A day late and a dollar short, but judging by the ratings you probably missed the latest offering of The Ultimate Fighter. The show returned for its fifth episode of the season on Wednesday evening. David Grant (Team Rousey) battled Louis Fisette (Team Tate) to determine who would move on to the semi-finals.
Grant dominated the bout and was clearly the stronger of the two. Fisette ate a lot of punishment standing and on the ground. He survived through the first five minutes, but it didn’t take long into the second for Grant to win. After putting Fisette back on the mat he worked slowly to sink in the
rear-naked choke to grab Team Rousey’s second straight victory.
It was an interesting episode, and this is the good, the bad, and the ugly from Episode 5:
The Good:
- Roxanne Modafferi and Jessica Rakoczy shared a post-fight moment back at the house as Rakoczy assisted in the clean-up of Modafferi’s nose. It’s nice to see this level of professionalism and friendship between competitors.
- Raquel Pennington did not “come out” per se, but it on using the platform of the UFC to state her sexuality is great. It worked well for Liz Carmouche as well. The LGBT community has massive support for its athletes and one can imagine that this will help raise Pennington’s stock from a marketability standpoint.
- The production crew did a great job with David Grant’s story and training sequence. While the storytelling aspect has improved overall since the move to Fox, it is scenes like this that really highlight the difference.
- Truth or Dare was a nice moment from the house. It offered something silly (Josh Hill‘s pick-up line for Modafferi) and a truthful moment from Anthony Gutierrez about who he believed the weakest in the house was.
- Good on Gutierrez on not backing away from his statement, and offering actual reasoning for his statement about Louis Fisette being the weakest in the house.
- Dr. Ann Maria DeMars, otherwise known as Ronda Rousey‘s mother, is always entertaining. She is a phenomenal coach and motivator. Her appearance also gives an insight into Rousey as a person and as a fighter.
- It was also magnificent to see Rousey smiling and smirking at her mother’s teaching. You can sense the love she has for her mother and the joy she gets in seeing her pass the same knowledge she gave to her onto her team. She’s a proud daughter just as Dr. DeMars is a proud mother.
- Grant put on a nice performance. He won the stand-up and ground, and finished with a rear-naked choke. He still has a lot of room to improve, but this was a good showing for the Brit.
The Bad:
- It was really tough seeing Modafferi crying in the grass back at the house. Heartbreaking.
- Julianna Peña continues to be utterly annoying. The less of her on the screen the better. She is a solid fighter and good prospect, but her personality is not very endearing.
The Ultimate Fighter is tough on fighters who have to cut large amounts of weight. There is no set date for them to fight, so they have to manage it throughout, and it is incredibly tough to watch these professionals give in so easily to bad foods when they need to watch their weight. Some are doing a good job, but others are not. No one has missed weight, but we will see if this affects a fight as the season progresses.- Team Tate’s “prank” was just bad. It wasn’t inventive, funny, or anything resembling a good joke. Please, no more if that’s the best you got.
The Ugly:
- The ugly side of reality television reared its head with Roxy’s crying. There is no privacy for these most intimate moments, and then they are broadcast to the world.
- Fisette was simply overmatched. Even his coach Miesha Tate admitted that he was overpowered. He was a lot smaller than Grant, and we may see him drop to 125 after the show. It’s a bit rough watching someone get dominated in such a thorough manner.
Next week is being billed as the most intense battle of the season, and it is clear why. Jessamyn Duke and Rocky Pennington are two of the best prospects in the sport. This is sure to be an interesting matchup, and it will be one you don’t want to miss. Quite possibly the fight of the season.
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate
David Grant vs. Louis Fisette: David Grant def. Louis Fisette via submission (rear-naked choke) in Round 2.
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