Stephen Bass TUF 14 Episode 5 Blog: Boys will be Boys Behavior

Stephen Bass | October 21, 2011 | 1 Reply

Episode 5 kicked off with Diego having another Diego moment, him having some words with Siler about their upcoming fight. Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a lot of people bad mouthing Diego for his behavior thru the first few episodes so I wanted to come on and say give the kid a break, you all have no idea. Most of us as Americans will never experience any of the hardships this kid has gone through. I only spent a short few weeks around him and was astounded at some of the stories he told (what I could understand anyway). I could see the hurt in him, but also the desire to do better, to have better, and give something back to his native country of Brazil. That being said, give the guy a chance and try to expand your knowledge and understanding of a world outside of your own and the adverse negative effects it has on the people living in it. It just may open your heart to help give back to the people less fortunate than you and make a positive change in the world. Moving on…

The show then takes us back to the house and yet more “boys will be boys behavior”. Dustin Neace, realizing he was at MMA summer fantasy camp, takes advantage and finally gets the cowboy hat he’s always wanted. The damn thing was horrendous, I completely understood why he was not ALLOWED to have one at home thanks to the good fashion sense of his girlfriend. He should be thankful the little leprechaun Josh Ferguson took it, in my opinion he did him a favor! Then there was the retaliation by Neace which led to the bare knuckle challenge in the…garden, hmm?? The hat may just show back up in a future episode but if it doesn’t I’ll give you the scoop on it at the end of the season. Oh, and we never found the garden either, the silly Swede was actually referring to the back yard.

Now back to fight stuff, where we have Team Miller devising a plan to throw off John “the little mole that could” Dodson’s intel to Team Bisping. I think they were really proud of themselves for that little plan but they didn’t surprise anyone. I called it days before on what was going to happen since Dodson had already been discovered but not called out. Knowing this, Team Bisping actually ran counter espionage, having Akira pretend to be grossly overweight and not concerned since he knew he wasn’t fighting. Everything panned out as I predicted during the fight picks and Dustin was called on to fight Akira. During the weigh-ins we got to see the animosity these two held for each other start to seep out via Akira’s head butting and Neace’s takedown. You also get to see me play “ma hen” once again as I attempt to help defuse the situation and peel the two off of each other. Surprisingly enough it was a pretty tame in the house that night considering all the events leading up to this fight.

Dustin Neace vs. Akira Corassani

The fight between these two was back and forth in the first, no one really landing any decisive shots or damage until Neace’s ankle lock attempt. It was one of those situations that Neace will be shaking his head about for the rest of his life, a controversial tap and a scream that the ref didn’t see or deem stop worthy. I think back to the first Chael Sonnen vs. Paulo Filho fight where the ref stopped the fight due to Chael’s scream, citing it as a verbal tap. It’s unfortunate in this sport that decisions can’t be overturned after reviewing a fight but I guess that’s just the way it is. Regardless of that, I think the fight was even at one round a piece for each fighter after Akira landed a big shot in the second, dropped Neace, and followed up with some ground and pound. I felt like it should have gone to a third round, what are your thoughts? As for the continuing classless behavior from some of the coaches and fighters, what do you expect; we beat people up for money. Until next week!!!!

Stephen “Bigfish” Bass will be exclusively blogging on MMAValor.com every Thursday during the TUF 14 season. Make sure to follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenBassTUF and check out his website at http://stephenbass.tv/

Tags: Akira Corassani, Blog, Diego Brandao, Dustin Neace, Episode 5, Episode 5 Blog, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, Stephen Bass, Stephen Bass TUF 14, Team Bisping, Team Miller, TUF 14, UFC, Ultimate Fighter