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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Another episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17 heads to FX tonight, and after Team Jones got on the board last week, Bubba McDaniel will get to step into the cage to take on the youngest member of this season's tournament, Kelvin Gastelum. Join me here beginning at 9PM ET for a running commentary on tonight's episode!
-This week starts out with some discussion on Bubba McDaniel and why the fight was made. Sonnen knows McDaniel is a teammate and training partner of Jones, Jones believes Gastelum is a weak link. Sonnen tells Gastelum that a win over Bubba will be his ticket into the UFC, whether he wins the show or not.
-Sonnen got Ronda Rousey on the phone as Gastelum is a big fan, and she tells him if he beat Bubba she'd come out to Vegas to do a training session with the team.
-Jones talked about the vibe with Sonnen. It's very cordial. The two talk about Bubba backstage and Sonnen spoke highly of him. Jones said he's got plenty of time to build up the bad blood despite their calm nature in training.
-Luke Barnatt thinks it was a cheap shot from Jones to pit the most experienced against the least experienced in the house.
-We get Chael and his coaches coming to the house to play some charades, leading to some ridiculousness, but it was at least kind of entertaining. A lot better than last week's prank beginnings.
-Bubba lays out his story, of a rough upbringing and being a lost young kid, saying MMA helped save his life.
-Gastelum, the bail bondsman, talks about his average week of full time work and training. His mom was a single mother of two, coming from Mexico with no English, raising Gastelum and his sister. He said being in the UFC will allow him to quit his job and train full time.
-We get a good pep talk from Sonnen to his team, which is juxtaposed with one of his many pre-written promo-style lines to Jones, which just doesn't work for this. That's not what has been interesting from him during this show thus far.
[Still to come: Mickey Rourke visits Team Sonnen]
-Back to a Team Jones training session, and Jones talked about the coaches needing to make some decisions for the guys.
-After pushing to fight each time out, Josh Samman's got a few things nagging him this week and wanted to hold out until the next fight. Jones equated his relationship with Samman to how he relays info to Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. Jones' assistant coaches think Samman's perhaps trying to dictate too much of what's going on with the team. Could be interesting if things don't go Samman's way here.
-Back to training, Jones thinks McDaniel wins the fight everywhere except for the wrestling aspect. McDaniel believes he's earned this opportunity ten times over, and it's time for him to reach out and grab it. Team Jones as a whole is completely confident in McDaniel into this fight.
-Mickey Rourke is brought in to talk to Sonnen's team. Rourke talked to the guys about discipline coming into his life late. He's had an extremely rough, up and down life, and is someone who can use his life experience to relay some wisdom to these fighters with where he's at now.
-At the weigh-ins, the discussion continues to be confidence in Bubba, though Barnatt believes Gastelum's got the right attitude to get it done.
FIGHT: BUBBA MCDANIEL VS. KELVIN GASTELLUM
ROUND ONE: McDaniel got overzealous in trying to engage early and he got taken down. However, he easily hopped to his feet and landed a nice strike. Gastellum went for a choke in a sprawl and again got McDaniel to his back. Gastelum used the threat of a guillotine to keep position, but McDaniel pulled off a nice sweep to get on top. He quickly got Gastelum's back after a failed kimura attempt. McDaniel got one hook in and worked for the choke but lost it. He kept position and got both hooks in. He tried to get to mount, but it allowed Gastelum to get to his feet. McDaniel held his back standing and landed a couple of knees to the thighs. Gastellum pulled off a nice little switch, rolling through to wind up on top. McDaniel attacked for an armbar and used that to transition to mount. Gastelum gave up his back. McDaniel attacked for a choke but lost it. Gastelum worked to his feet again. McDaniel ducked under a charge and ultimately wound up on his back. McDaniel swept him again and got into half guard. He landed a body punch and briefly got mount before Gastelum popped up and reversed. McDaniel tried to reverse again. Gastelum dove for a punch as the round ended. Competitive round, but McDaniel takes it for me.
ROUND TWO: Gastelum came out with a few kicks, with McDaniel responding in kind. They briefly exchanged strikes before clinching. McDaniel failed on a throw attempt and wound up on the ground. Gastelum continued to threaten with the guillotine, but wound up on his back with McDaniel in the half guard. McDaniel got his back as Gastelum got to his feet. He managed to shake McDaniel off and wound up on top with Sonnen yelling for him to maintain position. McDaniel attacked for submissions from the bottom, but Gastelum got out. McDaniel got to a sprawl, but Gastelum took his back. He went for a guillotine choke and got in on tight. That transition was slick. McDaniel tried to fight it, but was finally forced to submit. And Jones' plans backfire a second time. That's a big moment for Gastelum.
Kelvin Gastelum moves on with second round submission
-Jones said they weren't expecting the opening from Gastelum. Sonnen said Gastelum made adjustments between rounds, slowed things down, and worked patiently to get that.
-McDaniel gave Gastelum credit after, but he was shocked and entirely upset and disappointed in himself. Jones said he still believed the winner was in that locker room. He thinks Bubba will get a wild card spot, and said it hurt to see him broken down like that. McDaniel said he felt like a failure after that.
-Ronda's back on the phone and congratulated Gastelum on the win, and agreed to come out and coach a session, much to his delight.
-The next fight will be Tor Troeng against Josh Samman. Sonnen said no one on either team wants to fight those two.
-Preview for next week has Samman discussing some nagging injury issues, and Luke Barnatt not happy with some overzealous sparring by Uriah Hall.
Final Thoughts: McDaniel talked a big game and wasn't able to follow it up, and that's something that hit him hard after the fight. That was an impressive performance by Gastelum; he's clearly got a lot of improvement to make in his overall game, but he showed some good grappling skills, and locked up that choke nicely at the end. Not a bad fight from any standards, and I'll be interested to see how Gastelum continues to progress on the show.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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