TUF Season 9 Episode 7 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 7

Last week we saw James Wilks (UK) and Cameron Dollar (USA) both get wins. Team UK is up 3 wins to 2 going into Episode 7.

Jason Pierce and David Faulkner are the last two Welterweight Fights so it’s obvious that they will match up in the next Welterweight Fight. So they tease this fight for the first couple of segments of the show. Faulkner looked really good in his preliminary fight and I’ve got him pegged as one of the top Welterweight guys in the house. Pierce won an “unimpressive” fight to get in the house (but hey, a win is a win). Pierce says he broke some blood vessels in his foot during his prelim match.

Richie Whitson finds out that he has some kind of contagious bacterial infection. Pierce runs around spraying everything after Richie touches it.

Pierce is shown saying that he disagrees with some of the training and then he is later shown walking out during a stand up session with Diabate. In addition to Pierce’s injury it looks like Faulker has come down with an infection. So there is a lot of doubt whether this fight is going to take place as originally scheduled.

Next up is a “Coaches Challenge” and Bisping and Henderson will be playing Tennis. The winning coach gets $10,000 and each team member gets $1,500. Dana expands the rules so that they don’t have to serve in the correct boxes. Bisping says he has never played. Dan wins easily 6 games to 2 games. Bisping gets pissed off at Damarques for calling Bisping “white” but it was Cameron Dollar that actually made the comment.

Fight Announcement: Bisping picks Ross Pearson against Richie Whitson. Bisping thinks Pearson will be able to “catch” Whitson. Hendo says his concern with Whitson is that due to his skin problems he hasn’t been able to train on the mat in over a week.

Richie Whitson has a birthday and gets some cake and Cameron Dollar has some alcohol and a little cry and talks about how he wishes he had a better relationship with his parents.

Lightweight Fight- Ross Pearson (9-3) vs. Richie Whitson (4-0)

This should be a good fight. Both guys did a good job in their prelims. Pearson looks like a tough fighter. The height and reach for both of these fighters is identical. Richie was one of the two guys from the US team that really impressed me during the prelim fights.

R1- They clinch early, this seems like something Ross likes to do as he did the same thing in his prelim fight. Ross caught Richie with a good flurry but gave it up to go for a take down. Ross had the advantage but hit Richie with an illegal knee to a downed opponent. Herb Dean takes a point from Ross Pearson. Peason was able to get Richie’s back and then get an arm bar submission. Pearson is not a real fun fighter to watch but he’s a grinder and controlled this fight. So this means UK goes up 4 to 2 and I think they have a good advantage in the next fight as well.

Winner: Ross Pearson by Submission (Arm Bar) R1

Remaining Fighters:

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

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

My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)

Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)