The Ultimate Fighter 17 Episode 8 Recap
On tonight’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17 was jam packed. Not only did the last preliminary round fight take place but the wildcard match up was also revealed. We also got the traditional coach’s challenge as Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen went head to head prior to their UFC 159 title fight.
With one fight before the looming wildcard announcement Bubba McDaniel continues to hope that he’ll get that shot at redemption. His teammate Adam Cella agrees with him and thinks that out of everyone in the house he is the most deserving of the UFC contract.
Zak Cummings (Team Sonnen) and Dylan Andrews (Team Jones) have flown under the radar thus far but will get plenty of face time as they step into the Octagon tonight.
The coach’s challenge this season has a construction theme with the coaches competing in three challenges while driving excavators. The winning coach will get $10k and every fighter on the winning team will get $1500. Sonnen jumped out to the early lead by completely the first challenge first but he ended up having issues with the second one. That allowed Jones to catch up and move to the final stage first. Jones had his shot at winning but missed the mark which allowed Sonnen to even things up and eventually pass him for the win. For those counting that puts Chael Sonnen up 2-0 (Bowling & Coaches challenge) in their head to head match-up thus far.
Heading into the Zak Cummings vs. Dylan Andrews fight, Team Sonnen is currently up 4-2 over Team Jones.
Fight Time:
Round One: Zak gets the fight to the ground within the first minute and moves into dominate top position where he lands several nasty elbows. One of those elbows cuts Dylan on the side of head that begins to spill blood. Zak losses the position though when he tried to adjust and ended up on the bottom the remainder of the round. Zak scored better but ending the round on the bottom makes the round questionable.
Round Two: Zak comes out throwing some crazy strikes and rushes in and gets taken down against the cage. He holds the top spot for the final four minutes of the round, picking and choosing his shots wisely. That round clearly went to Dylan and how that first round was scored will determine who advances.
Two of the judges gave Dylan that first round and the fight. Dylan Andrews defeats Zak Cumming by Majority Decision to bring Team Jones one fight away from evening the score but still down 3-4.
The two coaches get to pick the wildcard fight this season instead of Dana White. The choices are Bubba McDaniel and Clint Hester from Team Jones and Kevin Casey and Zak Cummings from Team Sonnen. Right away Chael Sonnen says that he’ll be bringing back Kevin Casey, leaving Jon Jones with the tough call between McDaniel and Hester. Jones has a really tough time with the decision but ends up picking his teammate, Bubba McDaniel to face Kevin Casey.
The final fighter will punch his ticket to the quarterfinals on next week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17.
Category: MMA, UFC, Ultimate Fighter
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