Wednesday night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter got started with the fighters preparing for the much anticipated bout between Matt Brown (9-6) and Jeremy May (5-5).
The night before the fight, eliminated fighters Brandon Sene (2-0) and Matt Riddle (0-0) were doing shots and it appeared May was doing some with them. He claimed he had “twelve or thirteen” shots, which upset the other fighters.
Apparently May had filled up a vodka bottle with water and was only pretending to be drunk, trying to play some mind games with Brown and Team Forrest.
It was nothing new for May as we learned he had been nursing a knee injury that held him out of the majority of Team Rampage’s conditioning and sparring sessions. May himself admitted he faked the severity of the injury to pace himself during training. Jeremy rode the bike while his team completed grueling conditioning sessions.
That dishonest approach and his cocky attitude angered everyone in the house, including the other fighters on Team Rampage. Teammate Matt Riddle was so disgusted with May that he revealed Jeremy’s knee injury to Matt Brown the night before the fight.
Matt brown is no joke. He revealed his colorful past that includes plenty of drugs, alcohol, fighting, and even a few stints in jail. By all accounts, he is a serious individual. He didn’t trash talk much before the fight and was just happy to finally get Jeremy and his mouth into the Octagon.
Matt Brown (9-6) v Jeremy May (5-5)
May came out swinging, managing to land a few punches and a knee on Brown. May tried a head kick and Brown sent him to the canvas with a straight right.
May, wanting to get the fight to the ground, did not attempt to stand up. Brown hit a few leg kicks before dropping a right hand on Jeremy’s face and taking side control.
Brown moved to the mount and looked for submissions. May sensed this and fed Matt an armbar. Brown took the bait; and, Jeremy was able to slam out of Matt’s armbar attempt and wound-up standing in Brown’s open guard.
Jeremy landed a few punches from the top before Matt turned the tables and got on top in May’s closed guard. Matt transitioned to side control, then knee-on-stomach and connected with a few shots before both fighters stood back up.
May, with his hands dropped, looked gassed. Brown hit him with a jab and then a right cross that sent Jeremy to the mat again.
Brown punched May’s face twice from his open guard before both fighters stood again. At this point May’s tank was empty. He could barely stand up straight. Brown smelled blood and landed a nice knee to set up a beautiful left head kick to the hunched over May, knocking him out and forcing referee Herb Dean to stop the fight.
Winner by knockout: Matt Brown
The loss didn’t humble Jeremy May. Even though lying about his injury and skipping conditioning obviously contributed to him gassing out, he still said Brown got lucky and, that if they fought again, the result would be different.
Fighters’com’s first-ranked light heavyweight “Rampage” Quinton Jackson (28-6) was frustrated after losing the first fights and was even more so when sixth-ranked Forrest Griffin (15-4) revealed he was picking the match-ups by flipping a coin. After the next coin flip at Team Forrest’s training session, it was determined Luke Zachrich (7-1) would take on Team Rampage’s Dan Cramer (0-0).
Neither man had the rugged look common of fighters, but they produced the most exciting fight so far this season.
Luke Zachrich (7-1) v Dan Cramer (0-0)
Cramer landed two punches immediately and the fighters clinched up. Dan threw some more shots and attempted a trip that ended up pushing Luke against the fence. They separated and Luke landed a straight left that seemed to stun Cramer for a second before he was able to tie Luke up again, land a knee to his face, and execute the trip for a takedown.
After a brief scramble, both men got back to their feet. Cramer tried to walk through a few of Luke’s punches to get the tie up, but decided to stop after a few of them connect solidly to his chin. He backed off and then charged in throwing long looping punches, sticking his chin out begging for Luke to connect.
The fighters clinched against the cage and engaged in some dirty boxing. Cramer landed punch after punch on Luke’s face. Zacharich landed a few clean shots of his own, but couldn’t match Dan’s pace.
After eating about twenty punches, Luke got the trip for a takedown and got to the mount. Dan rolled and Luke took his back with just under a minute left. Zacharich looked for the rear naked choke, and initially appeared to have it locked in pretty deep. Dan, nearly punched out from his barrage on Luke, wasn’t doing much to defend the choke. Luke, tired from eating all of those punches, had no energy to finish the choke; and, both fighters were happy to finish the round with Luke on Dan’s back.
Round two started with Luke and Dan trading punches and clinching.
Cramer got a trip for a takedown and took the mount on Zacharich. He landed some punches and elbows; and, Luke gave up his back to stop the onslaught. Two more punches from there and Luke was under the mount again. Dan rained down punches with a few elbows mixed in. Luke couldn’t escape the mount or defend the punches; so, referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight.
Winner by TKO: Dan Cramer.
Finally, Team Rampage won a fight and gained the matchmaking rights for the next fight. Rampage was giddy after the win and to have control over the next match-up.
Photo by Josh Hedges. Copyright Zuffa, LLC
