By Brent Wilson

 

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After the first episode I watched more tape on some of the guys who made it that I was unfamiliar with. And well....quite a few of them are pretty bad at fighting. Dana`s stated intention for having an extra round of fights was to weed out the scrubs, but that doesn`t work at all with a random draw for the first round. Having watched the entirety of Olympic boxing I feel quite safe in saying that random draws are counterintuitive and diminish excitement. It wouldn`t be too much to ask to have some sort of seeding so guys like Ryan Jimmo, Joe Duarte, and Jose Aguillar don`t go out immediately.

Show recap---
The show gets right to the fights this week.

Fight 1 (LW)
Wesley Murch (3-2) vs. John Polakowski (2-1)

Murch says he feels the pressure of representing Great Britain, Polakowski is one of Chuck Liddells` training partners and fights out of the PIT under John Hackleman. He also has the unusual distinction of having all three of his fights come against jobber-extraordinaire Olaf Alfonso due to controversy in the first two fights. Polakowski comes from a Muay Thai background and his gimmick appears to be hyper guy.

Round 1
Murch opens with a head kick attempt that lands under Polakowskis` armpit, after eating some Polakowski punches Murch looks to shoot. Polakowski sprawls nicely and pushes the clinch against the cage, Polakowski looks for a whizzer but Murch is able to use a trip to take the fight to the ground in Polakowskis` half-guard. Polakowski quickly regains full guard, Murch is landing effective strikes from the top and cuts Polakowski on the bridge of the nose. Polakowski is using his long legs to attempt to push Murch off of on top of him but Murch has good control and remains on top. Murch stands over Polakowski and grabs a leg, he drops down into an attempted heel hook, Murch doesn`t appear to really know how to finish it and the attempt only results in Polakowski getting on top in side control. Polakowski chooses to stand up the fight back up and has to sprawl to defend another takedown right away. From the clinch Polakowski is landing nice body shots and knees, he lands a jumping knee as well as Murch shoots in once again. Polakowksi again shows a nice sprawl, but somehow gives up his back to Murch on the scramble, Murch is able to lock both hooks in and works for the rear naked choke. Polakowski spins and ends up on top but is unable to get anything going and stands the fight back up again.
Murch gets hit with a jab while throwing a leg kick which gives the appearance of a knockdown, Mir feels that wins Polakowski the round but I disagree, Murch did more damage and was able to threaten with submissions, even if he didn`t really know how to lock them in fully. 10-9 Murch.

After the round ends Murch is down grasping his shin, perhaps he wasn`t knocked off balance and dropped due to breaking something.

Round 2
Whatever the case Murch chooses to fight through the pain. Murch is noticeable limping but lands a jab as the round opens.
After throwing a flying knee Murch collapses and ref Josh Rosenthal stops the fight due to injury. Polakowski wins another strange one at 0:17 of round two. Polakowski proceeds to run around the cage like a wild man, and gives each of the coaches and Dana a big hug, Big Nog confesses to liking hugs, don`t we all. Frank Mir on the other hand wants to limit hugs to three seconds.
The doctor feels Murch has a bone contusion and that`s the last we`ll ever see of him.

Fight 2 (LHW)
Shane Primm (1-0) vs. Sean O`Connell (6-2)

Primm is quite confident. I don`t know if I would be had I won my only fight by DQ after being savaged by fellow TUF 8er Tom Lawlor before being hit with an illegal knee, but I guess we shall see.

Round 1
After a brief exchange Primm catches O`Connell in a Thai plumb and begins to deliver knees to the body, O`Connell first punches to the body in return then looks to catch a knee to take Primm down. Primm is able to avoid the takedown for a minute but ultimately gets dumped hard. Primm had a hold of an arm the entire time but O`Connell is able to fight out and is on top of Primm in half-guard with Primm stuffed against the cage. Primm goes right back to the arm and looked to have it extended although the cage may be blocking him from locking it in fully. O`Connell locks his hands together and is able to stack Primm to escape the hold. In the ensuing scramble Primm is able to put O`Connell on his back and ends up in side control. O`Connell scrambles to his belly then to his feet, Primm catches him in a front headlock and lands some knees to the head and body. O`Connell pushes Primm to the cage and works for another takedown, Primm again locks onto an arm while defending, and this time drops backwards and uses a kimura attempt to sweep O`Connell, resulting in Primm on top in side control. Primm passes to mount and O`Connell gives up his back right away. Primm flattens O`Connell out while flipping them both over while also working the choke. O`Connell is in a really bad spot and has to tap to the rear naked choke midway through Round 1.

