TUF 13: Episode 3 – Chicken Salad

Another Wednesday, another TUF episode. After last week’s boring fight, to match the first week’s, the teams are tied up at 1 a piece. So today’s fight could prove pivotal for the remainder of the season.

As we start, a few of Lesnar’s team are taking offense to Brock’s “chicken salad, chicken sh*t” analogy. The way they are complaining about it leads me to believe the analogy flew way over their heads. So Lesnar has to take them all aside and explain what he was trying to get at. If you ask me, it’s an apt analogy for their situation.

Now we get a look at Dos Santos’ team. Some of the guys are worried about their new teammate, and hope he fits in and isn’t a knucklehead. I guess we’ll see, but the first impression of Justin Edwards is good. But we may have a problem. Not with Edwards, but it seems Coach Lew Polley is over-stepping his bounds and making the team go through an aggressive practice. Dos Santos tells his team that he doesn’t like Polley’s methods, but he’s a good coach.

Fight pick time, and it’s Lesnar’s choice. He picks his number one pick, Len Bentley, to take on Team Dos Santos’ Ryan McGillivray. Hopefully it’s not as boring as the first two fights.

Back to the house, Team Lesnar’s Chris Cope is conversing with some of the Team Dos Santos fighters and Len Bentley doesn’t like it and tells his team not to tell him anything because “he’s that guy” who will give away game plans. I don’t know about that. What, he can’t TALK to them? Seems kinda paranoid to me.

Bentley is so paranoid that Cope is a spy that he confronts Lesnar about it. Lesnar gives the best answer: “Don’t get caught up in all that extra stuff. You are here to win fights.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. Focus on fighting. Being paranoid about Cope isn’t going to help you.

Back to the drama on Team Dos Santos, Coach Polley is at it again. Junior has had enough and calls him in. He tells him that they are a team and they need to discuss everything as a team, not just Polley doing whatever he wants. Crisis averted…for now.

Anyway…onto the fight!

Len Bentley vs. Ryan McGillivray

Right from the bell you could tell this fight wasn’t going to be boring. Bentley rushed forward and they both started throwing punches. After a little feeling out, Bentley landed a fantastic left hook that dropped McGillvray. Bentley jumped on him and landed and downward shot straight to his face. I thought it was over, but somehow McGillvray recovered and Bentley let him up. That was a mistake. McGillvray then landed his own combo with a left hook that dropped Bentley. Now he was on top. After moving Bentley to the cage, where he looked for some ground and pound, Bentley recovered enough to go for an armbar. He had it locked in, but McGillivray defended it well. As Bentley was trying to get up, McGillivray went for a Guillotine Choke. He also had it locked in, but the bell sounded to save Bentley. Amazing first round. I would say 10-10, but lean towards Bentley. The second round was much of the same, but no where near the speed. Both guys were a bit tired, Bentley a little more than McGillvray. Both landed some nice power punches and most of the time they went shot for shot. McGillivray kind of sort of got a takedown, but Bentley got right back up and proceeded to land some nice knees. Very tough fight to call. I would also give this a 10-10, but I’d lean towards McGillvray. Judges scored it 19-19, 18-20, 18-20 for a Majority Decision win for McGillivray.

Dana said it was an impressive fight. I would say so. One of the best TUF fights I’ve seen in a long time. Bentley is obviously bummed out and feels it should’ve went to Round 3. I would’ve loved to have seen that. Oh well. Dana comes back in and tells Bentley not to hang his head and to be proud of that. Which means Bentley is already a heavy favorite for the Wild Card.

Team Lesnar – 1, Team Dos Santos -2