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Nov 18, 2009 - 11:43:44 PM By Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor
The Ultimate Fighter report
November 18, 2009
By Frank Hyden
I missed the first few minutes because my cable was messing up on me. Hopefully it wasn't anything good. Considering the rest of this season, probably not. Anyway, the cable comes back to the coaches talking about Matt Mitrione. They're discussing whether or not he wants to fight. It sure seems as though he doesn't want to fight. He might be legitimately hurt, but he also seems reluctant to fight. The rest of the fighters are talking. James McSweeney is trashing Matt, saying he doesn't have the heart. Scott Junk joins in a bit as well, saying that he'd love to get a second chance. Junk's first chance was against Matt, who beat him.
Team Rampage is shown training. Kimbo Slice and Quinton Jackson are talking about the possibility of Kimbo replacing Matt. Kimbo's knee is hurt, from rolling with Demico Rogers during training. Based on what Kimbo is saying, it sounds like he has some fluid on his knee that should probably be drained. Kimbo and Rampage are talking about James throwing a lot of leg kicks. That could be major trouble for Kimbo if he does indeed replace Matt.
Brendan Schaub is training. Rashad Evans helps a little before saying that he doesn't want to get too involved. Roy Nelson and James help Brendan out with his training. Meanwhile, Kimbo sees a doctor, who tells Kimbo that he has no cartilage on his knee. I've been there, and it hurts. The swelling is from fluid around Kimbo's knee. The doctor says to get the knee aspirated and injected with cortisone. Kimbo objects, and it seems as though he's afraid of needles. I find that a bit odd. Kimbo punches guys in the face for a living, yet is afraid of needles? I guess we're all complex beings.
The Coaches' Challenge this season is volleyball. It'll be Tiki Ghosn and Rampage versus Rashad and Mike Van Arsdale. Rampage and Tiki win the first game. Rashad and Mike win the second game. Dana White says it turned into a really good volleyball game. I'll take his word for it, what I saw looked okay, but I'm no volleyball fan. Rashad and Mike win the third game, and the $10,000. Each guy on Team Rashad gets $1,500. Rampage shakes everyone's hand, and is the adult here. Rashad starts acting like a smart-ass, and is a bad winner. He starts taunting Rampage. He's been looking pretty good these past few weeks, but he just f'd that up. Just shake his hand and be done with it.
Back at the house, Kimbo has been spending a lot of time in the pool, trying to heal his knee. James has an ice bath, and Kimbo gets in. The other fighters have a good laugh as Kimbo shakes and groans. I've never been in an ice bath, and I don't ever want to be in one. I'll take my chances and skip that particular remedy. After a while, Kimbo jumps out and retreats to the hot tub. The next day, Jon Madsen is shown training. Rashad is helping Jon, much to the chagrin of Brendan. Rashad is giving Jon a lot of personal training time. That kind of goes against what he had said earlier, but Brendan chalks it up to them both being wrestlers. Jon is a good wrestler, but he has no other skills. He's still learning his trade.
Rashad sits Matt down and asks him if he wants to fight. Matt says he feels a little forced to fight. Rashad says he's going to call Dana and tell him that Matt doesn't want to fight. Rashad's taking the decision out of Matt's hands, and I applaud it. I'm so sick of Matt's hee-hawing around, either fight or don't. I'm past the point of caring what he does, to be totally honest. If he's not able to fight, that's fine, but all this dicking around is getting old. Later, Dana comes and gives the fighters a speech. It's your basic, "Do you want to be a fighter?" speech. Matt thinks it's aimed at him. At least his detective skills are top-notch.
At the Ninja Assassin Official Weigh-in...nothing happened. It was like every other weigh-in I've ever seen in MMA. Well, maybe not everyone, this was more bland. Jon and Brendan are then shown preparing for their fight. James keeps slapping Brendan over and over. I didn't know they were fighting, much less that they were fighting in the dressing room. It's like that John Henderson video of him before Jaguars games. James slaps Brendan again, just before the first round. Damn, this guy just loving slapping people. I hope he lets Brendan return the favor before James fights next time.
FIGHT- Jon Madsen vs. Brendan Schaub
Brendan has a 4 inch height and a 7.5 inch reach advantage. Josh Rosenthal is the referee.
ROUND 1- They start off very tentative. Jon gets a slam. Not a hard one, but a slam nonetheless. Jon is laying-and-praying. Here we go, wake me up when he's ready to actually fight. Brendan is grabbing the fence. Rosenthal stands them up. Jon grabs a clinch, and Brendan hits him with a knee to the body. Brendan grabs the fence a few more times here. Brendan with another shot, but Jon gets another slam. Jon does more lay-and-pray crap and the round ends. Brendan grabbed the fence about 27 times during that round. I though for sure Rosenthal was going to deduct a point.
ROUND 2- Jon gets a clinch. Brendan throws some knees to the body. Brendan grabs the fence again. They reengage, and Brendan connects with a straight right hand that drops Jon. This fight is over. I guess it didn't matter that Brendan kept grabbing the fence, even if he was deducted points, it doesn't matter now.
WINNER- Brendan Schaub
I was glad to see Brendan win this fight. The lay-and-pray stylings of Jon Madsen put me to sleep. The guy's a better sedative than Ambien. In this day and age, no one should ever use that crap as their primary offensive weapon. Mix in some boxing training or something. I was also happy to see the Matt "Meathead" Mitrione saga finally come to an end. At least, it better have ended. This was a fairly good episode, all in all. I loved finally seeing a knockout on the show. It's been a while, old friend. Rashad kind of looked like a bad winner, thus making Rampage look better, if that was possible. Kimbo taking an ice bath was funny.
NEXT WEEK- A special 2 hour episode, featuring all 4 remaining fights that will determine the final 2 fighters that'll meet on December 5
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