By Denny “The Mad One” Hodge
We are starting to get down to business now with the numbers being narrowed down, and the semi’s starting to shape up. This episode is supposed to showcase a lightweight that is being compared to GSP. It looks like we may be in for a treat with some good action in the LW match up tonight.
After the quick re-cap from the LHW match up last week, we shift to the house for team Nogueira enjoying Tom Lawlor’s fruit tray…again. It seems they do this almost every day to Tom, and he is not exactly happy about it.
Lawlor comes up with a disgusting solution to the fruit platter problem. He decides to urinate in his own tray to add that something special for the red team that enjoys partaking in his fruit. Not only does Tom donate something extra, but his teammates join in the fun also by adding to the fruit. After the team’s addition to the fruit tray, it is placed back into the fridge!
Back at the training center, Mir announces the match up for the LW bout with Dave Kaplan facing Phillipe Nover. Nover appears to be the early favorite, and is likely the one being labeled with the “GSP“ reference, but Mir seems confident that “Phillipe is going to fight Kaplan, and I think he’s going to have an eye opening experience when he gets kicked and hit by Kaplan…”.
At the house, Team Nog arrives with Bader snagging the fruit tray from the fridge. Damn!!!!! Bader and Phillipe are tearing into the fruit tray laden with human piss with reckless abandon! The joke is definitely on the red team. Shane Nelson from Team Mir adds “I guess they thought the fruit was uh, extra juicy.”
The secret is revealed and leads to red team members gagging and coughing, except for Bader who takes the gag in stride with a smile on his face. Kingsbury and Bader give Nover a hard time about eating piss in fruit, and admit they could care less about the whole thing.
We transition to Dave Kaplan for a brief intro about his background at ODU as a D1 wrestler. He sums up training in these words: “You put the training in, you put the conditioning in, it’s just something you do a million times.” Mir lets us know that he considers Dave a friend and that this fight is personal for him as a trainer, coach, and friend.
Next we get a little better acquainted with Phillipe Nover. He gets back to the house and realizes that he is once again missing his sushi. We get a nice glimpse of the “grocery list” with Nover marking the paper for “more sushi please”.
It’s training time once again, and it’s Junie time. Junie is complaining that no one wants to train, and gets pissed when Kaplan refuses to roll with him due to his temper.
Team Nogueira decides to take the pranks to a whole new level with the sushi. We won’t get too detailed about “a very special sauce” as Kyle calls it, but it is placed in the sushi and labeled with Nover’s name on it.
Roli admits that the culprit of the sushi eating has been Kaplan all along, and Dave once again eats the sushi. Kyle lets him know immediately what he really consumed, and Kaplan is ready with his own prank for Bader and Kyle that will also involve other disgusting bodily fluids.
We get a good look at Nover’s training at the center, and learn a little about his nursing career at a busy NY emergency room. He admits that after what he has seen, there is nothing in the cage that can scare him.
Phillipe showcases his cooking skills with a disgusting concoction of duck eggs with baby ducks inside them called “Balut“, which is a delicacy in the Phillipines. Kyle decides to enjoy the treat by munching down on the eggs himself. Nice!
Weigh ins are next with Nover sporting sunglasses on the scales. Mir expresses his belief in Kaplan being a favorite to win the whole show, with Dana saying that Nover “is an incredibly talented kid, it just seems like this kid is just going to dominate everyone here”.
That night at the house, Junie lets the red team know that he is pissed at Mir and Kaplan from the incident at the training center. Junie gives Nover a lot of pointers on how to beat Kaplan. He tells us that “Kaplan is more talk than show”.
Coach Nogueira makes another appearance at the house and discusses team Mir fighters with Phillipe Nover referring to them as a “team of individuals”. All of the red team members have and show a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Nogueira.
The fighters make their way to the Octagon and it’s time for a LW showdown with Phillipe Nover vs. Dave Kaplan.
Round 1– Nover is working his jab early, and Kaplan comes back with a nice leg kick. Nover comes back with a 6 punch combo stunning Kaplan and forcing him to the mat. Nover gets top position in Kaplan’s full guard and postures up for some good old fashioned GNP. Kaplan rolls and goes for a single, with Nover transitioning quickly to his back, sinks in his hooks, and finishes Kaplan with a rear naked choke. Impressive victory for Nover. Quote of the night goes to Nover: “I am the toughest registered nurse on the planet right now”.
Nover is definitely proving to be a force and a favorite to win the show for the Lightweights. Nogueira reminds Nover that he impressed Dana White again, and Dana confirms this saying, “What I see in this kid right now, he reminds me of a GSP, when GSP was that young, I think that this kid has so much potential, it’s scary”.
The preview for next week shows a very drunken Kaplan following his fight, and a coaches challenge related to soccer. We also get a glimpse of the next LHW bout with Sos vs. Kingsbery.