TUF 13 Diary: Episode 2 Recap and Analysis

The last episode of The Ultimate Fighter season 13, let’s be honest. It was probably the most boring episode of TUF I’ve ever seen and I’ve been watching the series since the very beginning. The fighters don’t have to fight their way into the house this season and for 45 minutes of our time we had to watch them run on treadmills. And we can’t forget the 2 round wrestlefest of Sharmar Bailey vs. Nordin Ashrih with Sharmar getting the unanimous decision. Like I said not the most fun episode, but it’s just the beginning of the series, and I’m expecting to see the same antics from previous seasons. So let’s get into this!

-The show started out Team dos Santos Keon Caldwell struggling with training. Coach JDS tries to push Keon in training, but it seems like mentally Keon isn’t into it. He appears to be homesick and misses his daughter.

–Brock Lesnar‘s team started out with some wrestling training. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised by Brock’s wrestling coaching abilities. He should be good at instruction considering his Division One level of wrestling. I did question in the beginning how he could teach his team due to lack of experience, but so far he’s doing a good job.

-Coach JDS’ English isn’t too bad, I can understand him fine.

-Dana White came into the gym to give Keon Caldwell a pep talk to encourage him to stay on the show.

-With coach JDS in the driver’s seat to pick the next fight, he chooses Javier Torres to take on Chris Cope from Team Lesnar.

-Interesting note that JDS’ assistant coach Lew Polley has trained with Chris Cope in the past with Team Lesnar.

-Is Javier Torres the first Mexican born fighter on TUF? I’m not sure, but he seems very hungry to prove himself like everyone else should.

-After struggling in training earlier Keon Caldwell goes to coach JDS and leaves the show. Mentally he isn’t into it and leaves to see his family.

-Chris Cope from Team Lesnar feels Team JDS is overlooking him and not taking him seriously. He is looking to prove them wrong, especially Lew Polley who he has trained with in the past.

-Interesting to see the more “human” side of Brock Lesnar. It was cool seeing him give his team a motivational talk. Admitting to his fighters that he was marketed as an unstoppable machine and that he is human. He made references to the Al Pacino movie “Any Given Sunday” and encouraged his fighters to fight for “that inch”.

-Chris seems very nervous going into his fight with Javier, but he finds comfort in letters from his girlfriend and a stuffed rabbit given to him by his girlfriend’s daughter.

-Before Javier came into the house, apparently he found out his wife is pregnant, and he wants to do his best to win this fight.

-At the beginning of the first round, Javier went for a superman punch and landed a one two combo closing the distance to clinch against the fence.
-Javier was able to take Cope down for a brief moment and even managed to grab his back, but it didn’t last. There were a few brief stand up exchanges, but majority of the fight was spent with Chris’ back against the fence while clinched.

-Chris landed some big elbows against Javier and you can tell he felt it. Numerous knees were exchanged and it seemed to be a pretty even round. Chris had a small cut on his face and it was a fairly even round, but I scored for Javier. Again not the most exciting round in TUF.

-The second round started with the same way it began in the first, in clinch this time with Javier starting with his back to the cage. At this point, Cope’s face was a little bit more cut.

-Chris was doing a good job landing some big elbows. There was a brief stand up exchange, with Chris I feel doing a much better job on the feet. Throwing various combinations, high kicks.

-Clinching was the story of the fight and this bout was taken to a sudden victory third round. Going into the third, Chris seemed to look like the “bouncier” of the two. Once again the fight was taken back the clinch just like it started and this time Chris seemed to be the one controlling Javier.

-It was a very close fight and Chris Cope got the first win for Team Lesnar.

–Brock Lesnar seems to be obsessed with his “chicken ***t salad” and he’s doing a good job motivating his boys.

-Team JDS looks visibly upset from the outcome and seem focused to get back to their winning ways.

-In the upcoming episode, Team JDS gets introduced to their new teammate to replace Keon. It seems coach Lew has taken training too far and Junior has to set him straight. Like previous seasons, it looks like Chris Cope could be playing both sides with Team JDS and Team Lesnar.

In conclusion, this was an ok episode. It wasn’t as boring as before and it’s a step into the right direction for good television. At the end of the day, this show is about the training and preparation for Mixed Martial Arts fighters. The drama, comedy, and everything else that you expect from a reality show is just what keeps us coming back to watch. I’m curious to watch next week’s episode of TUF and you should too. So come back here next week for our TUF 13 episode 2 diary.