Here we go again, another episode down and two more great fights. Ryan McGillivray here with another insider look at this week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos.
Team dos Santos fighter Mick Bowman’s loss
We start the episode in our dressing room of Team Dos Santos following Mick’s tough loss. He took it very hard and was quite emotional as a lot of fighters are after a loss. Even more so it came on such a big stage and I felt he needed us there for him.
While Junior was trying to encourage him and bring his spirits up I was slightly off camera beside Mick doing my best to make him see the positives.
One thing everyone has to realize in this sport is that everyone loses and the people who TRULY care about us will ALWAYS be there to love and support us. This is something that is very easy to forget in the moments after a loss.
With this in mind and our team trying to pick Mick up from this feeling, Lew decided to go another direction. He was being rough on Mick as he hates to lose.
I know how he feels and can understand where he was coming from. Although in this situation I believe you have to think about the process.
First step is to be there for your fighter and support him at all costs whether you believe what you’re saying or not. After he or she has started to come out of that depression and is more balanced emotionally you talk about improvements.
Only when the fighter has bounced back should you go over the fight and talk about the good and bad portions of it. If you do not wait for this he will not be listening and you will only be pushing that fighter deeper down that hole of depression.
Team Lesnar’s injuries
Brock’s team has a bittersweet day. They have won the control over the last two picks and have picked up another win for their team with Clay’s win over Mick.
Unfortunately Clay has suffered a serious injury to his finger which seems like a compound break of his pinky. Shortly after that Len Bentley, the front runner for the wild card, joins him in the hospital.
While Len was training with Chris Tuchsherer he injures his knee quite badly. First of all, I don’t see the point of having a heavyweight like Chris training with welterweights at what seemed like game speed.
I understand Chris had a fight coming soon and needed some training and feel like Brock saw that as more important than his fighter’s safety. Luckily for Team Lesnar we find out at the hospital that both Len and Clay will be ready to fight when their time comes.
Clay suffered a dislocated finger and was confident he would be ready for his next round. While Len dislocated his knee cap and if called upon would be ready for the wild card.
Coach Lew Polley vs. Coach Junior dos Santos
Now we revisit the situation of the growing tension between coach Lew and coach Junior. It comes to light that Lew attempted to go over to the fighter’s house without his fellow coaches. Also that he had asked some of the fighters to get the ingredients for the bath to cut weight as I did for my weight cut to use for Zach in his.
This comes out after Junior had made it very apparent he was not in support of this process and did not want us using it again. It was not just this incident that made Junior ask Lew to leave but a number of them over the past weeks.
Now Junior has had enough and takes Lew aside and asks him to leave the show as he doesn’t feel he understands his role. I was personally very surprised that this whole situation went down.
Also since Coach Billy had trained with Lew in the past I was very worried that he would leave as well. This leaving us with no English as a first language speaking coaches and perhaps a lot of drama.
Luckily, Coach Billy decided to stay as he said he made a commitment to us and would not leave for any reason. This was amazing to hear for myself as I had grown very close to him and he had already taught me so much.
The Fights: Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Edwards
No more drama now, let’s looks at the fights. First up we have Tony facing off against Justin. Looks to be a great fight with both guys having heavy hands, good wrestling, and having some bad intentions.
They both come out of the gate firing, holding nothing back and looking to finish with every punch that is thrown. I thought the first minute or so was quite close with both fighters landing some good clean shots.
As Justin starts to slow down a bit Tony begins picking his shots better and landing some cleaner blows. Shortly after, Justin lands a couple of very well timed take downs which leaves Tony on his back.
Tony stays very active throwing some mean elbows forcing Justin to stand up to try and pass his guard. In the midst of him passing Tony’s guard Justin gets clipped with a big up kick and goes down hard.
Tony lands a couple shots and the fight is over. What a great fight, exciting and action packed. I felt Justin was winning on the cards until Tony landed his up kick. Unfortunately for Justin and our team that is the name of our game.
The Fights: Zach Davis vs. Chuck O’Neil
Next up we have Zach going toe to toe with Chuck. It is a night of alternates, with one taking part in each of the fights. This fight seemed much more one sided as Zach took control right out of the gates with a nice takedown. Also a very exciting fight and fast-paced, just more on the ground between two great ground fighters.
Chuck scrambles really well not letting Zach do much damage or really secure any great positions. With a blink of an eye Chuck reverses the situation and has top control over Zach. He lands some good ground and pound until he gets carried away.
Zach sees an opening and goes for it, as fast as Chuck got top position Zach has locked in a triangle choke and the fight is over. Both fights ending due to stoppage in the first round. Like Dana said it was a great Saturday in the house as far as fights were concerned.
Wild Card Selections
The very controversial wild card selection was up next. I had Justin Edwards and Len Bentley picked to fight for the wild card in my opinion.
Unfortunately for Justin he would not be medically cleared to fight and lost his chance to get back in the competition. So from our team Dana and the coaches picked Javier to get a shot to prove himself.
So for me I thought Javier and Len would be it for sure. After watching the show and seeing the interviews and who pleaded their case to get the spot I have to agree with Dana on his pick.
I felt like Len went into the meeting expecting to get the shot and not begging for it as they were looking for. Also the fact that Len was injured came up and he wasn’t very convincing that he would be okay.
This also wasn’t helped by Brock saying he thought Len wasn’t the guy for the job. So we have our wild card match up — from Team Dos Santos, Javier Torres, and Teams Lesnar’s Chuck O’Neil.
Should be a fantastic fight between these two. I hope everyone enjoyed a double fight episode as well as my personal thoughts on how it went down. I will see everyone back here next week to recap the wild card fight.
Ryan McGillivray’s TUF 13 blog will be posted on ProMMAnow.com following each Wednesday night episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos. Be sure to follow Ryan on Twitter @KidMcGillivray.