Ultimate Fighter 13: Recap of Episode 1
The 13th season of the Ultimate Fighter opens up with an introduction to coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos. The two will face each other at UFC 131 on June 11th with the winner getting a shot at Cain Velasquez and his heavyweight championship belt.
“I ain’t here to make friends, I ain’t here to win new fans, this is strictly business for me,” Brock tells the viewers watching on SpikeTV.
The 14 welterweight fighters enter the building and they are all fired up as UFC President Dana White greets them and lets them all know they will not have to fight their way into the house this season. That fires them up even more as White introduces the coaches to the 14 fighters. The coaches are then given two hours to run the fighters through drill and evaluate them so they can pick their teams.
Lesnar wants conditioned fighters, not those that were sitting at home eating pizza so he puts the guys through a cardio test. Dos Santos takes a different approach as he worked the fighters in the octagon, stressing more on the skills than cardio. Dos Santos does notice Lesnar talking one on one with the fighters and jokingly says he can’t do that….
In evaluating the fighters Lesnar likes Len Bentley a lot and thinks he could win it all, while Dos Santos focuses on both Shamar Bailey and Ryan McGillivray. While working on his wrestling/grappling Myles Jury injuries his knee and has a doctor look at it but says he is ok.
When the evaluation ends the two coaches meet with White who flips a coin to see who get the first pick/first fight. Lesnar wins the coin toss and opts to take the first pick and the picks take place right there behind closed doors. White then meets with the fighters to let them know what team they have been chosen for.
Team Lesnar: Len Bentley, Charlie Rader, Tony Ferguson, Clay Harvison, Miles Jury, Chris Cope and Nordin Asrih
Team Dos Santos: Shamar Bailey, Ryan McGillivray, Javier Torres, Ramsey Nijem, Zachary Davis, Mick Bowmen and Keon Caldwell
At the training sessions, Dos Santos puts his guys through a cardio training to see which of his fighters are ready to fight right now. Lesnar has his training session with his guys but is worried about the injury to Miles Jury should Dos Santos pick him to fight first. Edited nicely we now have Lesnar, Miles Jury and a Doctor talking about the knee of Miles that after doing an MRI it is discovered that he has a completely torn ACL and will not be able to continue. White tells Jury he has to leave but to heal up and he’d be back.
Now down a fighter Team Lesnar gets Chuck O’Neil who was called in to be the replacement.
Fight announcement time and Dos Santos tabs his #1 pick Shamar Bailey to face the final fighter picked by Lesnar, Nordin Asrih. A very super safe pick for Dos Santos as Bailey is clearly a better wrestler then Asrih who is a striker. While you can’t blame him for the possible easy win, the choose likely means a boring fight for the viewers
Fight Time: Shamer Bailey (10-3) vs. Nordin Asrih (15-5-1)
Round one: The bell rings and Bailey charges in on Asrih who lands a few good shots on Bailey before a single leg takes the fight to the ground. Asrih grabs for the neck of Bailey but there is really nothing there. Bailey takes side control and begins looking for a crucifix but not getting it and 90 seconds into the round Bailey throws the first punch on the ground. Asrih escapes and gets back up for a moment until Bailey takes him right down again. For the rest of the round Bailey is doing just enough to keep from being stood up but not really threatening to finish the fight.
Round two: Geez! Asrih goes for a weak high kick and falls to the canvas, right where Bailey wants him. Bailey gets right into side control and quickly moves to the mount but Asrih moves to get his feet to the fence and gets the reverse but the strength of Bailey once again takes the fight to the ground. Bailey again gets side control and again moves to mount but isn’t doing anything major as Asrih never seemed in trouble, even when he gave up his back but Asrih just couldn’t stop him. And the fight ends.
Dana White sums the fight up best with “Round one Bailey lies on him for 5 minutes, round two Bailey lies on him for 5 minutes.”
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