The Ultimate Fighter
TUF 21 REPORT 7/1: Penick's thoughts on eleventh episode of "ATT vs. Blackzilians" season
Jul 1, 2015 - 10:40:52 PM TUF 21 REPORT 7/1: Penick's thoughts on eleventh episode of "ATT vs. Blackzilians" season

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

American Top Team kept themselves alive next week, and tonight's more heavily hyped episode sees them still sitting with their backs on the wall and in need of a victory. We'll also be getting the coaches challenge, which honestly means less than it even has in previous seasons, but that's a digression. Let's get to the rundown.

-ATT is very happy with the result from last week, but they know what still needs to be done to take the overall win here. Dana White lets us know that ATT needs to win both of these last two fights, while Blackzilians still need only one.

-Glenn Robinson isn't happy about the loss, and yells at the team that they'll celebrate when they win, and trying to get the guys to get their heads in it to support the final two to compete and to not get complacent and "check out" with the competition still up in the air. Robinson says it would be devastating to lose the last two at this point, so he says they'll go and close it out in the ATT gym.

Dana White quote: "I guarantee you the Blackzilians did not see this coming."

-The Blackzilians decide to go with Jason Jackson, who is very much open to the opportunity.

Jackson quote: "If I don't challenge myself, I don't think I belong in the UFC"

-Jackson says he's only there to win, and isn't looking at anything else at this point. At least one teammate thinks he's a "sure win" for them.

-At ATT, riding high on the victory, debate what competitor to go with. Michael Graves is brought up, but his previous transgressions have him as a question mark for them. The vote comes up for Graves over Cristiano "Soldado" Souza, and they go with Graves, and hope he takes it more seriously than the last one. Lambert's taking Graves on his word that he'll be ready to go, and Graves wants the chance to redeem himself from earlier in the season.

-It's a relay race for the "owner's challenge" this season. Lambert or Robinson will win $10K, with each of the fighters on the winning team winning $1,500. With Lambert and Robinson in the last leg, we got to see Robinson's attempts at running. Lambert unsurprisingly beat him by a significant margin to take the win. Robinson's not an athlete; that's not meant with offense, it's just the reality, so that really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

-There's a ton of tension at the house between the two teams, and Kumaru Usman confronts ATT about them saying he held the cage against both Graves and Carl. The replays showed it being a bit questionable, and Sabah Homasi continued to jaw back and forth with him. In a separate interview, Homasi called Usman a "blanket" and a "boring ass fighter."

-Weigh-in time, with Jackson and Graves being revealed. ATT thinks it's a good matchup for Graves, and Lambert is sure that Graves is better than he showed in the first appearance he had this season. Jackson's team believes he's the better striker of the two. White questions the ATT pick, while thinking the Blackzilians made a smarter choice.

-We get more of the same in final preparations for both guys leading into fight day itself. This show continuously becomes a chore to watch because there's very little new presented in these types of segments, and little is given in the way of a reason to care. Graves has a minor issue with his training, needing some ice to his back to add some drama, but the fight is a go. Dana White again criticizes the Graves pick, but thinks Jackson won an easy fight his last time out.

FIGHT: MICHAEL GRAVES VS. JASON JACKSON

ROUND ONE: Jackson tried to advance early while Graves threw kicks on the outside. They each landed a couple of strikes in a decent exchange. Jackson landed a groin kick and the ref didn't stop it, so he pounced and tried to finish Graves off on the cage. He threw some knees to the body and a whole punch of punches as Graves tried to cover up. Graves wasn't going anything to fight back as Jackson kept throwing knees to the body and punches to the head. The fight easily could have been stopped as Graves just covered up. Jackson got warned about punches to the back of the head, then kept throwing knees. Graves recovered, got up to his feet, wound up taking Jackson down, and then quickly took his back. Massive change of fortune. He attacked for a choke but Jackson briefly got out. He went for it again and forced the tap.

WINNER: Graves via submission in the first round

-He couldn't get to his feet and was wobbly as hell, and the Blackzilians were going nuts about how that should have been stopped (they're not wrong). Robinson continued to rail against the finish, and went after the commission members present and needed to be calmed down by Ricardo Liborio. Robinson tried to talk to the commission, the referees, and he thinks it was unfair that the fight wasn't stopped. He was shrugged aside by the commissioner present all season. Jackson shouldn't have gotten himself into that position, and it was a really bad job by the referee, but he got caught.

-This one was one of the more controversial in some time on this show. The referee did a piss poor job, but with Jackson punching himself out a bit, and allowing Graves to take him down and take his back, he can't blame the ref.

-Dana White said Jackson fouled Graves three times and it was ATT getting screwed by the referee, not the Blackzilians. Also a fair point.

TEAM SCORE (WEEK 11)

ATT: 300
Blackzilians: 300

-Turns out Jackson broke his hand in the fight after he beat Graves up, and it was hard for him to defend the choke. He felt he got robbed by the referee, but there's nothing more to be done. Rashad Evans told him what happened there will never happen to him again.

-And it all comes down to next week. We'll be back on Wednesday for the final team vs. team bout of the season leading into the July 12 Finale event!