This week, in the third episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team Dos Santos, we pick up right where we left off, with Team Lesnar in control of the fight picks, and Team Dos Santos prepped to have a replacement come in for Keon Caldwell.
Immediately we're treated to Team Lesnar complaining about Brock Lesnar calling them "chicken shit". Honestly, if you get butt hurt over something like this, you might want to look into a more cuddly, cushy profession. Lesnar has a sit down with the team and attempts to clarify the "chicken salad out of chicken shit" comment. Time will tell if they can handle such abusive words from Lesnar through the rest of the season...jeeze.
Then, for Team Dos Santos, coach Lew Polley is trying to turn up the heat in training. Lew comes across distraught from last weeks loss, and says Junior dos Santos is being too easy on the team. The hard training leads to 1st pick Shamar Bailey to get cut, and the team feels like coach Lew is going a bit too far.
For fight picks, Lesnar picked his team's Len Bentley to take on Ryan McGillivray. After the commercial break, Team Lesnar shares their concerns that Chris Cope is sharing information with Team Dos Santos. Cope laughs it off as he makes what appears to be a ballin' fruit smoothie. Len goes to Lesnar the next day at training to talk about his concerns with Cope watching his training, as he might share the gameplan and more with the opposing team. Lesnar drops words of wisdom, and tells Lenny to ignore the BS, don't get caught up in house drama, and focus on winning his fight.
As we return from commercial, Dos Santos talks with Lew Polley, and let's him know that he's there to be a wrestling coach, not run the show. JDS apologizes for having to be so serious, and Lew takes the criticism well. Looks like this non-fire was put out well before it burned down the forest. We're now treated to McGillivray trying to cut weight, and Team Dos Santos coaches head to the house to help him out.
Both men weigh in at 170, and Lesnar tells us that he's not going to be there tomorrow for the fight for "personal reasons". This ends with Lesnar dramatically walking off camera, saying that his personal life comes first, which is no mystery to anyone who knows much about Lesnar. Fight day rolls around, Shogun is on the set to watch the fight.
The fight got off to an exciting start, with striking exchanges leading to Len dropping Ryan with a hard hook, and pouncing on him. From top control, Len went to work with as much ground and pound as he could as Ryan looked to improve his position. After Len stood up and looked to fight on the feet, Ryan started to score on the feet, and scored a knockdown of his own. Shortly after, Len was threatening with an armbar that was nearly finished, but lost it. The round ended with Ryan looking for a submission (choke) of his own. Both men were scoring, but Ryan's accuracy on the feet made the difference in my eyes, I gave it to him 10-9.
The second round saw Len tighten up his striking and start to outland Ryan, forcing Ryan to look for a take down, and work in the clinch. This endeavor led to some solid knees from Len, and left them striking in the center of the cage once again. In the later part of the round, Ryan started landing some solid punches that left Len wobbling, although it may have been exhaustion more than anything. Close round, but Ryan stole it in my eyes 10-9. The judges may see it the same way, as we're not going to a third round. I wouldn't be surprised to see it go either way though, as both rounds were quite close. Sure enough, Ryan took the decision. Dana White goes to Len and assures him that he was impressed, and that "anything can happen on this show". Team JDS is celebrating, ecstatic that they took out Team Lesnar's first pick.
The preview for episode four gave us a peek at ridiculous house antics, Matt Hughes guest coaching for team Lesnar, Team JDS looking to keep their lead. Not too thrilling, but it falls in line with what is expected of TUF 13 at this point.
Team Lesnar:
Chris Cope
Tony Ferguson
Chuck O'Niel
Team Dos Santos:
Keon Caldwell(Replaced by Justin Edwards.)Mick Bowman