Ultimate Fighter Recap

This week’s episode started out with Kimbo talking about . I’ve got to say it is nice seeing another side of him besides just what you see on his Youtube videos. He’s a thoughtful, driven guy who I actually found myself gaining a lot for respect for. We then see Rashad reminding everyone how hard Roy Nelson is to coach. Quite honestly if he doesn’t want to learn or listen, he’s a fool. If he was as good as he thought he was, he would have already been in the UFC. He still has a lot to prove whether he knows it or not.

Next we see the coaches start to jaw at each other. Rashad cannot out trash-talk Rampage. He really shouldn’t try. Line of the night had to be “Rashad’s breath could fight for him. I think that’s how he knocked out Chuck.” Thankfully Rampage is keeping this season interesting so far with the comedy, although for his team’s sake I hope he starts coaching them a little more. Now we see Marcus Jones limping over to bench apparently hurt. He sits down and hears Rampage talking about who’s going to fight next and erupts because he thought he was up next after Kimbo. Rampage handled it really well and calmly explained to Marcus that he doesn’t want him to fight unless he was 100%. I know that the training is intense and the house drives some guys crazy, but this was strange.

Round 1: Both guys come out ready to go and Nelson is landing some nice jabs early. Kimbo stalks Nelson around the cage and the lands a nice combo. Nelson grabs a hold of Kimbo and pushes him up against the cage, trying for a takedown which he finally gets. Nelson passes Kimbo’s guard and has him in trouble. Nelson goes for a crucifix and lands blow after blow on Kimbo, but they don’t seem to have a lot behind them. Round 1 ends before Herb Dean has to jump in and stop it.

My score 10-9 Nelson.

Round 2: Kimbo came out aggressively and threw some nice shots. But Nelson rushes him and takes him down. He manages to get into the same crucifix position as in the first round and starts landing blows. Nelson’s corner starts counting the number of shots to Kimbo. The only problem with this is many of the strikes seem like they’re lightly tapping his forehead. This continues without Kimbo being able to defend himself and Herb Dean is forced to call a stop to the fight.

Winner: Roy “Big Country” Nelson

After the fight, Dana White goes on to say that Nelson was landing blows that his daughter would land on him when they wrestled. While funny, it’s probably not a good idea to call out the guy who just beat this season’s biggest name. It wasn’t the prettiest of fights and Nelson isn’t going to intimidate anyone with his knockout power, or lack thereof. I would have to say that this was the best of the three fights so far this season, although that isn’t saying much. Before the fight, Kimbo was saying this was his best fight to date. I’m not sure about that. But what he did tonight was affirm the belief that while he has the power to finish someone standing, if he gets taken down he is in real trouble. He really has to work on his ground game to become a legitimate force in mma.

Dana then goes on to say how he can’t believe how proud of his performance Roy Nelson is and how he did just enough to win. Now normally I don’t like to see Dana put down the guys that just fought, but I have to agree with everything he said about Nelson. Ever since the first episode of the season, “Big Country” has grated on me. He has come into the house with a huge sense of self importance. While having confidence in yourself is a good thing, talking about how he would be a headliner and make so much money fighting Kimbo elsewhere gets very tiresome. He needs to understand quickly that while he was a champion in the IFL, that was in the past and most importantly, it was in the IFL. In the UFC, he has accomplished nothing yet and should be a sponge to absorb anything Rashad and his team has to teach him.