The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Episode 2 Re-Cap

The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Episode 2
Team Liddell vs. Team Ortiz

Last week we saw the preliminary fights to see which fighters get into the house and Dana White announced a change in the TUF format. 14 would start in the house and after the first round of fights Dana and the coaches (Tito and Chuck for those of you living under a rock) would choose 2 of the losing fighters to face off for a spot in the quarterfinals. This week the fighters move into the house and the coaches pick their teams.

Tito wins the coin toss and opts for this first pick. This means that Chuck will get to pick the first fight. Dana tells us that this year the team that wins each fight stays in control and gets to pick the next fight.

Draft Picks
Team Ortiz Pick #1- Nick Ring
Team Liddell Pick #1- Kyle Noke
Team Ortiz Pick #2- Kyacey Uscola
Team Liddell Pick #2- Rich Attonito
Team Ortiz Pick #3- Kris McCray
Team Liddell Pick #3- Charles Blanchard
Team Ortiz Pick #4- Jamie Yager
Team Liddell Pick #4- Josh Bryant
Team Ortiz Pick #5- James Hammortree
Team Liddell Pick #5- Brad Tavares
Team Ortiz Pick #6- Clayton McKinney
Team Liddell Pick #6- Court McGee
Team Ortiz Pick #7- Chris Camozzi
Team Liddell Pick #7- Jon Henle

"I was lucky to get Kyacey as my second pick. It just seemed like every pick after that it was the guys that I wanted. Liddell picked the guys that I didn't want and I picked the guys that I wanted"- Tito Ortiz

Based on where I have my preliminary rankings I have to agree with Tito but that was just strictly based on my viewing of what was shown on the TV show outside of Kyle Noke who I've seen fight before. Dana White agrees with Tito. He points out that Tito got all the guys that won in the first round in the preliminary fights.

"Team Liddell kind of looks like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You've got one tall one and then they're all five foot nothing"- James Hammortree

John Hackleman has been with Chuck Liddell for 17 years and is one of his assistant coaches on the show. Howard Davis Jr is their striking coach, he normally works with American Top Team. Wikipedia also tells me that Strikeforce stud Jake Shields is on Liddell's team as a coach. Tito's #1 coach is Saul Soliz. Soliz has been with Tito for 9 years and Tito says he's a great stand-up and ground coach and is good at putting everything together. Tito has Cleber Luciano teaching jiu jitsu to his team. Wikipedia also tells me that WEC fighter Rob McCullough is one of Tito's coaches.

Fight Announcement: Kyle Noke vs. Clayton McKinney

Clayton McKinney (shoulder) and Chris Camozzi (jaw) are the most banged up fighters on Team Ortiz and they think one of them will be chosen for the first fight. Clayton draws some of Tito's ire in the first practice session. Clayton had his MRI and the doctor told him that he had no rotator cuff tear and no torn muscle but says that there is a contusion. Tito buys his guys matching running shoes and brings them to the house to give them out. Tavares, Yager and McCray form an early clique despite Tavares being on a different team. Looks like these guys are going to be the pranksters on this season. They run through the house with loud horns waking the fighters up at 3 AM.

"Air horns....Two days into this thing and I almost lost it and got kicked off"- Kyacey Uscola

Chuck is talking to his guys and tells them that he doesn't like Tito. Chuck says he was looking at it as a tune up fight but now Tito is motivating Chuck to train harder. Says Tito said in an interview that Dana had to have an intervention with Chuck in September and that's why he had lost some fights. Chuck was pretty pissed that Tito was making these stories up in the press.

"He hasn't said a word to me walking through here. He hasn't looked at me the last two days. I know myself and I put myself in the wrong position he might get dropped here. And knowing Tito he's that big of a pussy that he might press charges"- Chuck Liddell

Tito is happy with his teams conditioning and points out Nick Ring for sticking around after training to continue to work the bags. For Tito's birthday Tito brought in a pinata and stuffed it with money so they guys talked about running around picking up the money after the pinata was busted. The pinata was AWESOME as it was a Chuck Liddell pinata and Tito smashed it up. Yager was disappointed that they were all singles.

"Yager...Sideshow Bob. I get along with him but there's that little thing about him that you just want to throw him a beating"- Rich Attonito

Middleweight Fight- Kyle Noke (16-4-1) vs. Clayton McKinney (4-2)

Noke trains with Greg Jackson's camp. Noke is Australian and says he worked for Steve Irwin for a few years as security and says that Irwin and his family funded him to cover of to the States the first couple of times that he came over. Hackleman says Noke's strengths are power, speed, height, length and says he hasn't found any weaknesses yet. Dana says he's taking Noke in this fight. He says that if McKinney's shoulder wasn't hurt that it might be a different fight. As a reminder, the fights are two 5-minute rounds. If after two rounds it is declared a tie by the judges then they go to a "Sudden Victory" third round.

R1- Long feeling out process in this fight. They clinched and McKinney ended up on top. Noke was going for a lot of submissions from the bottom and clamped in a triangle and won the fight. Noke was very impressive once the fight got to the ground.

Winner: Kyle Noke by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1

Team Liddell 1 Team Ortiz 0

Post-fight Tito tells Clayton to give him one minute to talk to him so that he can learn from it. Totally opposite from Rampage last season. Tito shows him and his team how to get out of the triangle and gets Clayton to actually practice getting out of the move. Solid coaching by Tito and really shows his guys that he's in it for the team which will help the team buy into what Tito is selling them. Tito also reminds the fighters about the wild card selection.

Here are my way too early rankings based only on the first two 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)
7. Chris Camozzi (Team Ortiz Pick #7)
8. James Hammortree (Team Ortiz Pick #5)
9. Court McGee (Team Liddell Pick #6)
10. Charles Blancard (Team Liddell Pick #3)
11. Rich Attonito (Team Liddell Pick #2)
12. Joe Henle (Team Liddell Pick #7)
13. Josh Bryant (Team Liddell Pick #4)

Eliminated:
Clayton McKinney by Kyle Noke (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.

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