Episode 3 showed me a little more about who some of the fighters were character wise. For example, it's obvious that Shonie Carter is a ham and that Rich Clementi is going to be in the midst of almost everything that goes on in that house. Shonie continued his showboating ways this week and put on quite an artistic show by painting everything he could get his hands on. I will have to say that I can see the necessity for things like this to happen inside the house. No television, no radio, no outside interaction. Nothing except for the other fighters in the house for entertainment. That would drive me nuts.
Shonie draws a charcoaled outline of himself raising his arm in victory which was actually a decent effort on his part. It really didn't look that bad. Don't get me wrong, it was terrible on the professional art scale, but good for someone who is an amateur enthusiast. Rich and a few of the other Team No Love members plot a prank on Mr. Inernational's latest masterpiece. Rich draws an exact copy of it and with the help of the other team members, defaces it with words and fake "bling", as Shonie calls it. Shonie returns, sees the fake sketch thinking it is the original, and is immediately upset about it as he should have been. He put some work into it and was proud of it. After threatening to move up to middleweight to fight the culprit, Team No Love reveals the joke and Shonie takes it in stride.
Jeremy Jackson received a lot of attention this episode leading one to believe that he was going to be fighting. Jackson took the opportunity to be on the show late as a replacement. Jeremy is one of the most impressive all around competitors to not make it in the UFC. His lone fight was a submission loss in a fight he was winning up to that point against Nick Diaz. Din Thomas says that he would want to face Jackson because he hasn't had the time to properly train and prepare for the show or a fight. Jeremy reveals that he doesn't trust Thomas at all, but offers no real reason for it.
All of the fighters got to watch UFC 60 at the house along with Georges St Pierre. It must have been a good relief moment for them to watch something on TV and to sit back and unwind. What was interesting to me was that they were watching the welterweight champion whom they may have to face should they win the welterweight division of the show. Of course, Hughes dominates Gracie and this visually bothers Matt Serra who trained with the Gracies for quite some time. Matt was actually one of the first Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts in the United States and to watch one of the guys who put it on the map get beaten handily was hard for him.
BJJ black belt Marc Laimon is brought in to the show as another trainer and there is some bad blood between he and Serra. In the fight between Pete Sell and Phil Baroni at UFC 51: Super Saturday, Laimon cornered Baroni and Serra cornered Sell. Laimon told Baroni in the third round to take Sell down. Baroni did just that, but got choked out for his efforts. After the fight, Laimon complained to the referee about bad officiating and about the fight in general. Serra took issue with this and the dislike has been there ever since. During a training session, Laimon trashes Gracie in front of Matt and you can see his face redden as the tirade continues. I was amazed that Matt did not snap, but I quickly remembered that he is one of the most composed fighters on the show.
When the fight selections were announced Jeremy Jackson was shocked that Chris Lytle, who was announced by Edwin Dewees as the representative for Team Mojo, was going to face Pete Spratt. Chris Lytle is praised by Dana White as "the epitome of an ultimate fighter" and most would agree that he is a solid fighter with lots of potential. Pete Spratt is the oldest fighter on the show, but has a wealth of experience. The chink in his armor is his ground game and this is well known by almost all of the opposing team members.
The fight went basically like this; Lytle opens up with a barrage of punches, Spratt dodges, another flurry from Lytle and then a clinch on the fence that eventually ends in a Lytle takedown. Chris locks in a rather weak looking guillotine choke and Pete taps almost immediately. After the fight, Spratt is angry and seems like he is going to just flip out, but doesn't thankfully. This fight was a weak one and may affect the ratings as it could have turned away new viewers from watching the next episode.
This week's fight was rather tame after watching Edwin Dewees tough it out through his massive bleeding with tremendous heart in his decision win last week. I look forward to next week's show and how Team No Love will answer the domination of Team Mojo.
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