Sorry for the delay, I’ve been sick this week and the quality of this article may reflect that.

   So this week the focus is on John’s love of hugs and Roop’s injured hand.  

   The highlight is that we get a fantastic hug montage and a bit more depthin to John’s personality. John seems like a genuinely nice guy, even Junie likes John.

   John explains that he holds his hugs extra long because no one gives a good hug anymore. Instead of simply going through the motions, he makes every hug count.

   John being such a nice guy causes a very small prank to be a rather big deal. The guys on Team Mir steal the marshmallows from John’s lucky charms (Which is pretty funny) and he gets genuinely upset. He explains that he didn’t involve himself in any previous pranks, and that he has been nothing but nice to Team Mir.

   John is someone I hope the UFC or at least the WEC pick up. His attitude is good for the sport.

   The fight itself is a bit weak. Roop keeps john at a distance with kicks and controls the fight despite only having one hand. The most notable moment was the pre fight hug, perhaps the first ever in the octagon.

   Not surprisingly Roop won the fight via decision. Dana got upset, stating that he hates it when fights are stolen from fighters. Dana felt a third round was needed, but I personally don’t think John did enough to warrant one.

   Post fight Team Mir talks trash about Team Nog’s family atmosphere and Roop looks a little embarrassed to be in the same dressing room with them.

   Back at the house a couple guys toss eggs and things off the balcony onto the guys in the hot tub. In retaliation Junie throws a temper tantrum equal to a younger brother who knows he can’t do anything to get his older brothers to stop picking on him.

   The semi final fights are announced as:

Eliot vs Bader

Vinny vs Krystoff

Junie vs Efrain

Roop vs Nover

   However if the commercials for the upcoming episode and Junie’s comments on Dana’s video blog are any indication, we won’t be seeing Junie vs Efrain. 

   This week we get a great episode of The Ultimate Frat Boy. I don’t know why, perhaps because the producers don’t find Nog or Mir that interesting, but we don’t get to see much training this season.

   The show focuses quite a bit this week on the prank war within the house, however this time it goes to a strange new level. People have been eating Tom Lawlor’s fruit tray daily while he is at practice. Tom (and a couple other guys) piss in the fruit tray and explain that it isn’t their fault if the other team eats it. Of course Bader, Phillipe, Kyle ad a few others eat it.

   When Team Mir explains what happened they take the news very differently. Phillipe starts to gag, Bader doesn’t react much, and Kyle is pretty stoked about it being a great prank.

   In retaliation, Phillipe is upset that people keep eating his sushi. So, in what must be the most awkward sequence in The Ultimate Fighter history, the guys on team Nog add some special sauce to Phillipe’s sushi.

   Dave Kaplan, Phillipe’s opponent for the week eats it, and then freaks out a bit. He claims that his fecal matter will be on them within 3 days.

Fantastic.

   This week we saw maybe about 7 minutes worth of actual training, and when they showed team Mir train it was Junie throwing a temper tantrum about no one wanting to train. Mir sitting with his team on the mats explains he simply waits out these moments with Junie. Great coaching Frank.

   We see a bit more of Nog than Mir in this episode because he takes the time to go to the house to see his guys. John is stoked about this so he and Nog hug it out.

   Junie gives Phillipe tips on how to beat Dave Kaplan. His reasoning is that he doesn’t like Kaplan because he talks too much. Really Junie? Really? Alright.

   The fight itself lasts maybe two minutes. Phillipe lands a couple big shots standing, moves to the ground and sinks in a rear naked choke for the win.

   Following the fight Kaplan and Mir make a lot of excuses as to why Dave lost the fight. They don’t mention the one where Phillipe is pretty damn impressive.

   Other than the fight and Dave Kaplan’s Rain Man like ability to name the capitols of countries, this week felt like a bit of a waste of time. 

   So this week was by far my favourite episode of the season thus far. There was very little in the way of house nonsense and shenanigans (some, but much less then previously).

