TUF Season 9 Episode 4 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 4

Last week we found out that Dan Henderson gets to pick the first fight for Team USA. The UK fighters have had two weeks off from fighting and some of the US fighters have only had days off. It will be interesting how that affects the US squad in the first few fights.

We start off with Team UK and Michael Bisping introduces his two assistant coaches: Mario Sukata (wrestling and submissions) and Dave Jackson (tae boxing coach). Bisping says that these are his coaches in “real life.” Dan Henderson’s assistant coaches are Gustavo Pugliese (boxing and footwork), Ricardo Feliciano (jiu jitsu) and Cyrille Diabate (Muy Thai, knees and elbows) and Heath Sims (2000 Olympic team member for Greco-Roman wrestling). You may recognize Diabata as he’s a former Pride fighter and also fought on one of the Elite XC/ShoXC shows. His most high profile fights have been losses to Shogun Rua and Babalu Sobral. His most recent fight was a win over TUF Alumni Lodune Sincaid in January of this year.

Dan Henderson picks Mark Miller to fight Nick Osipczak in a Welterweight Fight. Henderson made the decision on who wanted to fight and who could make weight the easiest. I wasn’t particularly impressed with either of these guys in their first fight. They both showed some good skills but neither really stood out in their wins.

Bisping missed the Team USA elimination fights so he and his team go over the tape of Mark Miller’s fight. Then Bisping is shown working with Osipczak on a strategy for the Miller fight. Both fighters make weight. Based on the pose after making weight Osipczak has a clear height advantage which probably also equates to a reach advantage. Later on in the show Bisping talks to his fighter about some videos he watch on Youtube and further explains the strategy to Osipczak.

The US team writes on a Team UK shirt that is left in the house and on some Team UK wrestling shoes that are left at the practice facility.

Welterweight Fight- Nick Osipczak (Team UK) (3-0)vs. Mark Miller (Team USA) (10-4)

Osipczak has a 4” height and 5” reach advantage for this fight.

R1- Nick got a quick take down but couldn’t do anything with it and Miller flipped him over and took his guard and then they went back to their feet. Miller was able to throw Nick down during a flury of punches by both guys but didn’t hurt him. Nick got another take down with about 2 minutes left in the round. Nick couldn’t really do anything and Miller got back to his feet but then Nick grabbed a guillotine and pulled guard and nearly got a submission. Pretty even first round that I score to Osipczak 10-9 as he came closer to finishing the fight.

R2- Miller went for a guillotine early but Nick easily got out of it and had side control but put himself into half guard and Miller grabbed a guillotine attempt again. Nick hit a big right high kick out of nowhere and ended the fight by KO. Not a very impressive showing for either guy. I really can’t see Nick getting past his next opponent but I’ve been wrong before.

Winner: Nick Osipczak by KO (High Kick) R2

Post-match Michael Bisping talks about how he is being a “tactical dick” by bragging about his guy after the fight.

Remaining Fighters:

Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Martin Stapleton (defeated Dan James)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Santino Defranco (defeated Waylon Lowe)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)

Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- Dean Amasinger (defeated Alex Reid)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
US- Frank Lester (defeated Kiel Reid)

My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA) and Martin Stapleton (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)

Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)