It’s quarterfinals time.
The show starts with a recap of the fight from last week, which was Tommy Speer vs. War Machine. They show Mac Danzig walking out while Speer was in the rear naked choke, before hearing cheering from his teammates, letting him know that Speer was coming back.
Matt Serra asks his team if they want to put Mac Danzig vs. Tommy Speer in the quarterfinals, thus making sure only one guy from Matt Hughes’ team gets into the semi-finals.
Dana White says he’s going to talk to Matt Serra and discuss the quarterfinals match-ups. Serra asks if he could put Danzig and Speer together. White says they can do anything, but they should do what makes sense. White calls the fighters in to hear who they want to fight. Ben Saunders wants Speer. Troy Mandaloniz wants Richie Hightower. George Sotiropoulos says he’s the best fighter in the house and when Dana asks him who had the best shot at beating him, he didn’t have an answer.
Danzig says it would be uncool of Serra to match him and Speer up, but it would also be very smart. Hughes says he would throw a fit if that’s what was decided. White announces Danzig vs. John Kolosci as the first fight. Kolosci says he wanted Danzig because everyone was afraid of him and he wanted to mash him. Serra thought Kolosci was one of those guys who could rise to the occasion. The second fight is Matt Aroyo vs. Mandaloniz. The third fight is scheduled to be Sotiriopoulos vs. Hightower. Hightower didn’t look very happy about that one. The last fight is Saunders vs. Speer. White says that Serra will need to choose who he wants to corner in the matches where it’s his guy vs. his guy. Serra says he’s not going to choose and White says Hughes is one of the best of all times and he will do the right thing. I’m not sure why Serra is surprised as if I remember, they’ve done this in every season that this was the case.
Serra is upset because Hughes laughed at his picks and then during the season, they ass raped them (meaning they won 6-2). His words, not mine. Serra is blaming this situation on Hughes, which is funny. All Hughes did was smile. Hughes is under Serra’s skin, and all he did was smile. That’s great. White says that if he can’t choose, they’ll flip a coin.
Hughes says that Serra is such a meat head. Hughes says he expects both his guys to win, so he’s happy. Danzig says Kolosci has the size and strength advantage. Danzig says he’s better, more well rounded, and has more experience and says he won’t lose.
Danzig says he’s starting to lose it in the house a bit. The guys are saying that Danzig is a grump and he’s up and down. He orders a bird feeder, trying to get humming birds to come to the house. He thinks that he’ll be able to relax watching the humming birds come to the feeder. He says the animals stay their distance because they can sense his frustration with the house. He doesn’t like being negative because it’s not good karma.
War Machine moves the bird feeder and Danzig doesn’t know who it is, but says if it keeps happening, there are going to be problems. He blames the team Serra guys. He goes off on the house.
Serra says that styles make fights, and Kolosci sold them on this fight. He doesn’t seem too positive, but says he thinks he can pull off the upset. Serra says that Danzig is a little bit more experienced than Kolosci, but not much more.
Danzig says that he hasn’t sparred much because his guys are all hurt and he says that Billy Miles hates sparring, so his sparring situation is crap. Danzig and Blake Bowman chat about how his negativity is killing his experience on the show. Danzig agrees with him and walks off, not answering Bowman’s question about if he was going to sleep or not.
Danzig writes on the wall to remind himself to be nice to Blake, have sympathy, be positive, think positive, and that he’ll get good karma out of it. Danzig says he does enjoy his company when he can look past the fact that he’s not a real fighter.
Kolosci says that they are still a team and they work well together, even though two of their fighters will have to train under Hughes. He says that no one wants to go train with Hughes because they don’t trust him to be a good corner man. If you can’t learn from more than one person, I’m not sure how well rounded you are going to be. Can you imagine someone saying that they don’t want to learn from Matt Hughes? Are you kidding?
Hughes says he’ll choose which Serra guys he wants. Serra would rather let the flip of the coin choose for them. Hughes says that Serra is taking his worst two guys and putting them up against his best two guys and making Hightower and Arroyo the sacrificial lambs. I’d think that Saunders is in the mix as Serra’s best guys. By the flip of the coin, Hightower and Arroyo go to Team Hughes. They go to talk to Hughes and Lawler and tell him that they just want to let Hughes know that it’s going to be a bit awkward just because they’ve been training with Serra for six weeks. Hughes thinks they’re being somewhat unprofessional. I’d agree with him on that one. Hughes says he’s there to make whoever he’s cornering, as good as they want to be. Arroyo isn’t sure that Hughes meant what he said.
(Really, from watching the show, it just seems that Hughes brings a different style of coaching to the table. Serra is much more of a “rah rah” kind of guy who gets to know his fighters personally and wants to be liked. Hughes is more like a drill sergeant and doesn’t care if he has relationships with his guys after the show. He just wants to make them better than they are. Hightower seems to be bothered by Hughes’ coaching style.)
Danzig says he’s not going to let someone who fights only part time, take this away from him. Danzig writes his mom’s name and his girlfriend’s name on his trunks. Danzig says that no one wants to win it as badly as he does. Really, Danzig could compete right away in the welterweight division in the UFC. I could see Sotiriopoulos competing immediately and maybe Saunders as well just because of his height, but I’m not sure about anyone else.
Round One
After a feeling out process, Danzig gets the first big blow with a knee from the clinch. He has Kolosci down, but Kolosci is back on his feet. Danzig stuffs a single leg takedown. Kolosci has him up against the cage. Danzig is throwing elbows at the side of his head and to his side. Kolosci is bleeding from the bridge of his nose. He goes for another takedown and Danzig stuffs him again and sits up against the cage and puts on a rear naked choke. Kolosci taps immediately. Danzig just wipes his brow.
Winner: Mac Danzig by way of first round submission.
Danzig says Kolosci was nervous and all of his movements were predictable. Kolosci says that he panicked when he couldn’t get the takedown. Danzig announces to his team that he loves his team and wouldn’t change anything.
Next week: It’s Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra in a bowling challenge for money! That’s going to be awesome. Serra also says he’s not going to corner his guys who are fighting their once teammates. Also, there are two fights next week, which tell me that one of them ends quickly. I’m going to guess Hightower goes pretty quickly.
Labels: The Ultimate Fighter, The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, TUF
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