The Ultimate Fighter series continued on Wednesday with the Blackzilians’ confidence sky high coming off a second straight victory. American Top Team were still searcing for answers.
After having two of their younger fighters fall short in the first two fights ATT turned to veteran Steve Carl. Carl is an experienced fighter having fought for Bellator and World Series of Fighting, which they hoped would be enough to end their losing streak and allow them to return to their home gym.
The Blackzilians chose Valdir Araujo, aka Baby Monster. Araujo has plenty of experience of his own and sports black belts in both Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
DRAMA IN THE BLACKZILIAN SAUNA
Much like the previous episodes things didn’t go to plan for ATT as Carl missed weight. With one hour to sweat out the extra weight, Carl and his teammates hit the sauna. This didn’t sit well with the Blackzilians coaching staff, who decided to utilize their home gym advantage and not allow ATT to use their sauna for the additional weight cut.
When you have a locker room full of highly trained and well accomplished fighters that you want out who do you send to make that happen? For the Blackzilians the choice was obvious, you send coach and resident bad ass Tyrone Spong. When a man with the dimensions of Spong has something to say people tend to pay close attention. Obviously this did not sit well with ATT and it provided a tense television moment. We were again left wondering whether this was the moment that the two teams would break out into an all out brawl. In spite of this, Carl managed to cut the additional weight.
As with previous weeks the gym was thick with Blackzilian energy as they yelled and chanted in support of Baby Monster. The pressure of this fight had to be on Carl’s mind as ATT needed the confidence boost that comes from getting in the win column.
STEVE CARL vs VALDIR ARAUJO
The fight was highly competitive and fairly even through almost 2 full rounds. Late in the second, Carl became over-zealous on a take down attempt and left an opening for Araujo to secure a guillotine and record the first stoppage of the season. Araujo had the most impressive outing of any fighter so far and looks like a man who could have a big impact on this competition.
The conclusion of the fight bought a raucous Blackzilian celebration. ATT were left steaming in the background. Chants of “Go home ATT” were too much for Hayder Hassan who once again concluded the episode yelling at the Blackzilians, promising to put an end to their winning streak. Hassan’s outburst did little if anything to quell the celebration.
ATT, long considered one of the elite training teams in the world of MMA, are now faced with a 3 fight losing streak and it will be interesting to see how they respond as a team. Have the Blackzilians got into their heads? Will ATT be able to right the ship and make this a competitive competition or will the Blackzilians continue their run of dominance?
We are still waiting to find out who will be this season’s antagonist. So far Michael Graves appears to be a strong candidate to fill the position, however the drama between the teams and coaches has been there in abundance. The entertainment it has bought has meant there hasn’t been much of a need to focus on any one fighter in that role as in previous seasons. This time around it’s a collective, antagonistic effort.
