I’ll start by apologizing for missing last week: I’m sorry, let’s get caught up. The younger Browning may be worse than his brother, since he started being a jackass before he even earned his spot in the house. The upside was that it sparked a discussion in which everyone else agreed that people would respect one another and their things, and that the use of bodily fluids was off limits.
Frank Lester KO’d himself going for a takedown, which earned Kiel Reid his spot in the house. Post fight we got to watch a groggy Lester trying to trash talk Kiel Reid who was celebrating like he had just beat Fedor.
Thankfully Jason Dent only took a couple minutes to feel out Rob Browning’s skills before just beating him up until the ref stepped in. Dent utilized some fantastic knees to the body on the ground.
So our teams are now set as we begin the first regular episode of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK.
The episode opens with Team UK training hard and establishes what I am sure will be a running theme of the show – Bisping making cocky comments and Damarques letting them get under his skin.
Damarques seems to be stepping in the role of a leader, but also in the role of instigator. In this episode he draws on a Team UK shirt and a member of Team UK’s wrestling shoes. The first was simply laughed off, but Ross wasn’t happy about his shoes being marked up. Even a few members of Team US seemed to feel it was against the pre-established rules.
Luckily this is the extent of childishness in this episode as Bisping quickly tells his team not to retaliate so that they “don’t look like dicks on TV.” Solid advice from Bisping, who witnessed a good share of marker pranks escalate between Kendal and Rory in season 3.
I also felt that this episode was great to show how a fighter and his team prepare for their opponent. We saw Bisping and his assistant coaches study tape on Mark Miller and then work strategy with his Team UK opponent for this week’s fight, Nick Osipczack.
We saw some of Dan Henderson with his four assistant coaches (I always thought they only got to bring 2?) but from a training perspective the episode was mostly Team UK. The Two coaches are a great contrast with Bisping talking and Henderson remaining calm and quiet, but I worry that the dynamic will result in Dan not getting much screen time.
The fight between Nick and Mark was a pretty entertaining brawl for the first round. Nick followed the game plan to lure Mark in on their feet and then go for the takedown. However while Nick seemed to control the location of the fight, Mark was definitely doing more damage. At one point it looked like Mark tapped to a guillotine, however the fight continued and Mark worked back to his feet.
In the second round, two obviously worn out men exchange sloppy haymakers on their feet and try to catch their breath on the ground. Then out of nowhere, following a standup, Nick KO’d Mark with a big kick to the head.
Post-fight, Bisping talked a bit, he felt the game plan proved that his fighters should listen to him, and he explained that he was talking a lot in an attempt to demoralize Team US. Looking at the scenes from next week, it seems to be working.
So far I am impressed with the structure of this season, lots of time in the gym and not much time in the house. It should continue next week when we get two fights in one episode. See you then (I promise).
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