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The Ultimate Fighter Report
April 7, 2010
By Frank Hyden
The show starts as the fighters arrive at the house. They're all pretty excited. They choose rooms. The next day are the team selections. Dana White flips a coin to determine who chooses first. Tito Ortiz wins the toss, and decides to pick the first fighter. This means that Chuck Liddell gets to choose the first fight.
Team Liddell is: Kyle Noke, Rich Attonito, Charles Blanchard, Josh Bryant, Brad Tavares, Court McGee, and Joe Henle.
Team Punishment (Ortiz) is: Nick Rain, Kyacey Uscola, Kris McCray, Jamie Yager, James Hammortree, Clayton McKinney, and Chris Camozzi.
Dana questions Chuck's picks. Well, I guess this means that Team Liddell is going to win this season because Dana is usually wrong. Dana talks to Chuck about his picks. Chuck defends them, saying that he did his research. After a commercial break, Team Liddell is shown training. John Hackleman is Chuck's top assistant coach. The guys are trying to learn as much as they can, they seem to be learning a lot of the little things that are important. Team Punishment is then shown training. Saul Soliz is Tito's top assistant coach. Tito is pushing Clayton McKinney to go harder than he usually goes. Clayton has a hurt shoulder. Chris Camozzi is convinced that since he has some injuries of his own that he'll be in the first fight. It turns out that the first fight Chuck picks is Kyle Noke versus Clayton McKinney.
Back from commercial break, Kris, Jamie, and Brad have formed a clique. Brad says it's because they're the only brown guys in the house. Anyhow, they decide to prank the whole house by blowing air horns at 3 in the morning. Several of the other guys are upset about this. Clayton and Jamie argue about this the next morning. I'm not a big fan of this prank myself, but if it's only the first time I don't think I'd say too much about it.
Clayton had a MRI done on his shoulder. Luckily, it shows that he has a bruise on his shoulder bone, but not a tear. That's good news for him. Tito keeps giving him all kinds of crap. It just shows that he cares, otherwise he wouldn't bother. Elsewhere, Team Liddell is shown training. Kyle Noke is training hard for his upcoming fight. Kyle is supposed to be an all-around good fighter. John Hackleman says that he doesn't have any weaknesses. I find that a bit hard to believe, but I suppose we'll all find out eventually if that's true or not. Chuck talks more trash about Tito. So far, Chuck has been the only one to really talk any trash That's kind of odd, to be honest.
At Team Punishment's training session, they all have cupcakes in honor of Tito's birthday. They also have a Chuck pinata that Tito happily smashes. Inside the pinata there's actual cash money. The guys gleefully dive around for the cash. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Later, Clayton is sniping at the others for some reason. He seems really nervous about the fight. After the weigh-in, Jamie throws out some barbs at Team Liddell. I like Jamie a lot better in the octagon than I do outside of it. Not that I dislike the guy, he just seems like he always wants to talk.
FIGHT - Kyle Noke vs. Clayton McKinney
Both fighter are the same height, but Kyle has a 1.5 inch reach advantage. Herb Dean is the referee.
ROUND 1: Kyle starts off with a legkick. Both guys are very tentative. They circle for almost 2 minutes. They go to the ground, with Clayton on top. They start spinning around, and Kyle works his way into a triangle. It's really tight, and Clayton can't escape. He has to tap.
WINNER: Kyle Noke by Triangle
After the fight, Clayton is walking out, but Tito pleads with him to stay. I mean, he's literally begging Clayton to stay, for just a minute. Clayton comes back, and Tito shows him how to escape from a triangle. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen on this show, and that's why Tito Ortiz is the greatest coach that's ever been on The Ultimate Fighter. It's not even close, although other guys have been good coaches. Tito's a great coach, and I'd love for him to teach me anything. He seems like he cares so much. That was an incredibly impressive display by Tito.
The fight itself was more of a nice display of Kyle's talents rather than a good fight. Clayton just seemed outmatched. He's a good brawler, though, and I like him. It seems as though they're setting up that Jamie may be the one that a lot of the guys don't get along with. He seems like a hell of a fighter, though. I don't know he wasn't chosen sooner than he was. Seriously, he was the 7th pick? Seems a bit low to me. This was an all right episode, all in all.
NEXT WEEK: Tensions rise between Jamie Yager and the rest of the house
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