TUF 13 Diary: Episode 4 Recap and Analysis

The last episode of The Ultimate Fighter had Brock Lesnar explain to his team what a chicken s*** salad is, we saw a possible “trader” from Team Lesnar hang out with Team dos Santos, and a pretty exciting bout between Ryan McGillivray and Len Bentley. It ended with McGillivray getting the majority decision over Bentley. Team dos Santos is now 2-1 in the show and once again they earned the right to pick their next fight.

-JDS seemed to be in very good spirits after Ryan McGillivray’s victory over Len Bentley. Lew Polley and Junior dos Santos does their best to instill the value of hard work to their fighters. So far it’s been paying off.

–Brock Lesnar returns to the show after briefly leaving for personal issues. He wasn’t very happy with Len Bentley’s loss, but he looks forward going further into this show with his “four horsemen”: Tony Ferguson, Chuck O’Neil, Clay Harvison and Charlie Rader.

-Clay Harvison doesn’t seem to be mentally into training. Lesnar attempts to push him and the rest of the team to dig deeper.

-This episode we learn about Team Lesnar fighters Chuck O’Neil and Charlie Rader. Both men apparently trained together outside the show, they hang out together regularly, and play practical jokes on each other. Chuck O’Neil apparently is the team’s unofficial nutritionist, helping the guys to eat properly.

-With Junior dos Santos’ team having another fight pick, he choose team wrestling standout Ramsey Nijem to face Bellator veteran Charlie Rader from Team Lesnar.

-We had a closer look into Team JDS’ Ramsey Nijem. He appears to be the show’s practical joker with his painted nails, love for the TV show “Glee”, and walking around the house naked. Coach Junior and him seem to have a very fun / easy going relationship.

-A lot of the people in the house are having a hard time taking Ramsey seriously and don’t view him as a threat. Ramsey seems to use his underdog status as his inspiration going into his bout.

-UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was brought into the gym by Brock Lesnar to help work on his team’s grappling. Matt seemed to like Chuck’s work ethic and enjoyed his team with Brock’s team.

-While Ramsey from Team JDS works on his “grinding” game plan, Team Lesnar helps Charlie keep the game on his feet for the bout.

-Random side note, according to Chuck O’Neil drinking a protein shake before you bed is good for you. I should try that.

-During the fighter weigh-ins, Brock Lesnar noticed that Ramsey paints his toe nails, and now more than ever wants Charlie to win the fight.

-Right at the beginning of the first round, Ramsey stayed true to his game plan. He threw a few punches, and turned the fight into a grappling match by clinching with Charlie against the cage. Ramsey landed an unintentional knee to Charlie’s groin forcing referee Herb Dean to stop the action for a brief moment. The fight went back to the way it was in the beginning and Ramsey continued his grinder game plan. At the end of the round, Ramsey was able to score two takedowns, and looked to be the more “controlling” fighter.

-During the 2nd round, Ramsey and Charlie traded punches in the center of the Octagon, but once again Ramsey was able to find the right opportunity to close the distance with Charlie and take him down while Charlie’s back was against the fence. Ramsey did a great job using his wrestling background to his advantage, even managing to get Charlie’s back on a few occasions. Eventually all the opportunities Ramsey was able to get cost Charlie dearly and Charlie lost via rear naked choke in the 2nd round 3:31.

-Brock was very unhappy with the outcome of this fight and openly admitted that he felt like Charlie was going to lose to Ramsey as soon as the two men walked into the Octagon. Brock felt like Charlie was holding back during the fight and that he quit during the fight.

-Dana White gave his two cents on the bout and felt that Charlie quit during the fight as well.

-Lesnar after the bout threw his corner’s stool into the Octagon and feels like his team doesn’t care.

-While Team JDS celebrated their well-deserved victory, the mood in Team Lesnar’s camp was very sour. Lesnar questioned his team’s heart / work ethic and called his team a group of “chicken s***s”. Len Bentley wasn’t very happy with his coach’s words and walked out of the room.

What to expect in the next episode:

-Len Bentley openly expresses his frustration with his coach.

-The Chris Cope trader saga continues.

-Someone gets injured.

Conclusion:

I’m going to be honest and I think a lot of you readers / experts might agree. This show is not only becoming more and more predictable by the episodes and not to disrespect the fighters, I feel like the level of talent going on the show is dropping. Previous seasons we were introduced to the likes of Josh Koscheck, Kenny Florian, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Diego Sanchez, and many more. But now these days I feel like we aren’t even close to that caliber of talent anymore.

I’m no TV expert, but I know what I like. I think they need to do something in the future seasons to “spice” up this series. I don’t know what, but maybe you readers out there could explain in the comment box what types of changes should be made to this show. This episode was very bland, it had a few entertaining moments involving Ramsey, but not something to go crazy about.

The fight will be one that many of us are not going to remember the next day. Ramsey did a wonderful job executing his game plan, but with the reality tv audience’s attention span being very small I wouldn’t be surprised by the number of people who changed the channel.

Hopefully next episode will be much better and I can write a much more positive conclusion. Till then, type out your two cents in the comment box.