The show opens with Corey Hill in the sauna, talking about the fight with Buddy Rowe. What's that? You don't know who Buddy Rowe is? Why he's Corey Hill's motivational inner voice. This once again demonstrates Corey's rather unique personality and approach to the sport.
The most dramatic portion of this week's episode was Nate Diaz working out with Team Penn, as a result of his desire to spend less time around Corey Hill, given that he was preparing to fight Hill. Some of Diaz's Team Pulver teammates are less than enthused about this, a sentiment shared by some members of Team Penn. Notable amongst Team Penn members is Joe Lauzon, who has advanced to the semi-finals, and has a couple of nagging injuries that he doesn't exactly want to advertise.
Nate stays at the gym to work out with Team Pulver, and has a little tete a tete with Jens about why he was working out with Team Penn. Jens tries to understand Nate's reasoning, but doesn't quite get it. But he also doesn't get upset with Nate, and supports the decision regardless.
Jens also tells us that he's not cornering for either Nate or Corey. Good on him.
Corey and Nate have a very good fight. Just comparing Corey's performance in his first fight to this one, you can see just how much Corey has improved. Nate wins with a triangle choke after a few minutes of both stand up and ground work. More importantly, the end of the fight is followed by hugs and mutual admiration.
We then move on to the next fight of the episode, Matt Wiman vs. Manny Gamburyan. In order to better prepare Manny for the fight, Jens brings in Manny's cousin, Karo Parisyan. You know, the guy who throws opponents around like sacks of flour? Yeah, him. Parisyan gives all Team Pulver members a crash course in throwing.
Nobody except Karo and Manny seem to be giving Manny a chance. Dana favours Matt, BJ favours Matt, and Matt believes that God favours Matt. I think Matt Hughes and Tim Sylvia made similar contentions. And of course, we can never forget God's teaming with Shawn Michaels in a tag team loss to Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon.
In the fight, Manny outpowers Matt's attempts to take him down, and does more damage striking. In an upset, Manny scores a unanimous decision over Matt.
Matt shows his Christian side when he dismisses Manny's victory as a fluke, stating that "I still believe that I’m a much better fighter than he is… if I fought that guy ten times, I would beat him more times than he would beat me… It doesn’t make sense, him beating me." Classy guy that Matt Wiman.
The Good
- Both fights were very good this week.
- Corey Hill is a markedly improved fighter. If he improved this much in the six weeks or so he was in the house, he is going to be a real force to be reckoned with after six months.
- Once again, Jens shows his reasonable and motivating side. While he may not have really understood why Nate wanted to train with Team Penn, he didn't freak out and go off. Instead, he listened to what Nate had to say, and did his best to ensure that Nate got what he thought was the best training possible. Hmmm, coaching without belittling, abusing, berating or attacking. What a crazy concept.
- I'm impressed with Karo's willingness to come in and help all members of Team Pulver. While Manny may have been the reason he came, he didn't only help Manny. It's also impressive because Karo doesn't get the respect from the UFC that other guest coaches like Randy Couture and Matt Hughes have received.
- After the kafuffle last week about Noah Thomas and Marlon Sims facing one another at the TUF5 finale next week, Dana sent down word from on high that not only is that fight not taking place, but also that "will never fight in the UFC - ever." Dana said that Spike announced the fight because they wanted it, but Dana never agreed, and he has no intention of allowing them in the UFC after the street fight. Good for Dana.
- I don't think Nate ever just said "I wanted to train with BJ because I don't feel comfortable training here with Corey."
The Ugly
- Matt Wiman needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. If you're going to drop the God card before the fight, you'd better be prepared to keep it in play after the fight. Otherwise, you just come across as a hypocritical jackass. Unless, of course, you actually are a hypocritical jackass.
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