in the house.

It will all go down at TUF 8 Finale at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, December 13, 2008. The action will begin to air at 9 p.m. ET on Spike TV on fight night.

“Darth” Bader — who took out Kyle Kingsbury, Tom Lawlor and Eliot Marshall en route to the finals — and the baddest nurse in all of Brooklyn. N.Y., Phillipe Nover — who ran through Joe Duarte, David Kaplan and George Roop to earn his spot — appear to be the early favorites in their respective weight divisions.

However, Magalhães showed that he is a dangerous Brazilian jiu-jitsu threat with wins over Lance Evans, Jules Bruchez and Krzysztof Soszynski. And Escudero demonstrated similar ground acumen by choking out Ido Pariente, Shane Nelson and the lovable Junie Browning.

It’s going to be a solid conclusion to a solid season, which ultimately saw Team Nogueira send three fighters to the finals versus just one representative from Team Mir.

In addition to the TUF 8 final bouts, two other intriguing match ups will round out the televised main card. Middleweights Jason MaDonald and Wilson Gouveia will hook ‘em up and welterweights Kevin Burns and Anthony Johnson will meet in a rematch to erase the memory of the controversial result in their first encounter.

The entire TUF 8 Finale card should be announced very soon. In the meantime, check out the latest fight card here and complete event archive right here.

Source: UFC blog for UFC news, results, videos, rumors, fights, pics and tickets — MMAmania.com