TUF 9 Episode 10 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 10

Last week we saw Jason Pierce pulled from competition, Frank Lester upsetting David Faulkner, and Bisping spit water in Damarques’ face. We are down to the Semi-Finals in both the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions and both the UK and USA have 2 fighters left in each weight class. I see Ross Pearson (UK) and Damarques Johnson (US) as the guys to beat in their respective weight classes.

Dana and the coaches get together to talk about the Semi-Finals fights. They call the fighters in and talk to them about who they want to fight. Both James and Damarques clearly want to fight each other. Cameron Dollar says he wants to fight his teammate Jason Dent and this gets Dana thinking about putting USA against USA and UK against UK in the Lightweight division. Dana wants to set up Team UK versus Team USA in the finals so it looks like he’s going teammate against teammate. He says not to tell them anything and that they will bring in the fighters and call out the match-ups.

First Fight: Nick vs. Damarques
Second Fight: Andre vs. Cameron
Third Fight: Ross vs. Dent
Fourth Fight: Wilks vs. Frank

Dana tells Frank that he is the first guy in the history of TUF who has been brought back and won his fight. If I had to pick winners I would go with Damarques, Ross and Wilks. The Andre/Cameron fight looks like the closest to me and from what I’ve seen could be a toss up. I’ll pick Cameron just cause I think he’s more scrappy.

For some reason they let Pierce stay in the house and him and Richie Whitson get into it a little bit. Richie heard Faulkner talking about how Pierce was telling team UK about the US fighters and how they train. Hendo asks Pierce about it and Pierce denies it.

Nick says that he got Faulkner to get some info from Pierce about Damarques and that he will definitely use it in his strategy.

Welterweight Semi-Final Fight- Damarques Johnson (13-6) vs. Nick Osipczak (3-0)

Damarques beat Dean Asaminger by Submission (Triangle Choke) in round one of his last fight. In the previous fight he defeated Ray Elbe by TKO (Punches) also in round one. Nick beat Mark Miller by KO in the second round of his last fight. In the previous fight he beat Tommy Maguire by KO.

R1- Damarques hit a good combo early. Damarques got a take down when he basically threw Nick to the floor but Nick got up before any damage could be done. Damarques is looking good early and connecting with some decent shots. Damarques gets a second take down about two minutes into the round. Nick did a good job of defending and got some shots in from the guard. When they stood up Nick hit a short right uppercut that stunned Damarques and Nick then had Damarques up against the cage and was landing shots and had Damarques on the ropes but Damarques held on and actually came back after Nick punched himself out. Damarques clearly won that round until the last 30 seconds and Nick did his best to steal it. I would still give the round to Damarques but Nick really just landed that one good shot and then couldn’t finish off Damarques while Damarques controlled just about the entire round. Good round and it might have gone either way. Both guys are clearly in this fight.

R2- Damarques got in a brief clinch at the beginning of the round and looked like he hit a good knee. Damarques looks a little tired but keeps pushing forward and got a take down. Damarques went for a kimura but could not lock it in. Nick gave up his back and Damarques got in some shots and Bisping is yelling about back of the head hits as his fighter has his face buried in the mat. Nick got lucky as the fight was about to get called if it last 10 more seconds. Nick had trouble getting up after the round was over. This round clearly went to Damarques. I’ve got him up 20-18.

R3- Damarques is landing more strikes early in this round but he’s leaving his hands down. Nick looks really tired. Damarques got a take down about half way through the round. Damarques was able to mount but Nick gave up his back and was able to flip Damarques over with about a minute left in the round. Nick finished on top but didn’t really look to land anything substantial the entire round. I’ve got Damarques 30-27, although I could see it 29-28.

Winner: Damarques Johnson by Decision (Unanimous)

It looks like we’ve got both Lightweight Semi-Final fights next week!

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)
US- Frank Lester (defeated David Faulkner)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger, Nick Osipczak)

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)
Nick Osipczak eliminated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 10)