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.

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.

Dominick Cruz told Vinc Pichel in the sudden death round that he should just go street fighter on John Cofer. Cofer was upset because he thought he made a mistake that caused him to lose.

Cruz brought Ronda Rousey to train with his team. She was throwing guys all over the place. Faber came in while Cruz and Rousey were leaving and they started trash talking. Cruz told Faber to teach his team overhand rights and guillotines. Faber said he was going to teach one-armed guillotines which Cruz knew so well.

Rousey came to the house to watch Jones vs. Evans. None of the guys were spitting game to her except for Tickle. Faber said they blew it.

Faber wants Saunders to stick and move because Sicilia throws haymakers. Cruz wants Sicilia to keep a fast pace.

Team Faber lubed themselves up and brought in some of the workout equipment into Team Cruz’s team room and trained and sweated in the room. That was interesting to say the least.

Sam Sicilia vs. Chris Saunders

Best shot of the round was Saunders kicking Sicilia right in the head and Sicilia going down and nearly out, but bounced back up. Faber was right. Sicilia is swinging for the fences. Sicilia had two guillotine attempts and is starting to use his strength to his advantage.

Damn good round. Sicilia was throwing bombs, but Saunders never quit. He was in good position on every exchange and wouldn’t quit. He was rocked a few times, but continued to come back. Hard round to score, but probably Sicilia’s round.

Winner: Chris Saunders by way of split decision

How is it a split decision? Maybe majority decision? It probably should’ve gone to a third round.

The final fight of the first round is Andy Ogle vs. Mike Rio.

There’s talk that this fight could do over 1.5 million buys, which is amazing to me considering Miguel Cotto has already lost to Manny Pacquiao and he currently sits as an 8-1 underdog. The promotion has been very good and the 24/7 show has been sprinkled around cable television on channels like CNN and TNT.

The go-home episode begins with yet another contrast of the two fighters. Cotto is shown at home celebrated by his fanbase. Maywather is shown under the covers joking that it’s not a guy with him (it’s Miss Jackson), taking a small shot at Cotto and his buddy Bryan Perez.

We finally see Oscar De La Hoya who says that he can finally pass the torch in boxing to Saul “Canello” Alvarez. How? Alvarez doesn’t even speak English and his fanbase is hugely Mexicans, not Mexican-Americans. Oscar appealed to everyone, but mostly Americans. His fanbase isn’t much different than Manny Pacquiao’s US fanbase. That was a weird comment. Alvarez and Shane Mosley is the semi-main.

Floyd says that he tries to turn all negatives into positives, including his upcoming jail term.

Verdict: There wasn’t much to this show, but the visuals were good. If you can buy Cotto as a legit possibility to upset Mayweather, then they did a really good job with this show. Cotto didn’t say a lot. But they showed his desire. You really get the sense that Floyd is in a top class and if Cotto can beat him, he can join that top class. I still don’t know how much I believe that can actually happen, but they tried to contrast each guy and give you the idea that maybe Floyd is over-looking him. But it’s the same story they’ve been telling and it hasn’t happened yet.