Chris Saunders talks about his troubled childhood and he and Andy Ogle bond. Dominick Cruz thinks the key to the fight is Vinc Pichel taking Saunders down and maybe submitting him.

Vinc Pichel vs. Chris Saunders

Fun first round with both guys showing how evenly matched they are. Pichel was working for a take down against the cage and Saunders reversed the position, got the take down, but nearly ended up on the bottom. The rest of the round was a battle for position with Pichel getting the better of Saunders with inside striking.

Pichel most definitely won the second. Saunders was the one fighting better on the inside, getting his back, but not being able to take him down. Pichel was landing knees to the abdomen. Saunders was getting tired trying to hold on and let him go. Pichel immediately tagged him and it looked like it could be over. But Saunders fought back, but still lost the round.

Winner: Vinc Pichel by way of majority decision

Andy Ogle says it’s his time. Urijah Faber says Iaquinta doesn’t let on what he’s thinking.

Andy Ogle vs. Al Iaquinta

These guys came to throw hands. Ogle was having trouble keeping Iaquinta off him, but was holding his own with strikes. Iaquinta just kept stalking him though and was starting to land bigger shots. He put Ogle down and looked like he was trying to get his back, but they were back on their feet. Iaquinta used his left hand to hold Ogle’s head and just laid him out with an elbow. Nasty shot.

Winner: Al Iaquinta by way of 1st round TKO

The semis are going to be James Vick vs. Michael Chiesa and Vinc Pichel vs. Al Iaquinta.

Dana White announced that Urijah Faber would face Renan Barao. Dominick Cruz looked heartbroken.

Sonnen tries to get Rome again like he has in the past, but Rome is slightly more smartened up.

In his latest video blog, Dana White plays defense about the UFC’s disappointing rating for their latest UFC on Fox show. He breaks down the demographics in an interesting way, using median age to basically say that they beat certain TV shows that they didn’t. They may have won in their demos, which is good for them, but it doesn’t mean they won their time slot. He cuts down Dave Meltzer something fierce, which was sort of uncalled for, but you could tell White was upset. He talks about beating the NBA Playoffs, which more so says something about how uninteresting the San Antonio Spurs vs. Utah Jazz series was to fans than it does anything for the UFC show. A special UFC show should beat a sweep elimination game in the NBA Playoffs featuring no stars.

White can play defense and has a right to be able to stick up for his company, but the fact of the matter is, he put a low level card on broadcast television and the fans didn’t tune like they did for the first two cards. Notice that he never mentioned the Mayweather/Cotto fight.

Here’s the video:

Edit:
On the forum on Meltzer’s website, he mentioned that Dana called him and told him what he was going to do and said all he cares about is if the story was fair and wasn’t mad at Dana in the least bit.

Dana White showed up at the training facility and told both teams to meet at the bleachers. Dana says that Cruz blew his knee out and tore his ACL. White says Cruz will be out 9 months. He tells Faber that he’ll have a fight for him scheduled for next week. It sounds like it may be Michael McDonald.

Dana says Cruz will stay and coach his team. Cruz says he hopes Faber wins so he can whip him when he’s better. Faber says that he’s starting the rumor that Ronda Rousey tore Cruz’s knee.

James Vick vs. Joe Proctor

Vick is so long and he’s able to hit Proctor in the face all while not being hit. He bloodied Proctor’s face early on, but he also has a bloody nose. So he got hit as well.

Proctor got a takedown, but Vick quickly got up. Proctor tried a choke, but Vick was able to get him down and landed on top of him. Vick’s using his kicks to keep the distance, but Proctor has been able to decrease the distance better in this round.

Winner: James Vick by unanimous decision

I think I would’ve given Proctor the second round for sure and thought there should’ve been a third round.

Justin Lawrence vs. Michael Chiesa
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Sam Sicilia took his loss hard as expected. Chris Saunders was the last pick and not expected to win, but he did.

In the coach’s challenge, they’re testing their marksmanship. They have to do an obstacle course which includes shooting pistols, rifles, machine guns, and a grenade launcher. This is nuts. This year, the coaches get $20,000 in cash and the team members each get $1500.

Cruz shot up the rope climb first and then hit all his targets with the pistol. He beat Faber through the turning over of the tire. Cruz shot through the rifle targets, carried the dummy quickly, and then went to the machine gun first. He was struggling with the second target and Faber caught him. They had to carry ammunition back and forth before getting to the grenade launcher stage. Faber got his first target and then Cruz hit his. Faber hit his second target to win the competition. Team Faber wins.

Ogle says that he has a big heart and Rio will have to kill him to beat him. Rio says he wants fight of the night. Wait, this isn’t a main UFC card fight.

Dana White brought Faber and Cruz together to help put the quarterfinals fights together. Faber is grating on Cruz’s nerves.

Andy Ogle vs. Mike Rio

Ogle moving around the cage, landing punches one at a time. He wasn’t really sitting on his punches and wasn’t throwing combinations. Rio took him down quickly and easily, but then it went back to Ogle’s one-punch shots.

In the second round, it was more of the same until Rio took him to the ground, but Ogle had the better position. Rio had Ogle’s back, but couldn’t do anything with it and was being pounded on until he gave up his neck and Ogle sunk in a rear naked choke to submit him.

Winner: Andy Ogle by way of 2nd round submission

Dana White gave two quarterfinal fights for the next show. It’s going to be James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Michael Chiesa.