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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Another Tuesday night, another episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17 on FX. Following last week's stunning knockout from Uriah Hall against Adam Cella, Team Sonnen remained in charge of the fight picks, and they pit Kevin Casey against Team Jones' Collin Hart for this week. I'll be live blogging again tonight as the show kicks off at 9PM ET, so follow along with the episode here!
-After the recap from last week, Adam Cella comes back to the house and talks about how he forgot he even fought, and he was in good spirits and gave Hall credit. Hall was down a bit about hurting him as bad as he did.
-Casey talked about wanting to get through the next round without taking damage after taking a cut in his opening round fight to get in the house.
-McDaniel continued his campaign against Casey and talked up Collin Hart, saying he'd make it a blood bath and take advantage of the cut.
-Jones thinks Hart is one of the better ground fighters on the team and has good dirty boxing. He believed Hart was a bad matchup for Casey, and called him a much better athlete overall. After Hart broke down his story, Jones said the gameplan is to take care of Casey a bit later in the fight as he wears down.
-Hart felt disrespected by Casey calling him out because Casey thought he was an easy fight, and said he's going to elbow Casey's face in.
-Kevin Casey's rap history came into the fray, and they decided to have a bit of a rap battle inside the house. (Here's Casey rapping if you're interested).
-Casey ran down his history with the Gracie family before they shifted to Team Sonnen's training. Sonnen respected the ground game of both Casey and Hart, but said Casey's got to be careful about overlooking the little things and not leaving any openings for Hart in the fight.
-Bubba McDaniel is antsy to fight, and he said the coaches told him he'd be next if Collin Hart wins. Dylan Andrews said he's sick of talking about matchups after every fight.
-Power goes out at the house, and we get the first attempt at a prank of the season. It doesn't do anything but piss off Team Jones who said they had all agreed not to mess with anyone's sleep. It'd be nice if that was the last of the prank garbage.
-Josh Samman said he'd bet his house and any amount of money that Hart would beat Casey. Zak Cummings thinks it's going to be an easy win for Casey. Hart flicked Casey off at the weigh-in, and that got under the skin of Casey and Team Sonnen.
-Uriah Hall was most perturbed by Hart's middle finger antics. Hart said it was off of the prank from the other night waking them up. Casey told Hart to his face it came off as unprofessional and disrespectful, and said it's a case where he still has to get in the cage with him. He was very calm and collected in his response.
-Hart said it's not ok to come into his room in the middle of the night when he's preparing for a fight, and he's going to hurt Casey in the fight.
FIGHT: KEVIN CASEY VS. COLLIN HART
ROUND ONE: Hart rushed straight ahead, ran through a straight kick to the body, and scored a takedown. He tried to pass to side control, but Casey regained guard in slick fashion. Casey stayed patient from his back as he held closed guard. Hart landed a few punches, trying to stay busy. Casey tried to set up a guillotine, but Hart used it to pass to half guard. Casey scrambled and got to his feet. Hart landed a knee to the body. Casey threw one back. Hart held the clinch and got in a knee before driving Casey back to the cage. They battled for position against the cage. They traded knees again. Hart got in a couple more knees on the cage. The clinch battle continued with neither getting a clear edge. Hart landed a short combo before getting turned around on the cage. Casey landed a couple of strikes against the cage. Hart landed a few strikes as they separated. Casey fired back. They clinched again and battled to the horn. 10-9 round for Hart.
ROUND TWO: Casey was breathing heavily between rounds. Casey rushed in with a strike and Hart landed a couple of counters. Casey landed two hard punches and clinched. Casey's cut reopened and he bled profusely. Hart landed a nice series of knees in the clinch. He snuck behind Casey and scored a nice takedown into half guard. Hart tried to pass and got to side control. He tried to pass to mount but Casey held him in half guard. Hart tried to pass again but Casey locked his leg down. Casey landed some nice shoulder strikes on the corner advice of Jones. He got in a couple of nice elbows and some good punches to the body. Casey got back to guard. Hart closed his guard and tried to grab wrist control on Hart's left arm. Hart continued working from the top. Casey tried to shoot his legs up and Hart got loose. Hart tried to stay busy from the top and he rode out the round. 10-9 Hart and the fight should be his.
-No third round, and Hart wins the fight, giving Team Jones their first win of the season.
Collin Hart moves on by unanimous decision
-Not the most thrilling TUF fight, but Hart fought smart, and stayed relentless throughout for a solid opening round win.
-Sonnen said Casey didn't start fighting once the fight hit the ground, and just never started fighting at all. Jones said he felt Casey thought he'd be the better grappler and that didn't happen. Dana White said he felt Casey just shut down. He said it was like he quit and didn't want to win the fight. Sonnen said Casey never showed up to fight. Hart apologized for the middle finger, but Sonnen said that if you're the one stepping into the cage, you can say and do whatever you want leading up to the fight.
-Hart didn't take his gloves or mouth guard out and just hopped on the treadmill right after.
-Casey said he was hoping Hart would slow down and leave an opening, but it didn't happen.
-Onto the fight announcement for next week, and Jones picked Bubba McDaniel to square off against Kelvin Gastelum for next week's fight.
-Jones felt Gastelum was a weak link on Team Sonnen, but Sonnen said Gastelum will surprise some people as the underdog next week.
-Next week, we get Chael Sonnen doing charades. Yup.
Final Thoughts: Not a terrible episode, but the return of pranking - as ineffective as it was - and a poor TUF fight made it the weakest of this season. We'll see where next week takes us.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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