The Ultimate Fighter 4, Episode 5: Of Clowns and Comebacks

Not a whole lot of news to report this week, mainly because I’ve been too busy to scour my sources. I did ask Dave Meltzer, editor of the bible of fighting sports, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter for more info on Stephan Bonnar.

In a nutshell, it’s not up to the UFC to discipline Bonnar, it is the role of the state athletic commission. They will decide an appropriate punishment and when his probable suspension is over, the UFC will decide whether they want to continue using him. According to Dave, Bonnar is well-liked by those in charge, so chances are pretty good he’ll come through.

With that, it’s time for episode 5! Of course, last week, Jeremy jumped the fence to dabble with a lifeguard. Seemingly everyone has staph. And Travis Lutter gave Team No Love their first win, a lopsided and quick submission over Scott Smith.

As usual, the opening discusses the previous week’s fight, and as with last week, there isn’t much to talk about. Basically, Scott bad, Travis good. Din describes it as catching a fly in a Venus Flytrap. Which is cool, because I always loved WKRP in Cincinnati.

The trainers wonder why Scott called out Travis, as they don’t think it was a good matchup. They think maybe Mojo believed that Scott was the only one who could stop Travis’ takedowns. Dana confirms that Pete Sell would have been a better matchup. Rich Clementi wonders if there was some sort of reason they picked that fight.

Matt tells Scott that he deserves credit for taking a fight that people didn’t think was a good matchup. Scott looks up as if something clicks in his head, and you can almost see the light bulb going on. Rich thinks maybe Matt was protecting his friend Pete from a tough match. Shonie thinks Scott was thrown to the wolves, but he doesn’t blame Matt for making a decision that benefits him. I agree with Shonie – again – as Scott could have spoken up if he thought it was a bad match for him.

In the other locker room, there is joy. Dana reminds us that Team No Love has won control, and they get to choose the next fight. Team Mojo’s welterweights are Matt Serra and Din Thomas, while No Love has Mikey Burnett and whoever replaces Jeremy, either Rich or Pete Spratt. Personally, I’d give it to Rich because he had the better loss. Pete’s fight was not impressive. It’s too bad Gideon isn’t eligible to come back. Rich reviews the situation, and says he doesn’t care, he’s there to fight. He thinks he matches up well with Matt.

Matt, for his part, is expecting to be chosen. This seems to set the foreshadowing fairies all a-twitter, so we shall see. Matt thinks Rich will come back, and he thinks that’s a good fight for him.

In the van, Matt tells Din that he would rather fight next. Din says that Rich wants to fight Matt, in fact, they all want to fight Matt. They seem to think all he can do is shoot. That’s not much of a stretch, because most of his fights go the distance or close to it. Matt doesn’t like Rich much, as he thinks he’s the cocky one. He looks forward to working him over.

Shonie is collecting all the empty water bottles in the house, with the plan to somehow make a floatie for the pool. Charles McCarthy says that Shonie is obnoxious, rude, mean-spirited, and a lot of other bad qualities. I bet he’s still mad because Shonie made a fool out of him during the fight announcement in week 2. Jorge Rivera says it was funny at first, but get annoying. Shonie’s a clown, and Jorge wants to show him what a clown he is.

The next morning, Rich throws the water bottles out of the pool. It’s a big job. He says if Shonie wants to build something, he can take it up to his room. Jorge has a ten-year-old who doesn’t demand as much attention as Shonie. Ah, but the producers LOVE Shonie. Shonie, of course, dismisses their objections.

The fighters have a meeting so that Randy can tell them that they need to replace their teammate. They have 24 hours to decide.

Team No Love decides that the fairest way to decide is to flip a coin. Ergh. Pete Spratt wins. Rich is bummed, but he says at least he gets to stay and train. Someone (Jorge?) tells him that it was the only fair way to do it (No, the fair way would be to reward the person who had the better fight!) and Rich answers that he doesn’t think Pete really wants it.

At the house, Pete wonders if he should give the spot to Rich. He thinks Rich is a more well-rounded fighter than he is, and the whole point is to determine the best. Wow, if you don’t think you’re the best fighter in the tournament, unless you’re just in it for the money or experience you better just go home now. Jorge looks at him like he has three heads.

It’s 2:30 AM and Shonie is up playing cards. He tells us he has a sleep disorder where he’s up for a day and a half and sleeps four hours. That explains why he always looks half-asleep – because he is! Now he’s playing pool at 3:15, and someone yells at him to shut up. Shonie mutters that they can’t hear him up there as the loud clack of the billiard balls would tend to prove otherwise. Mikey pleads with him that there are 15 guys trying to sleep, and Shonie gives in. Mikey wonders if Shonie works hard to piss him off so much.