In Episode 5, a huge upset took place as the least experienced fighter of the cast, twenty-one year old Kevin Gastelum defeated the second-ranked contender Robert ‘Bubba’ McDaniel. Gastelum forced a tapout with a rear naked choke late in the second round, after a back-and-forth ground fight for positioning.

Current win tally is Team Sonnen 3, Team Jones 1.

Next week: top ranked contender Tor Troeng takes on Josh Samman. According to Coach Sonnen, there were not many takers to fight either of these guys. Which means that the winner of this fight may be the guy that Dana White said no one in the house wants to fight.

Then again, Dana White once said that Phil Nover is the next Anderson Silva, so take it with a grain of salt… or the whole shaker.

Here’s who remains:
Keep Reading

In Episode 4, Team Jones gets on the board with the first notable upset of the season, as Collin Hart controlls Kevin ‘The King’ Casey for a unanimous 20-18 decision.

Team Sonnen 2, Team Jones 1.

Next week: Bubba McDaniel vs Kelvin Gastelum.

Here’s who remains:
Keep Reading

In Episode 3, Team Sonnen widens the lead and keeps control of the matchups as Uriah Hall knocked out Adam Cella with a brutal spinning kick that left Cella unconscious for several minutes.

Team Sonnen 2, Team Jones 0.

Next week: Kevin Casey vs Collin Hart.

Here’s who remains:
Keep Reading

In Episode 2, the first team-vs-team bout took place and Team Jones took their first casualty as Gilbert Smith was knocked out in the second round, courtesy of a flying knee from Luke Barnatt.

Interestingly, a number of Team Jones voiced a vote of no confidences in their teammate prior to the fight, and even asked the coaches to change the matchup as they felt Gilbert’s conditioning was not up to par. Coach Jones stuck by his pick, and though Smith lost it turned out his conditioning had little to do with it.

Team Sonnen 1, Team Jones 0.

Here’s who remains:
Keep Reading

Here we go again, with another season of the seemingly endless Ultimate Fighter series. This one is featuring fourteen middleweights, and coached by the reigning UFC lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones and his next challenger Chael Sonnen. As has been the case in most recent seasons, the show starts out with 28 fighters facing off in the first episode, with the winners moving into the ‘TUF’ house and the losers going home.

Some notable facts, thus far:

• Sweden’s Tor ‘The Hammer’ Troeng is the only Top 50 ranked fighter on the season, head and shoulders above the remaining pool.
• Only fourteen fighters are in the house instead of the usual sixteen; two of the first-round losers will be brought back in ‘wildcard’ spots.
• Most of the preliminary matchups were won by the higher ranked fighter (11/14)
• There is a much more even distribution of ranked fighters among the two teams than in Season 16 (which was ultimately won by the unranked Colton Smith)

After the fights are over, coaches pick their teams, and here’s how they stack up:

Keep Reading