TUF Talks: "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 13 Episode 3

Hello once more fans and friends and welcome to the latest edition of “TUF Talks”. TUF Talks is a weekly rundown of the popular UFC reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter” complete with commentary and a full-length recap of all the important parts of the latest episode. Today’s entry focuses on the third episode of the thirteenth season of TUF. With Team Lesnar back in control and two underwhelming fights having taken place so far, what does the future hold for TUF? Read on to find out.

The episode begins with dissension among the ranks of Team Lesnar. Most if not all of Lesnar’s fighters have taken offense to Lesnar’s term of “turning chicken salad into chicken ****”. Apparently, being compared to fecal matter doesn’t sit well with trained fighters. After enough of a hubbub is raised, Lesnar takes his team aside and gives what feels like a pretty halfhearted speech. Basically, Lesnar says that the phrase is just a form of tough love, that they’re a level above now that they’re on the show, and that they’ve got to believe in themselves in order to make it to the finals of this competition.

Speaking of tough love, Assistant Coach Lew Polley believes that Junior dos Santos and the other coaches are becoming too soft for their own good. Polley takes over the training for a bit and proceeds to over-train his fighters. The situation comes to a head when one fighter gets cut only for Polley to shout at him to tape it up and get back to training.

With Team Lesnar in control, Brock Lesnar picks Len Bentley to face Team JDS’s Ryan McGillivray.

We then cut to the TUF house for an extended look at Chris Cope, who seems to be the loose lip that could sink Team Lesnar’s ship. Many of Cope’s Team Lesnar teammates think he’s spending too much time with Team JDS, and several people talk about how they no longer trust Cope. Len Bentley ends up bringing this to Coach Lesnar, who says that he’ll look into it but urges his fighter to concentrate solely on the fight.

Over at Team Dos Santos, the situation with Lew Polley is resolved when Junior pulls him aside for an honest heart-to-heart. JDS displays a little tough love, and basically puts Polley in his place. Polley admits that he may have wronged, and the impromptu intervention seems to have a happy ending.

After getting past a weight scare that involved Ryan McGillivray having to cut about ten pounds in a very short amount of time, both fighters successfully make weight and we get our final bit of pre-fight hype. After a surprise appearance by Mauricio Rua, the fight gets underway.

Both men start swinging bombs from the get-go, with Bentley landing early and often. After some particularly hard shots, McGillivray goes down. Bentley tries to finish the fight but ends up not being able to. He does score some Ground and Pound, though. Bentley keeps trying to finish the fight, but his over-zealousness leads to a series of surprise shots that results in Bentley hitting the canvas and going into survival mode. Bentley recuperates on the ground and hunts for an armbar, but he’s unsuccessful. As the two men scramble for position, McGillivray transitions to a D’Arce Choke and sinks it in during the dying minutes of the round. The round ends with Bentley’s face beat up and bright red, but Bentley remains conscious and this fight will see a second round.

The second round is as close as the first, although the pace has slowed down a bit for two reasons. The first reason is the unfortunate and repeating problem of a frantic first round: the pace they set causes both men to be gassed heading into the second. Secondly, it seems that both men coming close to unconsciousness has made them a little gun-shy. It’s still a good round, though, and it ends with both men trading leather.

In a bit of a surprise, this fight won’t be going to an overtime round. Although one judge did rule it a draw, two other judges gave the fight to Ryan McGillivray, which means to Team JDS is back in control.

Back in the locker room, McGillivray is very emotional and Junior dos Santos urges him to let it all out. McGillivray also gets teary-eyed when talking about how he looks forward to watching this fight with his young daughter, who is the main reason why he’s fighting to win this competition. Len Bentley also seems pretty emotional that he was unable to secure the win, but Dana White shows up to personally congratulate Bentley on his hard-fought performance.

The episode ends with a look at next week’s episode, which includes a surprise guest appearance by former UFC Welterweight Champion and UFC Hall of Fame Member Matt Hughes.

Overall, this was honestly one of the best episodes of the season. It will probably continue to hold that ranking as the season goes on. For one, the drama was certainly there. It was pretty engaging to see Team Lesnar verge on disintegration twice in one episode, and it was interesting to see how JDS dealt with one of his coaches going too far. Add in some emotional pre-fight moments and you’ve got a drama-packed episode. And thankfully, very, very thankfully, we finally got an action-packed episode. This was by far the best fight of the season, the other two fights outright pale in comparison.

This was a faith-rebuilding episode of TUF 13 and I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s next. But what about you, fans and friends? What did you think of TUF 13 episode 3?