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MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 4 Recap
After a fantastic fight last week, Ryan McGillivray beat Len Bentley and put Team Dos Santos up 2-1 in the game.
With another win for his team, Junior Dos Santos and his coaches again had control over the fight matchups. During Team Dos Santos’ training session, Lew Polley (the coach who got in trouble for running Dos Santos’ practices too hard and injuring a fighter) went into detail about how his team is outworking Brock Lesnar’s team in training. That’s interesting, considering they never actually see the other team train.
Regardless of Polley’s infinite wisdom, Team Lesnar’s training session looked pretty intense and fast-paced. Lesnar even booted a fighter from the cage when he thought he wasn’t going all out. Lesnar couldn’t seem to get on the same page with his fighters though, as everyone looked drained or distracted in one way or another.
The fight announcement came and went as Dos Santos chose Ramsey Nijem to represent his team and Charlie Rader from Team Lesnar. As usual, both teams talked about how this was a “great matchup” for their team, but someone’s got to be wrong.
In what I hope to God was a head game being played by Nijem, he had his toenails painted a purple sparkle color and talked at length about how much he enjoyed the show Glee. He then decided to get butt naked and dance around for all the other men in the house. Intense. After Team Lesnar told Nijem they’re not sure whether he understands he’s going to have to fight, Nijem retreated to his room where he explained to his roommate that this was his plan all along. Well he could’ve fooled me with the strip tease and purple toenails. Well played, Nijem.
Lesnar decided to bring in UFC legend and former 170-pound champ Matt Hughes as inspiration for his team in their next training session. Hughes had some really good tips for Rader and his upcoming fight. We’ll see if it paid off or not.
Round 1 started off with both men clinching and trading knees to each other’s body before Nijem put a knee right in Rader’s man parts, and the referee separated them. After the break, Nijem rushed forward again to assume their previous clinch position up against the cage. Nijem tried hard for a takedown for the first four minutes with nothing to show for it. Finally, with a minute left, Nijem got a takedown only to have Rader scramble right back to his feet. Nijem got one more takedown with 30 seconds left and the round ended with very little damage being done to anyone.
The second stanza started off with both fighters swinging wildly in the center of the cage before Nijem again rushed in to put Rader up against the cage. Nijem’s work paid off as he got a quick takedown and kept scoring points with pressure. Soon enough, the pressure was too much for Rader as he lost a scramble and gave up his back a minute into the second round. Nijem worked quickly to take advantage of his opponent’s mistake as he sunk in a rear-naked choke forcing a tap out from Rader to get the victory. Lesnar and Dana White went on to agree that it was obvious that Rader quit once he realized he lost that first round. There’s a good way to lose and a bad way, it looked like Rader chose the bad way.
Team Dos Santos now holds a commanding 3-1 lead in the game and will continue to pick and choose the matchups that they want.
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MMA: UFC Whom to Watch For - 6/19
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 8 Recap - 5/20
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 7 Recap - 5/13
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 6 Recap - 5/6
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 5 Recap - 5/1
MMA: UFC 129 - 4/27
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 4 Recap - 4/22
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 3 Recap - 4/14
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 2 Recap - 4/7
MMA: Strikeforce - Diaz vs. Daley - 4/6
MMA: The Ultimate Fighter Episode 1 Recap - 3/31
MMA: Bellator 39 - 3/30
MMA: UFC Fight Night 24 - 3/25
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