Considering the enormous ratings that Kimbo Slice has brought to this season of The Ultimate Fighter, it came as no surprise that despite losing his fight during the last episode, the first quarter of the show was devoted to his reactions to the loss and his unrelenting plea to return if anyone is injured. Once the Kimbo show was done, it was nice to get back on track with the tournament and the rest of the show.
Among the people who got to share the spotlight of Episode 4 ("Snitch") was Marcus Jones, who is first shown in the midst of an intense flop sweat. As the rest of the fighters speculate on Marcus' desire to be in the UFC, Kimbo lends him a hand, fanning him with a towel, all the while telling the camera to "tag him in," if Marcus pulls out, can't compete, dies, etc.
Inside the octagon, though, it seems that Marcus is the one who will be knocking people out of the competition, considering his inability to control his strength. He apparently has no concept of restraint, throwing people around and tearing limbs from torsos.
Another star of the episode was Matt Mitrione, of Team Rashad, who decided it would be in his best interest to let Team Rampage in on Rashad's fight picks. The plan backfires, as Matt (aka Judas) loses all face within the house.
Forced to start over with a new game plan, Rashad and co. decide to pit Brendan Schaub against
Demico Rogers. In one of my favourite moments in Ultimate Fighter history, Dana White responds to the fight announcement as follows: "Obviously Demico is a monster. He's huge: he's like 6'5". You know, Brendan's a big kid too but not anywhere near as big as Demico." As he is saying this, we are shown the fighters facing off... and Brendan looks taller. When we see the Tale Of The Tape, we learn that both fighters are 6'4". Checking Facebook: Schaub usually weighs in at 240lbs., compared to Demico's 235. While I usually look forward to hearing Dana's imput, this time he really dropped the ball.
Following the announcement is a great scene that is a fantastic demonstration of why Rampage sucks at coaching on this show. While Brendan is getting pumped up by his coaches and team in the locker room before the fight, Demico is sitting patiently, waiting for the coaches to come back from getting something to eat. It was far too similar to the time back in season 7 when Rampage showed up late for fight picks for the finals.
The fight itself is the best one we've seen all season. Demico starts off with a wild shot that completely misses the mark. After about 40 seconds of stand up, he shoots again, and this time gets Brendan on the ground. Demico keeps the advantage despite (or possibly because of) his huge movements, including one ridiculous dive that just left me aching for him to get knocked out. Eventually, he follows his coaches' suggestion and tries to pass Brendan's guard. He sort of succeeds around the third minute, but ends up losing control, allowing Brendan to squirm around into the dominant position. Thirty seconds later, Demico gives up his back, allowing Schaub to sink in an anaconda choke for the win.
Following the loss, Rampage and his coaches leave Demico sitting alone in the octagon. Once Rampage announces loudly how disappointed in Demico he is, Rashad steps in to console the clearly devastated fighter.
Brendan, to his credit, also shows disappointment in his performance, that he was able to be kept on his back for as long as he was. Given his honest, self-critical attitude, and his ability to capitalize on openings, I think that Brendan Schaub has a very decent chance at winning the show.
The last thing we hear from Rampage is that he doesn't want his coaches to be teaching his fighters anything fancy like passing the guard. He thinks that they are "too green" and aren't capable of grasping or making use of such advanced techniques. This is coming from the guy who told off his coaches last week for trying to teach Kimbo how to get Roy Nelson off of him. To top it all off, he whines that "he can't deal with that stuff" (presumably he is referring to being a coach) and that "it's too much for me." No wait, that didn't top it all off. What DID was that he pulled out his Blackberry while he was complaining. The man doesn't even care enough to give his own whiney bitch-fest his full attention. His selfish, reckless attitude toward his team (among thousands of other shortcomings that don't show up onscreen) is what makes Rampage the worst coach in Ultimate Fighter history. He's basically Ken Shamrock from season 3 but with an even worse ability to rally and support his guys. While there are some fighters who people love to hate, ie. Brock Lesnar, Rampage is quickly starting to become someone who I simply hate to watch.
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