Oct 7, 2009 - 11:01:16 PM By Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor
The Ultimate Fighter report
October 7, 2009
By Frank Hyden
The episode starts with a recap of last week's fight between Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson. Several of the other fighters in the house were impressed by Kimbo. They say he learned a lot in what little training time he's had. Kimbo echoes that, saying that he'll be unbeatable in a few more weeks of training. I'm assuming he means amongst the household, otherwise he sounds crazy. After the fight, Roy rubs his big belly and hugs Quinton Jackson, who shoves him away in disgust. Rampage consoles Kimbo, telling him that he'll be a better fighter in the future.
Later, Kimbo and Age Wagner are in their room talking about losing. Neither guy expected to lose this early. In the hallway, Marcus Jones is sweating profusely. The rest of the house is concerned, but he says he'll be all right. Brendan Schaub speculates that this happened because Marcus isn't used to training this hard or eating this healthy. Whatever it is, this guy's sweating like a fat guy after an all-you-can-eat buffet. The next day, Team Rashad is training. Coach Rashad Evans evaluates his squad, going over what he thinks are their strengths and weaknesses. Rashad thinks Justin Wren might be his best remaining fighter. Rashad and his coaches come up with a fight schedule that they want to go with, a schedule that they think will give them the best chance to sweep the remaining fights. They want to match Justin against Scott Junk and Matt Mitrione with Marcus. Justin and Scott are really close friends and Justin would rather not fight Scott until the finals. Rashad understands, since he'd rather not fight Keith Jardine, who's his really close friend.
Team Rampage is shown training. Rampage and his coaches are also evaluating their team. Marcus is incredibly strong, and is shown nearly hurting a lot of training partners. The guy's strength seems to be effortless. Rampage says that Rashad is a Mini-Me version of Demico Rogers. In fact, Rampage almost didn't pick Demico because he looks a lot like Rashad. Later, in the house, Justin and Scott are talking. Scott lets Justin know that Matt told Scott about Rashad's upcoming fight picks. Scott calls Matt a meathead for telling him that Rashad wanted to match Justin against Scott. Some of the other fighters think that perhaps Matt ratted about the upcoming match-ups because he didn't want to fight Marcus. Matt suggests switching the match-ups, lending even more credence to that theory. The other fighters call Matt a meathead, a rat, a snitch. Rashad calls him a blabbermouth after being told about what Matt did. I think Rashad wanted to call him something else, but decided not to.
Rampage and his coaches go off into the trees to strategize the possibilities. Rashad has control of the fighting match-ups and he goes with Brendan Schaub vs. Demico Rogers. Rampage is pretty happy telling Rashad that he messed up. Brendan is shown training. He works hard, is athletic, and listens well. Demico is training hard, he's a good wrestler, and has solid strength.
FIGHT- Brendan Schaub vs. Demico Rogers
Demico has a 3 inch reach advantage. Both guys are 6 foot, 4 inches tall. Josh Rosenthal is the referee.
ROUND 1- Demico shoots in for a takedown, but Brendan fights it off. They each reverse the other before getting into a clinch. Brendan throws some jabs. Demico gets a takedown and is in full guard. Brendan keeps wrapping up Demico in an attempt to get the ref to stand them up. Demico stands, then jumps back down into guard. Brendan spins, and Demico gets into side control. Demico lands some powerful lefts, but Brendan reverses. Brendan locks in an anaconda choke and rolls, Demico is out.
WINNER- Brendan Schaub by Anaconda Choke
None of Team Rampage's coaches enter the octagon to comfort Demico. Rashad consoles him. That makes Rampage look really, really bad. I don't think Rashad did it to make Rampage look bad, but that makes him a whole lot worse than any of their arguments ever have. After finally talking to Demico for a minute, Rampage summons his coaches into the dressing room for a meeting. He wants them all to focus on what these fighters do well, and to not worry about advanced techniques.
The fight was good, much better than the other suckfests we've had to endure so far this season. Brendan pulled off a sweet choke, and there was good action while it lasted. Rampage not consoling Demico after his loss speaks a lot to Rampage's character as a coach. Some people can't coach, Rampage is one of them. Being a bad coach doesn't mean that you're a bad fighter, it just means that you can't teach. It doesn't make you more or less of a fighter. Michael Jordan might be the best basketball player of all time (a debatable topic, to be sure), but he's horrible as a GM. I really, really like Rampage, he's such an entertaining personality. However, the fact is, he can't coach worth a damn. After he ends his "retirement", which shouldn't be much longer, he should focus more on fighting and acting. It's weird that a moment of Rashad doing the right thing has made Rampage look way worse than all the trash-talking and insults Rashad has ever hurled at him.
NEXT WEEK- A little hazing in the house, plus another "shocking" moment.
