TUF Times: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller, Season 14 – Episode 2

By Julie Romine

This week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter began with the 8 featherweight and 8 bantamweight fighters left being quickly chosen by each coach for their teams. With a simple coin toss Dana White started the team picks. Team Bisping won the first pick and chose bantamweights Gaudinot, Dillashaw, Albert, and Ferguson, and featherweights Brandau, Carassani, Brimage, and Bass. Team Miller’s bantamweight picks were Dodson, Bedford, Pague and Delorme, and his featherweight choices were Bermudez, Caraway, Neace and Siler.

Team Miller’s first practice with all the fighters went really well. All the guys were familiar with who their coach was, knowing that he was a character, and liked Miller, so they were excited. Bantamweight fighter Steven Siler received a bloody nose during training, but Miller and the paramedics taped his nose up so he could continue to train. Team Bisping’s first practice also went very well, as the fighters felt it was very technical and that they learned some tricks of the trade from the team’s coaches.

Later, Miller and one of his trainers decided to get the early upper hand on Bisping by buying some pressure suits and bringing them by the house. The guys had no idea what the suits were and called them space suits. It almost seemed like a joke until the guys put the suits on and plugged in the control boxes. One fighter said that it felt like his body was in a blood-pressure cuff.

Team Miller won the first fight pick, and chose Bryan Caraway (15-5) to face Team Bisping’s Marcus Brimage (3-1). The featherweight Caraway is an experienced MMA fighter with extensive grappling experience, and bantamweight fighter Brimage has much less experience, and is primarily a striker. Dana White seemed confident that Brimage had superior striking skills, and was certain he would be victor if the fight remained standing, but was not sure who would win if it went to the ground.

Round 1 started with some range-finding, but it was really quick, and you could see the 8″ reach advantage instantly with Caraway, despite his supposed lack of striking skill. Caraway got Brimage to the ground in almost the blink of an eye! Brimage continued to throw punches from the ground as Caraway let his preferred method of grappling work to his favor. Caraway threw some punches back to soften Brimage up as he gained back control. Brimage was active on the ground in defense only, as Caraway felt at home on the ground with back control, trying multiple submission attempts as the round ended.

In Round 2, Brimage came running out with flying punches followed with flurries of strikes, but unfortunately with such a short reach he could not land more than a few. Once again, Caraway quickly manhandled Brimage to the ground. Brimage didn’t look comfortable on the ground this round, and both fighters scurried to their feet. Caraway, using his long reach, put Brimage into a classic Muay Thai clinch and kneed Brimage in the face. Caraway, dominating this round as well, then took Brimage to the ground and gained back control, as he did in the prior round. This time, with Brimage a little more tired, Caraway was able to sink in a rear naked choke for victory.

With the Team Miller victory, they retained control of the fights. Will Team Miller get another victory next week or can Team Bisping take it away? With Mayhem Miller as a coach, you can expect the unexpected! This season, which is proving to have the best and most experienced fighters, you need to tune in every Wednesday on Spike TV for The Ultimate Fighter, or catch up with me here at MMA Ratings.