The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Episode 3 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Episode 3 Re-Cap
"A Lotta Heart"
Team Liddell vs. Team Ortiz

Last week on TUF we saw teams pick and we saw the first fight. Tito's team looked stronger on paper but Chuck's team got to pick the first fight and veteran Kyle Noke submitted Clayton McKinney fairly easily.

Dana brought everybody together at the beginning of this show and walked out with the coaches. Dana calls out Chris Camozzi and tells him to step forward. Dana tells him he has exactly what they are looking for but also tells him that he has a broken jaw. He was complaining about a toothache and had a cat scan done and it came back positive for a fracture in his jaw. Dana had a list of guys from the fights and highlighted 4 guys that are injury free and ready to come back and told Tito that he and his coaches needed to make a decision on who they wanted to bring in to replace Camozzi. Tito and his coaches chose to bring back Seth Baczynski. Tito says he brought him back because of the heart that he showed.

"It took me years get here and it took seconds to loose it"- Chris Camozzi

Team Liddell won the last fight so they stay in "control" of the fights. Chuck picks Brad Tavares from his team to fight James Hammortree from Team Ortiz. Tito calls this a must win fight for his team. Yager and Nick Ring get into a little spat in the ring. Ring said that Yager was calling him names while they were sparring.

Hackleman says Tavares is a little raw right now but is well rounded. Howard Davis says he has a lot of punching power and great striking but wishes he would throw his jab a little more. James Hammortree says they call him the "Sledge" because he has a Sledge Hammer built into his right hand. Hammortree says he holds the state of Florida record for fastest knockout, which he says is 5 seconds.

Middleweight Fight- Brad Tavares (4-0) vs. James Hammortree (5-1)

R1- Hammortree shot in for a take down at the one minute mark but Tavares fought him and hit a nice judo throw. Tavares tried to take Hammortree's back and went for a choke but didn't have good position and Hammortree flipped him over onto his back. Tavares got up and Hammortree tried to take him back down but slipped off and Tavares again got position on Hammortree's back. Hammortree got up and shook Tavares but then tried to pull guard with a guillotine and immediately lost it and Tavares again tried to take Hammortree's back and Hammortree spun over into half guard. Close round. Both guys fought hard and both made a lot of mistakes that they should be able to take advantage of in the future with more training. This is anybody's fight.

R2- Tavares got a take down after a struggle in the first minute of the round. Back on their feet Tavares went for a knee and missed and then went for a judo throw but Hammortree avoided it and tried to take Tavares' back. Hammortree ended up getting on top of Tavares and stayed there for the rest of the round. Since they only do two rounds in TUF fights I see this one going to a third "sudden victory" round but Hammortree definitely took this round and the first round was really close so who knows. Dana announces that the judges declared the fight a draw and that they are headed for sudden victory.

R3- Tavares landed a good strike but then Hammortree got a take down. Hammortree got full mount but Tavares easily got out of it and took top position and landed a couple of good strikes. Hammortree tried to power out but Tavares held him down in a strange position while he rested. Not a lot of action in the final minutes of this round but I've got to give the round to Tavares as he really controlled the last minutes and landed more strikes. Both guys have a lot of holes in their game but both guys look like they have some good strengths to build on in the future with the right training. All three judges scored the final round for Tavares.

Winner: Brad Tavares by Decision

Tito disagrees with the decision but I think it was just the pressure of losing two in a row talking. Team Ortiz is in a tough spot down 2-0 so they really need a win next week.

Here are my way too early rankings based only on the first three TUF shows. Rankings will change drastically after the first round of fights I am sure.

Middleweight Rankings:
1. Jamie Yager (Team Ortiz Pick #4)
2. Kyacey Uscola (Team Ortiz Pick #2)
3. Kyle Noke (Team Liddell Pick #1)- defeated Clayton McKinney (Triangle Choke R1)
4. Nick Ring (Team Ortiz Pick #1)
5. Kris McCray (Team Ortiz Pick #3)
6. Brad Tavares (Team Liddell Pick #5)- defeated James Hammortree (Decision)
7. Court McGee (Team Liddell Pick #6)
8. Charles Blancard (Team Liddell Pick #3)
9. Rich Attonito (Team Liddell Pick #2)
10. Joe Henle (Team Liddell Pick #7)
11. Josh Bryant (Team Liddell Pick #4)
12. Seth Baczynski (Team Ortiz Replacement)

Eliminated:
Clayton McKinney by Kyle Noke (First Round)
Chris Camozzi- left due to injury
James Hammortree by Brad Tavares (First Round)

You can got to Ultimatefighter.com to watch fights from tonight's episode plus every season and every fight from all 10 seasons of The Ultimate Fighter for free. Add me on twitter @ugakev if you enjoy talking and hearing about sports, mma, music, movies, games and tv.