(Editor’s Note: This should have ran earlier last week, but due to an error, it didn’t. Our apologies to Steve!)
It’s a whole new season and Conor McGregor is the reason, as he and Urijah Faber go toe to toe as coaching foes on The Ultimate Fighter. They won’t duke it out after the season is done, but there’s still pride on the line, not to mention Conor’s reputation as the newest badass on the block. Join us each episode for “The Notorious Quote of the Week” as Conor puts his mouth where UFC’s money is! We’ll also spice things up with some predictions for week two about who could go all the way this season – two “Fighters to Watch” for each recap.
The Notorious Quote of the Week: “That was a f—ing beautiful performance against a very solid guy.”
Last week, Julian Erosa got a majority decision to hand control back to the U.S. team, and Urijah Faber chose Thanh Le (USA) vs. Martin Svensson (Europe) for this week’s fight. If Svensson wins he’ll tie the competition 3-all, and if Le wins then the U.S. team will have a commanding 4-2 lead.
Svensson is talking trash on the U.S. fighters and says they all act like clowns and don’t try to go all out in the two rounds that they have. Artem Lobov is even pissed that they sprayed Erosa down with NOS energy drinks to celebrate his victory. “I want to at least be remembered as the guy who didn’t wear a stupid bandana with a penis drawn on it.”
Svensson says Swedish people are only polite until they get in a cage. McGregor says he can exhaust Le and then finish him with a rear naked choke. After rolling with McGregor on the ground, Svensson says there’s little doubt he’s a world champion.
Thanh Le says he’s been doing martial arts since he was five. He works as a personal trainer when he’s not fighting, and he works hard both in and outside the cage so he can afford to go see his son in Nebraska as often as possible. I’ll try not to let that have any positive bias in my view of him. He says he’ll remember to be strategic and not try to go toe-to-toe and punch-for-punch with Svensson. It’s that kind of thinking that makes Svensson a Fighter to Watch.
There’s some serious drinking going on back at the TUF house for the U.S. team – the most we’ve seen for the entire season. At first they decide to go sit poolside and chill, but then Julian Erosa starts talking smack on Chris Gruetzemacher being boring. Gruetzemacher throws water on him, and Erosa keeps running his mouth, and more and more non-water liquids are thrown on him, and eventually they start shoving.
The rest of team U.S. inside the house sees what’s going on by the pool and they run outside to intervene. It winds up with a couple of minutes of footage that are bleeped out. Team McGregor tries to have a good laugh at their expense – saying they’d rather fight each other than fight them.
I’m putting Chris Gruetzemacher on my Fighter to Watch list. Even though he’s already won to advance in theory, Dana White instructed both teams that one winning fighter will be cut. The pressure is on “Gritz” because his team believes he had a boring fight and won’t make the cut – and how he handles himself in situations like this going forward will be key.
Urijah Faber takes is team to the thrift store to buy them some loud over-the-top suits and make them look like Conor McGregor. Tom Gallichio: “The outfits we got are very Conor-esque. They’re very tight, very flashy.”
Weigh-ins: Martin Svensson is 155 even. Thanh Le is 155 too.
Lightweight: Martin Svensson (Europe) vs. Thanh Le (USA)
Le is in the blue and Svensson the gray. Instead of giving you the blow by blow this week, let’s go for round by round analysis. Svensson used takedowns, ground control, and a back mount to dominate the first 3:45 of R1. Le sprawled effectively and got on top to throw some elbows in the last half minute, but it’s unclear if that final flurry was enough to steal the round. In my mind it’s not.
Svensson goes right back to the ground game early in R2, and goes from trying to get the hooks in to winding up in full mount to getting a body lock and working his way toward a submission. Le keeps squirming his way out of danger and even tries to throw up a triangle but Svensson avoids it. Eventually Le just runs out of escapes and taps to the RNC at 3:39. Team McGregor evens it up!
McGregor announces his picks for next week’s fight: Artem Lobov (Europe) vs. James Jenkins (USA). Come back to see what happens next week!
