The Ultimate Fighter: USA vs. UK Episode 12 Recap

We head into the last episode of The Ultimate Fighter as last week, Andre Winner and Ross Pearson of the UK advanced to face one another in the live finale.  One spot remains, as we will see tonight who will face Damarques Johnson in just a few days.  Will we get an all-US matchup between Johnson and Frank Lester, or will the UK get its third finalist in James Wilks?

We get started with a cauliflower ear joke, as Dan Henderson has showed up to cook up some tasty eats with his fighters at the house.  Hendo believes that Lester, who still is wearing the remnants of his last two fights on his face, will do much better in the rematch.  Lester points out Hendo’s cauliflower ears, and Hendo says that he likes them.  Hendo says he’s never had anyone give him crap over his ears…big surprise there!  Who wants to mess with the guy with terrible cauliflower ears?  Not me.

In the house, Johnson pumps up Lester, telling him he’s more dangerous than Wilks.  However, Winner and Dean Amasinger of the UK disagree and tell Wilks to watch out for Lester’s wild, looping punches.  “He’s stronger than you…and he probably hits harder,” says Amasinger.  Positive thinking!  But seriously, Wilks’ best strategy is as they say, to use straight punches and technical striking against Lester.

In the practice room, Wilks and Lester goof around and Lester reveals his strategy: a Zidan-esque head butt to the chest.  As Lester gets ready to work out, he confesses that this being his third fight in three weeks has some positive effects, as he’s feeling really “comfortable in the cage”.  Hendo wants him to through less looping punches, and focus on hard, straight punches mixed up with some kicks.

In another bizarre scene, Wilks and Lester are cutting weight in the sauna together.  Lester talks about how it’s weird to be going into a fight without the rage that he usually uses to fuel his efforts.  Again, watching the two opposing fighters cut weight together (after fighting a couple of weeks before) is just strange.  But hey, both fighters make weight, so it’s all good.

UK coach Michael Bisping comes over for dinner, as the team’s “official cook” Dean Amasinger has prepared some curry.  Umm…yum?  Bisping relates how happy he is about his team, how hard they’ve trained, and the results that they’ve had on the show thus far.  I have to admit, I’m surprised with the quality of the UK fighters versus the American ones.

Wilks starts with the party tricks, as he does the “penny stuck to the forehead” trick on Bisping.  Bisping takes off, and Andre Winner decides to start randomly spitting food around the table.  He hits Amasinger with a big piece of curry, and do we have a food fight?  No…we appear to have a real fight.  Amasinger seems like he’s laughing, but he knocks some chairs out of the way and leaves the room as we go to commercial.

We’re back,and Amasinger is chasing Winner, and he throws him in the pool.  So we’re just having fun.  Then, Winner gets a bag of flour thrown on him, and hilarity ensues.  They edited that in a good way to deliver a little commercial break tension, though.

In his bedroom, Johnson tries to get Lester ready, as Lester is shedding some tears of…fear?  Joy?  We don’t really know, but he says he’s worried about letting everybody down.  Johnson says, “win lose or draw, you’re going to be a rock star.”

Wilks gets ready for the fight in his dressing room, and thinks that he will catch Lester in the first round and finish him.  As Lester hits the mitts, Hendo talks about Lester’s power and improved takedown defense.  He’s trying to keep Lester relaxed, which shouldn’t be a problem, as this is an every-week thing now for the American fighter.

The fighters make their way into the cage, and Hendo has the line of the episode: “Let’s get this bastard back for knocking out your teeth.”  Our referee is going to be “Slick” Herb Dean, and he starts us off as the fighters touch ‘em up.  Lester looks to be trying to establish a jab, as Wilks looks relaxed and throws a low kick.  One catches Lester in the goodies, and we have a short break.  Both fighters are working jabs and low kicks, as both seem to be a bit tentative.

Wilks comes in with a nice uppercut, and then lands a pretty nice kick, to which Lester returns the favor with a low kick.  Wilks is taking the center and periodically coming forward with a couple of punches at a time.  Lester is starting to counter, and Hendo wants him to get off first, although Lester partially lands a good left hook counter.  Both fighters are still sticking mostly to jabs and low kicks, though lester lands a nice left hook again.

