The Ultimate Fighter show has begun once again with two phenomenal coaches, George St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck. Team GSP brought along an excellent staff from Greg Jackson MMA and Olympic silver medalist wrestler Gia Sissaori. Team Koscheck as well has a superb staff from American Kickboxing Academy headed by Crazy Bob Cook, Dave Camarillo and wrestling coach former U.S. Olympian Daniel Cormier.
This latest season, only 3 weeks in, has Team GSP popping a few strategic surprises while Team Koscheck prefers school boy pranks. The first surprise was during the first fighter and fight pick, GSP tricked Team Koscheck by writing down in very large script his first preference fighter and made it very easily seen by the team. But that was not the fighter he picked! GSP picked Michael Johnson. Next GSP invited the great heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson on to the show. This visit promoted team spirit and confidence for (the second fight of the season) Michael Johnson.
The first fight of the season, between Team GSP’s Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres and Team Koscheck’s Jeffrey Lentz from Kurt Pellegrino’s camp in NJ. Both fighters seemed to enjoy heavy drinking during the show and Lentz was often seen smoking cigarettes. Bruce Leroy embraces Bruce Lee’s fashion but with his own unique fighting style and slick BJJ skill. In the first round, Lentz was taken in by Bruce with a sweet triangle choke.
The second fight, Michael Johnson from Team GSP battled Team Koscheck’s Aaron Wilkinson hailing from Manchester UK and trained with Michael Bisping. Both coaches agreed before the show started the well-rounded fighter Michael Johnson was first out of the 14 lightweight competitors. But the Brit held his ground against Johnson and displayed impressive wrestling and takedowns. Wilkinson absorbed Bisping’s teachings before the show filmed with wrestling drills. The fight was really close and quite exciting with back and fourth moves. The striking combos and countering, the kicks and checks with excellent ground work led to a third round. It ended with Wilkinson having to tap from a seamless RNC.
This week’s show should get a pinch of drama with Bruce Leroy and his continual self absorbed chatter and the Armenian Sevak Magakian. Sevak, a judo practitioner, will have his temper buttons tested then we might see how much more gibberish he can bare from Bruce Leroy before Sevak takes action.
How bad could 6 weeks of living in a luxurious, beautiful, large Vegas home with top notch coaches and trainers coupled with a huge, deluxe UFC gym possibly be?
Tune in Wednesdays at 10pm EST on Spike TV for your dose of T.U.F.!
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