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Jun 3, 2009 - 9:36:47 PM By Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor The Ultimate Fighter report
June 3, 2009
By Frank Hyden
We start off with the picking of the semi-final fights. Dana White, Dan Henderson, and Michael Bisping all get together to discuss how they want it to go. Dana suggest that teammates fight each other. Neither Henderson nor Bisping like that idea. James Wilks and Damarques Johnson both want to fight each other. Cameron Dollar wants to fight his teammate, Jason Dent. Dana announces the semi-final fights as Nick Osipczak vs. Damarques, Andre Winner vs. Cameron, Ross Pearson vs. Jason Dent, and James vs. Frank Lester.
All the fighters have gotten together to have a dinner together. Richie Whitson calls out Jason Pierce for not fighting. Pierce tries to hide behind the doctor's decision and says he wanted to fight. Yeah, sure he did. Props to Richie for calling Pierce on his BS. The next morning Richie tells a few of the other fighters that he's overheard David Faulkner telling some of the U.K. fighters that Pierce is supplying Faulkner with information about the U.S. fighters. It's stuff about how they train and their tendencies and stuff like that. That's pretty crappy. I don't know why Pierce would give Faulkner that kind of info. Pierce is coming across like a scumbag wimp.
Dan Henderson [artist Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
Team U.S. is training hard at ground-fighting. Damarques is confident about his chances to win this season. Dan goes to Pierce (who's sitting on the sidelines) and asks him about the allegations of Pierce telling Faulkner info about the team. Pierce denies it, of course. Dan says that if Pierce is lying, the whole world will see the truth. Team U.K. is training more at stand-up. Nick is going through hell as teammate after teammate rolls with him one after another. Nick confirms that Pierce told Faulkner things about the U.S. fighters. Nick says he'll use that info in his upcoming fight with Damarques. At least Pierce has been exposed as the liar that he is. If he told the other team info, so be it, but at least own up to it. Denying it only makes you look like a punk.
FIGHT- Nick Osipczak vs. Damarques Johnson
Nick is 1 inch taller, but Damarques has a 1 inch reach advantage. Herb Dean is the ref.
ROUND 1- Nick with a nice legkick. They trade blows before going to the ground. Damarques is in Nick's guard, but not much happens, and they stand up. Damarques lands a few more shots, and gets into Nick's guard again. Damarques works to half-guard, but is put back into full-guard by Nick. Nick lands some elbows. They stand up. Both fighters start throwing wild, crazy punches. Nick rocks Damarques and is about to finish him. Damn, Damarques fights back and refuses to lose. These guys are swinging like brawlers. Either one could have been knocked out during that sequence.
ROUND 2- Damarques hits a knee and takes it to the ground. Damarques takes Nick's back. Damarques in side control. Nick throws a few elbows from the bottom. Damarques gets the mount and Nick gives him his back. Damarques rains down punches and elbows and Dean nearly stops the fight. The round ends with Nick being punished.
ROUND 3- Nick comes out and throws the World's Slowest Overhand Punch. He actually connects with it. Damarques crushes Nick with some power punches. Damarques lands some knees. Nick is totally gassed. Damarques takes Nick's back. There's not a whole lot going on here. Nick flips things and now he's on top. There's a sense of inevitability here as the round progresses. This is destined for the scorecards.
WINNER- Damarques Johnson by Unanimous Decision
The fight tonight started off great. The end of the 1st round was fantastic. It went downhill from there, though. Both guys gave it their all, no question about that. They spent everything they had in the 1st, and were running on fumes the rest of the way. I give them credit for not quitting. Nick showed a lot of heart, Damarques too.
Jason Pierce looks like a slimy bum on this season. I don't know what he's like in the real world, but he just comes across like a wimp who wanted an excuse to not lose on the show. He's like a less crazy version of Junie Browning. Pierce challenged Richie Whitson to go up in weight and fight him sometime. I'd love to see Richie do that on the live TUF Finale. Pierce didn't seem impressive at all in his prelim fight. I hope Pierce fights on the finale, I want to see what he can do.
NEXT WEEK- All 4 Lightweight fighters will compete
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