The Ultimate Fighter featured its second quarter-final bout on Wednesday. #4 seed Jessica Penne squared off against #5 seed Aisling Daly.
The fight went the full 15 minutes, and as such there was not much time spent on anything else. After some of the recent drama, I think that was a welcome change.
Daly won the first round of their fight, but Penne came back to claim a close second round. The deciding round was not as tightly contested as the two previous, however,as Penne got top position on the canvas, and rode that to a victory.
It was a quality fight and possibly the best of the season thus far. Next week’s episode will feature the final two quarter-final bouts – Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Torres and Joanne Calderwood vs. Rose Namajunas. With that said, let’s check out the good, the bad, and the ugly from the latest offering of TUF:
The Good
- There was not as much of a focus on how Team Pettis was divided, but rather just a focus on how the two were preparing. Penne paired off with Justine Kish to prepare, while the show focused on Daly’s concerns about coaching.
- Conor McGregor showed up to surprise his teammate Daly. McGregor attempted to speak to the rest of the team, but as he noted, there was a tension in the air. McGregor has been boisterous in media interviews, but this was a more human look at the rising star.
- The fight itself was the highlight of the episode. It was a high-level battle between two veterans of the sport. If we could get more of this type of fight on TUF, it would be better for the show.
The Bad
- The episode had no bad spots, but a piece of hype for Fox Sports Live on Fox Sports 1 will fill in a spot here. Why? They ruined the fight. Karyn Bryant said that the winner of the fight would join the in-studio. Fighters who live and/or train in Southern California have been the ones who show up in-studio, while everyone else appears via satellite. Penne lives and trains in SoCal, and Daly is from Ireland. It doesn’t take a genius to guess who won.
The Ugly
- Once again we had an in-program advertisement for Harley-Davidson. It wasted our time. There has to be a better way to advertise Harley instead of this contrived nonsense year after year.
• Jessica Penne vs. Aisling Daly: Jessica Penne def. Aisling Daly via unanimous decision.
Click the stars to rate this fight.
