The Ultimate Fighter returned for the wildcard fight between
Bubba McDaniel and Kevin Casey. This fight has been teased from the beginning
of the season when McDaniel called Casey out early. After both fighters lost
they needed to rely on their coaches to bring them back for the two wildcard
spots.
They stepped inside the cage, they fought, and now I give
you the good, the bad, and the ugly from the latest installment of the show:
The Good:
- Jon Jones did a great job of coaching McDaniel.
He explained to McDaniel why he lost the first fight: he was hesitant and
backing up. He got to McDaniel. He said the McDaniel who moves forward is a
tough one to beat, and that is the McDaniel who needs to show up for Casey. - After Casey couldn’t answer the bell, McDaniel
shouted, “Does that count as a finish?” UFC boss Dana White said with a chuckle, “Good question. We’ll give it to you.” - The matchmaking for the quarterfinals went well.
We get four decent matchups. Not everyone got the fight they wanted, but in the
end the coaches and White put together the best fights for the next round.
The Bad:
- It was Thanksgiving time in the house and
everyone was eating typical Thanksgiving food. Yet, there sat McDaniel
complaining about everyone eating while he couldn’t due to cutting weight.
Cutting weight makes fighters grumpy, but you can’t complain that others are
eating on Thanksgiving. - The first round of the first between Casey and
McDaniel was boring. Casey made it a grappling affair, but didn’t threaten with
submissions or strikes. Yawn. - Casey was on his back early in the second round,
and he just laid there. No attempts to get up. - Then Casey quit on the stool. After the fight he
had to be taken away via ambulance, but there was nothing extraordinarily
taxing about his fight that should have exhausted him that much. This earns a
bad instead of ugly because of the medical issues.
The Ugly:
- After Josh Samman called out Jimmy Quinlan the
submission ace made a cringe-worthy pun about being a good fisherman and that’s
why he’s going to catch Samman. - Dude, Gilbert Smith, put on some clothes man. It’s
Thanksgiving!
Next week will begin the quarterfinals and feature two
fights. Collin Hart vs. Kelvin Gastelum & Luke Barnatt vs. Dylan Andrews will
take to the cage for semi-final bids.
What did you think of this week’s fight? Click the stars to let us know:
Rate additional fights from TUF 17 by clicking here.
