Cesar Gracie says that Nick Diaz wants to close the doors, rather than open the doors to things like the media. He says that the fight starts once you sign the contract and he doesn’t want to make nice with his opponent when he’s been training to fight him the entire time.

Carlos Condit is a first time father and he says that it’s not the easiest to go out and train as hard as you can every day when you know you have responsibilities at home with your family, but it inspires him.

Greg Jackson said that he thinks Carlos got into MMA like others do, because they have a need to do something with their energy. His father said that the mischief and negativity he had as a kid became a sharpness after he started in MMA.

Condit says that Diaz has holes in the game and he makes up for it by being so tough.

Diaz bikes 20 miles, spars for six rounds, and swims laps all in one day and the narrator says the day ends after midnight. Insane. His second grade teacher says that he’s the exact same as he was in the second grade. He doesn’t make eye contact and he speaks deliberately. Diaz says he never fit in anywhere. He said high school was hard times.

Bottom line: While it was nearly all Carlos Condit, the only interesting parts of the show were when Diaz was on screen. It was almost uncomfortable watching him. They started to delve into Condit’s background, which could be interesting, but his key story was that he’s a first time dad and it’s hard to train and be a dad. Ya, not too interesting.

This is the final Wednesday show of the season. And I would say that I’m happy the end is near as this wasn’t a terrible season, but even worse, it was just boring. The fights weren’t even all that good. And away, we go.

Tony apologizes and uses the excuse of blacking out, which is sort of like saying he got Twitter hacked.

These must be some long fights because they’re already getting to it.

Chris Cope vs. Ramsey Nijem
Ramsey is quick and aggressive. He immediately charged in and was overwhelming Cope with punches. He stayed on him and pushed him up against the cage. Ramsey just looks better than him at every stage of the game right now.

Ramsey just cracked Cope and wouldn’t stop moving forward. Cope was just overwhelmed and couldn’t take any more of the shots and went down. He might’ve taken some shots to the back of the head. But the ref stopped it ad Ramsey is in the final.

Winner: Ramsey Nijem by way of 2nd round TKO

Tony Ferguson vs. Chuck O’Neil
The first round was all leg kicks and counter punches from Chuck and head movement, lunging hooks, and leg kicks for Tony. Chuck is feeling Tony’s power and Tony’s not all that taken aback by Chuck’s combinations, which he is landing, but he’s not backing him up at all.

The round was more of the same. Tony was supremely confident that Chuck couldn’t hurt him and bloodied Chuck’s nose. Chuck did a good job of sticking a moving and scoring points, but I’m not sure you can give him either round.

Ramsey continued to overwhelm Chuck and stopped him. Chuck can probably move down a weight class as Tony was way too strong for him. Tony set up his strikes perfectly with leg kicks all fight and Chuck was in bad shape. He went down basically from a body shot because he couldn’t stand anymore.

Winner: Tony Ferguson by way of 3rd round TKO

The fight between Tony and Ramsey should actually be really good. The two most impressive guys made it.

After the show, Dana talks about Brock Lesnar’s illness and having to replace him with Shane Carwin.

Phil Nurse flies in from New York to watch GSP’s muay thai. He says when it comes down to technique, stand-up, will, and even jiu-jitsu, GSP has the advantage.

In the last week until the fight, Shields brings Phil Davis back to train with him. Davis says usually, when he gets someone down on the ground, he’s on top, but with Jake, when he gets him down, it’s like losing because Jake is immediately on top. Shields doesn’t seem all that confident. He says he’s had a pretty good training camp and he’s in pretty good shape. That doesn’t sound like a ton of confidence.

They show Shields’ daughter, which is the other side of fighters that I enjoy seeing on shows like this. They’re not machines. They have families. Their families are part of the sacrifice. He says he’s ready to take the belt home.

GSP thinks that the media isn’t giving Shields enough respect and that he can see it as a trap for him.

Shields and Gilbert Melendez reminisce about their start and fighting for little money and in front of small crowds.