Lester finally shoots for a takedown and runs Lester into the fence, but Lester defends and clinches Wilks.  They take turns putting each other into the fence, with neither really throwing any strikes, until they break and Lester starts throwing wild hooks, with a couple of them landing nicely.  Wilks clinches up and throws a knee to the leg of Lester, as he gets double underhooks and tries unsuccessfully for a trip takedown.  Lester breaks out of the clinch with twenty seconds left and lands a jab, as Lester throws some very wild hooks that miss.  I’d give that one to Lester for landing some nice power shots in the middle of the round, although aside from those it was very even.

Both coaches think that their fighter won the round.  Round two gets started and both fighters look fairly fresh.  Lester starts right away with a low kick to the nuts, and Bisping confirms that they are “one apiece” in the category of nut-shots now.  The fight resumes and the fighters are throwing much more meaningful power shots, as Lester’s replaced the jabs with hooks and Wilks throws a couple of high kicks.

Wilks throws a nice left that appears to stun Lester, and Lester recovers nicely, but is eating a lot more shots now than in the first round.  Wilks is throwing lead straight punches and low kicks, and getting out of the way before Lester’s hooks can hit him.  Wilks even pantomimes Lester’s crazy looping hooks for fun, and then resumes to jabbing the tar out of his opponent, though lester lands a nice front kick to the body. 

Wilks initiates the grappling again, with a clinch against the fence and double underhooks, which he tries to turn into a takedown, but Lester defends well.  Wilks steps back to break up the resulting stalemate and picks some shots on Lester, including a leg kick and a jab, before Lester lands a hard jab that Wilks shrugs off.  Both fighters are throwing one or two shots at a time, and though both are landing at about the same percentage, Lester seems more tired.  Wilks rocks Lester with punches and Lester shoots for a double leg takedown as a result.  He pins Wilks against the cage with under a minute left and switches to a single leg takedown attempt.  Wilks rotates away from the fence and hits a couple of knees to the head from the Muay Thai plum before the round ends.  Wilks definitely won that round.

Round three begins, and the fighters exchange combinations before Lester resorts to a wild hook that misses.  In this round, Wilks continues to get the better of Lester with his crisp, clean striking.  Wilks lands a nice right and comes in with a knee, rocking Lester, who is more than happy to clinch with Wilks afterwards.  Lester pulls away as Wilks works for the takedown, and they slug it out again.  Lester is landing a punch here and there, but doesn’t appear to have as much power as he did earlier in the bout.

Wilks clinches again and lands some nice knees to the body and a brilliant knee to the face from a single underhook while Lester was peeking down at their feet.  Hendo wants a collar tie clinch, but Wilks gets it instead and lands another brutal knee to Lester’s face, and then another that finishes Lester, who slides down the cage to his butt and loses.

Bisping and company are happy with the performance, but Johnson and the other American fighters are not amused.  “If James tries to taunt me…I’ll take that Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and shove it up his ass,” says Johnson.  Mark Miller thought it was “pretty gay” that Wilks mocked Lester’s style and showboated during the fight.  Dana White proclaims that Wilks was the better fighter for sure, but that Lester is “one of the toughest son of a bitches [sic] I’ve ever met”.  Pretty high praise, and essentially a guarantee at a shot in the UFC in the future.

Lester breaks down a bit in the locker room, as even though he’s fought four times in 34 days, he feels like he let his family down.  His teammates tell him that he’s crazy, and later on he admits that he’s a “better man” than he was when he came on the show.

Bisping gloats at cage-side about winning “three to one”.  Johnson admits that Wilks’ “face just tugs on my life-cord and makes me want to hurt someone.”  That’s a new one.  Hendo puts it in perspective: “Damarques wins and we’re tied”.  He then goes to the UK locker room to congratulate all of the fighters, calling them “tough bastards”. 
Hendo does want to beat Bisping up more from being on the show, though he thinks he’s an “okay guy”.  “For lack of a better word, he’s just a douchebag.”  Bisping thinks that Hendo will underestimate him the way that he underestimated the UK team.  White takes the occasion to proclaim that MMA will be the biggest sport in the world in ten years.

And we’re done with another season of The Ultimate Fighter, as the four finalists are decided and we’ll see who wins at the finale in just a few days.  It’s been a good ride, and we’ll have more coverage as the finale comes up, and another season of recaps in the fall as Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans coach another installment.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Dan Henderson, Dana White, Rashad Evans, UFC