CAUTION: SPOILERS INCLUDED – Only two fights remain in The Ultimate Fighter 5 preliminary round. This week, four fighters (Team Penn’s Gray Maynard and Matt Wiman, and Team Pulver’s Marlon Sims and Wayne Weems) will battle it out for two quarterfinal spots.
After a win by Joe Lauzon on last week’s show, Team Penn finally got on the board, but coach BJ Penn is still not happy with the way things are playing out, and even UFC President Dana White took the former welterweight champion to the side to discuss the situation.
“You need to take hold of your team,” said White. “You need to be a coach. You’re the General.”
Penn agreed.
“Losing every single time is sickening,” he said, and before a team practice, Penn held a team meeting where Andy Wang was booted from the team for not listening to the coaching staff on a consistent basis.
“He never listened from Day One,” said Penn of Wang, who lost his match to Brandon Melendez and was singled out for not following his coach’s instructions during the bout.
With Wang in no man’s land, White was summoned back to the gym and informed of Penn’s decision. White quickly called Jens Pulver in and asked him if he would accept Wang on his team. Pulver spoke to the rest of his squad, who unanimously agreed to take on the former Team Penn member.
Wang had his doubts though, which earned him a dressing down from White, who simply handed the fighter his new gold jersey and told him to get to practice.
With all of this, it was easy to forget that there were some fights about to take place, with the final four of Maynard, Wiman, Sims, and Weems getting their opportunities to move to the quarterfinal round.
The first bout up was Maynard against Weems, and though Pulver was pleased with the progress of Weems, whom he had criticized earlier in the season, once the bell rang, the fight belonged to Maynard, who landed a right hand to the head, took Weems down, got his back, and then pounded away until referee Herb Dean halted the bout in the first round.
The second fight of the week, between Wiman and Sims, played out in a similar fashion, with Wiman cracking Sims and hurting him with the first right hand he threw. In the ensuing scramble on the mat, Wiman quickly got Sims’ back and put him to sleep with a rear naked choke, earning
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a first round submission victory.
Next week, the quarterfinals begin…
After a 2-0 showing this week, Team Penn now trails Team Pulver by a 5-3 mark, and the teams currently stand as follows…
TEAM PENN
Gray Maynard 1-0
Matt Wiman 1-0
Joe Lauzon 1-0
Gabe Ruediger – ELIMINATED FROM COMPETITION FOR FAILING TO MAKE WEIGHT
Rob Emerson – ELIMINATED BY NATE DIAZ / BROUGHT BACK TO REPLACE RUEDIGER / ELIMINATED AGAIN BY COREY HILL
Noah Thomas – ELIMINATED BY MANNY GAMBURYAN
Allen Berube – ELIMINATED BY COLE MILLER
TEAM PULVER
Corey Hill 1-0
Nate Diaz 1-0
Brandon Melendez 1-0
Manny Gamburyan 1-0
Cole Miller 1-0
Marlon Sims – ELIMINATED BY MATT WIMAN
Brian Geraghty – ELIMINATED BY JOE LAUZON
Wayne Weems – ELIMINATED BY GRAY MAYNARD
Andy Wang – ELIMINATED BY BRANDON MELENDEZ / BOOTED FROM TEAM PENN, PICKED UP BY TEAM PULVER
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