   Following their win from last week Frank Mir comes to celebrate at the house. While there he asks Delgado where he got his black belt. The preview made it seem like Mir was harassing him, and Mir received heat on message boards like Sherdog for it. In reality the question was posed quite casually and in a friendly way. The answer given by Delgado is a bit complicated, and lead to many questioning his black belt’s legitimacy. He said he would post a link of his ceremony and he did (Find part one here)

   This persists into the fight announcement where Junie hands Delgado a black belt and spits on it. Which is an ignorant thing to do, let alone with Frank Mir and Big Nog present. Mir chalks it up to being charismatic, but echoes Nog and Anderson Silva, stating it is disrespectful.

   The episode is indeed all about the fight between Junie and Delgado. Junie doesn’t make weight at first, but manages to cut the additional two pounds in an hour. (Although he seemed on the verge of giving up a couple times.) Mir is right when expressing his anger and frustration with Junie. His mental state and strength are his biggest weakness.

   Junie talks some pre-fight trash stating that Delgado won’t make it out of the first round. Saying he wants to make a deal with Dana that says Delgado wins if he survives round one.

   Well guess what, the fight goes three rounds. It is not a great technical fight, and neither fighter looked incredible. What did stand out is Delgado’s heart and drive, Junie’s punches to the body and Junie’s lack of cardio.

   Junie landed a lot of shots, but Delgado didn’t seem particularly injured. They may have seemed better than they were relative to Delgado’s standup though, which was rough and ineffective. Both men taunted each other in the early rounds, but by the third Delgado was the only one smiling as Junie continued to out point him. For all the trash he talked about Delgado’s credentials Junie would not go to the ground, even while Delgado laid on his back and called Junie to come after him.

   Junie won via split decision, and in a moment of class apologized to Nog about the belt incident, chalking it up to pre-fight hype. Junie also expressed his disappointment with himself for letting Delgado out of the first. Mark it down, Junie managed to not be a complete fool for about 10 minutes, let’s hope it continues.

   Frank Mir stated they picked this fight so Junie could simply destroy their weak link and send a message. Well Delgado didn’t look hurt during the fight, which required a third round, what happens when Junie fights one of Nog’s best?

   In other news, EliteXC folded this week, where their fighters will end up is currently unknown. Hopefully we see Robbie Lawlor back in the Octagon, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kimbo at a Dream event in the near future. If only the UFC would bring Gina in for the fight with Cyborg as a one-time deal to test the reaction to women in the UFC. But I’m sure we can all agree that it is good to have Jared “Why do I call myself $kala?” Shaw out of MMA for the time being.

   Week three of The Ultimate Fighter begins with the information that two of the contestants, Brian and Karn, have fractured their noses and have been suspended for 180 days by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. As a result Kyle Kingsbury and Roli Delgado (one of the lankiest lightweights ever) got to come back.

   Teams were picked with Roli’s identity being unknown and going to whomever had the last pick of the lightweights. Mir won the coin-toss and chose to pick first, giving Nogueira control over the first fight.

   Mir feels that as individuals none of his fighters can be beat. Nog on the other hand took the Couture route and chose a group of guys he thinks will bond as a team. Which we see happen in this episode, with Nog going over to his team’s house for a meal, and being really excited about their ability to cook.

   John Polakowski (the cat who loves to hug people) is simply stoked about everything and gives Dana White a hug. I am so glad this guy is on the show. John comes from The Pitt, and reminds me a lot of Pitt alumni Jason Von Flue. He isn’t as obviously strange, but he seems to have suppressed his crazy and simply lets it out in hug form.

   Both Nog and Mir bring in competent assistant coaches (no Shamrock fiasco this season) including Mir’s assistant coach, former Abu Dhabi champion Robert Drysdale. The standout however is Nog’s assistant boxing coach Al “Stankie” Stankiewicz. Stankie is 67 and awesome, it’s like Burgess Meredith is on the show. If he calls someone “a wrecking machine” this will officially be my favourite season. How do you not love a guy named Stankie?

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