TUF Season 9 Episode 9 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 9

Last week we saw Jason Dent (USA) defeat Jeff Lawson (USA). Team UK is up 4 wins to 3going into Episode 9. Also, last week Dana told Jason Pierce he wouldn’t be fighting and one of the favorites (David Faulkner from Team UK) was struggling with fighting with his mouthpiece in his mouth.

It looks like Dan is going to have to choose from his 2 Welterweight fighters that lost previously (Mark Miller and Frank Lester) to take Pierce’s spot against Faulkner. Mark Miller has a broken nose but says he wants to fight as long as he has time to train and cut weight. Frank says that he will give it what ever he’s got. It seems like Frank wants it more than Mark does right now. Frank gets the fight. Dan tells him to get ready to fight and tells Mark that he’s not cleared due to his nose.

Hendo pulls his option to change his training session from the early session to the late session. Bisping isn’t too happy about this and equates it to getting it in the backside. Obviously Bisping values his nights out as evidenced by the fight that he missed early this season.

“Bisping was just a little bitch about it”- Dan Henderson

Bisping declines the change in times and there is some back and forth between the guys. When they go to line up for the fight announcement Bisping walks past Damarques and squirts water in his face out of his water bottle. Obviously Damarques does not like this and throws his hat at Bisping. Damarques asks why he did it and Bisping says he was making amends for the racist comment that Damarques said the other day (this was the comment on the tennis court that Cameron Dollar said to Bisping, NOT Damarques). Bisping finds out that Cameron is the one who does it and goes to apologize but Damarques is pretty pissed off about it.

“Bisping just…when things don’t go his way throws a little hissy fit, temper tantrum. I’ve got little kids and I see the same thing out of them”- Dan Henderson

“I would fight Bisping in a *beeping* parking lot. Bring it.”- Damarques Johnson

They finally get to announce the next fight, which is David Faulkner versus Frank Lester. Bisping also brings up the point about the outstanding issue of training times and says that he is happy to put his training time on the line in this fight. Hendo says he won’t accept the challenge and Bisping’s team can wake up no matter what.

They bring in a hypnotherapist to help Faulkner with his gag reflex. Frank Lester is starting to have some second thoughts about taking the fight.

Welterweight Fight- David Faulkner (2-1) vs. Frank Lester (3-2)

Mask (RIP) and the rest of the TapouT crew are shown at ringside for this fight. Dana tells them about Frank’s teeth being in his mouthpiece after his last fight.

R1- Very little action in the first minute and a half. Faulkner finally rushed in and they clinched against the cage. Faulkner got a take down about three minutes in but Lester quickly got to his feet. This was a surprisingly even round with neither guy really doing much damage. Faulkner looked really tired at the end of the round as he was visibly breathing with his mouth open with about a minute left in the round. I guess you would give that round to Faulkner because he was more aggressive but he didn’t really do any damage.

R2- Faulkner spits out the mouthpiece at the beginning of the round and they briefly stop the round. Lester is definitely getting the better of Faulkner in the opening minutes of this round. Faulkner looks really tired and he’s swinging wildly for a knockout punch when he gets the opportunity. Faulkner hit a good right hand but Lester took it, I don’t think there was much behind it with the state that Faulkner looks like he’s in. Lester took this round so I’ve got them at one round a piece. Both fighters are very tired and sit down after the end of the round. Lester has a bloody nose.

In the corner it looks like Faulkner is telling Bisping that he doesn’t want to continue. Mazzagatti calls the fight after Faulkner doesn’t want to continue. Very disappointing fight from Faulkner especially after what I was expecting after watching his preliminary fight. Although it was pretty sweet since he was Bisping’s boy. Bisping got upset that Team USA was celebrating their victory.

Winner: Frank Lester by Submission (Corner Stoppage)

This ties it up UK 4 USA 4. This actually makes it more interesting as there are 2 fighters from each country left in each division so we will get even USA vs. UK in all of the next round fights. Bisping pulls his 4 fighters to the side to give them a pep talk.

Remaining Fighters:

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

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

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

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)
Jeff Lawson defeated by Jason Dent (Episode 8)
Jason Pierce eliminated by Dana White (Episode 8)
David Faulkner eliminated by Frank Lester (Episode 9)