Primm showed a really nice ground game, but if he fights someone with strong wrestling and adequate sub defense he`ll find grabbing an arm to defend a takedown will only result in him being trapped on the bottom.

Fight 3 (LW)
Ido Pariente (8-3) vs. Efrain Escudero (10-0)

Pariente is an Israeli and got completely outclassed, and outmuscled by Jake Shields on the K-1 Dynamite USA card last summer.
He is a BJJ black belt and has a slick ground game but both times he`s fought decent opposition he has lost. Escudero is a favorite in the competition. Escudero is an excellent wrestler, being an Arizona HS champ and a JuCo All-American. Escudero trains with Drew Fickett in Arizona and has shown outstanding ground skills in everyones` favorite slap-fight organization Rage in the Cage. Escudero was using ground and pound to set up a rear naked choke there, although in the UFC with the ability to actually punch people perhaps he`ll be able to rack up some TKOs.

Round 1
The two clinch right away and both trade trip takedown attempts, Escudero is able to muscle Pariente to the ground. Escudero positions Parientes head right against the cage preventing his movement. Pariente works a half butterfly guard and uses it to push Escudero away, as the two scramble up Pariente grabs a leg but Escudero shows his tremendous balance by staying upright on one foot and then fights free. Both men look very tentative on the feet. Escudero ducks a Pariente flurry and again takes him down with a shot. Working from half-guard Pariente is very active grabbing at Escuderos legs looking for a sweep, Pariente uses this to scramble up, Escudero briefly looked for every wrestlers favorite hold, the D`Arce choke and again balances on one leg avoiding a takedown. Escudero looks for the D`Arce again and though Pariente fights off Escuderos` hands, Escudero is able to take Parientes back off of the attempt. Escudero has both hooks in and looks to lock up a rear naked choke but Pariente is doing well by keeping his chin down and turning towards the choking arm. The choke turns into a neck crank though and Pariente taps out in Round 1.

Fight 4 (LHW)

Ryan Lopez (6-4) vs. Tom Lawlor (4-1)

Lopez is a bounty hunter by day, and a former fitness model, and he indeed looks the part as he`s very yoked. Mir is impressed with his look and athletisiscm, too bad he`s fighting someone who can really fight. Lawlor is a former pro wrestler and it shows in his personality, from his hair-do, to his promos, to his entrances, to his victory dances. In addition Lawlor trains at ATT Tampa and is a very strong wrestler, his only loss as mentioned came to Shane Primm by DQ in a fight he was dominating for the 25 seconds it lasted.

Round 1
Lopez throws a hard body kick but is taken right down by Lawlor. Lawlor stands above Lopez and as Lopez looks to scramble up Lawlor hops onto his back. Lawlor is warned for hitting the back of the head by Herb Dean and sinks one hook in. Lawlor sinks in the choke but still only has one hook in, it makes no difference as Lopez taps out early. Knowing how to fight is much more important than just being jacked.

Onto the clipped fun

Fight 5 (LW)
Roli Delgado (5-3-1) vs. George Roop (8-3)

Delgado is a BJJ stud but has lost every time he`s taken a tiny step up in competition, Roop was the former champ in Rage in the Cage. Both these guys are really tall for the division and generally try to use that length on the ground.

We get to see some sloppy striking from both, a tight guillotine attempt from Delgado that Roop escapes.
Mir feels that Roop is very coachable, Nog felt the difference was Roop was able to keep the fight standing as Roop wins by decision.

Fight 6 (LHW)
Kyle Kingsbury (7-1) vs. Ryan Bader (7-0)
Both these guys are Arizona St. alums, Kingsbury from football and Bader from wrestling. Kingsbury now trains with AKA in San Jose with Koscheck, Fitch, and fellow ASU alum Cain Velasquez. Bader is the definitive favorite for the 205 division though, he is a fabulous wrestler with Arizona High School Championships, and was a two-time All-American at ASU. He`s currently training at Arizona Combat with CB Dollaway and Jamie Varner.

In clips we see Kingsbury doing very well though avoiding takedowns and dropping Bader with a jab. We then see Bader on top with some nice control and elbows. Mir gives the first round to Kingsbury. Bader opens the second round with a slam, it looks like he then passed to side and locks in an arm triangle for the tap in early round two.

Mir then agrees with my main point that guys are losing in the first round who deserve to be in the house.

