The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 concluded the opening round with Tecia Torres‘ win over Bec Rawlings Wednesday nught.
It may have been the fight of the season thus far. Torres won both rounds to earn the decision and redeem herself after dropping an earlier fight to Randa Markos on the show.
The majority of this episode was spent on in-house drama concerning Torres’ placement on Team Pettis.
Let’s move on and look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from the eighth episode of the season:
The Good:
- We have touched on numerous difficult subjects this season with the fighters’ backstories, and this episode was no different. Rawlings opened up about her previous abusive relationship. The sport has come under recent scrutiny after some domestic violence cases. Talking about the subject openly is always good, and this has been a hot button issue in sports this year.
- Weight cutting is a big part of combat sports, but one that is not often seen. When TUF has shown this in the past it typically included a fighter who was struggling to make weight. This time the show instead focused on other aspects, such as how it alters the moods of fighters. It gave casual fans a better insight into how the sport is even more difficult than just stepping into the cage and fighting.
- In spite of the drama, the fight still delivered. It is just a shame the focus was on other areas. Kudos to both Rawlings and Torres for a fun fight.
The Bad:
- This episode was focused mainly around Team Melendez trying to kick Tecia Torres out of the room. It was stupid. Angela Magana and Rawlings led the charge. Torres got an offer to come back after losing, and she took it, as anyone else would have. To make it seem as if she asked to change teams is asinine and petty. It was a bad look for almost everyone involved and served no purpose in terms of highlighting the athletes in a positive manner.
The Ugly:
- A concern entering the season was that maybe the show would focus on the women differently than the male fighters. Thankfully, that has not been the case. However, we got a pool party complete with nonsense shots of the women jumping into the pool. The majority of the scene was focused around the in-house drama, and not overly sexualizing the athletes. But some of the editing was still unnecessary.
• Bec Rawlings vs. Tecia Torres: Tecia Torres defeats Bec Rawlings via unanimous decision.
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Good article. Would have been better if the last sentence was deleted.