The episode itself was way too light and they really need to reconsider their reasoning behind putting these things together. When you don’t have a ton of interesting footage, you get this episode. However, I like the goal of this episode which was to make these guys human while also showing how bad ass they are in the octagon. It’s a tough line because you don’t want to show too much training (like the first two episodes), while showing too much of their human side doesn’t make them look like superstars. They found that line for this last episode, but they didn’t have enough good footage to pull it off.

Primetime did nothing in the ratings and wasn’t a good show for the first episode. I hope this week’s is much better, rather than a robotic training session for two sound guys, which is what the first episode was.

Shields’ boxing is so mechanical. The strength is there, but there’s no fluidity. Shields’ camp is trying to sell the idea that if GSP takes the fight to the ground, he’ll get subbed. But they showed Jake on top the entire time.

The training footage is great, but there needs to be more dimensions to Jake Shields than that he trains hard.

GSP says that gymnasts are the best athletes in the world and he’s shown on the rings. He says it helps him with his coordination and dexterity. He wants to be a great athlete. With Howard Grant as his boxing coach, GSP’s hands look fast and his technique looks much more fluid, but he doesn’t seem to hit as hard as Shields does.

GSP continuously puts over Shields as a dangerous man even to the point of saying he’s scared as hell.

Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, and Nick Diaz are either the three amigos or the three stooges.

Jake’s dad and his high school wrestling coach are talking up Jake’s wrestling skill. Jake’s dad says that he always told him that it’s better to lose to someone better than you than to beat someone easy.

GSP is doing sprint training with the idea of blowing up his heart rate and recovering and going again, getting his heart rate down as quickly as possible.

What if GSP tapped out Shields? Or what if Shields outwrestled Georges? Eh, I’m just trying to think about something other than training, which is what this ENTIRE SHOW IS ABOUT!

The one thing Shields can play is the respect card, since most don’t think he can beat GSP. But it’s the same card that Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck played and it didn’t work out. However, Shields is better than Hardy and bigger than Koscheck.

Well, if you love watching training, that’s what you got. If you like learning about fighters as people, you didn’t get it for the second week in a row. Hopefully they save the best for next week.

GSP says that he doesn’t only want to be UFC champion and he doesn’t only want to beat Jake Shields. He wants to be the greatest ever and bring the sport to the next level.

He says he’s never fought a guy like Shields, but Shields has never fought a guy like him. Shields says GSP is amazing and that’s why he wants to fight him. He reels off how many wins he has and how many places he’s fought, including how he’s gone up and down in weight before, which I’m not sure is an advantage.

It looks like the goal is to sell this fight as Jake Shields’ jiu-jitsu game against GSP’s all-around game. Shields is pretty vanilla, so it doesn’t look like there will be all that much trash talking. GSP says he wants to fight the best fighters and test the best part of their game. He says he’s not the best because he’s the best athlete, but it’s because he makes the best decisions.

They show Gilbert Melendez in the cage with Shields. Shields says he can’t let GSP outwork him and gets Phil Davis to wrestle with before the San Diego Strikeforce card. There was video of both Melendez’s and Diaz’s win in San Diego, since they’re Shields’ teammates.

GSP says that Jake can beat him and that he’s the first guy in the while who is worth the challenge. I’m sure Josh Koscheck, BJ Penn, and Dan Hardy feel good about that one. Well, let’s be serious. Dan Hardy was a paper contender.

I remember when I used to watch all the training footage, I’d get super pumped up, but we’ve seen so much of it during 24/7, Fight Camp 360, Primetime, and other shows like this that it just looks all the same now. I’m not sure this show is going to mean all that much for the buyrate. The goal should be to get Shields over and GSP and his trainers are trying, but GSP has this unbeatable aura and it’s going to be tough.

They need to show some Shields footage and I’d really put him over in beating Hendo and Robbie Lawler as I thought those were his two most impressive wins. He’s much stronger than people think, and that’s his secret weapon to me.