Fight 7 (LW)
Shane Nelson (9-3) vs. Charles Diaz (10-5)

Nelson trains with BJ Penn in Hilo, Hawaii and is a good fighter but lacks a little power on the feet and finishing ability on the ground.  Diaz was on the wrong end of one of the greatest submissions in history against Rumina Sato.

Nelsons lack of finishing skills are on full display here as it looks like he dominated Diaz standing with punches, kicks and knees, even dropping Diaz at one point but still failing to finish. That being said he has the skills to make it pretty far in this tournament.

Fight 8 (LHW)
Eliot Marshall (5-1) vs. Karn Grigoryan (5-0)

Marshall is someone to watch out for in this tournament as he has excellent ground skills with a black belt in BJJ and it showed when fighting in the Colorado based Ring of Fire as he overwhelmed opponents positionally to finish either with strikes from the mount or to lock on a submission. Girgoryan is Armenian and fights out of Team Link in Massachusetts which also has housed Gabe Gonzaga and Paulo Filho.

Round 1
Marshall is really lacking on the feet and looks out of sorts while Grigoryan peppers him with leg kicks and punches. Marshall shoots, Grigoryan completely flattens him out with his sprawl. Grigoryan looks to take the back off the attempt but Marshall shows his ground skills by limiting Girgoryan to half-guard and then quickly back to guard. Marshall looks to lock on a triangle but doesn`t have Girgoryans arm sufficiently trapped so Grigoryan is able to pull out. Grigoryan looks to stack Marshall up to pass, in doing so he gets to half-guard but has left himself very high on Marshalls body and Marshall is able to use this high-centre of gravity to sweep Grigoryan.
Marshall slides to mount within seconds of being on top. After a few punches Girgoryan gives his back and Marshall locks in a figure four body lock. Marshall lets go of the figure four and Girgoryan is able to spin into Marshalls guard as a result. Marshall again looks for the triangle but Grigoryan is game as he steps over to escape. Marshall positions himself for an omoplata as the round ends.
Marshall controlled position, threatened with subs, and took no damage, his round 10-9.

Round 2
Marshall throws a head kick but it is blocked early in round two. Marshall is listening well to Mir and is countering Girgoryans leg kicks with straight rights, much to Mirs delight. Marshall looks much more confident on the feet, but is still eating some left hooks. Marshall works for a single leg, it looks like Grigoryan gives it up to try and sweep, but Marshalls control is excellent and he stays on top in side control. Marshall finishes out the round on top throwing elbows and knees from side control. With this round being edited its tough to tell who won, but I would give what was shown to Marshall 10-9. The fight is going to a third round, my guess is the judges valued top control more than "doing stuff " in the opening round. Or perhaps the stand-up portion controlled by Grigoryan in round two swayed them.

Round 3
Grigoryan looks tired as his punches have become very loopy. Marshall closes the distance clinches and takes Girgoryan down, Grigoryan quickly posts up on one arm and scrambles putting Marshall on his back instead. Marshall locks on an omoplata and swiftly sweeps Grigoryan, Grigoryan scrambles from side control but in the process gives up his back. Marshall sinks both hooks in, switches to mount and starts to land some elbows. Grigoryan wallwalks up and pushes off the fence and in the process ends up on top in Marshalls guard. One of the prior elbows has busted Girgoryans nose open. Steve Mazzagatti stands the fight up quickly, I thought to check on the blood, but I guess he felt Grigoryan was stalling. Marshall lands a body kick as the fight ends.

I gave this round to Marshall as well, 10-9, he did more damage, and whenever he was in disadvantageous position he either threatened or sweeped Grigoryan. Guess what...judges love top control as they gave Karn Grigoryan the nod in a split decision.

That is an atrocious decision.....Grigoryan landed some on the feet, the second round wasn`t shown enough to judge, but the entirety of the decision comes down to the third round, Marshall landed more strikes, did more damage, all Grigoryan did was be on top of Marshall for a moment or two. 

Dana gathers everyone and says good bye to the losers, Marshall gives him a baleful look as he begins to leave. BUT WAIT!!!!!!!!
Antwain Britt broke his hand in defeating Ryan Jimmo and can`t continue, meaning Eliot Marshall gets to stay after all.

We then get a preview of the rest of the season. I know you`re not going to believe this but the fighters get drunk and go wild.
They tease that two fighters may be too injured to go to round two, several in-house fights, a possible drinking of urine, and close with
Dana telling the other fighters to beat off competitors they don`t like, then pausing to realize what he had just said. Oh, there may also be actual fights that will be good as well.